A big hug from nature

Yesterday was bad.  Too many errands to run, disaster of a house, piles of papers to grade, and tired and grumpy individuals (myself included).  So today I was determined to do a better job.  More smiles.  More laughter.  Less needs, and more wants.  A perfect excuse to soak up some nature at a 775 acre wild space just minutes away from us.  With the kids on scooters while I was on foot, we tooled around the park for hours, spotting woodpeckers, deer, a hawk, wild turkeys, and about four hundred thousand ground squirrels. 

And we did smile.  And laugh.  We chatted away the afternoon as we explored path after path, and tree after tree.  And I may have taken a few pictures....

   

We're much better now.  Nothing like a big hug from nature to put the spring back in your step.

Mount Washmore

Perhaps I should do the laundry today.

Happy Easter

As always, that generous old Easter Bunny filled up all of our plastic eggs and hid them all around the house and backyard. 

The eggs were filled with everything from cereal and animal crackers to Lego and nail polish.  There was even a teensy bit of chocolate.  :)

And since the Easter Bunny always has a couple of items too big to fit in eggs, he left some letters that spelled out words, that made a sentence.

The kids were sent to look in the dryer, where they discovered two of those skippy twist things, which I did not photograph, because Clara's skippy thing crashed into the table leg the first time she tried it, and it split in half.  Disappointment followed, and a lot of masking tape followed that, and I'm sure duct tape will come to the rescue in the near future.  In any case, I was too busy taping and consoling to photograph.  Maybe I'm losing my edge.

Later on, we hosted a full-on (but not well-photographed) Easter feaster for the family with ham and all the fixings.  I'm told the ham was tasty, and I can tell you fist-hand that the scalloped potatoes rocked.  More importantly, there are leftovers.  :)
Happy Easter!