October flew by... Again!

What a great month!  We started this month at the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We brought our neighbor Evelyn with us.  The girls had fun (after Hana's 4 year-old tantrum!) and especially enjoyed playing in the Children's Garden.  What a privilege to see his works in person! Afterwards, we headed to Bonnie Brae for a little treat!! 

As every fall, the Bronco's started playing and Knute started hunting.  He went to SD and MN (got a doe), but while he was gone, I painted - a lot!  The dining room wall is no longer brick and I mailed it a blue-gray.  I love it and I think everyone else does as well.  I also painted above the kitchen cabinets and had the rest painted by pros!  Tony and his crew also painted the exterior, which really needed it!! 

After we were done painting on the 19th, we went to the pumpkin patch to get the "perfect" pumpkin!  Hana found and excellent one to carve and then a smaller one, which she painted a darling (but scary, of course!) face on.  She's quite the artist!! 

When Knute came back from SD, he brought "grandma cookies" for Hana and I to decorate.  That is always fun (and so nice of her to do!!) and Hana really enjoys it!  I know she'll be even more excited to do it with her next month in person, while we visit over Thanksgiving. 

The BIG news this month was that Hana had her first EVER haircut!!!  On the 26th, her bff's mom, Ms. Sasha came over and trimmed it!!  Hana loves it and it looks a bit healthier!  She took nearly 3 inches off, but it's still long.  :-) 

 

Oh my gosh, I nearly forgot the other BIG news.... which actually happened on September 30th....  I took Hana to her very first concert.  After visiting our beloved friend, Miss Kari from BECC (who later succumbed to cancer) :-( I decided that life is really too short and nothing is promised... Hana loves Katy Perry so much and I was able to find tickets (5 minutes after the concert started!) for about half price!  We took the lightrail train down to Pepsi Center and got there just before she went on stage (only missing the opening act(s).  Perfect timing, great first show there, as there were tons of kids and it wasn't too loud.  Hana had a great time!  :-)  We're so blessed! 

 

When Knute was in MN, Hana and I went to a fun pumpkin carving party.  Hana choose a scary ghost stencil.  We cleaned out the pumpkin and I tried my best to carve it well.  We took it home and waited until just the night before last to put it out.... well, even that was too soon.  When I got home form work yesterday, the naughty, naughty squirrel's had already eaten the entire ghost.  Hana was quite upset, to say the least.  :-( 

Our friend Laurie (who will be joining us in the Cayman's next year) came for an overnight visit the other day on the way to see her sister and family in Divide.  We also had a great meal at Bruno's with Eric, Angie & Ingrid last night.  Tonight is Halloween and of course, Hana will be Elsa!!

Ixtapa Trip, September 20-27

Last month we went to Ixtapa, Mexico.  We flew into the old artist/fishing village of Zihuatanejo and drove up to Ixtapa.  We had a large 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo at Azul Ixtapa.  Best room in the place, I think!

It was low (rain) season, so it was not very crowded, which was really nice.  We had planned to go diving (super cheap!), but unfortunately, there had been some tropical storms close by in the two weeks before, so the water was all turned up.  Our friend Desiree came with (to watch Hana while we went diving, since I'm not leaving my 4 year old with strangers in a foreign country!!) us, so that was neat.  Des took swim lessons in order to come with us, so both she and Hana went snorkeling for the first time ever in the ocean on this trip!!  I was excited for them, but sadly the visibility was terrible (5 to 10 feet, at the most) and they didn't see much.  Hana was disappointed, for sure. 

Since the diving thing didn't work out, we decided to try deep sea fishing.  Both Hana and Des got sea sick, (Hana was really unhappy!!) so we turned around after going out only about 4-5 miles.  Short day for those guys.  Lunch of ice cream and popcorn made Hana feel MUCH better!!  (The fisherman was also a paramedic with the Red Cross and told us to get Hana's blood sugar up when we got back to shore... he suggested Coke, but since I don't think a 4 year old should drink soda, we opted for ice cream!  Gelato, actually.)   

We enjoyed exploring Zihuatanejo a bit (even though it was VERY hot and humid) and found some fun treasures.  Hana LOVED the place we stayed.  It had 3 large pools, a kiddie pool and a water slide park!!  The beach was rocky, so we didn't spend much time there, although we took a water taxi to Ixtapa Island (Isla de Ixtapa) where the beach was nice and we also went snorkeling there.  Des and I went back another day and had massages on the beach for $35!  Nice!   Hana also enjoyed painting some ceramics.  I thought that would be more memorable than just buying those pieces at the market.  We decided not to do the optional "all-inclusive" where we stayed and that was a good idea.  We had some amazing meals around both towns!!  I wish we had time to explore more!!  All in all, it was a very good trip!

View from our top floor, corner unit balcony!

Our resort from above.