The month of May very quickly introduced us to the wrath of Colorado hail storms. In a word, they're violent-- but then again, hailing from the mountain west (ha, ha, see what I did there?) I knew spring would be a crazy, tumultuous season out here. From snow, to rain, to hail, to wind, to scorching heat-- sometimes all that in one day!
I'm used to hail storms that last a few seconds, sometimes even minutes-- but so far some of these spring hailstorms have gone on for 15 minutes at a time! It's pretty crazy. Apparently the previous owners of our house replaced this roof every couple of years due to it. Good thing we have home owner's insurance!
It's usually big quarter-sized hail, too. After a particularly nasty storm I swear, the hail was so thick it looked like it had snowed!
Naturally we had to plant our fledgling little garden amidst all this vicious hail. In fact, we've been finishing up work on our back side-yard, and frankly, it looks fantastic. Jon has done an amazing job! Just add "amateur landscaper" to his resume. He laid the patio, built planter boxes, mulched everywhere, helped me plant our garden, and even installed some drip irrigation to help water our sweet little garden-- all while working full-time!
I really need to take some more pictures because our plants have at least tripled in size since planting 3 weeks ago, and they look great! I hate to get my hopes up, but I'm sure crossing my fingers for a big harvest.
"Before and After" so you can compare how much work was involved for Dr. Cardon. He doesn't just eradicate tooth decay, he also mucks out our garden beds. I love that he just decided to take my many project ideas on and make it happen for me! (More updates to follow)
So besides the crazy weather this spring, we've also had to fight off all kinds of wildlife lurking hither and thither here in Colorado. Besides the many, many, many bunnies that are multiplying and replenishing in our neighborhood, we've had a few run-ins with snakes! This guy came slithering out of our yard and into the street one morning and sure gave me the willies. He was probably 3 feet long. I wish he'd eat a few bunnies. We have another much smaller version-- just a garden snake, that hides in our raspberry patch and likes to pop out at me while I'm out watering and make me scream.
I had a chance to attend a session at the Denver temple and it was such a glorious, blue-skied morning that I couldn't resist taking a picture. The sun is so bright here, and the white temple just radiated light. It was really lovely.
Miss Leah just gets bigger and bigger and feistier and feistier. She loves to dress-up and pretend to be the princess of the hour (it changes pretty regularly), and the Elsa hat is a tried and true favorite. We nicknamed her our little "Short Cut" thanks to her sassy new hairdo.
Just before school officially ended I got to attend Zach's first grade Reader's Theatre. They "performed" by reading scripts of different versions of "The Little Red Hen."
Zach was the dog and read his part so cute! He was very enthusiastic and has been working really hard on reading with lots of "fluency," which basically just means reading with expression, which he definitely did. Now if we can just keep up with reading this summer!
His class also hatched baby chicks and his teacher sent me this cute picture of him holding one. He loved telling me all about their life cycle.
And Ta-Da!!! The last day of school, June 2nd, 2016. My first grade and third grade graduates-- totally ready to take on summer! Lucy begged me to have us walk home on the last day, and let me just tell you-- that was a HOT, dry, dusty 2 mile walk home and we barely made it! Thankfully it was 90% downhill. Phew.
In celebration of their official "First Day of Summer" we pulled out the swimsuits and hit up our neighborhood HOA pool. The sun was shining, no thunderstorms in the forecast, and my kids swam for almost three hours! What a way to welcome summer!
Baby Elizabeth made my job really easy by napping most of the time on a beach towel. If only all of our summer break could be this relaxing!
We even got to follow up our fun day with a beautiful sunset while driving home from dinner. I can even sometimes find it in my heart to forgive Colorado for all the hail storms.
We decided the perfect kickstart to our summer adventures would be a kid-friendly hike up around Pikes Peak National Forest. After a quick picnic, we headed out on a trail and got to enjoy a pretty incredible view. Selfie of six!
We got to check out this beautiful waterfall,
and wade around in this fffffreezing creek. We had contests to see who could keep their bare feet in the water the longest, and Lucy won by a mile. She tolerated that liquid snow for 30 seconds, Jon was like 20, Zach was maybe 10, and mom didn't participate because she's a party pooper.<--party ---="" --party="" p="" party="" pooper="">
I think if the rest of summer is anything like the first two amazing days, we are going to have a pretty excellent time these next two months. We are so lucky to live where there is SO much to see and do, and we've barely just scratched the surface!
