Oh Dear.

Family Bike Ride

Well now that Greg's bike was stolen I figured if I blogged about how fun our last family bike ride was maybe it would help me feel a desire to spend some money on a new bike. Jerks.

(Tati maintained this pose for like 20 min. "eating" a fruit leather bar without spit dripping down her whole person. If she can manage that, then surely she can eat a little neater at home.)

(This one is for Greg. Woo-woo!)

Anyway, we woke up on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, packed some snacks and the kids and went exploring down in the river valley. It really is gorgeous here when it is warm. Everything is green and there are so many blossoms on the fruit trees and lots of other just flowering trees in general. We also live close to a big river with several smaller creeks and rivers. Fine, I'll say it, there is definitely some appeal to living here when it isn't snowing, or raining, or freezing.

We found this really cool park/meadow thing surrounded by trees. We were the only ones there practically the entire time we were there. The surrounding trees were cool because they masked the big downtown buildings and it really felt like we took a vacation somewhere. The girls had a great time, picking grass, playing with ladybugs, climbing trees and running around. We also had fun taking some Spring family pictures which resulted in our new header. Why does it always seem like the bulk of our usable family pics end up being when I'm not planning on beautifying before? Frustrating. But I guess when you've got it, you've got it--bed head and sweatshirt or not. :-)

(Here Chloe is feeding "Slappy" her lizard LPS some grass.)

(Chloe pretending she was a bride with her bouquet of blossoms.)

(Tati has this thing with eating dirt. She has been on hunger strike lately so maybe she really is mal-nourished.)

(Chloe tried to make Tati a bride, but she ended up looking more like Godzilla. She threw the flowers and then stomped all over them when she was done. This girl is drama city.)

(Tati holding her first ladybug on her hand. I'm surprised this ladybug lived through this whole experience. I'm sure the next one will be smashed. She did have a lot of supervision afterall.)

(She's saying, "Where'd he go?" after the poor ladybug ran for its life or flew for its life. He was no dummy.)

Chloe even managed to save Tati's life. She came running over to us breathing all hard and proceeded to tell us about how she had just saved Tati's life because Tati was about to eat some dog poop. After surviving an intense interrogation about whether or not the poop ever touched her mouth, etc., we congratulated her and deemed her the best big sister in the entire world. She really is too.

YEAH FOR SPRING! FINALLY!

Many Thanks!

Greg: Thanks Babe, I just noticed noticed the bathroom. It looks fantastic. Thanks so much for cleaning it. And the tub looks so clean!

Julie: (big smile) You're welcome.

Greg: I just wanted you to know that I recognize the work you're doing around here. So thank you so much.

Julie: (big smile and giggle) You're welcome.

Greg: Why are you laughing?

Julie: Because I didn't clean the bathroom today.

Greg: Did you clean it yesterday?

Julie: Nope...But thanks for being grateful.

Bird Lake

We went kayaking last weekend with some friends and it was so fun even if the weather was all over the place. I was adding and subtracting layers the whole time. And I thought I'd never use math...my dad was right.

I don't know what the real name of the lake was but I decided to call it bird lake and bird island. We seriously felt like we were inside of Animal Planet because there were so many geese and loons, and ducks all on this island sitting on nests. We also saw a ton of eggs just chilling in nests. When we'd get close to the edge of the island, the geese would go all crazy honking and hissing. I have to say overall I hate Canadian geese. Ironically I think I saw more Canadian geese when we lived in Colorado than I have since we've lived here. Duh, maybe because they go south for the 7 month winter. I think geese are pretty and I think a gosling might be one of the cutest baby animals ever but man can those fools poop. And they are major punks. They hiss and honk and chase little kids. But back to the poop. You've never seen so much poop in your life! Even you with kids. Poop everywhere I say! Not really the best ingredient for a blanket picnic. It takes me back to springtime in Golden, living so close to Clear Creek and watching the newly hatched babies swimming around with their mommies and daddies. And it also reminds me how I lived next to a park of poop. Let's all flashback together:

Here's me pregnant (with Tats). The only time my big stomach is really acceptable being big. I'm with my niece, Meagan and my nephew, Nicholas.

