Oakley's version of a Ninjago character.

I was actually on the ball with getting seeds in some Jiffy pots this year and using my growing light at night that Ian and Kaylene gave us.  After weeks of moving the pots in and out I only had one sprout growing, and lo and behold it was a weed!  I guess its time to buy new seeds after having these in the cupboard for so long.

Roo at her orchestra concert in March.  She has really loved playing the violin and wants to learn the guitar next.

I met my buddy Leslie at the zoo one day in March.  She brought her daughter Carly, and Aspen invited her good friend Araleigh to come along.  The boys brought their friend Weston.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.  The kids had their own money with them and all decided to get some cotton candy.

We decided to head up to Bogus again for a few days during Spring Break, but beforehand, the Saturday after the kids got, out we headed to Jump Creek, a hiking area we had heard a lot about but never been to.  It was really pretty, the trail pretty gravely, and led to a lovely waterfall.  It was a lot shorter than we thought, too, but a beautiful hike!

It reminded me of some hikes Eric and I did in southern Utah years ago at field school.

The next week we headed up to Bogus for some spring skiing.  Here are some photos from the trip.

The snow was really great and we had a blast!  While there we had a storm blow through and ended up having the power go out while we were all in the clubhouse sauna together.  We had to feel our way in the dark to the door, through the clubhouse bathroom, and to the main room where there were lights glowing from a backup generator on the mountain.  There were lights to our condo, but we hung out for a few hours inside the condo by the only light we had available; Eric's laptop.  Neither of us had much battery left on our phones, and since we didn't know how long the power would be out we conserved those.  It was a fun adventure.  Thankfully the power wasn't out for too long.

all tired out!  I feel like all our ski photos are the same every trip ha!

We went hot tubbing a few times, and then I noticed the ends of my hair were green.  The chlorine and bleach in my hair didn't get along very well and I freaked out for a while until I found some ways I could get it out.  With a little baking soda and some chlorine fighting shampoo it came out.  So now I have to be really careful to protect my hair when we go to the pool.

The kids did a great job skiing; B had a few hard moments but skied hard and O and Roo went on a lot of hard runs with Eric and me.  I love skiing with the kids and seeing how far they've come.

I'm always amazed that Eric can ski like a pro with Birch in his arms!

It's so fun that we can all go together now, after years of dreaming and hard work!

Helleborus from the front yard.  These are so lovely; I'd like to get more.  I love Spring so much; most of my yard blooms at the same time, so I really try to enjoy it while the colors are popping.

B "chatting" with his buddy Ethan at the park.

Always gotta get a photo with the Magnolia!

I bought Eric Weezer tickets for Christmas.  In April we finally got to see the show.   It was so good!  They played all of their old hits and several of their new 80's cover songs.  I didn't know they cover Tears for Fears's Everybody Wants to Rule the World until they started playing it.  An awesome surprise!  I told Eric we should just get each other concert/show tickets for each other for Christmas to get us out more.

O got this fitbit for Christmas from his Grammy and Papa, and he wears it constantly.  It's waterproof so he never has to take it off.  I'm so impressed with how well he's taken care of it, and we are always comparing steps to see who's ahead.

silly boys who yikes! need haircuts

the boys playing with boxes with their friends; at one point they made a huge wall of boxes (we had a lot) and ran into them to see if they could get the entire wall to come down.

from one of my morning runs; love those cherry blossoms!

at lunch with Daddy.  I mean Stitch haha.

playing games with Papi; we always love it when he comes to stay with us!  Suspend has become the game we always play when he's visiting.

Don't tell B I'm posting this; he will not be happy about it.

The kids had their own Great British Baking Show one day with playdough; thought this little cake Aspen made looked good enough to eat!

Hunting for Easter Eggs at Papa and Grammy's house

They always do an egg hunt for the "older kids" too, with goodies like gift cards to fun places.  (Annie's awesome boyfriend Chance joined us).

a little park-ing with my soon to be first grader :(

look at those slacklining skills

B got his face painted at Scentsy's Easter party; he did such a great job at sitting so still.  I loved his bunny face.

His expression in this photo reminds me a lot of my grandmother.

Aspen's friend Lauren joined us for the party, and afterwards we girls were starving.  I can't remember where the boys went; maybe to Mom and Dad's to work on Oakley's Pinewood Derby car.  Anyway I was really craving some Poke bowl, and to my delight Lauren said she loved sushi.  So we got some and it really hit the spot.

