It's Grandma time again!!

I just got back from spending a week in Valencia, CA, with Tom, Amanda, and 2 of my favorite little people...Lucy and Lydia. I got to do all of the fun grandma stuff like...

play house...

spend the morning with Woody, Jessie, and Buzz...

 design the latest fashion jewelry...

go hotroddin'...

test my memory (not good) with Strawberry Shortcake and her friends...

celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday...

 with green eggs and ham and Mickey Mouse pancakes

lose Candyland 5 times...

eat dinner with the cutest "almost toddler" with an appetite bigger than mine

make cookies with Grandma's favorite kitchen tool (the KitchenAid, not the rubber scraper)...

attend a wedding...

wedding gown design by Rapunzzel

A kiss from Daddy groom...

and the bride and groom dance...

Tom will remember this several years down the road.

Celebrate this guy's birthday...

 with this yummy pie...

and a surprise pinata...

play at the park...

and spend the day with Mickey, Minnie and friends...

And of course I came  home with my friend, the traditional "travel cold" that will linger for a few days, but I had a terrific "grandma fun" time. Thanks guys!

The happiest place on earth...

So...where is the happiest place on earth? Is it Disneyland, or is it anywhere that you can spend happy times with your grandchildren? Or...maybe both!! Yeah for Tom working for Disney and his free Disneyland pass. Last Tuesday, we spent Tom's birthday at Disneyland. Even though I had sore feet that night (just short of 20,000 steps on my pedometer), I had a great time, especially watching the delight on my granddaughters' faces. It's what being a grandma is all about. 

Lucy's and Grandma's favorite...

Adventure Island...

Petting zoo...

Dumbo...

 It's a small world...I loved this...it has been forever since I went on this, and changed allot...

 It was the day for Disney characters...

Here's Lucy...

..and Lydia...

watching Minnie...

and Snow White...

and Belle...

Ended the day "soaring over California" and watching the "world of color" (way cool!) at California Adventure. Both girls fell asleep on the way home. A long, but very magical day.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one of my most memorable moments...Amanda talked me into going on Splash Mountain with her. All I can remember is yelling, "Oh cr...p!" as we plunged 50 feet into the water. 

Daylight Savings Time...

Well, here it is again...time to change all of the clocks in the house to one hour ahead before going to bed...and only to mess your system up to think you're getting a longer day. Thank you Benjamin Franklin for your wonderful insight. If God had intended us to have longer days, he would have made them that way. I despise daylight savings time!

Can we please stay on the right trail?

Why is it that whenever I go on a hike with Bruce, he always wants to take a different trail than the one we are on, and then we end up getting lost, or taking a whole lot longer than necessary to get to our destination? Is this becoming a metaphor for our life? Hmm...I wonder. Last Saturday, it was the Scotsman Trail at Garden of the Gods. All I wanted to do was stay on the trail and get to the Trading Post, but every time we came to a new fork in the road, Bruce thought we had to take that one instead of staying on the original trail. Therefore, it took us much longer to get to the trading post than it otherwise would have. How do we know this? Because on the way back, I insisted that we stay on the Scotsman Trail. Sure enough, we got back to the trailhead much quicker than before. So, I often ponder (an interesting word) what must be going on inside of Bruce's head. Maybe...if I don't listen to my wife, and just take another route, life will be more interesting... or, it doesn't matter how long it takes, we'll eventually get there... Well, we're still trying to find our destination. Are we on the right trail, or just another detour? Hmm...

Backyard visitor...

One thing about living here in Colorado Springs is that we occasionally have wildlife that come into our area, and sometimes even our neighborhood... deer, bear, coyote, rabbits, squirrels, and red fox. Today, we had an injured red fox that took refuge for awhile in our backyard. He was just laying in the the middle of the backyard lawn. When we tried to get his attention to see if he would move, he only moved a few feet and then lay back down. We noticed that he had an injured hind leg. So, finally, after several phone calls, I was able to contact the parks and wildlife department. They suggested that we wait a day (without disturbing or feeding the fox), to see if he could regain enough strength to care for himself and move on. So tonight, when we returned from family home evening, we checked the backyard and did not see him there. We will check in the morning to make sure he left and did not just relocate to a different area in the backyard. 

Update: Mr. Fox was strong enough to leave last night...yeah!