Outside Fun Time

It has been beautiful weather.  Each day getting warmer. That means playtime outside.

Finger painting outside...it's safest

Dexter recently figured out my camera and loves to take pictures.  We also found Kyle's old point-and-shoot where the focus did not work anymore.  Dexter got to play with this.  He was taking pictures of everything and so excited.  However he left it on the floor one too many times.  Ellie slobbered all over it, and now it no longer takes any pictures. These are from when he was using my camera.

lots of leg shots from the budding photographer

Trying to show him to get my face in it too

Picture of his favorite friend...Ellie!

Memorial day was very busy and hardworking for us.  Many home improvement chores. Knock off wasp nests.  Spray for bugs. Change lightbulbs on exterior and interior.  We've had to change quite a few in the 9 months we have lived here.  On the exterior there was one where the whole recessed can had a huge (thankfully dead) wasp nest.  Monday came more work of washing all the outside of the windows and repairing window screens.

Monday did have some fun stuff included.  We rode bikes early that morning. Kyle is a patient guy, because I was out of shape and a slow biker. 

Memorial day is also incomplete without some outdoor fun.  Slip 'n' slide time. The water was freezing.  But for the quick bursts on the mat and pool, the heat of the day made it feel better.

Everyone getting some sun in

Dad and Dexter

Playing with Ellie in the pool

My ward's youth group did a hike as an activity.  It was a steep trail, and the kids at the front took a brisk pace. I ended up being the back leader who helped the last kid.  I wish I could say I was slow because of him, but the truth is I needed each break that he was taking too.  It made me resolve to get into better shape.

I made it!  Red faced and all

Beautiful 200 foot waterfall

Ellie can stand very well on her own now.  Every now and then she'll take one to two steps then fall on her bum.

 

One of the fun things about owning an existing home is finding out what your plants really look like.  The lilac bush was a beautiful, fragrant surprise.  Now we also have another beautiful surprise.

What they looked like since we moved in

The gorgeous blooms on all of them

I have no idea what kind of plant that is, but there's many of them in my front yard in patches and they're beautiful.  In fact a few neighbors asked me about them, and I referred them to a neighbor.  She had told me those were starters from some of her plants, that she gave to the previous homeowner.

Saturday (the weekend after memorial day weekend) had a roller coaster of emotions for me.  A friend in the ward's 9-year old daughter passed away from a brain tumor.  Her funeral was Saturday morning.  Even though it was so sad of a child passing, the speakers and Spirit felt there had so much love, gratitude, learning, and more.

Then that evening I got to spend it with some of my best friends. Katy was visiting from Washington, so we chilled at Caryn's house in Magna.  The hours flew by, and sadly I had to leave.

Crazy hair

Climbing to the top bunk

Standing and playing with her dino popper

I think only her eyes didn't have food plastered all over her.  Even that hair had lots of bananas in it.

Climbing on Dad while he takes a nap.

He just wanted a cute photo