O's derby car; and x-wing design.  He wanted it to have a Star Wars theme and he and Eric had a great time with the design.

Easter Sunday.  It was great; we...

went and flew kites.  There was some serious wind that day, and I've never had so much fun flying kites!

we also...

colored Easter eggs, and read about Christ's resurrection with some fun filled eggs Nana made us years ago.  It's one of my favorite traditions.  We made ham with all the fixings, popovers, and a fun box cake for dessert.

B has been wanting me to buy him some whole fish for dinner for months, so I finally buckled down and got him some trout one day. When dinner finally came he ate a bit of it, and then told me later that when he goes fishing this summer he's going to just do catch and release.  Guess it wasn't as good as he thought it would be!

B is turning into quite the climber.  Have you seen Free Solo?  It's amazing!  And really crazy.  Hoping this little one doesn't get any ideas like that!

O won some races at his Pinewood Derby.  It was some serious fun; he and Eric worked really hard on his car and put a lot of love into it.  The rest of us had a great time cheering the boys on.

B at Eagle Island Park

I signed up to decorate Roo's teacher's door for teacher appreciation week.  Roo and I had a lot of fun designing it, and the day we decorated it her friend Araleigh was able to help us.  I hope Mrs. Sarty appreciated having two of her doting students do most of the work!

At Scentsy's May the Fourth party.

Look at this cake Roo decorated for me.  She did such a great job!  Maybe she has a future in cake decorating.

The YMCA had this fun photo setup.  B felt kid of silly doing it.  I guess he's growing up.

ziplining in the ditch with friends

with my angels on Mother's Day

We went for a walk that day and saw a goose with eggs in her nest, and an owl in a tree behind a nearby neighborhood.  Very exciting for us.  There are several homes being built on that side of the neighborhood so we walked through some of those; something we always love doing.  The kids like guessing which spaces are which rooms.

I won these pretty lilies at the kids' school.  Didn't take long for them to die :( . Don't know what I did wrong but I was heartbroken.  Good thing they're perennials; I'm hoping I'll see those petals again next year.  I wish I had a greener thumb.

Oakley had a goal at the beginning of the year to run 100 miles during school; Galileo has a walking and running club that they hold every Tuesday and Thursday during lunch recess.  He worked really hard all year and met his goal.  I was so proud of him.

O with some fourth grade partners he did a shark project with.

I love our backyard in May 💛

B just finished swim lessons and his teacher told him he could move up to the next level.  I loved having them at the Y so the sun//rain wasn't beating down on us.  And they were two lessons a week for a month instead of every day for 2 weeks which was great; B didn't get burnt out.

Aspen and Oakley signed up to run the 1 mile Capitol Classic again this year in downtown Boise.  I figured it would be good to get them on the pavement beforehand; Oakley's club had ended a few weeks before and Roo doesn't love to run.  She told me while we were at a nearby track that the only reason she signed up was for the frozen yogurt cups they get afterward!!  Oh Roo!

We had a fun time; Roo made it to a mile, B rode his bike, O ran and Jones got some exercise too.

At the zoo

At the NF walk we do each year to support our sweet niece Ellie.  They always have a lot of fun things for the kids to do beforehand.

We had to wait a few weeks but finally had some huge thunder/rainstorms at the end of May.  They're another thing I love about May.  I just love May here; all the green really pops and you get great storms.  And get to plant a garden....

being silly in the tub.  I'm sure going to miss my time with B next year!

I remember when these trees were so small.  The kids wanted to climb them all the time but we told them they weren't strong enough.  It's always fun to come back to this park near our rental to see how things have grown.  We still call this the "park across the street".

Roo's final orchestra concert

I've been trying to get more iron and protein in my diet lately.  I've always been anaemic and that doesn't help with hair growth or headaches, so I've been eating a lot more red meat, which is hard for me.  The other day I made a salad with spinach, quinoa, raisins, an egg and pumpkin seeds.  Lots of iron, lots of protein and it was delicious!  A nice alternative to meat for me.

Birch turned 6 on May 26.  He's been talking about his birthday for literally months and months he was so excited.  He finally decided to have a party with friends instead of just his family, but we had to wait a few weeks because of the Memorial holiday.  He opened some of his gifts before we headed to Cascade, since he received a large load from Marmi and Papi.  He was beaming all week!  And so excited to celebrate his birthday.  I love him so much ♥️.
Dad and Lisa gave us a flag for Christmas; I was so excited to put it up for Memorial Day; I've wanted one for years!

