Enjoying the Fall Festivities in Colorado

Fall is one of my favorite seasons - here I did my daughter Denise's head shot for her new ventures - "Life With Results" representing Beachbody & Mary Kay - she's such an easy subject....

After Tyler and Ethan got their new costumes on we took part in all the fall festivals that we could attend.

Tyler's school - Littleton Academy was having their Fall Fest so we went to have lots of fun and games.

The teachers spent lots of energy decorating the school.

And alot of the decorations were made by the students.

There was plenty of food and munchies everwhere.

And we went from class to class to participate in the games - here Ethan in a witches hat uses a broom to get the ball in the castle.

Tyler enjoyed the most popular game at the school - pie throwing -

At the teachers!!  Tyler hit Mr Graver right in the chest.

Another favorite was 'finding the marbles in the brains & eyeballs' - Tyler found two marbles and had gooey hands.

Ethan loved getting his hands in the gooey stuff.....

Then we went to Ethan's School - Kinder Care for their fall fest... Here he is with his friend Lance (I mean Batman)

There's nothing like a room full of 4yr old super heroes.....

Ethan played every game in every classroom - and got tons of prizes.

And then there was the cutest little Pirate

And Repunzel was the most popular Princess this year.

Both Tyler and Ethan had a fascination with the the 'Haunted Museum'

We had to keep going in and out of the dark scarry space clutching hands.

Tyler's Pop Star is in contrast with the boys scarry costumes - boys always want to scare and girls want to be pretty......it starts early.

At the end of the evening - even with all the sugar - we had 2 tired kids.

Another time we spent the day in Arvada for their Scarecrow Festival.  Here the Balloon Queen is making a balloon animal for Tyler.

Ethan made friends with Brewster the friendly dragon.

We all went on a Hay Ride through town.

And the 'Bouncy House' is always a favorite with kids.

Here Ethan & Tyler are bouncing with fun.

Every corner had entries for the Scarecrow festival - this was one of our favorite.

And these Super Heroes let off alot of steam running on the lawn and wrestling

Ethan wanted to show how 'tough' he could be.....

Right near Denise's house is a great walking trail with tons beautiful fall colors - here we are in front of the Windmill that marks a homestead that was here in the early 1900s.

Denise and her dog Charlie (a girl) and Tyler and I with Blanche & Lucy.

With the falling leaves - the kids had the most fun running & rolling in the leaves and tossing them in the air.

The weather has been in the high 70's which makes for great leaf fun..

Blanche & Lucy drive back in Colorado

Well not all our travel days were filled with rain - between raindrops we had spots of sun with dramatic skies.

The Wind Farms in Illinois were beautiful to watch as they slowly turned.

Cheryl didn't want to stop in St Louis, Illinois - so on our 3rd night on the road we stopped early in Effingham, Ill.  Rested and shopped.

As expected - Kansas was full of dramatic weather - but thankfully (Dorothy) no tornadoes.

However, as we drove through Witchita, Kansas we hit our first snow storm. Yup - that's snow on the side of the road and on our windshield.

With all the storms - the colorful trees started to lose their beautiful leaves.

Our last night on the road we spent in Salinas Kansas - glad to stop and crash.

We took a different route to get to our destination this time - crossing diagonally across Colorado on Route 24.  East of Colorado Springs in a little town we found this very interesting drive through coffee stand - called - yes - Bikini Express - where they have hot coffee and hot gals!! Too wild - the gal slid open the window and Yup - there she was in a Bikini - at 35degrees ...brrrrrr.....

Friday night we finally landed in Canon City, Colorado - YIPPEE!! Here we are parked at our friend Dory's place with our little tomatoe VW bug, and the moving truck and on the right our RV....

Lucy (in front) and Blanche (behind on top step) were very happy to get our of the truck and run around in Dory's yard.

Fall decorations greeted us inside Dory's...

After a wonderful restful night - Dory & Barb made us a wonderful breakfast.

A delish breakfast for 4 greeted us in the morning.

Being a southern gal - Barb made us eggs, bacon, grits & bisquits. Yum! 

After breakfast we headed up to Highland's Ranch to visit the grandkids - here Ethan is being shy with Cheryl.

Once we arrived at Denise's - the dogs loved running in the back yard - unfortunately for us Blanche also loved rolling in the dirt back there too.  So it was bath-time for Blanche and Ethan decided he needed to help us wash her. 

After Blanche's bath we washed the tub and it was Ethan's turn - blowing bubbles in the tub and water fun is what he loves.

Tyler (my grandaughter) had a project to create a 'Tornado in a Jar' (jar on right) so Ethan created one too - in a little tupperware jar.  Here he is spinning his jar to watch his toy caught in the tornado.

Ethan likes to paint - so we got a paint set for his birthday an he painted in a book and we collected leaves and rocks and he painted those too.

Both Tyler and Ethan did a great job painting the leaves.

Of course - Boys will be Boys - so painting his face was more fun than the rocks or leaves for sure.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday for the whole weekend - so my daughter Denise & I took the Tomato Bug out for a ride with Tyler and Ethan.

And we stopped for an Ice Cream.

And then stopped at the Halloween store to pick up their costumes for Trick-or-Treating... Tyler will be a pop singer and Ethan is a Power Ranger.

After a big-boy haircut we went out for Birthday Pizza - Ethan's favorite.

And on another day we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings Sports Bar & Grill for a 'Double Birthday Lunch'.

All scrunched together in a booth - left to right - me, Ethan, Tyler, Cheryl, Denise and Gary.

Ethan opening one of his birthday gifts with Tyler. Ethan is now 4yr old.

Ethan & I are only a few days apart for our birthdays so for the last 4 years we have tried to celebrate together - Happy Birthday to us!!