Slithery, slimy , creepy or crawly

The rain has brought out all the creepy crawly creatures . Every day , Mack has captured some odd group of insect ,worm or toad! She spends several hours cooing to her friends about how sweet or smart they are before it's time to release them back to the wild. I try not to intervene but I did step in to rescue the caterpillar that survived much handling and an accidental dunking in Macks milk at breakfast .

Scenes from the yard

 Glimpses around our yard through the brand new lens Mike got me for our anniversary! ( He's as bad as I am about waiting to give gifts! )

Triple pics Tuesday

Another session of swim started this week. Mack's new instructor
is really great with kids and Mack learned so much in just once lesson! It
helps that there is only one other girl in this class with her and the instructor , who is
in her mid 70's , is very patient.

It's too bad s he can't relax

There is nothing that melts my heart more....

Mess maker, mess maker , make me a mess!

Can you spy the little boy in the midst of this mess of treasures?
Mason doesn't know how to play any other way!

We're free!

 Once the storms cleared away, Mx4 headed to Denver for an afternoon at the zoo! Mason was especially excited because the zoo was empty enough ( since it was just two hours to closing) that he could walk instead of being stuck in the stroller:

Coming at the end of the day, the animals seem fairly docile

Every child must climb these hippos every visit

The free roaming peacocks have never met a boy like Mase

The wild kitten in her natural habitat

Who's impressing who?

CO Flood 2013

It's been plastered all over the news for five days now, the effects of a perfect storm that settled over Colorado and pounded it, day after day , with rain, " Rain of biblical proportions"  as the National Weather Service said in it's alert.  And rain it did. The rain covered the majority of a state that was in the middle of a severe drought. The clouds opened up and spilled out twice the amount of rain our dry, desert state gets in the better part of two average years.

Day one of the flood. This is three miles from our house.

Nature showed us just what it can do with water. Devestation followed. Roads were split in two, a new river running between it, leaving no entrance -or exit-- for many cities in our beloved state. With no way in , or out, of a land only begining to heal from the ravaging effects of fire, the constant threat of land slides stranded entire cities with no food, no water and no way to connect with those on the outside.

A friend sent me this picture from about 20 minutes away.

In Fort Lupton, 20 minutes east of Boulder, one of the hardest hit areas, we'd grown accustomed to seeing our section of the South Platte river at a mere trickle of what it once was. Now, the water rushed passed it's embankments and onto the highway. It covered fields of nearly grown, ready to harvest crops. It flooded basements, houses, yards , gardens of anything with in it's reach. Five days and 11 inches of rain later, the clouds cleared and the sunshine poured onto the rain soaked land. Just as quickly as the floods poured, they receded leaving behind the most lush green Colorado country side I ever remember seeing.  Though the rains have stopped, the flood waters continue to rush towards north eastern Colorado. Please pray for the families left in the path of this disaster and those who remain in danger. The effects of this storm are long lasting and wide spread

, projected to take six months to a year to repair.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but Mack ended up
on a pantsless worm hunt amidst the rain. You're only five once!

Mason watching his sister's worm search from the warm house

A slight silver lining- The rain brought out the slugs!

He's a cute lil fella. But he does look like a booger.

Up before the sun

I suppose sometimes it DOES pay to get up before the sun! I snapped this out our back door one day before school.