Scripture Sunday 17...

Spring happenings...

Spring is finally HERE! Why you ask?
1. migrating birds are coming through including this beautiful blackbird and lots of the various species of sparrows.

2. Today was the first day I have not seen the juncos underneath the feeders - a sure sign according to my dad's wisdom.
3. The fish are back in the pond and had their first meal since late last October.

4. As seen in the above photo, we are actually having raindrops falling today rather than snowflakes!
5. A couple of chickadees have nested in the same birdhouse as last year.
6. Easter has came and went - we were blessed to spend it with Nathan, Tammy & Bailey…

is there anything cuter than watching a precious girl and her puppy opening her Easter gift from the grandparents?

We missed the rest of our family, but were excited to see photos of Brooklyn and Landon dressed in their new Easter outfits…

Jeff calls Landon's hat, his "Grandpa Ben" hat after a tweed one of that style my dad wore in the winter.

Scripture Sunday…Easter

Mosaic Monday…Love, Joy, Sadness, Happy

I never managed a blog post last week, it was a busy week spent with lots of LOVE from my grandchildren. Jayme & family came last weekend to visit and meet baby Noah, Scott needed to leave on Sunday to go back to work but Jayme and the kids spent 4 extra days for more fun & family time. Bailey came to play as often as she could too!

Bapa and his girls in their motorcycle club t-shirts and a horse riding Princess.

We borrowed some baby chicks for Easter/Spring photos and here are some of the shots - I love the expression on Brooklyn and Bailey's faces when the chicks were first set down, they weren't quite as excited as meme thought they would be.

While the whole week of family was filled with JOY, it was really joyful to see Brooklyn and Landon pose with Mari and Noah! Mari is 2 months older than Brooklyn and Landon is 3 weeks older than Noah.

In the midst of all the family time we also experienced SADNESS as our beloved, Ruger, passed away. I always called Ruger my grandpuppy because he was Nathan's dog but has spent the majority of his life living here with Jeff & I. He was best of friends with Gabi our previous springer spaniel and when she passed he spent two nights crying, you can't tell me dogs don't mourn too.

I like to imagine there is a doggy heaven where Ruger and Gabi are reunited once again.

Yesterday, a new addition was once again added to our lives as we are going to raise a new puppy for Bailey. Just looking at this photo of Bailey meeting her new baby puppy, Maya, makes a person feel HAPPY!

Since this is Bailey's puppy I guess Maya Minnie is my great-grandpuppy :)

Hershey's life has also changed, I don't think she knew what hit her when a new puppy came out of our car! A few shots of Hershey meeting the little squirt that shows the size difference between the two dogs.

At the beginning, Maya wasn't afraid to show a little teeth if Hershey got to close but by this morning they are best buds even napping together on Hershey's pillow. So much work involved with having a new puppy once again but having a puppy for the grandchildren to play with is reward enough for all my extra time.

Scripture Sunday 15...

Scripture Sunday 14...

meet Lelu...

If you have ever been to Sedona, AZ then you know about the Pink Jeep Tours. They are very popular tours of the Red Rock region and we took a tour back in 2003. It was 2 hours long and very fun, but this trip we rented our own Jeep (named Lelu) and it was the highlight of our trip.

Lelu brought us "over the hills, and through the woods" as well as "through the desert, and deep into gulches", we packed a ice chest of water & food and headed off for the day by 8:30 am and explored, picnicked and explored some more until after sunset.

We took the red rock trails the pink jeeps take as well as a few lesser known ones where we only saw one other vehicle our whole time on it.

Some of the trails were pretty rough…

and some quite steep.

No matter where you looked the scenery was awesome including out the roof…

We laughed and BOUNCED and laughed some more…

By late afternoon the setting sun was so low in the sky it made it pretty difficult to see our trails and we happened to be in Deadwood Gulch where one doesn't want to run off the trail! A stop to wash our windshield didn't help a whole lot…

but we just considered it more of the adventure :)

Tomorrow's post will be the beautiful scenery around the area...

Grand Canyon...

This post is a little photo heavy but how could I not share some of the many photos I took of the grand canyon on the two days we visited. The one below is one of my favorites. At this lookout there is a sign which says if you can see a mountain formation on the other side of the canyon (which we could, because it was an extremely clear day) then we were looking 60 miles across the canyon. Simply amazing how big it is!

We have visited the park once before in February 2003. On that visit it had snowed the night before so the roads were icy and it was windy and cold. We enjoyed this trip so much more as it was sunny and 64 degrees which is shirt sleeve weather for us.

Back in 2003, we were able to drive to both the east and west ends of the park but now you can only drive the east route and shuttle buses run the west route. I remembered being amazed that two Bible verses were posted at Hermit's rest on our previous visit so on this trip I searched them out. Sadly, there is only one left and a damaged rock where the second one was once adhered.

and finally, if you have been reading my blog over time you know I can't go on vacation without taking a "vacation kiss" photo...

Tuesday Tidbits...Joshua Trees and Vermilion Flycatchers

1. One week ago today, I was on vacation in Arizona and came down with a severe case of strep throat, who knew there is a clinic right in Grand Canyon National Park where one can be seen and get meds?
2. Feeling awful on vacation is no fun so to make the best of the situation, I convinced Jeff we should just drive in the desert all day and look for one of the 3 areas in the state where Joshua trees grow.

3. A Joshua tree is not actually a tree but a yucca plant and is related to the lily family.

4. Arizona has 13 varieties of rattlesnakes (more than any other state) so I chose to view the beauty of these trees from the car.

5. Jeff & I love picnics so we did venture out of the car for lunch at a picnic spot in Burro Creek Canyon. While eating lunch we noticed a group of a dozen or so birdwatchers on the ridge above us. Soon a couple of them ventured up out of the canyon and walked by our table. I asked what they were spotting and they had seen some yellow warblers and a blue heron nesting but had really wanted to see the vermilion flycatchers that were supposed to be in the area.

6. After asking them what they looked like, we informed them a pair was in a tree not 20 ft from our table and showed them the following photos.

7. I only wish these photos weren't taken looking into the sun because he really was a striking bird!