Spring Time Fun

While we were in Colorado at the end March, one of Grandpa's mares had a filly. Here she is meeting Ryan.


Our chicks arrived, all 220 of them. We have 200 meat birds and 20 hens. They are so cute when they are little. They are now a little over 3 weeks old and getting fat. Not so cute anymore. Ryan does a great job choring them with a bit of help from mom or dad. Teaching responsibility early.

Ryan is dipping their beaks in water as we put them in the brooder for the first time

I took a cake decorating class in the beginning of April. It was a great creative outlet. I learned several new techniques. Looking forward to trying another cake and being more creative. The instructor wouldn't give us her cake or frosting recipes....bummer. I have to find good recipes now. This is the final product. Very basic, didn't want to over do it the first time.


Michael, Lynn and Colt happened to be home the weekend of their birthdays and my cake decorating class so we used my cake as their birthday cake. Ryan put the candles on....

Then we got 6 inches of snow. IN APRIL! I was not happy to see it snowing outside. Good thing the snow didn't stick around very long.


AAAHH, EASTER!
Ryan and I hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at our house. We were blessed with wonderful weather. We were able to be outside all morning. It was a GREAT day all around.

The Easter Bunny stopped by to hand out eggs to the kids.

Eating lunch with friends

I bought this bouncer at the end of summer on clearance. It was the first time we were able to use it. I think the kids liked it.

After our Easter Egg Hunt we headed to Washington for the weekend. We ran out of time to dye eggs at home so we did it at Grandma Mardi and Grandpa Randy's house.

Ryan's Easter Basket

What is this??? TWO Easter bunnies came to grandma and grandpa's house. Those Easter bunnies wouldn't come close to us......

so Ryan and cousin Myles chased after them. Those boys chased the bunnies for a long time.

hunting for eggs

wow!

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids minus one.

Ryan, Myles and Izzy

Little Chase was in the house, it was pretty windy out

While we were in Washington, myself along with Mardi, my grandma and my aunt hosted a baby shower for my cousin Wendy and her little boy, Jack. It was nice to visit with everyone.

Cute picture! Jack and Izzy sitting with my dads cousin, Diane.

Colorado

Yep, we took two trips in March. Ryan is a great little traveler.
Donna, Ryan and I had to go get our Colt fix. He is changing so fast. We headed to CO!

Highlights: photos will be in a slideshow at the end.

Bailey Yard in North Platte, NE

We made a pit stop in North Platte. This rail yard is pretty cool. More interesting then I thought it would be. The visitor center is called The Golden Spike Tower. You can go up in the tower and view the happenings within the yard. If you are or have a train enthusiast in the family it is worth stopping at.

Here is the description from the Union Pacific website:

Union Pacific Railroad's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, is the largest railroad classification yard in the world. This massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles. Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars. Of those, 3,000 are sorted daily in the yard's eastward and westward yards, nicknamed "hump" yards. Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 feet for those heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.

Hiking the Catamount Trail near Green Mt Falls

The first morning we were there Lynn wanted to go on a little hike. Supposely an easy enough hike for a 4.5 year old to handle. So we say "sure". Hahaha. Holy smokes, I didn't know if this 29 year old was going to make it. It was only about a mile up to the falls but it was steep. It wasn't so much the physical strain, my lungs were burning. I had not aclamated to the thin air of 7800+ feet above sea level yet. I kept telling myself "this is great excerise, this is great excerise." We made it and it was a great hike. Love being outside.

The Cog Railway

In 2007 and 2008 we drove up to the top of Pikes Peak so this time we decided to experience the Cog Railway up to 14,000 ft. It was a nice relaxing way to travel up a mountain. Beautiful scenery. Ryan enjoyed riding a train. There was not as much snow at the top as I thought there would be this time of year but it was -10 windchill with very high winds. BBBRRRRR! It was awesome weather at the base of the mountain, 75 degrees. So we walked around a cute historic town, Manitou Springs. This is where Donna found the chaps for Ryan.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out at Lynn and Michael's house. We celebrated Colt's 1st birthday even though it isn't until May 1. We wanted to see him open his gifts. He was on the verge of walking so that was fun to watch. Brings back memories of Ryan learning to walk.

We also took Ryan to his first wave pool. He wasn't too impressed. He would much rather swim in calm water. He took a couple BIG gulps of water in the wave pool. He loved the lazy river. It had a strong current so we just moved right along.

Sandhill Cranes
On the way too and from Colorado we marveled at a magnificent sight. Hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes along the Platte River in central Nebraska. I have never seen anything like it. The birds were on migration from the southern TX area to as far north as Canada. During their migration they make a six week stop in NE. During the day they feed in the cornfields then at night they fly back to the river. The fields were FULL of these big birds. Here is a nice article about the Sandhill Crane migration through NE if you are interested.

**This is not my photo** Taken from the internet. The next are mine.

We had a wonderful trip. Can't wait to go back in July.

Ben was in TX wild boar hunting while we were in CO. I have to ask my dad if he has photos that I can post from their trip.