Our leisurely drive back from Glenwood Springs to Denver! : )

I have always enjoyed the name of this town! The town right next to Glenwood Springs. It's called No Name. What a great name for a city! Ha ha ha. I have always wondered, did whoever name the town get just plum tired and by the time they got to that point, did they just say...just call it "No Name"??? Ha ha ha. Or what if you actually hailed from this town! And then someone asked you where you lived. Would they think you were avoiding telling them where you lived, if every time they asked you where you lived, if you replied, "ummm No Name" Ha ha ha. Sorry, sorry but my imagination always wonders and wanders when I see this town! It just cracks me up!

We have deer crossing signs and also we saw some other crazy animal crossing signs as well!

We saw a lot of the Colorado river, boy what a long river.... it stretches how many states?

I do enjoy the mountainy view. ha ha ha. : )

Some mountains are actually red, like this one. Hence the name of our place we have concerts...Red Rocks amphitheater.

Vail! Many rich and very famous people come skiing here.

They sure do have nice slopes! You can see them in the distance. : )

Another condo in Vail, there are many!

Now Breckenridge is for normal/regular folk, like us and same with Loveland, ha ha ha. We would go to Breckenridge a lot. And yup, Noboru and I rented a condo here *every* winter for about a week and would ski down mountains and ice skate on a real frozen lake. Also they have a very excellent BBQ place in Breckenridge. Woulda loved to eat there this time but again time was so short. Maybe next time. : )

A big beautiful lake! : ) Yup, we did enjoy a lot of activities together when we lived there.

Place we stopped for breakfast Thursday morning. Also remember this is where the outlet is. Woohoo! : )

We had a nice all American breakfast at the Village Inn. : )

I had the cross country omelet, with hash browns and a short stack of hot cakes and lot's of hot coffee! Oh man was I hungry! : )

Branden had the chicken strips with mashed potatoes and brown gravy. And a chocolate milk.

Noah had the chicken strips with french fries and an apple juice.

Noboru had the ham and egg and potato skillet. And the meals all come with the short stack of hot cakes. Yummm! : )

See how it says green village? The outlet is so huge, honestly it's broken up into thirds or fourths. One has a green roof and one has a red roof, or blue roof, etc.

Everything in this store was 50 to 60% off. It's hard when you see a coat you can get for say 20 bucks, not to buy them. However, I had a lot of self control. I think I bought 3 things in here? I was just really worried about the space I had in our suitcases and stuff. that was what worried me the most.

J Crew, heck, they have it all at this outlet! Old Navy Outlet, Gap outlet, Ralph Lauren, everything!

Now we were at the blue roof outlet area. And I was on my way to the Ralph Lauren store!

I went in here looking for stuff for the boys, and I ended up getting myself a lot of sweaters. I think I got 4 sweaters for myself. Really nice conservative preppy ones.

What did my guys do while I was in Ralph Lauren? They hung outside, sat on the nice wood chairs and enjoyed the scenery and I shopped in peace. And went to the changing room without kids under foot. : )

Had to stop for another scenic picture, ha ha ha. : )

A man fishing in the stream. Wearing his wading boots, lol! : )

Izod was 70% off everything in the store just as the sign says. I didn't shop in there. I was sorta pressed for time. We had plans to meet my aunt later. But, I did buy an Izod/Lacoste bag at the DFS in Minnesota on the way back to Japan this time though. : )

Georgetown down there and the way it looks down below, it looks so beautiful and if it were snowing it would look like a picturesque little snow globe type town! Just really pretty! : )

Wagon wheel and waterfall! : )

Another hot springs town, this one is much closer to Denver. It's called Idaho Springs. It's not bad but not nearly as nice as Glenwood. And I've also been to a few other lesser known hot springs in Colorado as well. : )

See the chain station on the yellow sign. There are also signs that say it's mandatory to have chains on your tires when it snows. No kidding though you need them in the winter time if you drive through the mountains. You wanna talk about snow tires or chains for your car? I am your girl! I grew up having to do that sorta stuff every winter! Ha ha ha. : )

On our way into the Denver city limits, well actually just at the base of Denver to the foothils, is where our family who has passed is buried. I did indeed go and visit my grandmother. It was the right thing to do and the thing I *really* wanted to do most of all this trip! : )

This is mainly a cemetery for Roman Catholics, think 99.9999%, lol. Which is why my family always chooses to be buried here.

