11th Aniversary

Good morning…the sun is just coming up.  The sky is robin egg blue, dusted with lavender clouds, and a streak of bright salmon across the horizon. The trees are silhouettes of black as far as you can see.  The colors are changing with every passing second…I love mornings!!

The boys just got up, they went to sleep quite fast last night due to our big day with our friends. We picked the boys up from school at 12:15 right after their first lunch and took them to SALT, a great restaurant in Boulder…friends in tow for another lunch. The kids were so well behaved..all FIVE of them.  They sat together at the end of the table and the grown ups manned the head of the table. It was quite enjoyable! The children were engrossed in conversation and coloring. After lunch we headed to our house where we broke out scooters helmets and bikes, again more fun.

The weather changed as it does here in Colorado and the kids donned snow coats while they scootered around.  After some fun here..guitar hero, petting dogs and checking out the playroom, we loaded up and drove to our friends hotel for an evening swim. Oh my gosh did they ever swim. They had the pool all to themselves, laughing, screaming, squealing,…can you say LOUD…lots and lots of fun!!!

I’m off to cook breakfast, so here comes Dad..

WOW, Mom sure notices all the changing colors outside! I must be color blind. First off, Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. I sure am lucky but then you all already know that. I have a couple of conference calls today, one at 9am and the second at 1pm. We offered to drive to and pick up her friends (on Monday) to the airport today to save them the parking money as we think they’re low on funds. Her friend asked me if we really want to drive them to the airport to which I replied “no” but we’re happy to help them out as parking cots so much. (just being honest, right??, the misses told her that’s just my sense of humor)

Spring Break starts today at 2:45, yea! The house is the cleanest it’s been in a long time. The best thing about company coming is it forces us to scour the place from top to bottom. The oldest yesterday, out of no where, said he sure would like to live on the ranch. This of course is my dream! Mom too has committed as long as she gets a nice house, barn , guest house (for grandma’s and grandpa’s) and some other building similar to our friends in Saratoga Wyoming. The youngest of course is all in as well. Both boys cannot stop talking about horses, they remember vividly Grandpa telling them he’d get them each a horse. The misses and I decided to create a collage with our hopes and dreams on it in pictures as apparently visualizing your dreams is the first step. One of my biggest regrets in life (and I don’t have many) is that I didn’t do more to somehow facilitate a place up at our ranch where my Dad could have gone to spend some time as he got older. As far back as I can remember, he was happiest whenever he was up at the ranch. You see, he was a true cowboy, in heart, mind and spirit. If he gave you his word, it was gold. It seems these kind of values are all but gone these days. Even in his waining years when dementia was setting in, you could see his face light up when he’d get up to the ranch. He’d just take off walking and exploring much I’m sure as he did when he was a kid staying there in the summers with his parents or grandparents. (almost lost him once when he took off walking on his own but eventually found him up by the old tipi) Anyhow, I do not want to be sitting around when I’m 80 (hopefully I’ll get there!) wishing I had spent more time at the ranch. So we’re formally starting our 6 year plan today! (usually I think people allow themselves 10 years for their life changing plans but we’re too old for that!) You can all start making plans now to come visit us on our 17th anniversary on a ranch or farm, game on!

Fires are still burning 5 miles to the west, you know they’re bad when we make the national news. The smokes not that bad as the wind died down the past couple of days. It’s just the mountain terrain that makes fighting the fires difficult.

The misses and I decided to pass on anniversary gifts (even cards are $5 bucks now!) so we’ll just have a normal night at home with the boys. Uncle T and Aunt B kindly offered to watch the boys if we wanted to go to diner or a movie but we decided not to to spend the cash. Just for fun we did decide to come up with what we’d like for our anniversary, first of course for both of us was to be out of debt. On a more semi-realistic level, the misses wants a new kitchen, a new 2 carat diamond ring and to be able to eat as much chocolate and ice cream as she wants and stay skinny. (value, approx $40,000 plus chocolate and ice cream) Me, all I want is peace on earth and a new Winchester SX3 shotgun, (value $999), see I am the most practical one of the family! Anyhow we’ll probably pop a bottle of bubbly, cook up some pasta and count our blessings for the great family we have, (brothers, sisters, their significant others included), good health and wonderful parents!

God Bless and if anyone wants to now where to order a Winchester SX3 shotgun, drop me a line!