June was full of sunsets and rainbows and butterflies and hummingbirds and a dragonfly or two.

 oh, and snakes.  We discovered a pair of snakes in the front flowerbed...they just hang out there all the time.  They are long and fat.  Bigger than any garter snakes I have seen before.  One day when the kids were here, we spotted one with its mouth open.  It turned its head toward us and there in its mouth was a bug.  It opened and closed its mouth a few times until it was swallowed.  The kids were silent and and still as they watched it happen. 

I keep forgetting to post a photo of the pergola that John built for my birthday.  I was waiting for some flowers to bloom around it. 

A while back I realized that it won't be too much longer and these two will be off to college.  They are so busy that it is almost impossible to get up here for a visit and it is equally hard to pin them all in one place for a visit with the family, so I set it up to meet just Emily and Joshua after school for ice cream (and maybe a burger and fries).  We chat and catch up as much as a Grandma can and then I take them home in time for homework and whatever the evening activities include. 

John on a mole hunt.

 My trips to Blue Lake are fewer now, but the goose family is doing well.

 Joshua is now officially a freshman!  It seems impossible!  yep, its true.  We went to his 8th grade promotion and then took him out for breakfast and he skipped the rest of the school day.

I went with Bonnie and my Photo group to shoot the Rose Festival Fun Center at Blue Hour.  We saw the dragon boats practicing for the festival.

 I didn't expect to see a sunset, but we were treated to a gorgeous one.

 and then came the lights.  It was my first attempt at capturing carnival rides in slow speed.  I was pretty happy with the results.

We have had some fun times with the Veras grandkids.  Nice to have them close to see them growing up.

 Arianna had her first ballet recital.  She was a lion.

HAHAHA!  Here is the view I sometimes get to wake up to.  Yep a window of fog..that's all. 

and even the sun can't peek thru.

 But the fog highlights the cool spiderwebs on the hedge.  

 My 6th grade friends Maria and Alison made it out for a BBQ.  We watched the sunset after dinner and ended the eve with a fire in the firepit while we watched the stars.

For our 42 Anniversary we took a little trip to see the Painted Hills in Central Oregon.  I can not believe that we have not been there before.  Actually, I had not even heard of it until a few years ago when I saw some photo friends posting photos on their sites.  

 On the way over, we stopped and saw my friend Mavis and her husband at their new place.  Mom and Dad went with us.

 I heard that sunset was the best time to go, but we headed out in the afternoon to check it out and make a plan on where to set up for sunset shots.

 Sunset was nice, but I think the ones from the daytime were just as good.  I will go back again sometime because I have heard that the rainy days are awesome there and bring out the colors even more.  We will see.

Jessi and Ariel and the kids surprised us on our anniversary with a little party.  She made this little collage.

 and THIS is what 42 roses look like...with a pink one for the next year.

We ended the month with a trip to the berry field.  Nothing beats fresh picked raspberries.  And now I have a few gallon bags of them in my freezer for some baking later on.  

 some pretty wildflowers by the berry patch.

the kids helping get the cart from the raspberry field to the marion berries

In all my years of berry picking, I never did it with a kid strapped on my back.  At one point, she had Lina on her front, asleep and the berry bucket wrapped around them both. 

 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.