I did NOT fall

Off the face of the earth, really I didn’t……I have just had a different schedule and the lack of energy at the end of the day when I get home has left me with no desire whatsoever to jump on the puter. But since I have my laptop at my day job and time to write, I have at least started on my vacation chronicles and I actually remembered to bring the floppy disc home over the weekend to share what I have so far. Yeah, it's a long read, sorry, I'll try to bring the disc home to add everyday to my blog. Here ya go peeps......

Okay, it’s been awhile, I realize, since I promised tales from my vacation, and I do apologize for the delay, but I am on a totally different schedule so I have been a slacker as far as the blog is concerned. Well, alright, as far as a lot of things are concerned, but let’s not digress.

I left a balmy Honolulu evening on a redeye flight bound for Colorado, the first leg of my adventure. On an uneventful flight, I slept and woke up the next morning in Phoenix (stranger things have happened, trust me on this one) and found myself with less time to get to my connecting flight than I had thought. About a quarter of the way down the terminal I caught a ride on one of those nifty little carts that transports people through the terminals at a good pace and beeping all the way. God I love those things and found it worth the 3 buck tip to get a lift to the opposite end of the airport and on my flight just in time.

Arrived in Denver and caught the shuttle to the rental car place to pick up some cool vehicle which I can’t recall the make or model of, but it was nice and I set out for Loveland to check in with my hostess, who was so happy to see me that the hug I received was so exciting as to break my sunglasses, not a problem, well worth the price of that happy hug!

Since she was at work and I had a few hours to kill before she would be off, I jumped in the rental and headed for the mountains, to Estes Park, where I took a lot of pictures and did a lot of walking to stretch the muscles from so much sitting on flights and the car ride. The trip back to Loveland was wonderful, it rained and the elk were out and to my delight I got pics, not the greatest pics, but I got the memory down and I can still see them there, just laying in the grass, huge antlers, mmm, nice memory.

The next couple days were spent looking up old friends and spending time at the cemetery cleaning up around my dads’ headstone and just chillin with him until he told me to go to the track. I did and had a lovely time talking story with the fine folks out there who remember my dad with fondness. I didn’t win playing his numbers but it was a nice time spent anyway.

That Saturday I headed for Denver and the airport again to fly into Seattle to go see the grandbabies. I was picked up at SeaTac by my sister-in-law (technically she woulda been had I married Trav’s dad but she is still family to us) and her husband who drove me the hour out to where Gen and the kids live. OMG it was so wonderful to see all of them when we pulled up. Although they have grown a lot, Kiyah is the only one who still looks the same, or at least her features have changed the least and she still looks like a mini me :D

We had dinner and went out on the back patio to play with modeling clay. We all made different things and had fun doing it. Sunday morning we went out to hop a bus to Tacoma to see if we could find the Black Angus restaurant that I had gift cards for. Following the directions I printed out from home to the Tacoma mall got us as far as the mall and we couldn’t find the darn place. I jumped online at one of the wireless kiosks at the mall and discovered that the info I got in Hawaii was wrong but since we were hungry and not into catching a bus or 2 to go backwards on our journey, we walked across the street and had our meal at a Carl’s Jr (I think it was, it was a nice big eat in fast food type place though) and though we enjoyed chowing down, Sis was pretty devastated that we didn’t get to go to the fancy restaurant and would pout about it everyday for the remainder of my stay even though I told her we would try again if her mom felt up to it after work (she didn’t) so we would go to the lake in the afternoon when her mom got home. Surprisingly, Brea didn’t have a complete meltdown at not going to the “fancy place” even though he fought dressing nicely to go. Go figure.

During the days while Gen worked and I was home with the kids we hung out on the back patio with all the neighborhood kids who stopped by because my grandkids said they wouldn’t waste any time away from me while I was there (how sweet, huh?) and so kids just surfaced while we did different projects and crafts together. I did their fingerprints (where you make a big black spot with a pencil, stick their little fingers on it and then apply scotch tape to the fingertips and pull away and viola you have the fingerprints and put the tape on a piece of white paper) and then with the critters and stuff we made of clay (what didn’t disintegrate from being left out too near the edge of the patio where the sprinklers kinda destroyed what was there) went into a large square plaster of paris handprint, each child had their own with their names and the date and their ages at the time. It was an early Christmas present for Gen since I was there and didn’t want to have to ship it later and chance having them break en route. She loved them and hung them on the wall after I left and they were all dried out.

I told the kids they should have their mom add food color to the clay and they could use it as sidewalk chalk. They liked that idea. Wednesday came too quickly but while Gen was at work and the kids at daycare, I was left alone to shower, clean the house, leave little notes all over the place and generally amuse myself until I was ready to catch my bus to the airport. I did, indeed, use some of that wonderfully dried clay to leave a huge drawn heart outside the front door with the message “Nana loves all of you” as I departed. Thought it would be cool for them to come home to instead of being sad I had left. Then I promptly forgot that I left it there as my Colorado bound journey began again.

More soon, love love to you all........