This picture is a trip because I'm so skinny and also because my hair is so long. I feel like that girl is a different person. We were on this river practically everyday. The one thing I don't miss from Colorado, ok two things: snakes and squirrels.

Anyway, back to Animal Planet. Here is Lucy, Goosey. She likes to honk, warm her baby eggs up and oh yeah, POOP! For her nest, she likes to pull out the fluffiest down feathers. Just seeing her downy nest made my Lovstedt nose start to itch.

Here is the goose family from the future. Why did their kids already hatch when the rest of these poor geese were still sitting on their nests? I watched them for like 1/2 hr. So cute. They watched me too. They thought I was a trip.

This next thing is pretty cute too. And she also likes to poop.

Here's me all hard core. The sun finally came out strong and I tried to lay out in the kayak. Note to all those out there, not so good to row while you're laying out. I was trying to spit out that accidental drink of bird lake for like 5 min. NASTAY!

We took turns going out and staying ashore and watching the girls. It was super fun. Tati had fun walking around and getting into danger as you can see.

And Chloe had a blast playing with one of her friends, Corbin. They were using these butterfly nets trying to catch fish. They mostly caught lake muck. Do you love how Corbin is wearing his church shoes? He's a funny kid.

Chloe LOVED going in the kayak. She looked like this pretty much all day.

It was a great trip and hopefully we'll get to do it again. There is so little time with good weather that you pretty much have to enjoy it while you can.

Listen, Listen.

I was cleaning up my room today when suddenly Chloe appeared and said,
"What Mom?"

Me: "What?"
Chloe: "Did you just call me?"
Me: "No."
Chloe: "But I just heard somebody yelling my name, 'CHLOE!' "
Me: "Well, it wasn't me."
Chloe: "I wonder if it was the Holy Ghost then."
Me: "Why, were you about to do something bad?"
Chloe: (laugh, laugh) "Oh Mom, you're so funny."

Hola!

Where even small children can eat burritos by themselves.

Ok, so maybe we aren't really in Mexico. But come on, you know you're impressed. I was.

(Might have to click on the image to really enjoy it.)

Maggie

We've befriended a magpie. We named her Maggie. Maggie lives in the pine tree in front of our house. She is a very busy bird. She spends hours combing the ground for food and sticks. Unfortunately she has a broken wing so she can't fly but somehow she still manages to like hop/fly/climb the tree and even fight off a few other pigeons or Robin Red-Breasts to defend her sanctuary. I never thought I'd love a magpie. Maybe it is her determination to triumph even though she is completely broken or maybe it is because Tati loves her so much and when you see a bird through a child's eyes, your perspective can't help but be different. Or maybe it is because she never squawks. In any case, Maggie is now like a member of our family. Each morning we eagerly open the shades in the living room to see what she is up to.

To help make her life a little easier, we decided that we'd buy a bird feeder and put it by the window so that our little baby bird watcher would have a better view. Here's the one we got:

I poured some seeds out and even made a trail over to the pine tree. But Maggie hasn't even come over. Nobody has for that matter. It has been a MAJOR disappointment. No robins, no chickadees, not even a pigeon or a crow. NADA! It was pointed out to me by my friend that our bird feeder wasn't really intended for such a large bird such as a magpie and also pointed out to me that people don't really try to lure magpies to their bird feeders--kind of like we're trying to have a seagull for a pet-- and that my bird feeder might be on a wimpy branch. I assured her it was fine because I tied some yarn around the branch to secure it. It was then I realized just how silly I sounded. We might have to break down and move the stupid house into the backyard which would totally defeat the purpose of us even buying this dumb frog feeder. Do you think birds are afraid of frogs?

Here's Maggie. You can see her gimpy wing:

And here is Tati looking for Maggie:

And here are both the girls mesmorized by the outside. Or maybe they just can't help wondering where all the snow is.
Any tips on luring birds? I mean I thought the seed trail was a stroke of cartoon genius already.