Spring Beauty

This Spring has been gorgeous!  The flowers are blooming and the days are getting longer and warmer.  Perfection!

 

This was our May Day weather!  A few summers ago we never reached 80 in mid-summer, let alone by May 1st!

 

Autumn Beauty

We have had an unusually beautiful autumn this year. All the trees are gorgeously arrayed in red, yellow and orange.  It seems everything is brighter than usual, maybe because we've had less rain and more sun...and more fog, too.  I'm not sure if that plays into it, but I've been enjoying it whatever the reason.  I've been taking pictures on my phone almost everywhere I go, trying not to cause accidents when I see a particularly gorgeous tree while stopped at a stop light!

Ben and I saw this beauty as we walked to the bus stop one morning:

I captured these oak trees on my way to the dumpster at one of my cleaning jobs:

Close up of the oak leaves:

The wall at Rotary Park across the highway from my house:

Views from my run along Lemolo Shore Drive:

My front yard:

A stunning tree at the corner of Hwy 305 and Winslow Way, in front of the police department:

A beautiful fall day at Battlepoint Park:

The stairs behind the church leading up to Ordway field:

Happy Easter!

We were invited to an Easter egg hunt at a friends house.  Their house is one of three on a beautifully landscaped "estate." I felt like we were at an English garden party! As an added bonus, the weather was incredible! 

Enjoying brunch before the egg hunt

Part of the amazing yard...ponds with two fountains, and a gazebo in the background

The hunt is on!

Let's go that way!

Is there gold at the end of that rainbow?

Gorgeous!

Counting eggs after the hunt.

 

When we got home, we colored eggs.

It was so warm and sunny, we decided to do it out on the back porch.

Aren't they beautiful?

 

 

And look at that!  It was almost 80 degrees on the back porch, in March!

Hopefully this is a sign we'll have a great spring.

 

Cutting Christmas Trees

Yesterday, we made our annual trek up to the mountains in Quilcine to cut our Christmas tree.  At first I wasn't sure I wanted to go this Saturday.  We'd just recovered from our snow storm here and I didn't know how I felt about being out in it again. But after we got home, I realized I do like snow...when it's in the mountains where it belongs!

The Kollodges, the Wises, and the Hooyers joined us, and we had a fabulous day.  Getting up the mountain ended up being a bit of a challenge, not as difficult as some years, but not as easy as others.  The two mini-vans couldn't make it all the way to the top where we normally go, even with chains, so we piled everyone into the two trucks and found a fun spot for the kids to sled.  When there's lots of snow, this was definitely the place to be!  Where we usually go isn't as good for sledding and playing in the snow. 

Brad, Lon, and Dave took off in Brad's truck to search for trees after they dropped the rest of us off at the sledding spot.  Brad left me with a saw, so I hunted for some trees as well.  I ended up cutting down two, one for the Hooyers and one for us. The guys returned with several trees as well, so we got to take our pick.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the actual trees we cut!  I'll have to wait until it's decorated to show you what our tree looks like.  Let's just say it has lots of personality!

When we loaded into the two trucks, we let Matzo run ahead for a while.  He loved it!

Izaac and Sean (our small mailman friend!)

Tailgate lunch party!

Ben contemplates going down the sledding hill...it was pretty steep!

Kylie and Aubrey tackled the slope...

and ended up in a heap at the bottom.  Kylie actually did a sommersault on the way down!

Jillian looks like she's snowboarding!

Jillian cutting one of the trees.

Here's a shot of the whole sledding hill

Jillian and her snow friend

Piling into the trucks to head back down at the end of a fun day!

Dave, Aubrey, and Kylie got to ride with some of the trees.