Valentine's Day--Part 2

As it flurried we began our drive back to WY. But we weren't on I25 long when we noted a sign. It said that the highway was closed due to weather at the last exit in Colorado. Oh no! What to do? Well it was Valentine's Day after all, so what better way to enjoy the evening than with a hotel room and an evening in....LOVEland, Colorado! We enjoyed an evening of strolling through the shops they had there, then back to the room for a yummy junk food dinner.

The TV in the bedroom of our suite.

Our bed, sorry, we had already slept in it!

The TV in the living room of our suite.

The rest of our living room! Note the bags that held our dinner.

By the next morning, the weather had cleared and we made it back safe and sound.

"Valentine's Day" or "Romantic Getaway Caused by Snow" - by Guest Writer Kevin

It was Valentine's Day, you can tell by the blue I have on. It was also the day before Christie's birthday and so her present from her fiance Steve was a little skydiving fun. We all went to an indoor skydiving place in Denver. After a video and a little training we suited up to fly!

Here I am sporting my blue flying suit

Steve, Christie and myself in full gear.

Steve and Christie getting suited up.

After our class had been fully trained and set, we flew in a 120 MPH wind tunnel. Or in my case fell up, rather than flew.

Christie flying.


Steve flying!

Me flying!

More of me flying!

After a morning of flying and a nice lunch we enjoyed a nice afternoon walking around a mall that actually had more than 1 floor for a change. As we enjoyed the day shopping, however, it had started snowing a bit...

New Home Away From Home

Shortly after getting back from Christmas break, Kevin and I found a much more suitable home away from home. Here's the view from the front door.

This is the guest room at the front of the house (first door on the left in the picture above). Scarlett thinks its her room.

Here's the hall bath. It attaches to the guest room also, which is a nice feature. And the newspaper ad wallpaper provides reading material.

Here's a view of the living room.

The living room stays nice and bright thanks to the skylights (and will probably keep it rather warm in the summer).

Here's the dining area and kitchen. Please note the fancy schmancy counter top grill unit. Oh and the mirror above the sink. I can't go into the kitchen without seeing myself - that's probably a good thing.

Our bedroom - also on the main level. Yes, its very lavender.

The master bathroom. With a real shower and everything - oh yes.

The new place also has a laundry room that comes complete with a house boy.

This is a basement bedroom. We're using it as the office/craft room. And its been fully unpacked now.

Here's Kevin's new (to us) bar. We don't have a mancave in this house, instead Kevin got a media room.

The view from the bar.

And our nifty sectional. It has two recliners and a hide-a-bed. Plus its comfy.

Here's the basement bathroom. The wallpaper isn't nearly so entertaining in here.

But Scarlett likes to use the sink has her hot tub.

Finally, there's a store room in the basement as well. It could easily be made into another bedroom, but we're glad its storage - we needed the space for throwing stuff.

Random Cheesehead Cat! Brett Favre would be proud. Or he would have been last year, anyway.
Also, Scarlett and Col Turtle are having an illicit affair. We're saving this photo so she can blackmail him later.

Is it Too Late to Late to Tell You About Christmas?

We've been a bit neglectful of the blog...

So here's the house in Maryland all trussed up for Christmas...please note my obsessive need to match my wrapping paper to my decorations.

Blame the woman in the corner here (artfully arranging the presents)...also please note that sadly, this was a year that we "cut back" - but the family is large

Here's Dad getting ready to open his Victoria's Secret box. He was a bit nervous - afraid that we got him the wrong size.

Here's what was inside - its a sign for the cabin.

And here's a few more gifts we gave - I made this pin for Mom (and another for Grandma)

I made this pin for Maryann.

Here's Miss Scarlett, basking in the Christmas glow.

Both Kevin and my parents got me Christmas china! Here's the table all prettied up for Christmas supper. I made roast hoo-beast

A close up a place setting (from the set Mom and Dad gave me) along with a bit of wedding china and crystal.

We're very fancy, you know

Kitty's First Bath

We had a small snafu with our antique kerosene heater, to the effect of black smoke billowing, sleeping with windows opened and discussions about leaving notes in case we didn't survive the night. You know, no big deal.

The next morning everything was fine, except that Scarlet was all sooty.
So we decided it was bath time.

Look at that sad little grey paw. Ignore the look of terror on Scarlet's face.


Seriously, I need to learn how to rotate pictures on this thing. Anyway, here she is in the tub. Scarlet's always liked water, so at first she thought it was neat. Then Kevin got her with the shower head.

After that, I had to put the camera down and help scrub and prevent the escape of a soapy kitty.

Here she is post bath. Look at her sad little rat tail.

And here she is starting to plot her revenge. Good thing she doesn't know I'm posting this on the InterWebz.

Lookit What We Did

Kevin and I have been rental home improving lately...

After 3 weeks of taking "bowers", Kevin got handy and hung our shower head. Yea for normal showers! We also added a ducky shower curtain. It makes the bathroom a little less sad.



We also left our Christmas wreaths in Maryland, so I made one. Its was a nice little project to keep me busy while Kevin was still at work.
I've got to be honest, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Its hard to tell, but there's some glitter on the edges of the poinsettia petals and it sparkles nicely on our front door.

Kitty's First Snow Fall

We got a pretty good snow fall last week. About 8 inches. So it seemed like the perfect time to let Scarlet check out the backyard.

So, Scarlet put on her warmest scarf. And out we went.

Sadly, Scarlet doesn't own a pair of boots. And she was not so pleased with the cold, wet feeling of snow on her paws.

Maybe Santa will bring her a pair for Christmas so that she can build a snowman next time it snows.