Ten Days in Telluride - Days 1-5

I am once again on the way to Telluride for some fun with my grandsons.  This time I have 10 days and know that most of that will be down time while they are in school.  The part where they aren't -- well let's have some fun.

I am dropped off at the airport nice and early and am flying out of terminal D.  That means there are nice places to grab something to eat and even the coffee choices are not limited to Starbucks and their over roasted beans.  I spot Lavazza and am thrilled for the choice.  With a drink and pastry in my hand, it's time to sit and wait at the gate.  At least in this terminal, even the seating is awesome.  The reason I share this is because I have to focus on the good things happening at this airport.  There are way too many bad things due to security.  Our swift in and out airport is disappearing.  So sad.  Time to camp.

It's a short flight direct to Montrose and the sky is gorgeous.  Window seats make me oh so happy and I spot the changes in weather as we go along.

There ya are Telluride.  Hidden over there in yonder mountains.  For now, a nice stop in Montrose (which has NO snow) where I am picked up by Amanda and Raef (who has chosen to skip school for the morning just to see me).  I'm so hungry so we stop for lunch before the grocery store and then home.

Ahhhh --- the view out the front window is a bit different from when I was here last month.

There have also been some changes to the house.  The furniture for the living and dining rooms arrived after I left last month and I'm eager to see how it all looks together.

Oh, I like the light colors and the fact that she maintained the open area feel.  Good job Amanda.

The armoire that we picked up as she dropped me at the airport last month is also in place.  This room is super eclectic but I love each piece of it.  I'm learning not to be so matchy, matchy.  I think my favorite spot will be on these soft comfy chairs right in front of the fireplace.  Well, at least until a hot flash comes along.

It's a simple evening with the kids and a quick dinner for all.  I had so much fun with the boys that my camera didn't even come out to play.  Perhaps tomorrow.

23rd -  It is another wonderful day.  Just look at what I see when I walk downstairs first thing.

The day is interesting in that we get the boys off to school and Amanda is at work all day.  I hunker down at the house and do some work on the personal blog, organize retreat stuff, and pay some attention to the budget. Basically, not such a fun day.  Best part is that I have four visitors in the yard.  Not so best part -- weather changed and we now have snow.

The flakes are huge and start sticking rather quickly.  I wish we had some maple syrup because perhaps it will accumulate enough to make some candy.  No such luck though.

 24th - It's a winter wonderland outside in the morning.  After getting the kids on the bus with Amanda, she leaves for her trip to Equador and it's my show now.  I run errands in the morning and two of the kids are home by one. (Ryan is spending the night in town with a friend.)   I have lunch made and ready to go when they walk in.  Raef has brought Quinn home with him so the pack up to take their lunch on a hike.  While at the top of the hill, he takes a great picture of the house down below and Quinn takes a good one of him.  The snow is already gone and it's a bit muddy out, but they do just fine.

While they are gone, Caleb finishes building and plays with the LEGO boat that I picked up this morning.  When the boys return, they want to go across the highway to the park and Caleb want to go along.  Everyone is soon out the door and I settle in to work on the blog some more.

About 1/2 an hour later, I look up as the door opens and a man is standing there with a naked Caleb.  (Caleb will tell you that he wasn't naked -- he still had his shirt on.)  He explains that he found Caleb crossing the highway all by himself which is against the rules and I'll have words with Raef later.  However, this kid is covered in mud from one end of himself to the other.  I thank the man and carry my grandson off to the downstairs shower -- with him hollering loudly that he is not allowed in there.  Well, I'm sure as heck not carrying him upstairs.  I leave him there with instruction NOT to get out and go to clean up the clothes left in the mud room and the MUD left in the mud room.  I discover his boots have approximately 4 inches of water in them.  Yay.  Outside they go.  Goodness.  I think he needs some quiet time.

I get dinner finished and kids fed.  Then we pull out the Sudoku game that I made for Christmas and set about teaching the older boys how to play.

After the first game, they have the concept and set up for another round.  This brings Caleb down and he gets assigned certain colors to hand out as needed.

25th -  Okay, today is Saturday and after breakfast, I am tasked with picking up Ryan by no later than 10:00 a.m.  Quinn calls his dad and makes arrangements for me to deliver him on the way into town.  Perfect.  A twofer.  Quinn and I get to the roundabout on time, but no dad. Ugh.  He calls him and we discover he is just now leaving.  Wait, wait.  It's getting close to 10 and I'm worried about being late.  Once Quinn is delivered to his dad, I am off like a jet to get into town.  I get there about two minutes late and then get a text message giving me a different address.  What?  I turn around and go to the other end of town to find a church at the new address.  So, I call and find out I had the right address to begin with -- the phone dropped a number in the text.  Back to the house I go.  When I arrive Ryan isn't even close to ready to go.  Okay, lesson learned.  Times in Telluride are arbitrary.  A stop at the donut shop and we are on the way back home.  Grandpa tells me to chill out.  We've decided to watch Zootopia and I've made some guac to go with the chips as a snack.

After the movie, Caleb goes off to play with a friend for awhile and the other two just hang out.

Caleb doesn't arrive home on time so we load up and go to get him on the way to the Angler Inn, a really nice restaurant literally in walking distance from the house.  As a matter of fact, it is their bus stop and they walk home from it each day.

Pizza for all and even desserts.  Yep, being a nice Gammy feels good.  It's been a good day overall.

26th -  It's another snowy Sunday.  We still don't have any maple syrup but are going to town on Tuesday so I go out and gather enough snow into a large Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer.  Fingers crossed that this works.  Breakfast is pancakes, sausage, and fresh strawberries.  Dang, that's yummy.  snowy day, played games, made cookies, ryan project

We've decided to spend the day playing games and start with Uno.  It turns into the longest Uno game ever and we are laughing so hard over it.

After cards, Ryan goes upstairs and is super quiet for quite some time.  It turns out that he is working on a craft project and is now ready for me to iron it.  Great job Ryan.

What else can we do today?  How about some cookies?  I locate everything we need to make some chocolate chip cookies and the boys are eager to get going on them.

We divvy out the ingredients with each person playing a part in mixing them together.

Ryan is not at all sure that Raef will manage the eggs.  Do you think he does?  I'll never tell.

Since there isn't a scoop available, we've chosen to just roll the dough into balls.  I wonder how close we can get these cookies in size.  Looks dang close if you ask me.  AND, I have happy boys.