April 22

This happened.  Today.

Happy Earth Day

Update:  8 pm, still snowing.  Heavily. 
Update: 10:30 pm, still hammering.  4-5 inches on the ground.

Trek to the Lek

Saturday morning we got up really early (okay, not that early) to drive out to a sage grouse breeding area to watch the male grouse strut their stuff. At sunrise, the males gather in one area, called a lek, and display their mating prowess to one another (not sure why it's effective for them to show off for one another.  Shouldn't they be impressing the ladies?).  The lek is about 30 miles south of Pinedale in remote sage land with views of the southern Winds.

The lek is about 400 yards off the road--see it??  It's the large open area in the distance.  And the dark specs in the open are the birds. 

Here's a closer look:

That's about as well as we could see them, even with the binocs.

Although we couldn't get a super close-up view, we could see them strutting and pulsing their chests, and that was pretty cool.  I think the whole thing was lost on Isaac, though.  All the way there, he was excitedly anticipating seeing the "Beep Beeps!" (apparently, birds and trucks sound alike).  Once at the site, he lost interest pretty quickly.  I'm sure he wasn't impressed that Mom and Dad didn't come through with the beep beeps. 

We managed to convince our friend, Ann, to get up at 5am and come with us.  She's a wildlife nerd, so we didn't have to try that hard.

The sunrise over the mountains may have been the best part.

By the way, if you are not familiar with the sage grouse's display, google it.  It is impressive.  I'm glad I've seen photos so that I know what I was seeing was cool.

Spring Is In The Mind

It is springtime, isn't it?  Even though our weather hasn't exactly gotten the message, I feel the itch to be outside.  So, in spite of high temps in the 30's, intermittent snow, and 30 mph wind gusts we've been having recently, we bundle up and head out.  Isaac and I had the park to ourselves this weekend, and I took way too many pictures.

We weren't totally alone at the park--we shared it with four-legged creatures, including this moose that greeted us on our way in.

Isaac thought the deer would make good playmates:

"Look, Mom, deer."

"I"m gonna get a closer look."

"Whoa! Close enough!"

 At the pond:

the cold air makes his nose and eyes run

The End

Getting So Big!

He's almost two, and I'm almost in tears.

headless Daddy, happy baby

full-Daddy love

Happy Easter

We had a really nice first Easter weekend in Pinedale.  It was downright spring like with 50-degree weather.  Unfortunately, the wind, which can be brutal here, made it a little less appealing to be outside.  We persevered anyway and soaked up lots of good sunshine.  On Saturday, we went to the community Easter egg hunt in the park.  There actually were no eggs, just candy strewn all over the park.  Isaac was unsure about what was happening as we gathered with friends and neighbors waiting for the big event to commence.  While many other toddlers had to be physically restrained before the starting bell, Isaac just sort of walked around in a daze.  Once the hunt started, he did enjoy walking around and finding candy.  The whole thing only lasted about 3 minutes, and he wasn't quite quick enough to rake in the goods.  It's a amazing how quickly a couple hundred toddlers can make a thousand pieces of candy disappear!  I was actually glad Isaac's basket held only a little loot.  Isaac loved playing at the park after the mayhem settled.  He and Dad spent a long time playing at the pond's edge.

For our walk home from the park, we took the long route along the meandering creekside path.  As we enjoyed the beautiful, blustery spring morning, we laughed about how different spring is here.   Instead of cherishing a lush blanket of green and daffodils sprouting prolifically, we find ourselves celebrating the melting ice. Ha!

On Sunday, Isaac got to hunt for eggs (really eggs this time) at our house.  He thought that was pretty cool.  Luckily, he never did really figure out that the eggs contain candy.  I sure have been enjoying M&M's all weekend.

The most exciting part of the weekend was the garage.  After being in the house for three months, we finally cleaned and organized it.  It had been a jumbled mess of our stuff, junk left behind by the previous owner, and discarded flooring (carpet, linoleum, particle board, etc).  And there must have a been a foot-deep layer of dirt and grime on every surface.  Matt spent time on Saturday borrowing a trailer to get all the trash to the dump.  Then, we spent all day Sunday working on cleaning and organizing.  Now, walking into our garage is like a breath of fresh air!  Eventually we will finish out the walls and build shelving and such, but for now, just having it clean and organized is wonderful.

See how enthused Isaac was about the prospect of finding eggs?

"Cheeeeeeese!"

After all the families and volunteers were gone, there were two left.

"Cheese!" again.

Pine Creek

We don't need Antarctica.  We have our own little ice caps.

That footbridge crosses from our neighborhood into the park, making the park only a few blocks from our house.

Hunting for eggs at home.

"Where are the eggs?"

Distracted by the neighbor's cat.

The Garage. Hooray!!

Happy spring, everyone!