~ a wonderful day ~

...sleeping in late - relaxing in our jammies - bowling at mr. biggs and playing a few arcade games - a little "fun" shopping at target - homemade chili - non-stop games of jishaku "the game of magnetic action"- 4 tacos for a $1 the day after the rockies score 7 or more - a shrek marathon - hanging with the family... yep - and it's not even saturday yet! come on weekend!!!

Pasta and Caterpillars!

We celebrated Margie's soon-to-be 50th birthday and Mike and Gail's 20th anniversary tonight at the Olive Garden - it was awesome! We all had the never-ending all-you-can-eat pasta bowl - yum!

Afterwards Uncle Brian and Aunt Margie surprised Joshua and Hannah with their own wooly bear caterpillars from Nebraska (that Hannah calls caterpitters) - they were thrilled!

Fall Break Fun!

Joshua and Hannah only had school two days this week - their teachers are at a statewide educators conference. It's been a fun couple of days! Tuesday night we celebrated Madalyn's 10th birthday with dinner downtown at the Old Spaghetti Factory!

That night they got to spend the night with Boppa Tom and Grammy Darls and play all day there on Wednesday. Today Auntie came over and they went to Jump Street and walked Gail's friend's dog - they loved the little guy! Look at how cute he is!!!

I'm off tomorrow - not sure what the plan is but it will be great to relax and just hang with the kiddos!

Colorado Railroad Museum

Hannah's 2nd grade classes spent the morning at the Colorado Railroad Museum - they had a great time!!!

Hannah's Big Day

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Cheerleader Hannah

Hannah's been at Lutheran High School's Cheer and Dance Camp all week ~ the girls had a BLAST! They got to cheer and do the half-time dance routine at today's football game :-) Adding to the excitement - the Lutheran Lights won 40-0!!! woohoo!

Winefest 2009

We hit the road Friday morning for Winefest in Grand Junction. The kids were psyched to be going along to play with their buds! We arrived to find Natalie cooking up a storm to feed all of the employees and volunteers at the wine tasting and barbecue. Saturday the guys headed to Wine Fest and us girls and kiddos hung out at the house visiting, playing, going to the park, and cooking a Mexican feast! Their friends Gregg, Kim, and Maddy joined us for dinner and margaritas after the festival!

Glenn and Natalie had made up these adorable baskets for all of their Winefest employees and volunteers ~ a handpicked bottle of their wine and a winery t-shirt, flatbread crackers, a Zesty Moose seasoning packet, and a jar of Palisade preserves! Yummy!

This morning we headed over to one of their wineries for grape pictures and a tour; Glenn showed us the new bottling machine and all of the equipment that makes ordinary stuff into fabulous wine!!! We also stopped to buy some orchard-fresh peaches, pears, and apples!

...the tasting counter at St. Kathryn Cellars that displays many of their awards...

It was a fantastic weekend with great food, great drink, and great friends! Thanks, Glenn and Natalie, for your wonderful hospitality!!!

Check out http://www.coloradowineroom.com/ for a variety of great Colorado wines!!!

UPDATE: Glenn and Natalie's wines won the following ~ Golden Pear and Cranberry Kiss won GOLD; Sweet Scarlet, Peaches 'n Honey, and Chocolate Cherry Satin won SILVER. In the Amateur Competition, Kelvin and Sara's 2007 Super Tuscan won BRONZE. Exciting!!!