Saturday, May 31, 2008

The first week of summer...

We're wrapping up our first full week of summer. It's been a good week. The end of the school year is so crazy-busy, that I don't think any of us fully realize how tired we are until we finally stop. I deliberately kept our calendar clear this week so that we could all catch up on some much needed rest. It was wonderful to sleep in every morning, eat a leisurely breakfast and have absolutely nowhere to go/be.

I like to start summer with a clean house, and since I didn't get much "spring" cleaning done, I hit it full force this week--cleaning closets and drawers, purging junk, and scrubbing baseboards and blinds. And I don't know about you, but my kids bring home SO much stuff at the end of the school year. It took an entire morning to sort/save/toss it all!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the birthday wishes on Thursday. I had a very good day! I spent the day doing lots of things I love including reading and sitting outside in the sun. It was very chilly here the first part of the week (not at all summer-like) so when the sun reappeared on Thursday, I headed straight ouside.

The girls made this cute birthday sign for me on their chalkboard.


That's a creative way to add all thirty-eight candles, huh?

John and the kids took me out for dinner that night (Texas Roadhouse, mmmmm!).

Afterwards, I talked John into a trip to Target. I wanted to spend the gift card that I won on Deidre's blog a couple of weeks ago. This is what I spent it on.

It's a salad spinner, and I am LOVING it! I went grocery shopping this morning and came home and washed/dried my lettuce, cilantro, blueberries and strawberries in it. I've wanted one forever, but I just never wanted to spend $30 extra dollars (on myself) at Target. Thank you, Deidre!!! I was thrilled to purchase it guilt-free.

John had to go to Glen Eyrie this afternoon to meet with an author who's in town for a conference. (He gets to hang out with some cool people!) Glen Eyrie is right next to Garden of the Gods, so the kids and I dropped him off and went on a little hike. Beautiful, huh?






After hiking, we strolled around the Glen Eyrie bookstore while waiting for John to finish his meeting and I took the picture that I wished I had taken last time I was there. John wrote the LIVING THE LETTERS Bible studies a couple of summers ago. So fun to see his stuff on display!

Glen Eyrie is a beautiful, beautiful place and it is the only place I've ever seen bighorn sheep. A couple of years when my mom was here visiting, I took her to Glen Eyrie and as we were leaving, we saw this herd of sheep wander up to the castle. OH my gosh!!! You cannot believe how excited I was. She took these pics for me (would you believe I didn't have my camera?) We tried again to see some today, but no such luck.



After a quick stop at Sonic (happy hour--woohoo!) we headed home. Grilled burgers for dinner (our summer Saturday night tradition), and now we're getting ready to start a movie and eat some dessert (ice cream and cherry pie!). Hope you've had a lovely weekend!

25 comments:

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Love the picture of you and John, and all the ones from Glen Eyrie.

It's May 31st, 10:30 pm and still 80ยบ. I shudder to think how bad this Summer may be.

Be sure to let me know if you do the meme.

Enjoy your Summer vacation, and your Sunday. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

Barb said...

I am SO proud of you. That's my salad spinner and I tell you, it's just the top of the line.

I'm so glad you had a great birthday. And spring cleaning just got totally by me this year. So don't worry about that. I've decided spring cleaning is overrated. Let's start a "summer cleaning" thing, OK?

You go first. LOL

Moriah @ Please Pass the Salt said...

That does sound like a good week!

Gretchen said...

I feel sorry for the driver of that white car. I don't believe s/he's going any where any time soon, given Mr. Ram's appearance.

Nothing like a summer hike under a CO cerulean blue sky.

Glad your b'day was fun. You have such a great looking family and are making such awesome memories with them. I can see them now remembering how their mom kept their first week's schedule clear so they could sleep in! Is there anything sweeter? Staying up late, sleeping in, and eating cherry pie ala mode? I think not.

xxxooogretchen

Teri H said...

Sounds like a great birthday! Texas Roadhouse is one of my favorite places to eat! And what a great start to summer!

Tami said...

Sounds like a great birthday (I just had my 38th birthday in Feb.), especially the reading a good book part. I have the same salad spinner and love it.

I love see all of your pictures. I can't wait until we can make it back to CO one day. It's been too long.

Regular, with half and half and raw sugar said...

Don't know how I missed that it was your birthday! Happy Late Birthday!!! Sounds like a perfect day in CO!

Leah Belle said...

great pics of glen eyrie. our sighting of the bighorns wasn't as great as yours. they were in the trees which made it hard to get pics. oh well, we're still thrilled to have seen them...the perfect way to end our trip to Co.


glad your summer is off to a great start!

Deidre said...

I love that you were able to purchase that salad spinner 'guilt-free' - that makes me happy.


