We are home

Got home sat July 5 th

Denver, Family and the Journey Home

July 1st and 2nd, 2014

Woke up in Denver with my Aunt Nette looming over me with her little finger pointing at me saying, "Karen Rose, you and Joe are not leaving today. You shouldn't be in that 4th of July traffic!"

She's all of 5ft tall and cute as anything trying to get us to stay one more day! I told her we'd love to, but as of July 3rd we will have been gone one month and we were ready to be hom3e! She calls me a "zana" which means gypsy in Italian. 

We had a great visit! I hung with Ro and got my mani/pedi finally! And, I got my baby fix! That Archer was a doll baby. Griffin was like a little Parker and Cyrus and a big help to Ro, who could juggle a 6 mos old and 4 yr  old, fix dinner, chauffeur her mom and entertain us, while leaping tall buildings!!!

Joe hung with the cousins, Frank, Frankie, Danielle and Johnny who all did a "working" lunch at a local pub that just happened to have the USA/Belgium soccer match on. Hmmm, nice perks at Double Encore. 

We did manage a game of May I with Aunt Nette and drinks at Frank and Jody's. 

Hated saying goodbye, but we packed up the car, said adieu and took off for Albuquerque. 

On our way to there we did manage to fit in a Happy Birthday message to little Lemon who turned two today!

One Park Too Far

Monday, June something!

Woke up to the bite of the mountain cold. I love sleeping cold, but remembered waking up off and on to pull the covers tight around me! Joe actually turned the heater on and sat by the warm air to drink his coffee. 

Had to get going early thru the mountains for more animal sightings and to make it to Denver around the time we'd promised Aunt Nette.

Grand Lake was near the entrance of The Rocky Mountain Park, so we used our magic pass (the senior pass we got in Glacier) and entered the park. So sorry there is no sign depicting this as Joe zoomed past and I thought, "just another park" ( thus the blog title).  

It's too bad that I'd had about enough of parks and animal sightings as this park was awesome!

Snow, fields of wildflowers, lakes and waterfalls...

It had them all and more! 

The tundra, where we were so high up, the wind was biting and freezing!

We even saw elk and more elk with big racks!!!

But it got so that Joe would pull over and say, "there are two bull elks, want to see them?" And I replied, "Nah, I'm good!" I think that was Joe's first clue that I had had enough of nature and the wilderness! 

I was just done with parks and wildlife and fresh air and couldn't wait to get off the curvy mountain roads and in to civilization!

Ok, finally heading to Denver and family! Made it about 2:00 pm after hitting a little road construction. But seeing my aunt and cousins at the end of this trip was just what we needed. I think Joe and I enjoyed the company of others this evening!

Johnny and Aunt Nette at Ro's place. Great view!

Little cousin Archer!

Sorry for the horrible quality. Everyone groaned when I started with the pics.

Oh, and thanks, Ro, for a great dinner.