really amazing weekend...

it is glenn's birthday on tuesday.  for his gift this year, i got him some time alone together with his lovely wife in the mountains.  we loaded up the lil' loafer, dropped the girls off with the ever-incredible patty, and headed up.  it was fabulous.

we went for a great bike ride.

without the girls there, olive got a lot of special attention.

we brought our instruments and played a lot of music around the fire.  bees knees has three shows in june!  we never seem to find the time to practice at home; it was so nice to just chill out and  play.

we camped right in a beautiful aspen grove.

the flowers on our hike were amazing!  (rachel, please feel free to tell us what each of these are in the comments section.  i know the wild iris and the firecracker columbine, and, of course, the dandelion, but not the others.)

there is no place glenn is happier.

then we picked up the girls and headed up to mesa verde with patty and larry to check out the eclipse last night.  so cool!

we got there a little too late to get our own pair of special eclipse glasses, but folks were very generous and everyone shared.

this lady was teaching hazel how to use the little pinhole viewer.  she was fascinated by the whole thing.  she loves anything that has to do with science.

i put the glasses over my camera lens to take this photo, near the start of the eclipse.  it then went on to look like a crescent sun, which was so awesome, and finished with a "ring of fire", where the moon was centered inside the sun, with just a red ring around it.  amazing!

there were so many people there; it felt like we were all gathered for some kind of rally.  everyone was so excited to see what would happen.

the eclipse was casting crazy shadows on this car.

i have a very vivd memory of my dad waking me up in the middle of the night to go see haley's comet. i was nine years old.  he didn't wake up any of the other kids, just me.  we drove to a field and sat on the hood of the car and watched it.  i felt so special, sitting there with my dad, knowing this was such a major event.  i'll never forget that.  although june's probably a bit too young to remember, i am hoping this experience was something like that for hazel.

and maybe for olive too?

wonderful mother's day weekend

we went camping on the lower dolores river with some friends for mother's day weekend.  it was so wonderful.

 the favorite activity of the weekend was catching crawdads.

 frisbees were thrown.

 walks were taken.

flowers were picked.

 games were played,

 delicious food eaten,

 and music played.

i am really looking forward to a lot more camping this summer!

new lantern bouquets

i made 2 new lantern bouquets this week.  i've been wanting to do some riveted ones for a while now.  i am excited about this design because the petals spin.

 this one features a beautiful cornflower blue artisan glass bead,

 with other glass and stone (chrysoprase and chalcedony)  beads wire-wrapped into the chain. 

 and this one has a lovely turquoise blue bead in the center.

 i also made this sweet little blue bloom ring, with one of teresa's amazing glass flower cabochons.

 i love it!

these will all be in the etsy shop tomorrow.

in other news, olive got groomed yesterday.  i was afraid that she would be very hot this summer with all of that fur.  she looks so funny!  it is going to take some getting used to.  (i'd like to mention that i do not pay for anyone to cut my hair or nails...)

and, the lovely mr. leo got neutered today.  (delightful news, i know.)  although he is litter box trained, we were still having issues with him marking his territory when we allowed him to hop around the house.  so hazel wrote a sweet letter to the local vet, offering to work at the office in exchange for getting him neutered.  although the vet informed hazel she was too young to do any work around the office, she lined hazel up with a free neuter through a sponsorship program they had.  very cool.  i will let you know if we get the results we were hoping for.

and the girls are doing great, really enjoying some warm weather and finally being able to play outside in the yard.  i'd also like to note that they have reached a wonderful new place in their relationship where they can play together for hours without fighting.  it is miraculous and beautiful.  i am so very grateful.

i hope you have a fantastic weekend!