Together

It's been a full week-ish! A common theme was togetherness...so here are a bunch of pictures of me enjoying time with others. 

First up is this picture my sister sent me of my gram with some of my nieces and nephews. About a month ago, my gram moved to this assisted living facility. About a week ago, my sister and brother (and their kids) went and visited her and enjoyed the many smiles the littles brought to all the residents.

Yes, I realize this isn't me visiting with gram but I sent this blanket as an apartment warming sort of gift, and my sister delivered it and shared these pictures so I could kind of feel like part of it all. Gram says it's warm and cozy.

Isn't she awesome? She'll be 100 next month!

Last weekend, Noah came home for an afternoon and volleyball was played...

(Protecting my still healing sprained wrist, I opted not to play.) Nathan and the boys are definitely getting better. Also, we got a new volleyball and Micah had to be hosed off outside before I let him in the house. :)

Monday was my birthday and lunch with Deanna...(see my previous post)...

Tuesday, Micah and I went climbing! It was my first time back in about two months. I'm definitely less strong after resting my wrist for a couple months but did remember how and enjoyed myself.

That afternoon, after taking Micah to work, Asher and I had a lovely walk and got smoothies. I neglected to take a picture, though, so here's one from last month in Steamboat.

I'm trying to enjoy all my time with the boy over the summer before he heads to Nebraska this fall.

Wednesday was non-eventful. :)

Thursday, I booked flights for Asher to come home from UNO for fall break and Thanksgiving. (Yay, me, for being on top of that and getting it done. It was a little weird, though. Haven't had to book travel for school breaks before...beyond driving 10 minutes to pick Noah up.)

Later that afternoon, I met up with Molly and her son for a fun (and warm) visit in Denver: 

We had a great time eating and visiting and helping B play on the play structure and around the water fountains. We also popped into Old Navy for a minute. It was hilarious that the first thing B exclaimed was, "where are all their heads?!" 

I'd really never thought about it, but I can see how confusing and concerning that would be to little kids. :) 

Friday, Micah and I climbed again, and then Nathan and I had a date lunch...

It was delicious!

Later that night, I met up with a childhood friend, Alisa, who was in town visiting family. It had been years and years since we'd seen each other, and it was great to catch up a bit! We talked until well after dark but remembered to take this picture before the sun went down...

All that catching up made us both wonder if we'll actually have a high school reunion one of these days. So far, neither Nathan nor I have been to any. (My school did have a 10 year reunion but I couldn't make that one on account of my youngest sister graduating that year...couldn't fly out twice that summer. Nothing's been successfully planned since then sadly. I'm not sure whether Nathan's class has had any reunions. He'd rather not go anyhow so isn't likely to know when/if one happens.)

And then this morning, Lynne and I met for our somewhat regular Saturday morning workout...

I'm so thankful to have a workout buddy to keep me accountable (and visit with, lol). Now that the weather's nicer, we're back to meeting outside instead of in our respective basements. We ran intervals and did some tabatas before I headed home to take Micah to work. 

Whew. 

And that was my week appreciating time together with some of the people in my life!

Birthday

Thank you all so very much for the fabulous birthday wishes yesterday! I thoroughly loved hearing from everyone (especially loved the serenades from my little nephews and nieces!) and had a wonderful birthday...

I started the day at boot camp at the park...and, even though it wasn't "fun," it felt good because my sprained wrist seems to finally be mostly healed. Great to be able to do things again!

I got a few things done in the morning and then had an awesome birthday lunch with Deanna up in Old Town...

We ate too much and talked a lot and drank a bit...and then we walked around Old Town for awhile and sat on a bench and chatted even more...

...before I finally had to take her home because we have lives, lol.

Next, I picked up Noah for a bit (he needed his passport for some employment paperwork and it's stored here) and took him back to his apartment before Nathan made me crab for dinner (no one else here eats seafood so I only get it on special occasions). Then we had a nice quiet evening just watching some shows together.

