A day in the life of J

Our oldest grandson, Jackson, is visiting from California for the next two weeks. YAY! He is so sweet and so much fun and very, very busy. He and Kaytee made some giant sugar cookies today. He loved putting on the sprinkles.

But mostly he couldn't wait to eat one!

He spends most of his day outside playing with Heston and jumping on the trampoline. Hard to tell in this picture, but he was going to run out to the trampoline and turned around and got surprised by a sprinkler that had just turned on.

He has also been fascinated with a balloon animal maker we have and loves blowing up the balloons so big that they fly off the end and swish around the room. Heston is just fascinated with everything J does.

Suddenly tonight Jackson disappeared, then showed up in his "swim shorts" because he wanted to go swimming. We inflated the kiddie pool and the big rubber duck but since it was already dark, he'll have to wait until tomorrow for the water. Instead he settled for building a big marble tower.

And sometime today he practiced his photography skills. These next are just two of MANY I discovered when I downloaded my camera tonight.

The Empty Nest

I must have housing decor that looks way too realistic, because now a little wren has built her nest on the vine above the window by the front door.

It is too high up for me to be able to peek in but we saw a little baby peeking over the edge the other day. He is soooo cute. (He has the fuzzy head and big yellow beak - you can see him right in the center of the nest.)

Now for the story of the nest a big robin built on the wreath right on our front door. First she laid 4 eggs.

We do have to use our front door sometimes, and everytime we would open it the poor mother would get startled and hurridly fly away. Twice she got an egg caught on her feet or wing or something and it would go smash on the sidewalk. So then there were only two eggs left to hatch.

And hatch they did - the ugliest baby birds I have ever seen.

They grew bigger and bigger.

AND BIGGER. Good thing there were only two! That nest was definitly not big enough. (Maybe she dropped those other eggs on purpose and only made us think it was our fault.) They never got any cuter either.

And then they were gone. One day there was just an empty nest and we could see the mother with her babies over in the side yard taking flying lessons. They never came back to the nest. Yay! Now I can clean my door! They were messy little things too.

And now our last little baby will soon be leaving us with an empty nest.

Is she ready? Are we?

Only time will tell. Can't wait to watch her fly!

A Memorable Memorial Day!

So, this is the year that I will I turn the big 5-O and I have been given some serious thought to getting in shape. My girls have put those thoughts into action with Cassidy designing me a personalized work-out plan for the year and Jami entered me into my first race to run while I was out visiting her in California this past weekend. We ran a 5K on Memorial Day morning and thanks to her encouragement (gentle badgering) I never stopped or walked or gave up.

So, here we are starting out the race.

Jami was pretty much flying down the road . . .she was so good at letting me go my own pace.

It got tougher near the end . . .

But it felt so good to get to the finish line.

And fun to see Worland represented on the results printout . . . And I didn't come in last place! My time was better than I thought it would be too, but definitely room for improvement. I am already looking for another race to run. I would love a running partner that is closer than California so let me know if you want to go.

Happy Birthday Baby!

From the moment you entered our life you have brought us so much beauty and joy and fun. You do some incredible things and we are so proud of you. Happy Birthday Jami. We love you.

April Showers Bring . . .

May Blizzards! Only in Wyoming. Probably by next week it will be summer heat and we will have missed spring - my favorite season - all together.






We do have one good sign that someone has faith that better weather is on the way. Here is our front door with the wreath Jami sent me a few years ago. It is so realistic looking that the birds adopt it occasionally to build a home and rear their young. Year before last some birds were raised in the nest you can see on the front - it kind of started falling off to the front of the wreath over the winter. So last week we noticed some nest building going on on the top of the wreath, over the top of the previous nest. And today I peeked . . .


and they've started laying eggs. I got dive bombed by some very nervous parents when I started aiming my camera at them. It will be interesting to see if they lay more than just these two - and fun to watch them hatch and be fed and learn to fly all right from our front door. But I do know from previous experience that it is not so fun to clean up after all of them when they get almost full-grown. Lots and lots of bird poop, right out our front door. Notice already what a mess they made splattering mud just building their nest.

My Favorite Kaytee Prom Pic

Worland Prom 2010

It is Prom season in Worland. The week started with Kaytee and a bunch of the other juniors transforming the high school gym into a twinkling, sparkling wonderland - first they cover the floors and walls with black plastic, then add the white Christmas lights, lots of balloons, a boatload of glitter and stars, and this year, a gigantic 2-0-1-0 that the prom attendees would stroll through as they Grand Marched across the gym to greet the cheering crowd - the entire town of Worland turns out for this event.

Here is Kaytee, the night before prom, "letting Michelle feel tall", as they are getting a little loopy after decorating all day and night.


A bunch of the decorators pause in their efforts for a group photo.


The big day finally arrives. Nicole Madden came over to get Kaytee all curly-cued.


After a nap and giving herself a Hawaiin manicure, thanks to Ali and Mike, Kaytee's got on her "dancing" shoes and waiting for her date to arrive.


Kaytee's date was Joe Wille from Riverton (he moved from Worland a few years ago.) All I could think when he got here was - wow, he got tall! (and very cute!) He is helping Kaytee adjust the corsage he got her.


Here are Kaytee and Joe strolling down the lighted 2010 path as their names are announced, they then stopped on the star at the end to pose for the newspaper and photographer (and parents who were quick enough) to take pictures. They were couple number 26. There were over 80 couples. It was a very loooong grand march.

Everyone loved the shoes - the newspaper made her lift her skirt so they could get this picture.

In my opinion, the cutest couple of the night.

Here is Kaytee with some of her friends, Chantel and Karsyn.

Then they announced that all the parents needed to quit taking pictures and leave so the dance could begin. Hope they are having fun - while I wait up - waiting to hear all about it - so that is why you all are getting this up-to-the minute post!