May started out sunny but a little windy, which was the perfect opportunity to break out the kites that I have had unopened for 3 years.  

 I am still loving the yard.  I walk around so amazed at all that is blooming and just can not believe that they are all my favorite colors.  If I were to have gone out and bought the plants myself, these would have been the colors I would have chosen. Pinks and Purples with a touch of yellow and white. It is as if God went ahead and had the previous owner plant this yard just for me.  I spent a few weeks getting all the water system in order last month, which meant I pulled up all the pipes and tubes from all the flower beds.  He had so many tubes that it was impossible to rake and also there were so many that were not hooked to anything and were just shooting water everywhere.  It was a pretty hard task, but I am so proud of myself for getting the water working.

This is only a part of what I pulled out!

Mother's Day....Moms and Daughters

Josiah thinks he is pretty big stuff driving the tractor...who cares if it was Mother's Day?

Bazzel has really taken to having his own space again.  The house we rented for 3 years did not have a cat door, so he was cooped inside most of the time.  He has even taken up hunting again, which he had pretty much given up at our Rugg Road house, but he has already brought in 2 mice and a baby mole.

Sunsets here are pretty great...that Alpine Glow is so pretty.

Here is a sunset, but no mountain since it is west to see the sunset and the mountain is east.

When we toured the house with the previous owner just before we moved in, they talked about a plant way out front by the road that we had to take special care of.  The only name they called it was "The Specimen".  We located it as soon as we moved in and tried and tried to figure out what it was.  In the spring, it started to sprout...and now it is taller than me. The stalks have huge thorns. She told me that they used the leaves to make molds for bird baths.  Now I see how.  The leaves are huge.  My sister-in-law, Terri did some detective work and sent me a link, it was close, but not it, but at the bottom of the article...there was my plant.  I clicked the link and sure enough.  It is called Dinosaur Food, among other names.  Now that we know what it really is, we are still going to call it "The Specimen"

This was taken a few weeks ago, it is even bigger now.  It has some cone like flowers coming up.

My friend Rosibel came for a visit and ended up with one of our trees on her car!  It had been staked down, but fell once last December and we thought it was pretty firm.  Not so.  This time, John went and bought a better chain, and we pulled it up off the car and really got it tied down.  After Rosibel left, Lindy came.  While we were standing in the driveway talking about the tree...it just fell over again!  This time we heard cracking of roots and decided that we had no choice but to cut it up.

I took the kids for a short walk to visit my two dear friends, Irene and Wally.  Wally had his tractor out and gave the kids a ride.

I have started hiking down the trail to the river with a high school friend, MaryJo. It is one mile down.  Pretty cool to look up and see the house, the opposite view that I see from the house.

here is from the house looking down.

One night while we were eating dinner, the cat came racing in the house and up the stairs to his hiding spot.  We made a comment that he was had probably seen a mouse...he is such a scardy cat.  I turned and looked out the window and this is what had frightened him.  They nibbled on a few flowers and then walked on down the canyon.

A couple of osprey have built a nest... wayyyy down the canyon...this is zoomed up all I can, so it is pretty fuzzy, but

I am putting it here to remember.

Josiah and Arianna finished off their school year with a program to show off part of what they have learned this year.  

Memorial Day, we had our first fire in our new fire pit that John built.

Lina entertained us with a song, including the motions.

Arianna had fun posing for pictures of herself eating marshmallows.

I don't think I have ever seen a kid with the patience that Josiah had toasting his marshmallows.  He just sat there slowly turning it until perfection.  He burned a few on purpose because that is the way Great Grandma likes them.  He could not believe that anyone would eat it that way, so he had to give it a try.  He was still convinced that Great Grandma was crazy to eat them burnt.

warming up the toes.

Great Grandma took a turn chasing Lina around the yard. Lina was thinking that was the greatest fun ever to be chased...screaming and laughing until she fell down.  Meanwhile, Great Grandpa got to see all the photos that Arianna had to show him from their hike earlier that day.