Also, here's an impressive poppy I enjoyed on a walk around our neighborhood, the first of my peonies to bloom (as if in recognition of my birthday, lol), and the beautiful arrangement my in-laws sent. 

So. That was my birthday in a nutshell...not overly exciting but truly lovely. Thanks again to everyone who made me feel so special!

(PS The day before my birthday also had some celebration but that's for another post...)

Five on Friday

We're pretty much in full summer mode here, and I'm realizing it's been a bit since I've caught up. Here, then, are five random things because I just like things better as lists, lol.

1. Friend visits. Last week, Nathan and I got to meet up with a childhood friend of mine and his family. They've been homeschooling and traveling this past pandemic year and were in town. We met for happy hour food and drinks and sat outside in the gorgeous weather and talked and caught up. Sadly, we neglected to take a picture. :( You'll have to enjoy this picture I found from when we were in preschool instead:

(How cute were we?!) Yup, we went to school together all the way through high school graduation, and we realized we probably haven't seen each other since then. Thanks to Facebook and annual Christmas letters from his parents (I still keep in touch with a number of my high school teachers), it didn't feel quite that long and was a lovely way to kick off the summer. 

2. Micah. Micah's been working a few more hours each week now that it's summer break and is still happy with that. Yesterday, we had a great follow up appointment down at Children's...his arthritis appears to be pretty much under control these days and he's thoroughly enjoying being pain-free. Woohoo! December seems like a long time ago when he had the ultrasounds and found out that the inflammation had spread to the joints...when he was having a hard time just walking. Hooray for finding medication(s) that work!

Relatedly, Micah got his second Pfizer vaccine shot yesterday and will now wait about four weeks for an antibody test to check (possibly) whether the immunosuppressants he's on for the arthritis have kept the vaccine from taking effect. Fingers crossed!

3. Asher. Asher's been very much chilling and de-schooling to start his summer. He's registered for his fall classes at UNO and is slowly starting to consider the to do list he has for the summer, lol. He's also back at karate classes (instead of private lessons) and loving that.

4. Noah. Noah's almost done with his first online summer class (they're four week classes). He'll have one more after that. Also, he just got a part time job at a sandwich shop just downstairs from his apartment...super convenient and yummy! 

5. Summer. And, in recognition of the summer temperatures this week, we've finally turned our outside water back on for the season. We very much appreciated the wet spring we had that allowed us to wait until now to water the yard.

So that's some of what's been going on here. I've been scheduling a slew of appointments, enjoying boot camp (my sprained wrist is almost all better!), and checking things off the list. Nathan's been enjoying work and tackling problems. All in all, life here is pretty good. :) 

Honoring veterans

I've spoken in the past about my personal Memorial Day memories...and about my goals to teach boys more about the history and purpose of the holiday. And I know that Memorial Day is to honor those who died in service, and I have such respect and gratitude for all of those people. Today, though, I'd like to just share family photos I've found of relatives who have served, even though most of them did not die during active duty. (The first two are the ones I don't know about. The rest I know did not die during active duty.) For about half of them, I only have the pictures and a name or date. I wish I had more of their stories.

First up is this picture that says it's a relative of my mom's mom (James Waterman) after the Civil War:

And, this is a relative of my mom's mom (Chester "Chuck" Robertson) during WWII: 

And my mom's aunt (Edith "Fern" McKie Robertson) during WWII:

(I don't remember exactly when she died, but I know that I met and spent time with Aunt Fern and that my gram loved her sister dearly.)

And this is Nathan's dad's dad (Al Probst) during WWII:

Grandpa Al was able to meet and enjoy all of my boys before he passed in 2009, which makes me happy. He was such a joyful and kind man.

And here's my dad's uncle (Jack Smith) in France during WWII:

And that same uncle a year later:

I never met him, but I've heard stories about my dad's uncle. After my dad's mom died (when my dad was 5), uncle Jack helped my grandpa raise his eight kids.

