Thursday

I had the best birthday of my life, well, maybe second best, but it is a very close call.  In any case I had an incredibly, unbelievably awesome birthday.  My family traveled from three directions and we were all able to share some time together.  We had a pinata.  I got thoughtful gifts and ate yummy food.  We played games.  We laughed.  I couldn't have asked for anything else.

This morning I was trying to decide how I was possibly going to recap all the fun from my birthday week/family visiting into one blog post.  It just didn't seem possible.  I took too many photos and we had just so much fun!   So, I am going to do each day individually.  That allows me another chance to savor the experience one more time as I go through the photos selecting those to post.

Thursday, May 12th: 

A nice, sunny walk along the big ditch, pausing to have a snack on the rickety old bridge.

We spotted a marmot (yellow bellied marmot?  I really need to work on my ability to ID things other than birds)  It was wagging its tail nonstop.  It was pretty neat and cute.

It was too hot for shirts, but soon enough it had to be put back on or his pale skin wouldn't stand a chance against the Montana sun!

We found these strange orbs on the stems of some of the sagebrush.  It wasn't on all of them so we couldn't decide if it was flowering or if it was a pest or what.  If you know please fill me in.

Cactus lesson.

'Tis the season for making babies.....

His joy is contagious.

Eli was very keen on badminton.

He was also keen on frisbee.

This is the world's best frisbee as far as I can tell.  It is knitted (or crocheted) and I can actually get it to fly where I want it to go....something I have trouble with using a more traditional frisbee.  It is way easier to catch as well because you can just grab the soft cloth.  It also doesn't make your nephew cry when you drill him in the face.

Dive!

On of our goals for the week was to experiment with gluten free baking.  Eli helped me whip up some cornbread the first night.

I gave Lisa a tie-dye I made her. 

We made squash chili alongside the cornbread for dinner

Eli plays Crazy 8!!  I was really impressed with how well he has the game down. 

He doesn't need any coaching to play.  He totally beats the grown ups, too!

It was a long day (me waiting impatiently and Lisa traveling), but we were sure glad to be curled up together with our blankets and tea.