I had SO MUCH FUN!

And now, I want SLEEP!  LOL!  I seriously need to catch up on my sleep from last week!  Here is a quick recap:

Wednesday I arrived in Denver around 5PM.  Amy and Melissa and Jason (Melissa's hubby) picked me up at the airport and we went out for some YUMMY YUMMY BBQ.  Then back to Amy's house to unpack and get settled in.  I got acquainted with two of her five cats:

Athena (this was AFTER she ATE into my bag of beef jerky and gummy lifesavers - trust me, this cat is NOT underfed, but Amy says she is a GOAT!)

And Annie.

She also has Gizmo

and Cricket and Abby, who I saw only from a distance.  Cricket was mostly from a distance of at least four feet as well.  Athena and Annie were the two I got to know the best.

Thursday morning we picked up Janice at the airport and brought her back to Amy's to unpack

 

Then Amy and I went to the Denver Botanical Gardens, where I took about 150 photos.  In case you don't know, flower photography is one of my PASSIONS. 

Here is a link to my Picassa album from the Botanical Gardens if you like looking at close up photos of pretty plants!

And here is Amy at the Gardens:

Amy and I had lunch at a place downtown called CHEDD'S, which is a gourmet grilled cheese place.  The owners are from Wisconsin and all the cheese comes from there.  It was SO TOTALLY YUMMY!

After that, we all met up at Melissa's and made the shopping list and we split up to go get food and beverages.  By this time, Heather and Julie

had also arrived. 

After shopping, we had dinner and toured Melissa's stamp room, lovingly named "The Dungeon".  It's a finished basement that truly has more craft supplies than some STORES I've been to.  Here is just ONE view:

(Heather is checking out the broken wheel on the chair - Melissa is across the table)

Next we were off to the airport to pick up the last arriving Spammy, Kristi.  Here are Melissa, Heather, Jules (with camera) and Amy with the poster we made for her:

We all went back to Melissa's and hung out before turning in.  Friday was SHOPPING DAY!  We started at Archivers.  Julie has never been to Archivers and was quite impressed when she walked in!

We had lunch at Claim Jumper.  More specifically, we had DESSERT at Claim Jumper.  Here was ONE of the dessert cases

and here is mine:

Lemon Creme Brulee Bar.  SO VERY YUMMY!!!!!!

Then we went to the outlet mall at Castle Rock where several of us hit the Coach outlet....

Left to right, Melissa, Kristi, Amy, Julie, Janice and me.

We went home and ate and had "Heatheritas" and played video games until late.  Melissa has three cats.  We saw ONE, Oliver.  He seemed to enjoy watching us play video games....

Saturday we went downtown and did more shopping, including indulging me with a stop at the Hard Rock for pins!  Then we had Mongolian BBQ for lunch (YUM) and took a scenic drive before heading back to Melissa's for dinner and MORE VIDEO GAMES!  WOO HOO!  We had my laptop and webcam set up next to the TV and logged into Yahoo Chat so that we could include Lori, Cherie, Judy and Kim in the festivities.  It was a LOT of FUN!

Sunday morning, I went along with Melissa to go to Target so she could buy a Wii.  Then we went back to the house and had Julie's OH SO YUMMY French Toast before Janice had to go to the airport.  Heather decided to drive home and get her hubby and daughter and bring them back.  We all had lunch together and played more video games before I had to leave for the airport at 4PM.  I was SO TIRED!  I never am able to sleep on airplanes and I was dozing off thru both flights!  All in all, it was a TON of fun, even though I spent too much money and gained FOUR POUNDS!  LOL!

Here is the group shot of us all on Sunday morning.  That's Jason's finger up in the corner....

 

Me, Kristi

Amy, Melissa, Janice

Heather and Julie

 

And now, I can start catching up on my sleep!!!!!!

Greetings From Denver!

I had set this to post on Wednesday when I left.  As a matter of fact, I even got the e-mail version sent to me.  Don't know WHY it wasn't showing...  Sheesh... computers.....

OK - so I've been totally absent from blog-land.  I've been busy!  I swear I will go back and do a blog about our trip to Hawaii, but that involves editing photos (I shoot in RAW format which has to be edited before I can upload them here!), so it will be into August before you see those.  Sorry.  Same for the twins' birthday party. 

I've been busy getting ready for my two Summer Stampin Excursions.  This weekend is a 4 night trip to Denver to hang out with just over half of my "Spamily".  Melissa, Amy, Heather, Kristi, Julie and Janice.  So I've been working on gifts and stuff for them.  Then next month is CONVENTION, where I will see most of the rest of the "Spamily"... Cherie, Lori, Judy, Kate, Janice and Heather.  The only Spammy I won't see this summer is Kim..... *sniff*

And speaking of Kim, here is the birthday card I sent her for her June 1st birthday:

Anyway... here are some of the goodies I've made for the Denver goodie bags:

Candles for Melissa and Amy - our gracious hostesses!

 

Altered Jelly Belly Jars - I asked everyone to pick a drink flavor from a list.  Their jars are that flavor and the cards match them.

The cards.....

Images used are from Stampin'Up, Rubbernecker, Hero Arts and Verve Visual.  All Cardstock was Stampin Up.  Brads, Crystal Effects, Silver micro beads and Ribbon from Stampin'Up.  The DSP on the Jars is assorted, but the brown is from the Berry Bliss Collection from Stampin'Up.  Glitter is Stickles.

On top of that, I did Judy's and Kate's Circle Journal pages.  No photos of those yet, sorry.

So as you read this, I'll be in Denver having some SERIOUS FUN.  Hoping I come home to a clean kitchen (like I left it) on Sunday......

See you all on the flip-side!