Our 35th Anniversary Trip

Good Morning to you. We are on our way to the airport to catch a flight. We are headed to Seattle and then will catch a flight to Fairbanks, Alaska. If you guessed we were doing a land/sea cruise, you guessed right. Hubby and I will connect with our bff's in Fairbanks and enjoy the trip with them. They were our next door neighbors in California and when we lived there, we started traveling together. Now we try to take a big trip every two years and in between we visit at eachothers homes. To say we are excited is truly an understatement. Although we won't be posting photos due to roaming charges, you can be sure that I'll post when we get back.

Photos courtesy of Whitney Hackbarth.
 Blessings~
Noreen and Hunter

A Fun Gathering

Good Morning Friends~I hope you had a great weekend, accomplished a lot and also relaxed a bit. Our was very busy, it seems to be my theme lately, doesn't it. Friday evening we had five grands over while our daughter and sil went out for dinner, to celebrate their anniversary. We ate, walked to our local lake and the kiddos built waterfalls and then came home for games and a movie. I had given hubby a Blue Ray player for his birthday and we thought it would be fun to play a movie on it with the grands. I will say that I now know why folks buy them-it does make a difference. It has always been special for my hubby to have a grandson with the same birthday!

 

I love seeing the guys together.

 

I tried to trick my man so that he wouldn't know the present was from me, but as you can see he knew.

 

It was a very fun evening Thursday as we celebrated.
Saturday morning we had the four girls over while our youngest and her hubby went for coffee. We also had the two other pups for Hunter to play with.  Lily spent the weekend with us and Hunter loved it.  It is such a good thing that they love each other, we tend to trade dog sitting a lot.  I'm now off for a bike ride and then will help our youngest can some veges. Tomorrow we board a plane and head off to ?????  Some of you know, but for those that don't-come back tomorrow and see where our destination is.  I'll be away for a bit and as much as I'd love to blog, I've been told roaming charges for data are pricey--so you'll have to wait until I return for pictures.
Have a fantastic Monday!
Noreen & Hunter

Hi friends~Blogger just came back up for me so I have all of you to catch up with. I will be checking for those who are on Linky or Bloglovin and be adding you to mine.
Have a great weekend.
Noreen

Hi guys,  O.k. so I seem to be in a pickle.  I know that Google Reader was going away and so I signed up for Bloglovin and also for Feedly.  Apparently, I have not linked on all my blogs I follow in Bloglovin and Feedly doesn't have any.  I always use E Blogger for those blogs I'm following but it is not showing any blogs today-it does this occasionally but within a few hours, the problem is always corrected.  So you gals out there who have any suggestions, please let me know.  I am going to be gone next week but can't imagine life without all of you.  I thought I had any potential problems taken care of but I guess not.  What's a girl to do but ask her friends for help.
Hugs, Noreen

 

 

Happy Friday Friends~This was how Hunter spent his morning yesterday-on lookout to see when we'd return. Another couple, hubby and I took our bikes up to Estes to ride around Lake Estes. The weather in the morning was beautiful; that is until the storm hit, just as we were headed home. It was a short ride of only 3.75 miles but there were two good hills to climb; I thinkknow being at a higher elevation made it more difficult. It was a good cardio workout!  After our ride, we walked the "river walk"-a path that runs along the Big Thompson and is so beautiful.  We hit all the cute shops; our friends hadn't been up there in many years and then we had lunch.  By the time we got home, the thunder was rolling and the rain was pouring down.  It rained all night; the farmers will be happy as well as the lawn. This morning I'm headed out to garage sales with Kam. 
I hope you have a great day and wonderful weekend!
Joy to you,
Noreen & Hunter

A Must Read

This is the true story about a young married couple, Dann and Tracey Stadler, with a wonderful future ahead of them; suddenly their lives are dramatically altered by a drunk driver. The drunk driver hits them head on and is instantly killed but miraculously the couple are saved. Dann and Tracey's car catches fire; people help get Dann out, but it is impossible to get Tracey out. Witnesses see a man come out of the forest, remove Tracey from the car and touch her face. He instructs the crowd to take care of her. The both survive the horrific accident but suffer physical ramifications that will last the rest of their lives.  Can their marriage and faith survive? Their lives are impacted and all that they've known is changed.  This is one of the best testimonies of the Lord rescuing His children from a tragedy. It is a powerful story of miracles that continually happened to the couple throughout the years. 
If you read 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven Is For Real and were encouraged by these stories, Angels in the Fire is a book you must read! It will encourage you, touch you and challenge you.