American cemetery's do look a lot different then Japanese cemetery's. Although I do have a great deal of respect for both.

My grandfather is buried here, my grandmother and one of my uncles among other various relatives as well. Many trees around here.

In Japan it is the responsibility of the family to clean the grave, pull the weeds, clean it up, you know what I mean and it is a nice way. In America the place cleans up, and mows the lawn, and stuff. Again, I think both ways are honorable. But, I do have a few Japanese friends who read my blog and I think they will enjoy reading the differences or seeing a picture of how they differ. It's interesting at least. : ) My family brings stuff though, like candy canes and stockings for my grandma and stuff like for Christmas time. And a small pumpkin for Halloween time. Or a plastic egg for Easter time. Just stuff like that. Again to be respectful and to say in a sense, "you are *never* forgotten" : )

I am not sharing a single picture from my Grams grave out of respect and also, because again that's so remotely private. But yeah, I did wanna say, I did go and visit and I did pay my respects and caught her up with our news and tell her how much we do love and miss her every single day... forever and ever! : )

Same hotel. We checked in yet again. And then we met my dad at my aunties house! : ) We met up about 3pm.

Thursday at my aunties house!!! : )

A random ranch style house on my aunties street. : )

Every single day we were in Denver with the exception of the day we were in Glenwood Springs we were up at this very house! This is my favorite aunties house. Although they are all pretty terrific. (yes they are all reading this...*gulp* ha ha ha, nice aunties, nice, nice aunties : ) She lives in the nice safe suburbs near Waterworld. Her 3 sons, my 3 cousins (have tons of cousins total though), went to Ranum High school. My 3 boy cousins, are all married and own larger grander houses then my aunties now, ha ha ha. But I do still enjoy my aunties house best and find the comfort in the familiar. And she is recently widowed, (a few years into it) and she lives alone. We coulda stayed here, but I do value the privacy. But this was the meeting spot the first day we arrived. Everyone knows to meet here. : ) And the best Christmas dinners ever, come from this house come December 25th. : )

My auntie has plum trees in her backyard.

And a nice little kids bench that us kids used to use when we were little, I am kidding you not! : )

Peach trees with about a zillion peaches on it! : )

Yellow delicious apples, they are not quite ripe yet. She also has red delicious apples as well.

Boys playing in the backyard! Man you shoulda seen the kids we had back here on Tuesday! It was crazy! Ha ha ha, in a good way! : )

The house, I grew up in,was bigger. Twice the size of the front yard and we had maybe 3 times the size of my aunties backyard. And we also had fruit trees when I was growing up as well obviously. And we did not have a ranch style house we had the house with like 20 foot ceilings type old nice house. It was very common to bake peach pie, peach cobbler or peach jam every year. Plum jam, apple pies all fall and into the winter. My grandma when she was alive had so many grapes in her yard she'd make homemade wine, no kidding! And since it's a backyard, no one can ever see what's going on. Ha ha ha. I do enjoy having a backyard and the privacy we get from it. Which is probably why I was such a stickler about having my own backyard in Japan.

With a family as large as ours, no wonder we have 3 sets of patio furniture! Our house before dad sold it had 2 sets of patio furniture and it was never enough. I might be an only child yes, but I come from a huge family... gigantic! There's just so many of us! Nice trees and wind chimes on the patio.

And so we never forget we are Roman Catholic, perhaps while outside playing...we have the statues of course throughout the yard to remind us. LOL!!! I told you, I was not kidding. And man, like I always say, my grandma's house was always like the Vatican City gift shop!!!

