More visitors!

We've had a busy few weeks here at the Ranch--My folks a few weekends, followed by Grandude the next week and finally,last weekend, Mr Ranch's sister, brother-in-law, and our little nephew came for a visit.  Little L is quite the traveler already and has multiple international trips planned for the next year.  We had a fun visit--our kids enjoyed being "the big kids" and traveled back and forth between entertaining themselves upstairs and entertaining the little guy downstairs.
There was a lot of playing in the living room and getting to know our pets and his cousins...

 "Try hugging the other end of the kitty, Buddy"

 Although the little guy has two cats at home, dogs are a relatively new idea to him.  Our older pets, Tigger and Indy, who have baby experience, audibly sighed when they realized there was a baby in the house, but cooperated nicely with the petting and loving.  Liberty, whose baby experience is unknown, was also a very good dog--letting the little guy pet her paws and give her hugs.

   "My goodness, what big paws you have, Liberty!"









One of the little guy's favorite toys at our house turned out to be the cat scratching post--we think that was just because it allowed him to stand and maneuver around the room more easily!

Indy declined to teach the little guy to walk, as she (Indy) taught Claudia so many years ago.  I think her tail was tired.  Or maybe she was just tired :)

 We enjoyed dinners at home on Friday night and Sunday night...The little guy ate a lot of everything--fish, rolls, potato, and cole slaw on Friday, and hamburgers and sweet potato fries on Sunday.

On Saturday we enjoyed the lovely weather by visiting a nearby  (free) historical museum with an extensive outdoor area. The Girl enjoyed riding around with her cousin and being the backseat helper. We had a little adventure on the way--the visitor's rental car died at a stop light!  Luckily, it started back up and there weren't any other problems!

 The Girl is nearly as tall as her aunt....

 Any of you who have seen Despicable Me 2, can imagine what The Boy was saying when we saw the sheep ("Ramsbottom...snort snort...Sheep's butt..giggle, giggle...")

 Our nephew had his first taste of homemade ice cream (it was "Celebrate cows day" or something--we had homemade cheese, butter, and ice cream during our exploring).

The rest of us enjoyed the sunshine!









On Saturday night, we took the  little guy (and his parents) for his first visit to a hibachi restaurant...
 He enjoyed the rice and eating all the veggies off his parents' plates.  The "show" was entertaining to him (as well as the rest of us, as always), too!

Doesn't everyone wear shades at dinner?








Sunday after church the visitors spent some time at the Outlet Mall and visited an uncle and aunt who live nearby before the end of their trip on Monday.
Everyone reports that they had a great time!

Instructions to my houseguests....

Have you ever written something and afterwards thought, “Good Grief, I’m a nut”?  Here are the (slightly edited) instructions I left for recent houseguests—maybe they are only funny if you “were there”.

Hi!

So there are two “easy” ways to get to our house from the airport—neither one is actually easy in a rental car…sorry…The easiest right now is to take the toll road (xxxx South, towards The Springs).  Make sure you ask the rental car company how that works with a rental car though—there aren’t any toll booths, it is all license plate or transponder based.  The other option is to take the non-tolled highway South, which is under construction and is kind of like driving through a strange maze…but no tolls.  Either way, you’ll take the Airport Highway towards Town, then either highway x or highway z South to the Valley Highway South The Outlet Mall Exit), then head west (right, towards the mountains).  If you need directions from there I can send them or you can put it in your GPS and I can check to make sure it makes sense if you want me to.  Either way should take about fifty minutes, barring any craziness, like the highway being under more construction or a blizzard.

The house address is xxxx Loop—I’m sure you have that somewhere, but now you have it “in your phone”.  There’s a chance that Mr. Ranch and/or I will be home as well, depending on how long it takes you to get luggage, rental car, drive, etc.  If you want to call or text when you leave the airport, try us at work (or cells) first, but you don’t have to.  The garage door code is xxx, but when you get there, either call the house phone, ring the bell, or knock so that The Girl has time to put the dogs outside or at least put Liberty in her kennel.  It might take her a minute, Lib still outweighs her by 30 lbs (coincidentally, the weight of the children, 78 plus 62 plus your child’s 22=162 and the weight of the dogs, 45 plus 115=160, are roughly equal now).

If you forget anything (or just need provisions) there are several options at our exit—Walgreens, Super Walmart, Sort of Super-Target(some groceries, but not a great selection), Vitamin Cottage(again, some groceries, but not a great selection), King Soopers (grocery store), Sprouts (organic grocery, not huge, but adequate) as well as the outlet mall with all its glory.

As long as my secretary doesn't schedule a 3:00 meeting (which she mentioned she might do, because I think she hates me), I should be home before 4:00.  The plan for dinner is a fish bake at home—tilapia in kitchen freezer, baked potatoes (or home fries if we prefer), and, um, other food.  There is a lot of food in the fridge…I’m not even sure what…there was some fresh broccoli in the drawer if your little guy wants a snack and still likes it and there should be cereal (cheerios) in the pantry if that is more interesting.  You can, of course, eat anything you find, The Girl (in theory) should be able to help you find stuff…although she is related to her father.  If we don’t feel like cooking, we can go up to the fish bake/fry at church, but we do have stuff at home.

You guys get our deluxe guest accommodations in The Girl’s room—there is a double bed (and a loft, if you want to relive your college years) and I’ll set up the pack and play and you can move it wherever works in the room.  I’ll get her to clean up, but that room won’t be childproofed—we’ll try to semi-childproof the family room downstairs so your poor child doesn't have to spend his weekend on someone’s lap (unless he wants to). 

Have a safe trip—send me a note if you need me to pick up anything else specific before you get here, although I make no promises, it has been a crazy week already!

The (Sub)Urban Ranch B and B

When we first moved to Denver we had a lot of company--I think it helped that a lot of our friends and relatives didn't mind sleeping on the floor.  Despite having a much bigger house, we no longer have a guest room (thanks, kids), so our visitor quota has (in general) slowed down over the past few years.  Although I actually blame the dog...she's ginormous...We've had a spike in visits over the last few weeks though, which is a lot of fun for all of us (and ensures that the house has a minimum level of cleanliness).
Last weekend my parents came to visit so they could watch me in the fabulous faculty production of "Once Upon a Mattress" (it really was quite fabulous, in many ways).  We had a great time--they hung out with the kids, who didn't have school on Friday, helped them with homework and projects, took us all out to eat almost every meal and stayed in a hotel so the kids could play in the pool and stay over--very fun for all of us.
This weekend Grandude arrives for a few days, the Ranch children have spring break next week and there will be skiing (snowboarding for The Boy) on the agenda.
And in one more week, the newest Ranch cousin and his parents will come to visit for a few days--the children are very excited.  They, however, will be adhering to "normal" bedtimes, because their spring break will be ending...while mine will be beginning (yay for spring break!!!).