I had three days off in a row: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. That never happens! It felt almost like a mini vacation. I am also now convinced that if I could voluntarily never work again, I could find ways to keep myself happily occupied.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day, it took me forever to get motivated to actually get out of bed. I bet it was 1pm before I was showered and dressed for the day. OH WELL!!! Brandon had his cousin and a friend spend the night, so I did get up and make the whole family french toast. It is one of my specialties, and even though I had to do it a bit differently than I prefer, it was still quite yummy. A great way to start a lazy day!

Monday Patrick and I drove to the local nurseries and landscaping stores. We have two projects this spring, and I am rather clueless about both. The first is our flowergarden and planters. We have over 20 planters throughout our yard plus a raised flower bed, and I have not a clue what are in them. (We moved-in in Nov.) I was just going to wait a while to see what did or didn't pop up, but in truth I would let a weed grow waiting for it to bloom.

Patrick has decided he would rather us choose and plant all new plants and flowers. I got a catalog the other day, so I had him thumb through it and show me what he likes. Typical guy, he likes the flowers that are Denver Nugget's colors (pale blue and yellow)! I told him I would go for some NUGGETS flowers, but that we need some other colors too. It will be a little while yet before we order them, but he seems really excited about being the caretaker of our flowers. I am excited about him getting outside and having a hobby!

The other project we want (ok, I WANT) is to install patio pavers in the back yard. Our yard is half gravel and half grass. I would like to turn the gravel half into an actual patio where I can set our fire pit and eventually a "conversation patio set". It is not that difficult a project, it's just going to require alot of physical work. And a decent chunk of change. I have been running all over comparing paving prices, and reading as much as I can to install them. I think I will tackle it during my vacation in April.

Tuesday, Patrick was a little bummed out. I decided on the spur of the moment we needed to enjoy the scenery we moved out here for. We drove up to Estes Park, about 40 minutes away, and grabbed a bite to eat at The Smiling Elk. The elk was probably really smiling because we had beef burgers instead, saved an elk. The view from the restaurant was really nice, and for a moment we felt like typical tourists. It was fun. while driving back down, I had been hoping I would see a buckle goat (it's really big horn sheep- but for an unknown reason my niece calls them buckle goats). I had only seen my first one last October after many vacations furiously scanning the mountain-sides for them. That was when we went around a bend and came across a herd right there on the side of the road! It was awesome! The trip seemed to cheer Patrick up.

Overall, the three days off were full of us ON-THE-GO. It was really cool to have some time to hang out as a couple and as a family!

Kristen