{This and That Sept~Nov}

Snapshots of daily life from the past few months ....

Enjoyed some of Grandma Shirley's homemade jam

Kars got some practice learning to take blood pressure

 

Delivered goodies to our friend Len

I held my first PTC's

self portraits of the kids at their desks

 My Secret Admirer had a cupcake delivered to school

 I finally enjoyed my birthday gift from my bug

 Fall trip to the Zoo ... our favorite time of year to visit

 Mark and I had a little getaway to Estes Park and spent the day in RMNP in the middle of the Elk Rut

Emm and I had a date to the Lincoln Center for Sarah Plain and Tall. She was obsessed with this book series and even wrote to Patricia MacLachlan last year. So I was super excited to share this with her.

We had lunch at Good Times and Emm was thrilled to get her Frozen Custard

Invited friends to Harvest Farm for the fall festival. 

Emm, Gabby, Isabella

Emm had "dress like your favorite character" day for Spirit Week. Since our girls are kinda obsessed with The Office lately ..... she represented Dwight Schrute

Kars spent a fair amount of time doing Clinicals for her Medical Careers Exploration program. She spent many hours at North Shore Health and Rehab experiencing all sorts of interesting things and creating many stories to share. 

Some days were better than others :/

Some days she was certain she would never want to be a CNA

Her explorations led her to set up an appointment with a local dentist to shadow him for a day. They did a gruesome extraction {like all the guys teeth}. This was before she almost passed out and had to leave the room.

Took a field trip to CSU with these monkeys

 As a result of her accident (on my birthday;) Kars had to attend Traffic School to reduce her ticket. Funny story.... After researching options for classes that would fit her time frame and budget, she was excited to find one for "Seniors" that was very cost effective. When she told me it would be held at the Senior Center, I asked if she was sure it was for "Seniors"[12th graders] and not for "seniors"[elderly]. She was pretty convinced it wasn't the latter .... until she showed up. I insisted she send me a picture. She was not amused😂

Lots of bird watching .... and I mean A LOT!

Sundays with our Sunbeams  .... love that little man on the far right.

Jencyn, Brileanna, Hazel, Stratton, Lucas

 EMMREY GOT A BUNNY! She saved up her own money and found a family that was selling this girl cause she wasn't a good mommy and they were wanting to breed. Emm was thrilled to save her and give her a new home. Meet DOTTIE. The Lion Lop.

We desperately tried to do an awkward family photo for our Christmas card this year. 

 It didn't meet the standard to send out to the masses. Planning for next year.

:)

Giving Thanks 2019

We ended up with an extra day off for our Thanksgiving Break this year. After getting dumped with a huge snowstorm late Monday, the district called a snow day for Tuesday. We were already scheduled to start break Wednesday. 

Putting Emm to work

Originally, Bailee was supposed to work over Thanksgiving and wasn't planning to come home. We were planning to forgo the traditional Thanksgiving and spend a couple of days in Estes Park. The storm changed all of that. With the looming forecast, the University decided to get out in front of it and cancel classes for the entire week to allow for students to travel home for the holiday safely. This also changed Bailee's work commitment. We knew it was predicted to roll in by late Monday, so Mark headed back to Laramie Monday afternoon to pick up Bailee. We were put in a situation that resulted in having a Thanksgiving at home ... which was fine too.

We were able to pull together a somewhat last minute meal.

Everyone had a task in preparing part of the feast. Bailee helped make our Reese's Pie

We spent the evening playing games

And this girl couldn't get wrapped up in the Christmas spirit soon enough

Although it was different than our original plans, it turned out to be a nice relaxing day at home.

❤️ my Lu

I am so THANKFUL that we were all together. My most favorite people in the world!

Tree Tromp 2019

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I persuaded Mark that we should go get our tree. It turned out to be a good thing with the huge storm that hit a couple of days later. We picked up Bailee Saturday morning and headed to the Snowies so we could make it back before dark.

We returned to the same area as last year. Barber Lake Road.

We found a Subalpine fir that we all could agree on

Enjoyed hot chocolate before heading back to town for a late lunch/dinner.

We decorated the tree a few days later over our break.

Spooky girl lurking through the branches

The girls and I took the lead with most of the decorating this year .... 

Mark did more observing and photographing. 

This girl took wasn't super enthused about tree trimming this year for some reason.

The weather outside was frightful .....

... but inside was so delightful!