I received this book from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing, for my honest review. 

Happy Birthday

Today is a very special day-it is not only my dear hubby's birthday but also our grandson's 10th birthday.  It was an incredible gift to have a grandson born on hubby's birthday and we all delight in being able to celebrate them!  Mr. B is such a wonderful boy; he loves animals, legos, music and is a great son, grandson and brother.  I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for his life.
My man turns 61 today; I'm so very proud of all that he has done with life, our marriage, our family.
He loves golf but willingly gives up his time to spend with me-be it bike riding, going for drives, taking photos or even going into quilt stores.  He still amazes me and makes my heart leap.
May your day be blessed Babe and Mr. B!
I love you both.

Oh The Weather!

Greetings from beautiful Colorado! Looking at these photos makes me realize just how much I love the mountains!

 

 

 

Our youngest daughter with her youngest daughter.

 

 

 

Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny; it looked to be the perfect day! We had a leisurely morning and a walk around the campground, scouting out future campsites. After lunch, hubby and I ran into town to get new air mattresses because ours had a leak and it was just like sleeping on the ground. I know I probably sound whiny, but when you have a hubby who has a bad back and neck problems you need something comfortable to sleep on. We also stopped at my favorite Quilt store to browse-I didn't buy a thing. Later our girl and her gang got back from their excursions and we began dinner. Right during dinner it started to rain; we weren't that overly concerned. Along with the rain came the thunder and lightning. The rain was coming down hard and all of the sudden our screen room starts to lift and it appears it could either collapse or fly away.  The rain was really coming down, all the kids were on top of the picnic table along with their Nana and our daughter.  The screen room was quickly flooding and so our girl and her hubby let us know that her kiddos wouldn't sleep with all the thunder, plus the rain was really flooding the campsites.  A decision was made to pack up our tents and everything and head back down the mountain.  As I tried to entertain the littles, with several crying and scared, the guys and our girl literally packed up two tents and a screen room.  It took just about an hour.  We were in the car and headed down to the flat lands; all the little ones fell asleep.  We actually took the alternate route as their was a car accident on the main route down and it was closed. The main road down, Highway 34, was the sight of the Big Thompson flood-I believe in 1962. It was a flash flood and people didn't have the time to get to higher ground, so many perished. This explains the sign that says "in case of flooding, move to higher ground". This saying is often broadcast with weather advisories here.  Let's just say that for one night and a half of day, it was a lot of work to go on this trip; we have it pretty easy because there is just the two of us. Our kids have it much worse due to have larger families, but many hands make the job lighter.  I have discovered that being a senior makes tent camping a bit difficult-I told them all the next trip we will rent a tent trailer so we have someplace to gather in the event of rain.
In all, it was a fun experience with lots of laughter.  Hubby's back is still sore from all the tent moving on Friday. When you live in Colorado, you must expect the weather to change on a regular basis.  More storms are headed this way the rest of the week.
We have to say, it is the prettiest campground we've seen since we've moved to Colorado.
We are back to our normal schedule this week; went on a 13 mile ride yesterday but today will only do about 8 miles. 
Have a great day!
Noreen & Hunter

The Wild Outdoors

 

