Family, End of School and the beginning of summer

OK! So I have no idea why when my grand-babes come to town I don't start taking pictures immediately. But for whatever reason I always seem to be a couple of days into the visit when suddenly it occurs to me that..... "you know pictures might be nice!" Like I've just had some major epiphany. So normally all of my pictures start at about day 2 or 3 of their visits. With that in mind..... this is where these pictures start! :-)
They arrived late Thursday evening and the pictures start on Saturday evening. About 2 days before they are to start heading home. To be honest we really didn't do much Friday or Saturday anyway, just stayed around the house and let the kids relax and the adults! But dinner Saturday was our celebratory meal. We did a Chinese Hot Pot and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

We tried to go up Pikes Peak on Sunday but it turned out that the highway was closed due to icy road conditions for the last 4 miles of the trek. So we opted out of that little trip in favor going to Garden of the Gods and letting the kids run wild a bit. As you can see they are a mighty group and saved this rock from toppling over. Yea!

Of course we have the obligatory relaxing time on the deck and the pups of course are major participants. Assuming their spots by over taking the boy's chairs and faining sleep or interest off the deck which of course gets every ones attention.
Now I had to put this picture in here, even though it was taken just a day ago. Please note the considerable hair difference in the pups. Also please note that in this picture they are covered and quite content to remain as such. The lack of "poodle hair" has them quite subdued and experiencing a bit of chill. But these guys are ever vigilant and barked their warnings from this spot.

O.k. back to the visit. Here are just some great pictures of the family together. Of course this was Dylan and Ivan's first meeting.

I couldn't resist taking this picture.

After our group left and was headed home the weather changed for the worse. We had hail storms the next day. I'm so glad they left when they did. They seemed to stay ahead of the bad part of the storms for their trip home.

Last day of school. I think we were all excited. Summer is just around the corner...

Our graduating 5th grader.

The following video shows Olivia walking. Enjoy...

Bears, Mothers Day and more...

The bears are definitely back! On May 1st I had a get together of about 16 people and they were all arriving as Mama bear and her two baby's were cutting through the neighborhood. Some got to see this little family up close as they drove by this street, others watched from our deck. Nothing like bears to start conversations!

Mother's Day!

Ivan came over and cooked lunch for the family. We had a delightful meal and a surprise visitor.

Hansel showed up with 2 long stem red roses for me! Talk about surprised. For those of you who are wondering who Hansel is..... Hansel is our Ice cream man. David chased him down about 2 years ago and asked him to come by the house so the kids could get some ice cream. We had no ice cream man in our area. Hansel has come back ever since much to the delight of the kids AND adults in this house. Actually he's done quite well in this area and there are now a lot of kids who are experiencing the ice cream man thanks to our David.

Lunch is on!

My Gazebo was just perfect for this gathering. We got to sit out and enjoy the beautiful weather and not cook ourselves! I actually purchased this last year for camping. But I think we're going to end up using it more at the house than out in the wilderness.

Parker is all about the meal!

Hunter too!

Knitting, knitting and more knitting. I keep finding more to knit, actually without a great deal of difficulty. Big surprise, right? Anyway... I worked on dishcloths for the last couple of days. Here are some of my completed projects.

Happy Mother's Day...