A Big Roar for My New Friends

I think some of Auntie Nora's friends might want to adopt me. Well, Kristy and Mario (above) might. Michael and Jamie (below) are not a couple, so strike that thought.

Kristy and Mario met us for lunch and brought me a present: a warm hat with bear ears and mittens that look like paws (they have no thumbs, not that I can grasp anything with bulky mittens anyway). I roared like a bear for my new friends and they roared back, then I wore the hat for the rest of the day.

Jamie is Nora's housemate and she gets along well with my papaw because they both are learning ukelele and can jam together. She works as a parapro at a school here and rides her bike to work, even in the snow! I admire that...

Michael is Nora's friend and running partner -- recently she ran a half-marathon and he ran the full marathon (and says he will never do that again. I can respect that, too). He's getting his PhD in clinical psychology at the same school Nora attends, so I watched what I said around him, lest he analyze me.
In fact, I limited my vocabulary that day to saying nothing but "bots" (as in "robots"). With a range of inflections, I made that one word mean everything I needed it to. Michael and everyone else thought this was very funny, which only encouraged me to say it more. "Bots." "Bots, bots, bots."

Tomorrow we go home, but I've loved every minute of my Colorado trip. I'm looking forward to riding an airplane again!

P.S. Speaking of new clothes, thanks to the Bartons in Tennessee for my birthday outfits. I'm wearing the fleecy green pants in the photo above. And I wore the brown bear outfit today and the jammies last night. Everything fits perfectly! Bots!