And this is my mom's older half-brother (Gilbert Duran) in Vietnam:

Again, great respect for all of those men and women of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for our freedom. Thanks, too, to all who served (including family service members I know I'm probably missing since I don't have pictures). I'll probably share this post again on Veteran's Day but felt these pictures and people deserved to be shared today also. 

Steamboat Springs

Good morning! After Asher's graduation last weekend, we headed to Steamboat Springs for the week to celebrate the end of a very long, odd school year with some downtime. Nathan's mom met us there and was able to hang out with us. The time seemed to fly by! We're back now, so time to share some pictures...

We all arrived on Monday afternoon and just had a quiet evening of some visiting and getting groceries for the week. (We had two units, each with its own kitchen and all.) Tuesday was a similarly lazy day...Noah had an online summer class in the morning, we enjoyed lunch outside at Wild Plum Grocers, and we played games on the balcony until it got too chilly and we headed to our separate units. (With both Nancy and Micah unvaccinated, our visiting was all outdoors.) 

On Wednesday, we went white water rafting for the first time ever. As a compromise between two boys who were wanting more adventure and those of us who were comfortable just experiencing rafting, we signed up for an afternoon session on the Elk River (class III). We went through Bucking Rainbow Outfitters and were quite happy with our time. Our guide, Chuck, was fantastic and entertaining and thought we did a great job as a rafting crew.

All in all, we had a lovely time...staying warmer than we anticipated. Plus, no one fell in the water! (We had wetsuits and splash jackets and neoprene booties given that the water was snow just hours before, lol.) Nancy was our photo crew...catching some while we were prepping on land and also driving alongside the river and snapping some shots. (The bottom right photo was taken by our guide during a calmer section.)

After that, we headed back to our unit and actually hit the pool and hot tub since we were already in swimsuits. Dinner was in town at Salt & Lime (yum!!) and we managed not to blow away on the upstairs patio. :)

Thursday, we started earlier in the day and went to Fish Creek Falls to hike. Having done the short, easier hikes in years past all together, we opted for the longer trail to the second falls. It's about 4.7 miles roundtrip, with an elevation gain of almost 1500 feet. (Yeah, it's rated as "hard.") Partially up the trail, we decided to separate and half of our group headed back down and back to the units. Asher, Nathan and I continued on to the second falls and met the rest back at the units for a late lunch.

I'm particularly thankful that I made everyone take a group picture at the start of the hike...that I'm apparently in better shape than years past (when I can definitely remember having trouble with my knees or legs doing hikes like this)...and that I have new hiking boots that did a wonderful job...

Yes, this is one of my hiking boots at the second falls. Noah and Micah were joking around and gave us a list of things they wanted us to take pictures of when we reached the falls and one of them was a photo of my shoe, off my foot, as a portrait in front of the falls. (Yes, they were that specific, lol.) In any case, thankful for the support and stability they offered, so happy to have this portrait. ;) 

After all that, we ate and then attempted to go play some mini golf at the place we've visited the other two times we've been to Steamboat (in 2009 and 2014) only to discover that they don't open until Memorial Day. Sad. The boys then opted to head back to the unit while Nathan, Nancy and I visited the Botanical Gardens for a bit, with Nancy getting some ideas for her new landscaping. More games that evening and Friday morning before Nancy had to get on the road after lunch. 

We spent the rest of Friday vegging and then grabbing dinner at Back Door Grill (upon the recommendation of our rafting guide). Asher and Micah tried the "Dirty Harry"...voted top 10 in the country according to the menu. It's peanut butter, fried egg, bacon, hashbrown, cheddar and patty on a glazed donut with powdered sugar. Yes, really. 

(Asher had his with chicken instead of beef, and they both agreed that the burgers were probably not in the top ten in the country but were definitely interesting.) And then we packed up and headed out Saturday after stopping for lunch at Hypnotic Chicken because it caught our eye. This sign was up as we walked inside to order. :) 

Made it home Saturday evening and unloaded and unpacked. Whew. And now we're sorting out what the summer's going to look like...