We showered on Saturday....

Do you know how it feels to be waiting for a party to arrive?

Gail's daughter Elizabeth waits by the door....the shower party is in her honor: she is going to be a bride!

Twenty four people have accepted an invitation to the bridal tea; Gail has been gathering tea cups to serve all the guest.

(And the tea cups will also serve as party favors; each guest is welcome to take home the tea cup of their own choice.)

Gail's friend Chris and Elizabeth's friend Crista are hostessing the party, Gail and I are assisting as needed.

Each guest has been instructed to bring a recipe card to get Elizabeth's cooking up to speed.

Elizabeth's wedding colors are green and blue....

So of course the service table and the dining tables are spread with cloths of blue.

Simple flowers floating in glass sherbet dishes keep the table looking festive yet do not block conversations by being tall.

The menu: Petite cakes...

Cucumber sandwiches (on both gluten and gluten free breads...so thoughtful!)

Gail had made mini chocolate bundt cakes with chocolate cinnamon frosting...yum!

A chocolate fountain flowed next to the gigantic strawberries...

Scones and devonshire cream, jams, and mini quiches rounded out the repast.

Doesn't that menu lead to a pretty plate full of goodies?

The chocolate fountain was a popular place to be...

And if one happened to get a bit of liquid chocolate on one's finger....well...of course it just makes sense to enjoy that bit of luck!

After all...if the Guest of Honor and her Mother indulge so, all guests are free to do the same.

Elizabeth wasn't shy about enjoying just plain strawberries either!

Gail and I were the only two people at the party who had known this bride to be as a baby.  It was Elizabeth's birth that brought us together as friends in the first place over thirty years ago. 

Gail had been part of the church we had just joined shortly before the birth of our daughter Laura.  I had joined the Young Mother's group, a group that had been friends with Gail before she and her husband had left the area.  Gail was expecting her first child; and was to return to San Diego shortly after the child's birth.

When Elizabeth was born, the Young Mother's decided to throw a baby shower for her, and send her all the gifts.

I had never met Gail, but being a first time mother of a little girl myself, I was happy to shop and include my gift in her shower gift box.

Gail was rather surprised to receive a gift with a card signed with a name she had never seen before.

A few weeks later she was back in San Diego, attending the Young Mother's group in person...and that is how we became friends.

I have vivid memories of watching Elizabeth toddle around in the church nursery, attending the Christian school with my daughter and various romps and adventures for several years.

Six years later Gail had her son Scott, and just over a year later she and her family moved to Colorado.  Letters keep us in touch with one another, and occasionally she flew back to San Diego to visit her parents and her husband's family as well. 

Over thirty years...so much has happened in our lives since then.  Wee Scott who was in diapers as the moving van drove off is now in his second year of medical school; Elizabeth has a Masters degree in Education and teaches Science. She is known as Commander Cameron to many children as she also teaches at a summer Space camp!

Her intended is a highway patrol officer; they met at church about two years ago.

She may be all grown up but she is still rather short...and wears killer heels to remedy that situations.

(I still tower over her, even when she is in heels and I am in  flats!)

People arrived and we made Elizabeth serve herself and be seated.

Fresh faced friends arrived and took turns eating near Elizabeth.

Gail has every reason to be a proud Mother of the Bride.

I busied myself shooting pictures and totally enjoyed seeing all the laughter and smiles on the guests.

As guest finished their meals, they refilled their tea cups and enjoyed visiting while other guests were seated at the table.

(Few are the dining room which comfortable seats 24 people these days!)

More tea?

Yes please!

(Although actually that is a chocolate pot, not a tea pot at all!  Few people know the difference, but I thought the pot was charming regardless of what it was serving.)

Wonder who chose that cup?  Quite pretty isn't it?

Happy...

Laughing...

Smiles and tea go together.

Outside the weather was quite blustery and the balloons signalling that this was the place bobbed about merrily in the wind.

The groom's mother, Lana....who also lives in town...

The gifts and flowers and recipes piled high...

Elizabeth was quite surprised to see how many gifts were waiting for her!

Fortified with cups of tea and chocolate covered berries, Elizabeth began to open her gifts.

A small speech was made by the hostess...

Then the ribbons and paper began to fly.

She seemed especially taken with the wooden salad servers...

