What a day!

The TV news people have been busy all day reporting what is going on in Boston; the entire city is shut down while law enforcement is searching for the one suspect who is still at large after the bombing at the Boston Marathon.  Somehow he has still eluded the police, but I hope he is soon found.

Earlier this afternoon I got the following email from my daughter:  "bomb scare, have to evacuate, I'm out of here".  Her office is in the new justice building downtown, and the offices are occupied by the Attorney General and all his staff, as well as judges and their staffs and anyone who was in a courtroom. 

A few hours later I got this email:  "That was freaky!  All these police came and cordoned off the building and sidewalks – I couldn’t even get to my car to go home!  Bomb scare, but it’s OK now.  I’m leaving soon anyway."

Someone's idea of a joke was to call in a bomb scare in Denver when all that is going on in Boston???

It's a beautiful day today, and the forecast for the weekend is for more warm days, and they are so very welcome!  All the snow this week was welcome for the water it brought.  It was the first time this winter that the foothills of the Rockies were completely snow covered.  The snowpack levels are getting closer to the normal range, which is very good, because that snowpack is essential for our water supply. 

Update

We had 14 inches of snow yesterday and more to come tomorrow.....

April snow brings May flowers???

This time the weather forecasters were almost right, we did get a lot of snow, but it wasn't a blizzard - it was the beautiful kind of snow you like to get on Christmas Eve.  Paul measured the snow on the patio table at about 6:30 last night, it was 10 inches - and it still snowed most of the night.

Yes - that's what it looks like outside our kitchen door.  Much of it will melt today, but then more is supposed to come tomorrow and then melt again the next day.  Personally, I prefer snow in winter, but we need the moisture so badly, we're thankful for whatever form it takes. 

Springtime in the Rockies

There's a song by that name ''When it's springtime in the Rockies" -- makes it sound like spring is a wonderful time in this part of the country.

Not this year!

Last Monday the weather forecasters were all telling us that we would have a "blizzard" on Tuesday, with up to a foot of snow.  Even Denver Public School District cancelled classes for Tuesday on the basis of this forecast, and DPS almost never cancels classes!  The blizzard was a dud.  Yes, it snowed, and yes, there was a little wind, but it was not a blizzard; we had maybe four inches of snow and the sun came out the next day and melted it all.  Now they're predicting another blizzard starting tomorrow evening with up to a foot of snow....we shall see.

I don't think people around here know what a blizzard is.  I grew up in South Dakota and experienced many real blizzards!

I haven't posted for a while; after our trip I was completely exhausted.  And, any time I come home after a trip, I have this strong urge to clean house.  This time the urge was really strong because I was sick for most of March and didn't do much cleaning, so this past week I did a lot of cleaning that I had been meaning to do for a long time.

On Saturday the 6th we went to the town of Severance for the first birthday of our great-granddaughter Avery.

She loved her little birthday cake, and had fun trying to fit the whole thing into her mouth and her hair -- and the more we laughed, the more she did it!

This is Avery with her older sister Rachel who will be four in May:

Yesterday was another special and busy day.  In the forenoon, I attended a ladies tea and fund raiser to benefit an emergency pregnancy center, it was very nice and I was able to meet and visit with several ladies I had never met before.

Then we headed south to the other end of Denver.  My daughter and her husband have bought a different house and they arranged with the realtor for us to come and see the inside.  It is in a better school district, in fact it's the best school district in the state, and even though the house is less expensive than the one they have now, it's bigger, more beautiful and perfect for their family.

I love that it has a guest bedroom on the main floor with a connected bathroom, because often when I babysit, I spend the night to avoid the rush hour traffic.  Tanya wants me to decorate that room, so that will be exciting.  And the basement is a soccer field -- no kidding!  Both children love soccer, so that room will get a lot of use! There are four bedrooms and a large playroom on the second floor; on the first floor there is a living room, family room, kitchen with eat-in area, dining room and the guest bedroom.  It was a custom built house for the original owner, and the workmanship is beautiful.  I'm very happy for them.

After that we went back to their present house to celebrate Carly and Joey's birthdays; both birthdays happened while we were on our trip.

Joey loved the sports outfit I gave him and his new "angry birds" cap:

His Aunt Sharlene was with us, and she gave him this "coolest kid ever" shirt -- which describes him to a "T".





We also had beautiful gifts for Carly; Sharlene and I hadn't coordinated on our gifts, but somehow our gifts were all color coordinated for this 8 year old fashionista:

She loved the denim jacket I gave her, with a shirt underneath that has stripes of yellow, blue and pink; and the blue skirt that Aunt Sharlene gave her.

I had brought a chicken casserole and Sharlene had brought cupcakes, so we had a light dinner with the family and then headed home.  It was a super good day!

This and that

What else can I say about our trip?  It was good, in spite of some bad weather, and in spite of sitting many hours in the van and becoming extremely exhausted.  Darold and Cathy did so much to make us comfortable and to make sure we were having a good time.  Their hospitality was outstanding!

I really enjoyed touring The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's home.  Even though I used to be a teacher, I never really knew much about him, but he was quite an interesting character, quite controversial.  I did not know that he started the Democratic Party, and that it was started to get rid of slavery.  That was interesting to me. 

Another day we toured a "plantation", except it was not what we had imagined it to be.  It was a home that was involved in the Battle of Franklin during the Civil War; some of the buildings still have bullet holes in them.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and his stories were very interesting.  There was quite a lot of walking involved, so I had to sit out part of the tour.

And another time we went to an antique mall -- it was huge!!  Fortunately I had my electric wheelchair with me so I could prowl through the whole store -- but didn't buy anything. 

We ate at some great restaurants, at one we had the best clam chowder I have ever had.  On Easter Sunday we went to a place called The Pineapple Room for a wonderful buffet.  We had been in church that morning with Darold and Cathy and then headed out for the brunch.  It rained much of that day so we didn't do any special sightseeing that day, except driving through some neighborhoods where there were really big houses. 

We started for home Monday morning, made it back to Freeman to drop off Goldie Tuesday evening, and then we got home Wednesday afternoon.  Almost 4000 miles and 13+ days....I'm not sure I'll attempt another road trip, this one really exhausted me.

But it was good!

Home Again

After thirteen days on the road and about 4,000 miles, we are home -- and home looks good -- even where the racoons chewed away at our porch door!  Oh well, Paul can fix anything!

Will write more soon!