the remaking of a kitchen

this will be a very short post.....we had a skype call this evening, and this is a snapshot of siena pointing at me. i melted. i can't wait to get to california and we are really leaving in the morning for our road trip!

Labels: pointing, sarah and siena

from omaha we drove on to ft collins arriving just in time to check in and get some much needed food. we were absolutely starving for some reason. luckily there was an ihop just across the street from the hotel so we walked across for some sustenance. jack soon picked us up to go see a and a's home. it is a beauty and they have accomplished a lot, but still have much to do. it's about 100 years old and on a corner lot with a carriage house also on the property. they have mostly redone the kitchen and it's quite amazing. they tried to keep to the style of the times and have a front on the refrigerator that looks like an old ice box, and a similar front on the dishwasher. beautiful cabinets and counter tops and a huge old butcher block. all quite wonderful!
patrick met us at our hotel and we drove together to the wedding. the sky looked threatening, but only a few drops fell, and that was after the ceremony ended! i forgot to take photos there and took just a few at the wedding. it was all quite lovely, and a bit emotional too. the joy of this new partnership and still the loss several years ago came to mind. it was a lovely venue, and we scored seats in the shade which was amazing.....it was darn hot in the sun. we also were able to find seats in the air-conditioned tent for dinner where we sat with jack and liz's neighbors a funny group for sure! it was all quite enjoyable!!
that morning, liz and jack invited us for breakfast and so we had a chance to visit a little more than we expected with them. good stuff!
the morning after we stopped off in longmont to visit the graves of don's cousin jack and his wife maria. we arrived while they were watering and at first thought that the graves were in another section. WRONG! they were right in the middle of what can only be described as serious power watering. we stopped by the graves and read the words and dates, and finally i grabbed the camera and after watching the timing of the sprinklers, jumped out of the car and took this one photo. not bad considering!
the good news is that a lot of the bug carcasses were washed off the car by the sprinklers and the windshields were much cleaner!
then on to patrick's home where we became reacquainted with gidget and met old pete. they are lousy watch dogs, well, they did watch us come in the front door. patrick came home early from work so we were able to visit with him before we took off to meet marirosa for dinner. when we got there she sneakily said there might be more people coming. we ended up with 8 of us around the table, and lots of laughs and stories of the old days when they worked with don. it was really a great evening, and marirosa gets gold stars for arranging it!!



we were able to become friends with gidget and pete during the visit. pete does circles really well and howls mournfully if patrick is able to sneak out the door for a solo walk with gidget. pete doesn't recognize that he cannot walk or run for miles on end any more and is sad when he is left behind. gidget on the other hand has a patented method of letting everyone know when she thinks it is time for her walk.....sort of a growl/howl/yodel that is pretty unique. on the morning we were leaving patrick hadn't had time to walk her so when we came down stairs we got the surely you will walk me treatment. NOT



we had a long day's drive that day and then met my cousin bill for breakfast in des moines which was fun. got to do some catching up on our lives and hope to be able to meet his wife ellen and him again for lunch in the near future!

Labels: gidget and old pete, lucent gang, patrick, wedding

wow, a busy couple of weeks! so much going on that was good, seeing lots of friends and relatives and just have a good, fun time!
on friday the 4th, we stayed over night in omaha on our way to ft collins. it just happened to be the alumni banquet for the school and celebrating 50 years for the class ahead of me. i went with kay lynn and mary beth and saw so many old friends. i really wanted to connect with those friends ahead of us and was able to do that. i hope to be able to keep in touch with some of them after being able to see them face to face. several of them don't live that far from us and are on our way to nebraska, so it's possible.


an unexpected treat was seeing my cousin jo......i forgot that this would be an honor year for her, so we got to visit for a bit and our tables were next to each other so we could communicate back and forth. her roommate was there too, so we had to talk about them coming to our apartment to visit when they were freshman. great fun!

Labels: beth and john, friends, kay lynn and mary beth, nmh