I love the pictures.

I just received total validation by reading this post. Since we're back from all of our trips, summer officially starts here tomorrow and I'm cleaning like crazy to get ready (my husband can't understand this logic), so I just read your sentence out loud to Eric and said, "See, it makes total sense!!"

Okay - gotta go clean!

Betsy said...

The candles on your birthday cake are so cute! Very creative!

Your first days of summer look wonderful. I'm jealous! :) I've heard of a new trend this summer because of gas prices. It's called a "staycation"-where you just stay close to home instead of going away somewhere. You could SO do that where you live because of all the cool things to see there in Colorado!!

Those sheep are interesting!

Kelly @ Love Well said...

Those pictures have summer fun written all over them.

(And Happy Birthday! I don't know how I missed that earlier!)

Julie said...

I am glad you had a special day.

I loved the pictures of the kids..& you and John

I also loved the pictures of the bighorn sheep. We looked hard to see one when we were in Estes Park, but none showed up. We did see a fox though! : )

Guess what we had at the bottom of our driveway the other day???? A black bear........

I didn't get a picture though... Right after that David brought up a big king snake that Lydia saw in the woods... Nature is all around us huh?

Have a blessed rest and cleaning spree!

Hugs,
Julie
PS. I love your hair! You should see mine now. I've let all the color wash out.... I'm surprised at all the gray...but it's me.....at 50.

Lindsay said...

Happy Belated B-day, Mer. I love your picture. I've only seen Big Horned Sheep at the entrance to Rocky Mt. National Park around Estes Park. Love Glen Eyrie and saw some neat eagles while I was there.

Heather said...

Soooo fun! I have the salad spinner, too...and I love it!
I have to say, my favorite part of your day, (besides your adorable family!) was your Sonic stop!!! :)

Stephanie Kay said...

LOVE Texas Roadhouse! Yum!! And Sonic! You did have a good day. I have that exact salad spinner and it is fabulous. I prefer to buy leaf lettuce rather than iceberg. My spinner came with an addition lid so I usually spin the lettuce twice and leave it in the spinner. It stays edible for a week. That way I can use however much or little I need each day.

Leigh Ann said...

So glad you had a great birthday. That picture with the candles WAS very creative and sweet. I need that salad spinner. Since you are thrilled with it, I might just go ahead and take the plunge. I think it would save me A LOT of time which would be worth the $$. Gorgeous pictures from your hike. You really live in a beautiful state.

Kelly said...

That place you went hiking is beautiful!!! SO neat that you can do things like that!!!! CO really is beautiful - even if it snows to much for me. ha!
I'm glad you took a picture of John's book - that is SOOO neat!!!!!!!
And I love that you have a summer tradition of grilling hamburgers and watching a movie with dessert. I love the things your family does!

Kate said...

Glad you're liking the summer...ewww...I'm not I like it nice and crisp. I think I might like it better if my bedroom weren't on the 3rd floor where the outside air does not enter...or if I had airconditioning...oh yeah...dare to dream. lol

I need to get out this summer and do some hiking around...it's been a while since I've been to places where I could actually see wildlife. You've inspired me. ;)

I look forward to seeing you too.

Happy week. Many blessings.

~Kate

Mrs.Naz@BecomingMe said...

AWESOME pictures!! Happy summer to you!

Natalie Witcher said...

Ok, we so do not have sheep like that runnin' around Oklahoma.

Anonymous said...

Wow, happy summer time!

Unknown said...

Awesome pictures! Your summer looks like it has started off perfectly!

I think you will love your salad spinner. Mrs Moofish gave me one for my birthday in October and I use it All. The. Time. I love it!

Rae said...

I too have wanted a salad spinner forever. One day soon, hopefully!

Happy belated birthday!

Your kids are such dolls!

Angie @ Flibbertigibberish said...

WHAT?! I missed your birthday?! I'm so sorry. I've told you before, but I can't pick up your blog on Google Reader, so it gets sort of forgotten. :( I'm sorry. I just added a new bookmark which includes the five or so blogs that Reader doesn't Read, so now I've no excuse. The bookmark is even entitled, "READ THESE NOW".

Okay, wow. Like you care about that. What I wanted to say is that I wonder if you noticed the HUGE moose head over the door as you were leaving Texas Roadhouse, because we noticed it when we left there last time and we all though of you! THERE'S your moose! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll gladly refresh your memory.)

Anyway, happy belated birthday! I love those "candles"! :)

Jenn said...

Looks like your summer has started out great!

Texas Roadhouse - yum. I love the peanuts and their ribs.

I am looking forward to visiting Garden's of the Gods when we are there this summer!

How fun to see John's books! :o)