For those of us who live in Colorado, you don't think of Rocky Mountain National Park as being a wild place. The Rockies beckon me often and I love RMNP; it refreshes my spirit. For the last two years, we have had a camping weekend planned; last year it was cancelled due to the fires happening and restrictions on camp stoves and fires(even in the fire pit).  This year we were so excited to be spending a weekend in the high places; unfortunately several  of our oldest daughter's kiddos got the stomach flu, so that left our other daughter's family, hubby and I going.  We are now in the wet season here in Colorado, locals call it the Monsoon Season for good reason.  Hubby and I headed up on Friday and arrived at the campsite check-in just as the sky was darkening and rain was lightly misting.  We knew our campsite but didn't verify our absent daughter's site; when we looked at ours and then what we thought was hers, we decided to switch.  Big booboo.  We set up our 12x12 screen room and then our tent.  By now the rain was falling heavily.  Shortly thereafter, our youngest daughter & her family arrived, so we helped them set up too.  Hubby ran back to the check in to tell the ranger which site we were going to be in.  He came back to us, unhappy, and said that wasn't the right site.  By now, it is coming down pretty hard and instead of tearing down the tents and screen room, we did what every resourceful group would do-we simply lifted up the tents & screen room and carried them down the road to our first site. By the time we got to the two sites we knew were ours, we were drenched.  Our daughter & her hubby decided that it would be better to be next to each other.  Let's just say that it was quite a sight to see four adults carrying tents down the road.  It did work though.  We thoroughly enjoyed Friday night and eventually the rain stopped, so we roasted marshmallows over our campfire.  Stay tuned for more of our adventure tomorrow.

Saturday morning this deer was across the street from our campsite, I couldn't resist getting up close and personal. The photo above it pretty small but you can see how close I was to the deer; at one point I even got closer.

 

 

Our grand daughters had a wonderful time creating with nature.

 

The biggest Pollen "fairy" I've ever seen.

 

 

Love the purple color!

 

For once, I decided to play with my camera and try some different settings; this wasn't the photos that I experimented with, but I couldn't resist the chance to take a picture of some of my favorite flowers-Black Eyed Susans.

 

This was a trip that will go down in our family history as being one that we won't repeat. I will go up to the Park again to camp, just don't know if I'll do it in a tent. I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Have a joy filled day!
Noreen & Hunter

As Promised

Happy Friday to you! This is for all the blogs out there that have boys in the family or grandsons. I am not a plane geek or anything, but having these planes going right overhead, so close you think you can see the pilot, was so very cool. I knew my grandsons would love seeing this, so I think there might be some others that enjoy it too.

I hope you have an incredible weekend, filled with adventure.
Hugs, Noreen & Hunter

It's Thankful Thursday again and I'm so thankful to be able to get out and enjoy our world. Yesterday we had fun up in Cheyenne; while hubby played golf, I watched him and our friends and took photos of interesting things. One thing I had forgotten is that the Airport Golf Club is next to Warren Air Force Base and planes are constantly landing next to the course. I couldn't get any really good shots but hubby got one that I'll post tomorrow. I don't like the wind in Cheyenne but love the skies and clouds.

Here is one photo of a plane coming in but I didn't enlarge it enough to see.

Of course, since hubby is back up north for the Pro-Am Tournament, I can't post the good photo. Our family is going camping this weekend but one group came down with the stomach flu-so it is our youngest girls family and hubby & I going. If the other family gets it, we will be staying home. I hope you have a great day today; don't forget to count your blessings.
Noreen & Hunter

Outdoor Wednesday

Morning friends~I want to thank all of you who gave me some advise about my exercising and reasons for fatigue. I will say that yesterday I didn't ride, but gave my body a rest just by walking the two miles. This morning, before my ride, I had an egg, turkey bacon and small piece of toast that my dear hubby fixed me. Also, we cut our ride shorter-only went about 6-7 miles and I felt fine. We did take the dogs for our normal walk but I think I was just not giving my body enough fuel for the rides, because I wasn't thinking they were too long. When I was walking we saw our neighborhood Blue Heron and actually got close enough for a photo-though I wasn't able to enlarge him as much as I'd like. They are such interesting birds and I love being in an area that we can see all sorts of wildlife. Haven't seen a lot of Pelicans lately, so they may have moved on already. We are getting ready to head north for the day so I'll end this. Hope you are able to enjoy nature and God's creatures today.
Hugs,
Noreen & Hunter