TAGGED AND RELEASED

we tagged our monarchs this year.  i was suprised how easy it was to get this done.  i kept invisioning breaking a wing and harming the butterfly but so far i haven't had any problems other then a few of them taking a quick flight around my family room.

we have so far had a total of 31 catapillers that we have raised.  we have only lost 3 or 4 to an early death.  at the moment we have five cryslis that should be opening at any moment to release the beauty from within.



after spending a few minutes on my finger just chillin this little guy took off to rest in the tree before spreading his wing for a journey south. 

we hope that at some point we will be able to hear back from the "monarch watch" as to whether any of our tagged butterflies were found and recorded.  with so many out there it seems somewhat unlikely but i'd be happy to hear of the progress of just one!

ROUND ROBIN QUILTING

i'm caught up with my quilting bee's for a change.  this is one i've made for alex.....it only has a couple more stops to make before it arrives back home to her.

FIRST on THIRD

so now i share the first day of school pictures.

aubs started third grade yesterday.  she was really looking forward to starting school and her new teacher. 

here are a couple pictures of the big event.

with her friend lili 

aubrey and her third grade teacher mrs. nau

rock'n the first day of third day with a big smile and a new do.

BEFORE AND AFTER IN THE NAME OF LOVE

somewhere out there is a little girl, sick with cancer, that will get a wig made from the ten inches of hair cut from my little girls head this last saturday..........

aubrey has been working LONG and hard to grow her hair for this very purpose.  finally on saturday we deemed it just long enough to meet her goal.  would you believe i didn't cry when it was cut off!  maybe i wanted to....but i'll never tell!  i'm just very proud of her for her gift she is giving to another special little girl out there that is in need.

GETTING THAT PERFECT SHOT TAKES SOME PATIENCE !!

since i haven't taken any pictures since we came back from vacation you will all just have to settle for more from our recent colorado trip.

one of the simple little things that we did to pass the time was to take pictures of the wildlife in the area.......

especially the hummingbirds.

aubrey had the right idea.  she needed all the help she could get to stay perfectly still (something she has a rough time with.....)  we placed the bird feeder right outside our living room window. 

she placed herself on the love seat with camera aimed at the feeder.

she lays in wait patiently.......waiting for the birds to come sip from the feeders..........

and this is mostly what she gets.......those birds are fast little flyers!

but after many........MANY shots of dead air we suceeded in a few good shots!



MEET PAL

this is aubrey riding pal.  she did awesome this time and can't wait to ride again sometime soon.

chuck's horse is smokey.......

aubrey taking control of pal..... he want's to stop and eat everything in site!



the cabin we stayed in was near the pasture where the horses grazed. 

we went and visited the horses everynight. 

LIFE ON TOP

hiking this trip was soooo much more enjoyable then last our last trip to the mountains.  aubrey is no longer whinny about being forced to hike.  she is no longer at the age where she begs to be carried to the top either. 

on this trip we hiked to the top of LILY MOUNTAIN.  elevation is about 9700 feet above sea level. just over a elevation gain of 1000 feet....and about a 1.5 mile hike. (sorry the exact numbers are escaping me at the moment.)   so, in mountain climbing terms it is "easy" but for those of us out of shape flat landers it was probably the prefect mountain to climb to feel like we were on top of the world without having to hike for miles and miles to reach the summit of a fourteener. 

aubrey was thrilled to reach the top.  then during the rest of the week everytime we drove past the mountain she would always point out the trailhead and comment "i climbed that mountain!"

later in the week we hiked to calypso cascades.  we were all pretty tired at that point but knew we still wanted to get out and do some hiking.  rocky mountain national park was fairly busy that week so we tried to find a fun hike that wasn't as busy.