This & That

Mother's Day

So let me tell you about my Mother's Day.

I was awakened on Sunday morning by my 4 grown sons actually dancing into my bedroom to Mr. T's "Mother Rap" going on the iapd, with breakfast....that they had actually made themselves. They'd gotten up early and everything, which if you knew my sons, would amaze and delight you. It was just so darn fun. 

This were the toppings for the crepes they'd made. Yes, you heard me right....they made crepes....and parfaits.

My Eldest dishing up the batter.

And trying to flip the crepes up in the air. Being boys, they tried this feat multiple times...with varying results.

SD Boy dishing up breakfast for his wife, who I believe provided technical support for the whole process, along with the other DIL's who gave menu advice beforehand.

LS Boy on childcare duty while others were cooking.

The one photo I did not get on my Mother's day was PB Skyping with us. It was wonderful. He didn't know everyone was going to be there for the phone call so that was a really great surprise for him.

 

Before and After

Julie and I flew from our respective homes to Denver, where Lynne picked us up so we were there before the retreat and after it. We stayed with her mother, who lives right across the street and she was so gracious to let us invade her space. 

When we arrived, it was quite warm. When we drove back from NM, it was raining and there was even a little snow. Right off the deck of the house was a spectacular view of Pike's Peak with fresh snow on it.

We also traveled to Garden of the Gods, which is an interesting collection of sort-of random red rocks just happily sticking up in the foothills. 

You can see just the tip of Pike's Peak through the clouds. Such an interesting and beautiful place.

Old Town

From the retreat we traveled back to Albuquerque, where we had lunch and I was introduced to the wonders and the differences between red and green chili and what Christmas really is (a combination of both). We also wandered around Old Town Albuquerque. 

We saw some Native American dancing in the square. 

I cannot imagine wearing and dancing in these costumes. It was in the mid-80's.

Stopped in at the Rattlesnake Museum. We didn't go for the full tour, but Lynne had to replace a video that had been watched just too many times by her son.

We saw a beautiful old church and I even managed to find a nativity for my collection. 

And we stopped by a local candy shop where I found some Pinon Toffee for DH. From here we drove up to Santa Fe where we had dinner (more delicious southwestern food) and stayed the night before driving back to Colorado.

Beforehand

Before we headed to the retreat, we met Karen in Albuquerque and we went up a cable tram to the top of a nearby mountain. Now, those who know me well, know that I do not like heights (oh yes, there was that whole Eiffel Tower thing....),  but the tram car was quite large and as long as I didn't look down, I wasn't hyperventilating.

We had lunch at the top of the mountain and then walked down a short trail to take pictures and have our picture taken. 

And let me tell you, even going this little way, we felt every inch of those 10,000 thin air feet.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! I have my whole family home for the weekend  and some of them will be staying longer than that, so it means grandbaby time and lots of pictures, and hopefully lots of squeezes. To top it off PB gets to call home from Iowa. If we are lucky, he will get to Skype with us. Cuddle your kids close and have a wonderful day. :)

The 12 Marathon

So I got everything done that I took with me to scrap at the retreat. I ended up with 14 layouts and 12 cards, which for some marathon scrappers who might get 60 pages done in a weekend, may not sound like very much, but for me it is truly startling. 

I used the last month's ad from the POM website for the design here. Father's Day last year and it fills the Holidays category.

In the Everyday Life category, I documented The Chaco Tan that The Girl so diligently worked on last summer. The design may look familiar since I used it for my Sisters layout last month, but it fit very well. 

Now, this one might need just a little explanation.The mascot of BYU is a cougar named Cosmo. The fight song is called "Rise & Shout". One of the dead things at the cabin and it goes in the Fun category for the 12 class, just because I think it's a little funny that I have my Alma Mater's mascot inside.

This one is for the Me category and documents my love of roses....especially smelly ones.

 

The Retreat

So yes, I was gone last weekend to my first ever scrapbooking retreat. I'm starting with the middle of events...and Lynne, Julie and Karen, if you want any of these photos specifically, LMK and I will email them to you.

Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday we were here, scrapping in a big red gymnasium-type building. This place grows apples as well as provides retreat facilities. I don't know if you can see it, but there's a little bunny off to the right of that sign. He posed very well for the photo.

There are lots of "vintage" things on the property.

And the Indian Paintbrush was in full bloom.

This is a group of ladies I've known for about 7 years. We were all on the design team of a now-defunct scrapping website. We've kept in touch through the Playground of Memories site that Julie, Lynne and I are in charge of. This is Karen, who lives in New Mexico, and Lynne, who lives in Colorado.

And this is Julie who lives in Florida...you know, the place with the thick air. She's texting her DD, who REALLY missed her. We scrapped until the wee hours and had a lot of fun just laughing and getting to know one another better. 

I Only Want a Little Nibble

While the little boys were "riding" around the pasture, the other horses and people were just hanging out, waiting for the adventure to be over before they headed to a different corral. As is sometimes the case, boredom sets in.

 "Hmmm. This blueish greenish thing looks interesting."

"It doesn't smell too bad."

"I wonder if it's edible."

 

"I only want a little nibble."

"Just a nosh to get me through to the next corral."

 

Ride 'Em

We traveled down to Utah recently for a family wedding. While we were there, there were some horses to wrangle.

 This is the farm where my husband grew up.

He walked these fields with his dad and his grandpa and he learned how to work hard. 

We were accompanied by several kiddos. The Girl was there holding onto one of the critters. I could swear I heard this conversation go on between these two: Horse, "So what are we doing here?" Girl, "You got me...just stand still and it'll all be over soon."

We put my nephew and my grand-nephew up on one of the horses and my nephew's big brother took them around the pasture for a bit. I ridiculously love my grand-nephew's bright red hair.

He doesn't get a lot of exposure to critters, so this was tremendously exciting for him. He wanted to make friends and was willing to resort to bribery to do it.

More Garden

DH went out the other night to get the garden ready for plastic. I'm still pouting about the boxes.

He wanted to know if I wanted to come help. Um, no. Yeah, you work that garden, hon.

Still, he had his own cheering section.