Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Months ago, I asked Gordon about his graduation ceremony to which he told me that he wasn't planning on going.  Thankfully, he listened to Glo and me and decided to attend. The morning dawned super beautiful.  Greenie's brakes were on their way out, so we dropped off Greenie and picked up....Gordon's car (Glo is gonna have to come up with a name for the big white Acura ;-))  We convinced him to let us drop him off at the line-up, and Glo hopped out with him to make sure he got where he needed to be, leaving me to find parking.  Thankfully, I was still stuck in traffic when she hopped back in with me and helped me navigate the labyrinth that is BYU. We walked up to the Marriott Center where I noticed ushers were scanning something at the doors.  I turned to Glo and asked her if we needed tickets.  "Not that I know of," she responded.  Turns out, we did, but thankfully there was a line for losers who came without tickets. I read an article yesterday abou...

The next day, I woke up feeling pretty crummy.  I canceled my temple appointment and just rested most of the day.  When the kids were done studying and taking more  finals, we met to go out to dinner. Unbeknownst to me, Gordon had started a loaf of bread the night before and when we met up, he gave the finished loaf to me.  I promised myself (and my diet) that I would only eat a slice or two, but before I had even gotten back to the hotel, I'd eaten SIX. Scout's honor, I didn't eat more than half of the loaf myself, but I probably could have if I'd allowed myself to do so.  However, as with most things, I saw far more than just a loaf of bread. As I told Gordon the next night, that loaf of bread meant the world to me.  As I had thought about it earlier in the day, and as it brought tears to my eyes, I wondered why.  I've had lots of loaves of bread before.  What was so special about this one? There was something really special in my mind about the...

When Glo crawled into bed the night before, I noticed that she had a cough.  There's nothing like a cough to get me worrying... Sure enough, in the morning, Glo was down for the count, and Gordon, despite trying to deny it, was down as well.  I thought that it was probably chlorine poisoning from the hot tub, but when I came down with the same symptoms two days later, I realized that they were really sick. Unfortunately, I had thought I was through the worst of lung problems (having survived Pike's Peak), so I had stupidly sent most of my inhalers and all my steroids home with Hannah.  I had a couple of puffs left on my Breztri inhaler, and after Glo had used them, she was breathing much better so I knew we had to do something. First though, we had to leave the house.  I felt SICK about saying goodbye.  It was one of the most beautiful homes I've ever stayed in, and it was now full of happy memories for me.  Did I mention that the art on the walls was creat...

We had several options for church on Sunday--the meeting was lackluster, but I'm always thankful when there's a church nearby. There was a married couple who had been baptized the day before so appreciating what a gift that is for missionaries, it was beautiful to see them confirmed. We went back to the house and took naps.  And then had spaghetti.  And then took engagement photos.  And watched Game 9 of the World Chess Championships. Or maybe it was a different order.  Somehow, by the end of the day, we had done it all ;-) Chess was super fun to watch! Gordon follows a guy who plays through the game in recap format in about 20 minutes.  It's exciting...possibly more exciting than watching the actual two hour game ;-) Glo and I were hooked and watched the rest of the games until a new champion was crowned. Glo and Gordon also made pasta with garlic bread and fruit salad.  Man, I'm not usually a pasta person, but it was delicious! Glo had asked me to take en...

Saturday started out quite lovely.  Everyone slept in, and when they did finally wake up, Glo went running and Hannah started packing.  I couldn't really believe that my time with Hannie was coming to an end.  She is, hands down, the best travel companion.  We like to sleep the same amount, eat the same amount, and unbelievably we never run out of things to talk about.  She stays awake in the car when I'm driving, I love to hear her singing along to any song playing on the radio, and she loves to look out the window as much as I do.  She managed to wrangle the BMW's settings screen to show Apple CarPlay after a good 30 minutes and never complained about the difficulty of doing so.  She's up for anything and happy for downtime.  I knew that once she left, I would attain "third wheel" status with Gordon and Glo, and I would lose my buddy.  However, I had to just focus on the fun week we had already had together. We had an appointment at the Den...

Friday dawned super early for me because I needed to pick up Glo and Gordon from the Denver airport at 7:30 a.m.  It was difficult to drag myself out of the super comfy bed, but I was excited to see more of my kids ;-) They arrived on time, but man did they ever look tired.  Gordon had taught ten hours  of math reviews the day before (and was surprised that he even had a voice) and Glo had been busy getting things ready for Spain and studying for finals.  Turns out, Gordon had stayed up most of the night taking two finals.  I had told them that we had a big day and I was hoping they wouldn't be tired, but they didn't exactly work with me.... We got back to the house (again, what an oasis) and I made them go to bed, but even after two hours of sleep, they were still exhausted.  Oh well. We had things to do and places to go! First, I wanted to drive to Manitou Springs to taste the actual spring water.  The town has seven springs "sprinkled" around downto...