For some reason a lot of the ribbons were purple, which happens to be Gail's favorite color.

I sat on the floor just on the other side of a low coffee table and took picture after picture of Elizabeth's expressive face.

Sometimes there are special meanings everywhere...

Gail had called her unborn first born Sweet Pea, and that was Elizabeth's family nickname.

Of course Gail had to wrap her gift in sweet pea embellished wrapping paper.

Then there were tender surprises:  A wedding garter from Elizabeth's paternal grandmother Anne, which had been made for Anne's wedding day by her own grandmother.  That would be Elizabeth's great, great grandmother's handiwork!

I missed the story of the embroidered handkerchief...

Sweet it is...

And a close up of the lace and satin garter.

Then it was on to more practical things.

Lots and lots and lots of laughs...

Apparently Elizabeth already know about grated knuckles...

Bridal running socks??

The ribbons were being steadily handed to a friend who agreed to make the rehearsal bridal bouquet.

An hour had passed; it was time for a stretch and a party game called Wedding Gown.

Each team of four got four rolls of toilet paper, and 20 minutes to create a wedding gown of one's dreams.

The real bride headed back to the kitchen for a few more nibbles...

Then it was time for "Here comes the Brides!"

(I really thought this dress with a 20's vibe was quite charming.)

A 1910 style gown...or was it 1930's?

All the styles were quite remarkable!

There was even a naughty Vegas style bride!

(The blond girl seated behind the brides is another Jill, soon to be Elizabeth's sister in law.)

The bridal gown on the far left won Elizabeth's approval as the best gown in the bridal collection.

At one point Elizabeth joined her friend since second grade...seated on the floor for some really great story telling.

It was mostly a kitchen shower...but a bride must know be able to sizzle in other rooms too!

Gail had had a short burst of tears the night before as we set up for the shower; MOB are allowed to have a tearful moment every now and then.

At the shower however she was mostly found grinning  and laughing at the hijinks's of her sweet daughter.

We all got a good laugh at the complete gift: a whistling tea kettle...a nightie....

And two serving spoons.

I dare a romance writer to pen a love scene featuring all these items together!

(An aside: I was much relieved to find such delicate treatment of lingerie at this shower. Lately bridal showers have featured items that caused even an old married woman like myself blush in embarrassment.  This sort of  modern gifting has caused me to decline invitations to lingerie showers; I was glad that Elizabeth's friend has more proper standards.)

(Another aside: I found having a bouquet in front of the guest of honor allowed for much better picture framing.  No shots of knees and such to worry about!)

I was a bit surprised to learn that Elizabeth goes by Liz and of course as all those who go by Liz, she also has Lizard drawings in her life.

Have you heard of this wine?

The label is quite funny:

Somewhere near the cool shadows of the laundry room.
Pass the litter box and between the plastic yard toys
This is your time.
Time to enjoy a moment to yourself.
A moment without madness.
The dishes can wait.
Dinner be damned.

Little by little the cards were read, the gifts were all opened and the bridal bouquet was completed.

I think it is the prettiest one I have ever seen for a bride to carry at her wedding rehearsal.

I knew California Bridal Showers often included the "Quotes" game...

Apparently the game has found its way to Colorado as well.

Unbeknownst to the bride, someone is carefully writing down everything the Bride to Be says as she opens her gifts.

After the gifts are all opened, the script of quotes is read back to the bride, only now the phrases are re-framed as "WhatYou Will Be Saying On Your Wedding Night."

Quite an interesting night is ahead for Bryce and Elizabeth if those are the phrases that will be said!

I think she is destined for great happiness.

With somethings that are old and somethings that are new...

Fiance Bryce was quite surprised at just how much "new" had been added to their lives.

Another very special gift:  Gail's Grandmother's sterling silver set, acquired in the the 1930; Elizabeth was Elsie's only granddaughter and now she was quite amazed to have inherited the set.

Elizabeth had already picked out a stainless steel pattern, now she has both every day and special occasion flatware!

So now it is just a matter of counting down the days until the wedding on the 30th of June.

Three more months to go...

I hope the time will fly on by!

So then on Friday....

