Late Summer Happenings

The weather in the latter half of August was unseasonably hot rising into the upper 80s and low 90s, although we did get some regular rainstorms to cool things off a bit. As I write this our weather has changed and today’s high was 60 degrees with rain off and on.

Our single tomato plant was slow to ripen this year, but we are finally getting some smallish tomatoes. We will only have a couple weeks till we get a freeze so the green ones better hurry up.

Steve and I participated in “Convoy of Hope” when they came through Cheyenne. They hoped to serve 2,000 people and over 4,000 actually came through. Disadvantaged folks got shoes for the kids, haircuts, family photos, career services, counseling, health services, a meal, groceries to take home and a whole bunch of games and fun for the children. It was all free. It was hosted by a cooperative effort of over 20 churches. Steve helped to record video and I was his assistant, we got to interview people.  Here is a link to a short video that Steve made for one of the organizers. https://www.facebook.com/ConvoyOfHopeCheyenne

 

I had a nice birthday. Our Colorado family came up and took us out to dinner and Steve baked me a cake. They all sang to me and Maverick sort of got the idea that it was my birthday this time with a little pointing. Ha.

I got some great books about New Mexico as we are looking into a vacation rental for the month of February this winter.  Emily had a role in the selections I know and we now have information on scenic drives, 100 hikes and places off the beaten track. Now we just have to secure the right house to rent that we can also bring Penelope along to. The first one we tried for was great with a wonderful view of the mountains but was already rented for February.

Another birthday gift was the decorated “garden stones” with handprints of Callie and Maverick. They are too cute to put outside so they are on the wall shelves in the “grandkids” bedroom/sewing room. I love them! One dainty girl handprint and one wider boy handprint, so fun. Of course the moms helped get the imprints in July.

One day Steve and I took a drive just for the heck of it and ended up in Chugwater, Wyoming. We enjoyed chocolate malts at supposedly the oldest soda fountain in Wyoming. The rolling hills and huge expanses of sage and prairies are beautiful and still mostly green this year. The skies are truly dramatic with the thunderstorms and lightning strikes.

On Friday we spent the night in Loveland so Erin and Chris could go on an early morning long hike up Longs Peak. They left before dawn and we got to spend the day with Mav. We took him to the Greeley Train Museum full of “little trains.” http://www.gfsm.org/pcindex.html  It was quite a set up of model trains and lots of train memorabilia. They had probably ten men running trains of 50 or 60 car length traveling around a huge assortment of scenes. We wore him out I guess, he took a four hour nap when we got home!

P.S. I think if you double click on the pictures it will enlarge them a bit.