Catching Up

We're approaching the end of our month+ in Fort Collins and while home sounds good, we've enjoyed a relaxing visit--just the right amount of activity, family, eating in new restaurants, entertaining...

We've spent most of our time planning for, shopping for, and feathering our nest.
We waited a bit for chair #3 to arrive...

And then, the first time we had guests for dinner, we decided we need to occasionally fit a fourth chair around our small table. We decided to order a variation of the Corvus Madonna (Overstock) so that the chair acts as a side chair next to the shiny red media cabinet.

We're feeling comfortable these days, realizing our next visit can be about exploring, adventuring, and meeting new people. 

This clock just arrived and will hang on our very blank wall above the couch. 

We've done a bit of entertaining--my niece and her husband visited from Chicago. We put together a huge Mexican feast and enjoyed that meal together at D+Ms. Only pic I managed to snap. 

The Fun Kids spent an overnight with us their last day of school before Summer break. We had great pizza at Cozzola's and on Saturday morning we made our first visit to the Old Town Farmers Market. Happily, we found some small radishes--memories of French markets.

The very best way to enjoy radishes--salt,  good butter, and a fresh baguette. 

On Memorial Day D+M hosted an indoor picnic and invited some international students. We ate All-American food, finishing off with an all-time favorite. 

CA and I are benefiting from our DILs garden. Sautéed Spinach is a family favorite--based on a Macaroni Grill version. 

We made Pasta Carbonara the same evening--using a technique we experienced first in Cagne Sur Mer near Nice. No worries--the pasta is very hot. The egg is rapidly stirred-in and creates a TDF creamy sauce. 

We spent some time with our niece JF and her newish (10/17/15) husband Cameron. Such great people. JF's  birthday was the day before they visited us. 

For dinner, our version of Georgio's (Crystal Lake) antipasta salad. 

O.K., so maybe I went a bit overboard on the cake! But, we rarely see JF and I can count on one hand the number of birthdays we've celebrated with her. D+Ms family stopped by mid-afternoon for a visit. 

I ordered a white cake (her 2nd choice), frosted simply in white, and took it from there. Since her favorite cake is carrot (not so much the Fun Kids fav and I made her one 5 years ago when we last celebrated with her), there were also Carrot Cake cupcakes. 

Plenty left to share with work friends. 

Our second Farmers Market visit. 

D+M's family spent several nights in the Black Hills right after Memorial Day. Loved everything--scenery, food, Mount Rushmore, wild animals... 

This purchase has already paid for itself. Car-to-elevator-to-flat; or reverse. Huge help. 

And finally, gorgeous roses from a DIL who shares generously.

Family Updates

DM had a birthday last Sunday.

LG was in her school production.

My brother is now a grandfather. Natalie Ann, born late Saturday, 4/16 to my sweet niece JM and her husband MW.

We celebrated my mother-in-law's 88th birthday (4/28) a bit early. CA, GP, and LFW at Metamora Fields.

Our Fun Kids got together in Fort Collins for Easter.

I celebrated RvH's birthday with her by going along for her cataract surgery!

Since both RvH's (4/1) and CA's (4/2) birthdays were just after Easter, I baked them each a coconut-lemon cake.

Our Cincinnati Fun Kids are now our Omaha Fun Kids. Out-and-about exploring their new territories.

Eew-w-w...

I told CA that this will be us in a few years!

Traveling and Birthdays

After almost four years of travel to/from Cincinnati, we're in the middle of our last visit. In the beginning of February, our Cincinnati Fun Kids are moving back to Omaha--where all three of these grandchildren were born. They barely remember their lives there--JA is concerned that there are no NFL or MLB teams in Omaha.

We make sure that we get one more Tenderloin from Sahm's, in Fishers, IN. That's been our lunch stop many times as we've traveled toward Cincinnati. This version is the closest to the one we loved for decades at Hunt's in Peoria.

We're here to celebrate JE's birthday and to stay with these Fun Kids while MA and JE explore the Bourbon Trail near Louisville. What the Napa Valley is to wine, Kentucky is to whiskey.

In Colorado, it's also KF's birthday, and because it's a school day, her family makes an early morning visit to Silver Grill for cinnamon rolls. Kika is 8 today! So hard to believe. She's beautiful, artistic, musical, smart, and sensitive. Her smile lights up the room.

I remember so well visiting in Slovakia when she was just three weeks old; cuddling her on my chest for hours while LG danced and spun around us. Mary Poppins was LG's favorite at the time, and she'd enlist grandpa's help to fly her and her umbrella across the room.

NJ was born just two weeks before KF's second birthday; their family was staying at our home in Woodstock. We celebrated both KF and JE's birthday together that year. Kika had fallen in love with a stuffed bear who could sing the ABC song; so, she soon had those memorized.

Today she's in second grade at a top charter school. She takes life seriously, works hard, and is good at just about everything. We love you Kristina Faith.

Here in Cincinnati, we spend our Fun Kids time on Friday at Newport on the Levy seeing Norm of the North and enjoying our last Dewey's Pizza, which we're really going to miss. Great pizza!

Saturday is a laid-back morning, then some shopping and errands. The Fun Kids play well together, and there's plenty of time for crafts, a big puzzle, and Star Wars Monopoly. We're all happy with the pace of today. For a treat (?!), the Fun Kids get playtime and dinner at the nearby McDonald's.
We decide to stay for Sunday, and get a chance for more chocolate cake, CA's spaghetti sauce, and a bit of time with JE and MA. As retired people, we can be flexible about our travel schedule.