My auntie pulling down some fruit for Branden and Noah!

Brother and sister, my dad and my auntie/his sister and the boys of course! They always love coming over here. Branden and Noah call her auntie too, lol. Am only showing a back view of my auntie. : )

My uncles invention, lol. From when we were kids. See how old this can is? It takes off the fruit really cool like! : ) Even my dad had one for his/our yard. And if I ever get around to planting trees in Japan, I will make my own coffee can, fruit grabber, lol! yes I will! : ) We'll do it old school style, ha ha ha! *winks* : ) Har har! : )

Go Noah, pick that fruit! Go on my son! : )

With fall coming, she took all her hanging flowers down already. She's freakishly early, like I am. : ) Okay auntie only a side profile pic and if you still are too shy and prefer....and wish me to take this one down, just email me and I will gladly take this pic down of you if you want! : ) My family is so shy! Ha ha ha. Which I understand. My dad isn't and neither is our family of 4. Well duh, I am too, lol. : ) But I think she's a cute auntie. : )

Noboru and my auntie get along so well. In fact Noboru and my whole family get along so well.

Yay go Branden!

He first got some peaches and now some apples! : )

Fire pit in the middle of this table. Perfect for roasting smores or hot dogs in the backyard! : )

It was just such a comfort to be back in Denver with my family! My auntie had told me how she took one of those big princess cruises type cruises. How she flew to Germany, a year ago. And from there boarded the ship, and she went around France, and the Rock of Gibraltar, Italy, and the Vatican City, she said she loved the most. And how she plans to go back there. How she went to the Bahamas a few month's ago too. How she went to Seattle and loved it and Canada also, wow what an auntie, lol. I said to her, I was just there (Seattle), that's how I got to Denver! Ha ha ha. And I invited her to come to Japan. She also told me how much lonelier she is now that the kids have grown up and have families of their own. How she misses her husband, since he passed away. How her hip has been bothering her and how she thinks about selling her house, like my dad did. She said because when it snows and we do get lots of it! It's hard for her to shovel it with her bad hip. And how in summer she has to pick up dead or fallen fruit everyday. And how taking care of a house all on her lonesome is so tough. She told me how she thinks of buying a townhouse. And that would be easier for her. I agree with her! Hmm seems everyone I know that's older is selling their home because it's just too much hard work once they get a certain age, hence my dad as well. And my auntie has a fully furnished basement, 2 extra bedrooms down there besides the 2 upstairs, a bar and TV room, and a big laundry room. And getting up the stairs with her hip. Sigh.

Noboru has aging parents as well, so he joined in the conversation. Meanwhile Branden and Noah took down more fruit. : )

My auntie has such a nice kitchen. Everyone in my family had a ceiling fan in the kitchen, and probably why I ended up with one in my dining room in Japan. Again, the familiarity is what I love. Makes me so comfortable. : ) And she has a 2nd big giant freezer in her garage. Every auntie of mine has that 2nd frezer thing going on. Hmm, stocking up for a blizzard or what? Again though, just your basic all American house though really. Not super fancy, yet not crappy at all either. Just a typical middle class regular house, I guess. : ) I did get a chance to talk to my auntie about something regarding pie making and she urged me to switch to a butter based crust. I sorta agree and will try it for Thanksgiving or sooner. : )

Just your typical regular living room. However, I can tell you how Noboru fell asleep on this couch when we were first dating. He came over for Christmas dinner and was so stuffed he fell asleep on the couch under the rectangular mirror. I can also tell you how many rounds of Jeopardy have been played and won in this very living room as well. And ummm...don't forget to answer in the form of a "question" LOL! *winks* : )

And time to leave for the day, but we did return yet again the next day for our goodbyes. : (

Boys playing on the fence! : )

Checking out the bird bath!

