Chasing Bluebirds

living in the moment

impromptu stop at the wetlands hanging on to summer

summer love

what i am loving right now:

concerts in the park these shoes this book and movie i have been reading it and thinking (since i watched the movie first) that doc must have been a difficult father but he has a lot of interesting ideas. everything about this book and movie are intriguing to me. and the last thing i am loving is lots and lots of garden time: tomatoes (salsa, pasta sauce, "everything but the kitchen sink chili") watermelon and peppers. this year i planted two different "purple" tomatoes and they are both super tasty. the winner in flavor (besides the purple tomatoes) is "sulpice" which i planted last year as well but is much better this year. i even got two juliets to come up after planting a thawed out frozen tomato right in the ground!!! i put about 4 or 5 in and got two plants. not sure how i did it since i plant seeds and rarely get them to work. onions are of course still cranking out (i think onion farming is in my future). so my daily goal is to blast through work as mindless as possible so i can get home to enjoy the bike rides and family time. emily is at camp wintaka for a few more days, very odd having just one kidlet around but liz is enjoying the one on one time for sure. hold on to summer! it's moving by fast!

camp wintaka

emily is off to camp today, a whole week of fun for her. i truly can't believe how lucky i am to have a kid who wants to go to camp and embraces it with as much enthusiasm as i did as a kid. hooray!

for all of you who wonder how it is possible to let your kid go to sleep away camp, lets just say this is the best experience for them, the greatest gift you can gift them. they learn to be independent and strong, to fall in love with the outdoors and being one with nature, to make friends they will have for a lifetime (i sure did!) and to feel the magic of CAMP!!! oh how i miss her already, but i know she is having a blast. I'm Wintaka born and Wintaka bred and when I die I'm Wintaka dead! rah rah Wintaka, rah rah Wintaka, rah rah Wintaka, rah rah rah!!!

adventure playground

nature in the oc

rafting, tree house building, mud slide, tire swing...perfection a new dog, oh how lovely she is! (not ours!) concert in the park

summer zooms by

everyone says summer is passing fast, but seriously, i feel like i am in one of those movies with a zillion cameos flashing on the screen as life skips from one thing to the next. even at the cabin, where time slows down some, i felt the rush. i wish i could just wake up to nothing on the schedule, day after day but i guess thats retirement and i am no where near that. besides i dont know how to turn of my ever planning mind, oh well! the garden is in full swing, bursting with tomatoes:

the girls still complain about visiting the garden, but picking veggies and finding bugs still entertains them enough to get some chores done. i am finally able to get emily to try a few new fruits and vegetables (watermelon has been the latest attempt with some success) a kid who doesnt like watermelon??? crazy! as much crap as i ate growing up, fruit was always a treat. i remember eating carrot sticks straight from the fridge, neither of my kids will do that. but i am working on it! a few cabin photos, i am getting lazy with the photo taking. i am thinking of getting a new camera... we took the truck back behind our cabin and drove some of the off road trails. a jeep would be awesome! but a car payment would suck! what to do? since it is fire season again, we had a fix it ticket to clean up around our house. a new address sign was needed so i knocked this out, turned out ok but i know where a to get a great sign! someday. happy tuesday!

always asking

4th of july recovery

a fun three days off

heading over to the fourth of july parade at green valley lake, emily has her water bottle ready (don't mind the chunks of roof falling off, been like that for a few years now!) thats a lot of red white and blue! the kids love cotton candy, the sugar high went on for quite awhile... work starts back up today, still feeling lazy. this summer sure is flying by fast! emily heads off to camp wintaka in a few weeks, then we are back to colorado with summer almost over when we return. how did that happen? happy monday!

Finally, finally, finally!

Some good news!!

happy 4th of July! I am hopeful that this bit of progress, restoring the central 66 acres currently owned by the public will open up a landslide of public support to acquire and restore the remaining 400-700 acres (i have heard so many different numbers, not sure how much is really out there) how did this grant slip under my radar? who cares, eric zahn made it happen and let the volunteering begin!!