Eric and I finally got the house painted in May.  It's been needing it for a year or two so it's so nice to have it done!  Years ago we drove past a beautiful home for sale and loved its colors so much we decided that when we painted the house, we were painting it the same colors.  Eric contacted the realtor selling the house, who got in touch with the builder, who told us the names of the colors.  We knew the white/gray would look great, but would they match the stone on our house?? That's what I worried about.  But everything came together so well.  We replaced the garage doors as well (the previous ones were falling apart and Eric really wanted doors with windows).  They aren't painted the matching white in these photos, but we had the painters come back after they were installed to do just that.  You can get the idea of how it looks though.

We let the kids do some artwork on the old doors before they tore them out.

Our door looks yellow now against the gray, which we like.

Photos of our trip in Cascade....

Sadly no luck catching fish this time.

Celebrating Birch's and Mom's bday

What a stash!

Hiking with Eric

We went to see Aladdin at the theater in Cascade, someplace we've never been before.  It was a lot cheaper than the theaters at home and we loved the movie.

We stopped by our cabin to do some things there before heading home and found this small patch of snow left after the crazy white winter McCall had.

Stopping for ice cream at Ice Cream Alley.  Roo can't do anything without a book in her hand.

At a Scentsy event Eric and I went to.  It was so much fun; we hung out with friends and there were food trucks there with all kinds of great cuisine for dinner.  It rained while we were there, but cleared up later and we went with Matt and Leslie on a walk along the beach and roasted the marshmallows that were provided for everyone.  Can you see the Meridian temple in the background?

At B's kindergarten celebration

With his fabulous teacher Mrs. Evey.  We're both going to miss her!

With B's favorite classmate Ryder.

B got a shark tee from Marmi and Papi; turns out O got the same one from Grammy and Papa last year!

At the kids' field day.  Eric and I helped out this year at this fun slide, but after an hour or so a downpour started.  Everyone ran for their lives to escape the torrent that was coming down.  Eric and I made it to our cars and drove home to change.  It was pretty funny.

It rained a lot that day.

The ditch was a small lake afterward and all the kids around came to play in the water.

B got out his new swim toy and it was a lake party for everyone.

Finally the last day of school arrived.  I don't know if you can tell, but just before taking this photo B was crying.  He was actually pretty sad school was over.

 Out to Roxberry Juice to celebrate!

The kids running the Capital Classic.  The girl beside Oakley is his friend Ella from school.  Turns out a lot of the kids' friends were running too.

 Roo finished strong; I was really proud of her.

 We made sure to grab all the fun treats and snacks afterward; and Roo got her frozen yogurt.

I thought it would be fun to have an end-of-the-school-year block party.  My friends that live around the ditch and I had talked about renting a bounce house last year but it never happened.  I thought it would be such a fun thing to do, and our friend Maddie was bringing her petting zoo that Saturday after school too so I found a good deal on a bounce house for that day and we all pitched in.  We also had Eric's slackline up as well as Matt's zipline, so there was a lot going on!

 I'm hoping next year it's even bigger ;)

O found a robin's nest with chicks in our magnolia tree.  They eventually dropped out of the nest and are on their own now.

On a Sunday afternoon family walk.  Eric was walking Jones out of the park where dogs were allowed.

We got new blinds in the house; I love them so much.  Our old ones were literally falling apart and I couldn't pull the large kitchen blinds all the way up.  Now when the blinds are up it doesn't even look like we have window treatments, and so much light comes in.

B finally had his bday party on June 4th.  Luke, Toby, B, Isaac and Ryder are in this photo, but his cousin Beckham came too, and his buddy Cove met up with us later.

Can you guess what these are?  B's party had a ninja theme and these are not Cookie Monsters, but ninjas.  Major Pinterest fail for me ha!  But they were delicious I have to say.

After dinner, pizza and gifts we drove the boys to a ninja course/jump park called Circus Trix.  We only had an hour there and it went by fast, but we had a blast there.

 It was a fun night for everyone, especially Birch!

While we were having the house painted, and getting blinds and garage doors, Eric and I decided to paint the upstairs bedroom a white to match the bonus room.  We've never loved the yellow that was on the walls.  It looks much more feminine now; so glad we did it!