Friday morning arrived bright and sunny.  Gail whipped up a great breakfast, we gabbed some more then got ready to head out on the day's adventures.
First stop:  Gail's office.
She works at the International Headquarters of The Navigators.
I made her pose outside her building which is located in the Garden of the God's red rock area.

Inside the building where Christian leaders from around the globe come to study, share and make strategic plans on how to reach all the world for Christ.
Gail's job includes co-ordinating international conferences; she is regularly on the phone with people around the globe, and often gets to pick such leaders up at the airport when they come to visit. 

Gail in her office.  I got to meet most of her co-workers and her boss as it was a work day for everyone else in the building.

The building has conference rooms named for various continents.
The Africa room had this poster on the wall.
I had seen it before and found it quite astonishing to finally realize just how BIG Africa really is.

I should back up a bit here:  Gail's daily commute to work includes driving past these kinds of scenes.

The grounds are well known for eagles nests...

Which lead to the original land owner building a "castle" named Glen Eyrie; eyrie being one spelling of the name for an eagle's nest.

Gail drives past scenes like this...

And this...

And this on her way into work each day.

We discussed what the shape with the hole brought to mind.
I said a chick peeking out of a nest.
Now I think it looks like an inch worm.

Even a close up shot of the hole doesn't answer our question as to how such holes are formed.

Also on the grounds is a flock of wild turkeys.

Gail warned me that there was a Tom turkey who often would run right up and gobble at unwary visitors.
Tom didn't put on his show for me...shucks!

The other local celebrity that was a no-show was the big horned sheep that roam about and occasionally indulge in charging at one another.
Gail says when they are engaged in such behavior the sound as their heads and horns crash into each other is incredible; so loud that she can even hear it inside while she works!

In addition to the towering red rock, there were these interesting stones about that were used for making walls.

This stretch of wall enclosed a rose garden which during our visit was quite barren and dead looking as is typical at the end of winter.

A couple of shelters with benches inside were found inside the garden; throughout the Glen Eyrie grounds there are such benched areas with protected papers suggesting scripture mediation and prayer for each stop.
Gail and I sat and prayed together, thanking God for all that He has done for us, and asking Him for His continued oversight on our lives and our family's lives.
Gail and I often pray together on the phone; we love it when we can pray together side by side.

Then we walked around the grounds some more...
The next time I visit, God willing, it will be summer and the rose garden and this scene will be lush with summer color. 

The wife of the original land owner was nicknamed "Queen"; a trail named for her wound up a small canyon which provided water for the area.

Gail planned our visit to allow for time to take a short hike up the trail before we would have to report to the Glen Eyrie castle for a tour.

Now doesn't that cave make you curious?
How was it formed?
Gail thought perhaps original settlers to the area enlarged a smaller cave to use a shelter.
I wondered how convenient that cave was over time...wouldn't it be better to enlarge a cave lower on the mountain side?
Did animals dig out the cave?
(Questions...we have unanswered questions!)

So we walked and gawked and took pictures....

Crossed over foot bridges...

You can see part of the water pipe system emerging from beneath the foot bridge.  No water was running this far down the mountain but I could hear water running inside the pipe.

We snooped around this rock vein that looked at first glance to be a tree root...

When I saw this small meadow at the base of a canyon edge with trees atop, I asked Gail to hike up a few yards so I could take her picture with the topography in the background.

She chose to photograph me on the bridge.

When a couple came walking along, they asked if we would like our picture together. We returned the favor and photographed them as well.
Don't you love how easy cameras are now days that such exchanges are frequently possible?

Then it was time to make our way to the castle!

Gail asked me if I could take a zoom shot to figure out what the shapes were atop the chimney.
Turns out they are swiveling forms that funnel the smoke to blow out in the direction of the breeze.
The original owner/builder was concerned about smoke building up in the valley and planned for a way to lift the smoke out of the area.  Quite an advanced ecological thought for back in the late 1800s.

The castle link above can fill you in on the history of the place.
We began our tour  in front of the General's fire place; he personally selected each stone from the grounds and the fire place went up to the ceiling in a rustic manner.
Later he had the house enclosed within the wall of a castle, literally building a castle that was to look 100 years old on the day it was completed (via a shopping trip to Europe where he purchased roofs from old churches under demolition, fireplaces and such to furnish the new castle with ancient effects.)
This particular fireplace was taken apart stone by stone and then rebuilt into a Tudor compliant form.

