San Franscisco Street Scenes

Last week Randy went to San Francisco for Semicon West. Here are some pictures he took from car, bus, and jet...

Randy told us that one day their Taxi got rear-ended by another car. Out jumped the taxi driver and out jumped the other driver to survey the damage. Taxi?-no damage. Other car?-smashed front bumper! And the other driver was so upset that his car was the one with the damage!

Huh?!?

These houses are so neat!

Switching from bus to jet!

Have a great week and enjoy the ride!

"That's Ignoring!"

From the back seat...

Maya: "Ky-la"

(nothing)

Maya: "Ky-la"

(nothing)

Maya: "Ky---la"

(nothing)

Maya: "KY---LA!!!"

(nothing)

Me: "Kyla, would you answer her please?"

Kyla: "What Maya?"

Maya(with a stuffed monkey draped over the top of her head) "Is this funny on my face?"

Kyla: "Yes Maya, now pleeeease...."

Maya then breaks into happy repetitious singing...




(and a few miles down the road)




Me: "Look over there kids at those big windmill blades on those semi's. They're HUGE!"

The kids: "WHERE?"

Me(pointing out the window) "Over There! Don't you see them? Look, they are HUGE!"

Colter: "Oh yeah!"

Kyla: "umhmm"

Me: "Those are HUGE and they go way up in the air at the top of the windmills, like the ones we see when we go to grandpa Larry's, and they go around and around way up in the sky, and they make electricity... yada yada yada... Aren't they HUGE?"

Maya (about a minute later) "But Mooo---mmmy, I didn't see them!"




(and a few more miles down the road)



Maya (continuing her happy repetitious singing over and over and over and over again, like a broken record)

Colter: "Ma-ya, stop that! It's ignoring!"

Maya continues to sing....

Colter: "Ma--ya STOP! That's IGNORING!"

Maya continues to sing even louder

Colter: "MA----YA! That's IGNORING!"

Maya continues to sing

I'm driving down the road laughing to myself and wondering if I should tell Maya to stop "annoying" him or tell Colter to start "Ignoring" her!?!

Flowers For Friday

I had a very fun hour or so the other day walking around our yard and taking pictures of our flowers. I ended up with about 18 pictures that I really liked so I thought I would share them in 3 different posts. Look forward to more Flowers For Friday!

This little segment of pictures comes from the very front of our house. These flowers are planted in my 5 big pots...

These little purple flowers are tiny! I was SO surprised to enlarge this picture and see a little fly on the petal of the flower in the middle. Do you see him?
Unfortunately this is not a great picture and does not do these Verbena justice. I think these are my new favorite flowers! They are just beautiful...
And here is a couple pictures of a blooming bush near the pots. It is a Spiraea and we have 5 of them in the landscaping in front of our house and they are in full bloom right now...
The awesome thing about these bushes is, when we go hiking up in Glacier Park, these bushes are abundant along the hiking trails...
They make for a beautiful hike!

All for today,

Have a great weekend!

15 of 52: Maya's Papaya

A while back when Maya and I were at Costco, we noticed they had Papayas in the produce section. I don't think I have ever seen Papaya's sold here before-maybe I have just never noticed them. Anyway, we decided to buy one and try it. Because it was a fruit, and looked a little like a melon, we set it on the counter for a couple day to ripen. I had no idea how to cut up a papaya so we googled it and found some great instructions.

So, here I am* (Kyla's the photographer) cutting the papaya. I cut the ends off first and then cut it right down the middle...
Then I scraped out the seeds from each half... (very interesting seeds)
Then I peeled off the skin with just an ordinary peeler...
Then I cut the half in 4 long spears...
Then I cut the other way to make bite size cubes...
Here are the taste testers having a bite...
And here are the chickens finishing it off...
Sometimes I am very thankful to have chickens...
Okay, here's the rest of the story. The papaya turned out to be mushy and very bland tasting. Actually it was just plain bad tasting. I wonder if I let it ripen too much or if that is just the way they are supposed to be? Does anyone know?

Anyway, it's times like these that I'm glad we have a flock of chickens! Then I don't feel like I totally wasted my $3 dollar Papaya! Or the spinach that went to seed... or the bread that molded... And the compost pile helps with that too.

So even though we didn't get to enjoy the "fruit of our labor", we still learned something new. Maybe you did too. I'll be looking for a papaya again someday and maybe the next one will be different. If not the chickens will thank me.

Enjoy your day!

(the headless papaya butcher!)

Hosted by Forever in Blue Jeans

*52 weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!

Edge 540's

Will his EDGE 540 fly again? I have my doubts. And I was even going to video him this weekend but didn't get around to it. He has assured me it will fly again. We shall see...

On a more serious note, another EDGE 540 crashed this weekend. It was flown by Chandy Clanton, a 36 year old woman from Nebraska who was preparing for an air show. Click here for the complete story.

Here is a video of her flying her stunt EDGE 540. Can you even imagine being inside the cockpit? Unbelievable and no thank you...

Saturday with Six

On Saturday our neighbor Dory, across the road, invited us to come over and ride her horses with her. This was Kyla's dream come true. She often looks longingly at all the horses that surround us out here in horse country and wishes...just dreams of having a horse...or even being able to ride one of those big beautiful beasts. I know a little about this longing myself. It's something that resides deep down in my soul and I'm afraid it always will...

Here is Kyla leading Six on a halter rope...

Dory gets out her steps for the kids. It got them a little closer to Six's back but they still had to be hoisted up...
So despite the fact that the stirrups were to low for the kids, they all took a few rides around Dory's arena...
This beautiful 17 year old horse Six, is a registered something or other and his early life was spent in races and competition. He was extremely gentle with the kids.
Meanwhile Maya is content to ride the fence...
Visiting Hannah behind the fence and feeding her sugar cubes...

A quiet moment with Six...
Maybe we are being too "practical" when we tell our daughter we can't have a horse right now, but the expense of having horses and the work involved is staggering. We have told her horse riding lessons may be a possibility someday. My own parents treated me to lessons one summer and I will be forever grateful to them for that summer of unexplainable joy and freedom to my teenage heart.

Maybe someday my daughter's and my dream will come true but until then we will enjoy watching these beautiful creatures play in the pastures around us and maybe ride them once and awhile.

Colter's 7th Birthday

Here are some pictures from his birthday!

The "horrible" yummy snake cake all aglow with 7 candles.

Opening presents...

Outside for a water balloon toss. Just love the lighting in this one...

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the cool guitar. And thanks Keith for his very first guitar lesson!

Cousin Kyle got to spend the night for their first sleep over ever! Here they are putting legos together in the morning-The legos Kyle gave him for his birthday-Thanks Kyle and family!

These good ol' buddies are ready to go horse-back riding... (pictures to come)