We are making great use of the kids new bikes and biking up and down the Jordan River Parkway Trail which is a lovely, shady paved trail next to the river that runs through town. We’ve been going out a couple of times a week and going around 15 to 20 miles total which is so fun! There are so many birds out there and flowers and we’ve spotted some goslings and ducklings on outings too. Our last trip out we happened upon a fledgling owl with a parental escort. Also here are some turtles enjoying the warmth and an oriole nest.

We’ve gone out on some hikes, on less known trails, enjoying fresh air, sunshine and spring.

We went on a fossil hunt locally and found, after much rock inspecting, some teeny tiny sea star fossils.

We’ve been reading, reading, reading.

We celebrated spring by making flower crowns and bracelets, making cookies with edible flowers from our yard and decorating our apple tree and wishing it good health this year.

My aunt sent a few lovely puzzles to us and we’ve been happily but slowly working on them. Sometimes the cats join in, usually by sitting in the box with pieces but sometimes by grabbing loose pieces and trying to throw them in the air or bite them.

We celebrated Mothers Day with my family, outside, with masks and distance but it is lovely to spend time with them however we can do it.

Lilah made some paper with a Tinker Crate project and then made that into the covers for some journals she put together and bound.

There’s a trilobyte quarry down south that we ventured down to with my parents one day. It was hard work but we found quite a few fossils!

Gavin’s started mowing my parents’ lawn and earning money he’s saving up to buy parts for and build a PC next fall. He’s got it planned out and is working hard to make it happen. He’s also been doing chores around our house like cutting down the bamboo.

We’ve played Oceanos and Ravine and Wavelength.

We went on a short camping trip with my parents and sister and her boyfriend. It was so nice to get away from home and be outside. We were careful to keep distance between us and washed and sanitized our hands a lot. Happy Birthday, Meara!

The garden is growing! This year we have two kinds of beans, swiss chard, radishes, basil, tomatoes of four kinds, eggplants of three kinds, lemon cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sunshine squash, arugula and strawberries. The tomatillos are just starting to sprout all over and I think we currently have a thousand but we will only keep six or so.

The kids are always storytelling together. Here are some drawings of characters they are working on at the moment.

The orioles are back and visiting the feeder along with the black chinned hummingbirds. There’s a downy woodpecker who I think is nesting in our boxelder tree too but sadly we have no view into the spot where it keeps disappearing inside the tree. Maybe we’ll spot little woodpeckers out and about soon.

Gavin’s been working on a project: designing and building a drop ship. He’s spent hours and hours on it, planning, building parts, finding there are issues and reworking it. It’s really neat so far!