The castle is now used for conferences; the main conference room was on a floor without a woman's restroom until just recently.  A woman staffer politely demanded that such a room be added; didn't it turn out lovely?

Our private tour wound through the castle, ending up just outside the Castle tea room.  As we peeked into the window, I turned to Gail and commented that someday I would really love to stay and have tea in the charming room.

Our tour guide walked us into the room just outside the tea room, and then Gail turned to me and said

"And now we are going to have tea!"

I thought she was kidding of course...the day's schedule was tight, but Gail had conspired with the guide to make the tour end here so that I could be surprised.

Surprised I was indeed!

No bonnets or gloves...just us as we were. 

Two kinds of wonderful tea, scones, devonshire cream, finger sandwiches...and lots and lots of happy chatter between bites.

You pulled it off Gail!  You are the MASTER of Surprise!

Gail doesn't usually enjoy drinking tea or coffee, but happily the non-caffeinated Rooibus tea was suited to her taste.  We managed to happily drink our way through multiple cups of tea.

The mini quiches and brie rounds were delicious!

The mantle behind me is made of alabaster!
If you look closely, you can see a little girl in a pink dress and white gloves arriving for tea with her mother.
I do hope she was bothered by our jean wearing selves on her special day.

A close up of the alabaster mantle...

The front window framed a magnificent red rock tower; I couldn't capture it with the interior light reflecting back at the camera.
The room was originally the ladies drawing room; a gentleman's drawing room was aside this room done up in a masculine wood paneled style.

A close up of the plaster work detail.
I found the soft green color quite refreshing and lovely with the white plaster work trim.

After our tea as we walked back to Gail's car I spied the pink frocked young miss walking with her mother across the grounds.
I do wish every little girl gets to attend such a special kind of tea with their moms at some point in their lives.

It really had been a "blue bird of happiness" kind of day...and yet the day was not yet over.
Our next adventure took us to Gail's friend Chris's house where the three of us work to set up for another special event to be held the next day.

A quick dinner of pizza and raw veggies sustained us as we planned and arranged the house for the arrival of over 24 guests the next afternoon.  By the time we got back to Gail's house it was all we could do to stumble off to bed; it had been a very full and happy day...we were tired!

To be continued...

Life changing!

We joked about it all weekend: Seeing these HUGE strawberries was a life changing experience.

Who knew strawberries could ever grow this big?

(That is my decidedly not petite hand holding the strawberry in the picture above.)

Gail had purchased the berries just before I arrived; we both marvelled at the size of all the berries.

The big question: would they be sweet and juicy?

We tasted, using the green caps as handles. 

Hurrah!  Each bite was juicy and flavorful.

And even more fun: I discovered that when the green caps were removed, the opening inside the berry was found to be finger sized.

My years of sticking olives on my fingers at dinner had prepared me for this moment.

I slipped my finger inside and we both grinned like children at the silliness.

In case you are wondering where Gail found these "life changing" sized berries...the brand is pictured above and she purchased them at her Colorado Springs C*stco store.

The berries were destined for more embellishment and fun later.  We got lots of laughs with them the first night of my visit.   It was the first time I had visited Gail's new home and she gave me a tour while I ohh'd and ahh'd over the tile work she had installed and the cozy nest she had created for herself.  An empty nester, she had made the decision to downsize to a two bedroom/two full bath single floor townhouse, and was able to rent out the two story home where she raised her two children. 

The new place even has a view of the Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak.  It is a glowingly happy place for her to live and a very welcoming place for me to visit.

As girlfriends always do, we stayed up late, talking about everything (even though we do call each other about once a week or so...we still had a lot to catch up on), until we both declared we were tired and ready for bed.

I snuggled into the quilt covered guest bed and had no trouble at falling fast asleep.

We had planned out our weekend carefully; I knew the next day would be busy indeed!

To be continued....

Gail's Guest

I am thrilled to be Gail's guest this weekend!
Which means I am posting this from Colorado Springs where I am visiting with her, and enjoying spending time with her again for the first time since last July. That is a long time for best friends to be apart.

Since her last visit to my place, she has been blessed with the addition of several happy new aspects to her world.
I will share more later...just posting a quick update via my cell phone.
More about our adventures later!