We had eaten American too many times to count. And Italian way too many times to count too. I wanted to have Mexican my second and final time. I had this huge combo. Rice, beans, burrito, enchilada and tostada. And look at all the dipping salsas they give for their basket of chips! Oh my lord is the food here good! Very happy I went here twice on this trip! Felt very satisfied. Friday, was the very last day. We visited and said good bye to my 3 aunties and uncles and cousins. Spent the whole day with my dad and for dinner we went for fish and chips oddly enough. A place called the Yorkshire and so good, oh my gosh! That was our last dinner in Denver. I had chicken and chips and everyone else had fish and chips. I also had the deep fried mushrooms, yumm. We went to my dad's apartment in Edgewater and we stayed for about 30 minutes just talking and then he walked us out to our car and I hugged my dad and blabbed through the window with it rolled down an additional 5 more minutes, lol! It was a long but happy goodbye. And then we left and we all waved! We went back to the hotel and took showers and got packed and ready to leave the next morning back to Japan!

The chips and various dips. Whoops forgot this last pic was down here. : )

Saturday the day we had to leave and head back to Japan! : )

Saturday morning 6am and arriving to the airport. We dropped off the rental car and then they shuttled us to the airport. The check in line was luckily small. And the airport security line was equally small and friendly. And now it was time to say good bye to the place of my birth and where I lived like 28 years of my life quite happily, I might add.

It was a chilly morning, which is the reason why the boys needed sweatshirts. Yet still warm enough for shorts. : ) We got our tickets and sat at the gate. The kids had Mc Donald's sausage McMuffins and hash browns to fill their morning rumbly tummy's. I had a coffee, nothing else. : )

On the airplane it was an option to buy a snack box if you wanted. We got one for B and one for Noah. And our seating, we 4, had the last row of 6 seats, both sides of the airplane basically. We had plenty of room. Branden and I shared a Minute maid Cranberry Apple juice. I sat with B,and Branden had his own window.

And Noah and Noboru sat on the other side of us and Noah had his own window, however he closed it, ha ha ha. : ) Noah munching his snack box! : )

Once in Minneapolis MN, we had lunch. Choice was Subway, Chili's, Mc D's, Chinese and a few other's. The kids went for Mc D's. See the car we took with us as a carry on? Noah's toy car DJ! Ha ha ha. 2 happy meals for the boys, 1 each of course. : )

And I had the premium all white meat grilled chicken breast sandwich. The club, on a toasted whole wheat roll. With melted cheese and super crispy bacon! I love this sandwich so much! : )

Yumm! : ) After a nice lunch, I went into DFS, found and bought a Lacoste bag. And then we bought some snacks for the airplane. And then I had a coffee from some coffee shop near our gate. I had a pumpkin pie latte. Not a pumpkin spice latte, like they have at Starbucks. This actually tasted like real honest to goodness pumpkin pie, it was so delicious. And then after that we boarded our plane back to Japan. I was not sad, not teary eyed, not even a bit. I felt very very happy. Really satisfied seeing my family and my best friends/ my boys god parents. I felt at peace after seeing my family and being "home". I know that may sound dumb but that's okay. I felt re-energized to go to back to Japan. And I felt all was right in the world somehow and as it should be! The flight was good because the boys were perfectly behaved and Noah has long outgrew all his wild and terrible 2's, phew and is now nearly as mellow as B. They were both wonderful on the plane. The whole trip. Me however, my legs were tired and I had enough of my legs in a sitting position after many hours... with many hours to go, and the flight back was 12 extremely long hours from MN, very long flight back, ha ha ha. I tried to bend my body in so many weird positions to try and get comfortable and I never found a single way to get comfortable, so I gave up and slept uncomfortably, until next thing I know Noboru woke me for our breakfast omelet and potato breakfast on the plane. And an hour to go until we landed. With disheveled messy hair and disheveled clothes. I was happy to land in Japan when we did. I also was very happy I took this wonderful trip because it was so necessary and so needed. And I am sure many of you living overseas can appreciate when I say, sometimes trips home can make living overseas for the long haul all the more bearable. : )