Summer Fun

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. We're definitely in summer mode, but it's not the lazy days of summer I normally love! We are very busy these days. Between Mindy's gymnastics and my college class and Ken's gardening, we're all keeping pretty busy.

We just returned a couple of days ago from our annual trip to the cabin with the Holzheimers. We love that trip and look forward to it every year. It was a bit earlier than usual this year, falling in June instead of August. But there's a lot to be said for that part of the country at this time of year. The days were very warm, but not overly hot. There were still bugs, but there were also bits of snow on the run up to Antora Meadow.

We didn't take our dogs this year. Harry stayed home and kept an eye on them. That was actually a last minute decision brought on by our Bichon's sudden back problem. It doesn't happen often, but it seems more likely to happen when the neighborhood folks are shooting off fireworks...they've been doing that for a couple of weeks now. Louie is very frightened of sudden, loud noises. Actually, they don't have to be loud. Any popping or clapping noise is likely to send him into a tizzy. As we packed up to leave, Louie was very glum and obviously in pain. We decided to leave him home. Then we realized we have to leave all the dogs home. They would go crazy if not all of them were together. Harry did an excellent job taking care of them. We called our friends, John and Susan, and asked if they would run any of the pets to the vet while we were gone, should the need arise. Luckily, we have awesome friends.

The trip up was a bit longer for Ken than for me. I conked out somewhere on the west side of Bailey. I woke up about a mile before the turn-off at Villa Grove. Sure made the time fly! lol

Once there, we spent some great quality time with our friends, the Holzheimers. We are a pretty nerdy bunch, though. There were many times when I'd look around and everyone in the group, except maybe Ken and Mindy, were reading! I actually read two books while I was there! I read Sandra Brown's Hello, Darkness and Mary Higgins Clark's Little Girls in Blue. They were both fun, fast reads. I hadn't had time to just sit and read in so long, it felt like quite the indulgence.

We spent a couple of the evenings around the campfire. We re-visited an old camping past-time by melting aluminum cans inside a tin can. The fire was so hot at times that the aluminum cans would melt in seconds. At the end, we had a big tin can about half full with liquid aluminum! We dug a hole as a mold of sorts and dumped the liquid into the hole. Here's a pic...



Sorry the picture is a little blurry...it was taken pretty late at night with a flash.

The night before we left for our camping trip, Ken, Mindy, Harry and I went to a Rockies game at Coors Field. It's such a pretty park. We had decent seats, too. Ken got the tickets as a Father's Day present for Harry. I think Harry had a good time, although it was a late night for all of us.



Mindy ate lots of cotton candy (yes, I'm a terrible Mom!) Her tongue turned blue...



Tomorrow is the last day of Ken's and my first vacation of the year. We're back at work on Monday, but only for four days. Then we're off again to Las Vegas. We will be staying at the Worldmark Resort. We're driving, so who knows what the gas prices will do to us.

Ken's out on the front porch watching our neighbor do yard work in her halter top. ;) And Harry is with him....like father like son.