We had a pretty quiet weekend but at the same time we were getting very excited about the arrival of “the cousins”.  We were so excited for my sister and family to arrive.

We spent Sunday cleaning.  I made some refrigerator pickles.  I have to show a picture, because I just think refrigerator pickles are so pretty in their little jars.

I also was inspired by a friend to make a caprese salad.   I got lucky and found some great tomatoes at the farmer’s market.  I just found this salad almost too pretty to eat.  We gobbled it up though.

So that’s the food photo section of the post.

We hung around in the backyard too.  It was a beautiful day especially in the shade.   David showed Davey how to make his superheroes swing on ropes (yarn).

Davey found this hilarious.

He was fascinated.

And then he wanted to try it out for himself.

I was happy to sit, knit, and watch them.

Yesterday afternoon, we decided to go one of our exploration drives.  We hadn’t done this in awhile.  We decided to drive up to Nederland which is about 18 miles west of Boulder.

It was a beautiful drive.   We drove through a canyon most of the way alongside a river.  Boulder Creek?  I don’t even know what it is called.  Lots of rugged rock formations along the way as well.

We came up into Nederland where there was a beautiful lake.  Nederland is a small mountain town.

We walked around a little and looked in shop windows.  Davey liked this one.

We walked through a covered bridge.  Always a fun thing.

We even found a German American restaurant where we decided we wanted to have dinner.

But before we sat down, we first looked over the menu and found it to be pricey and so we decided to pass.  Pricey meals with a 3 year old don’t typically work out too well.

Davey was not happy.  At all.

(He was fine within minutes though and later had pizza in Boulder.)

There looks to be great camping and hiking all around Nederland.  We will try that someday when Davey gets a little older.

That was about it for Nederland.  We had to navigate around several groups of kids (young adults) who were on a search.  We overheard, “I just have to find some weed and I’ll meet you back at the camp”.  Not exactly our scene, and we decided it was about time to head home.

More than our trip to Nederland, I enjoyed the quest for the Lost Ball.  There may be many Lost balls in our future, but I really enjoyed documenting the attempts to get it back.

David and Davey were playing basketball in our backyard, when they accidentally threw the ball into the neighbor’s yard. (I have been asked to edit this to explain that the ball actually BOUNCED into the neighbor’s yard.)

They decided to try to figure out how to retrieve that ball without having to bother our neighbor.

The ball.

Gathering more supplies to retrieve ball.

Another attempt:

There was another attempt which involved a bag and a cord, but finally Davey and I went and asked the neighbor if we could go into his backyard.  We were granted access.

The little things.

Did you know that dragonflies have 3,000 lenses per eye?  Those little guys have some range of vision!

This was just one of the things we learned about dragonflies this morning.

Our rec center sponsors a series of  nature walks for preschoolers, and today we went on our first one.

Davey liked making this little dragonfly with a clothespin, paper, and a pipe cleaner.  We attached a magnet, and I was looking forward to putting it on the fridge.  However, on the way home, he took two wings off to make it a “butterfly”.  Then from there, he just completely dismantled it  (not that there was much dismantling left to do).

Although Davey liked learning about the dragonflies, he was more interested in:

Running with the pack:

Making a new friend and off they went – hand in hand.

But he did really enjoy searching for “dragonfly parts”, and when he found one, he was so excited.  “Mommy!  Mommy! LOOK!”

Tonight we were talking about the day while he was getting sleepy.  We talked about the dragonfly part that he found.  He told me it was green.  I insisted that no it was blue.  We went back and forth for awhile.  I was certain it was blue, but I finally agreed with him to end the discussion.

I should have listened to him.

They sat for a short story.  He enjoyed that too.

Seems like such a long-legged kid here!

I always like to get a close-up if I can.

We’ll have to do that again!

Today was our wedding anniversary.  It’s an all-inclusive our as Davey felt it was his anniversary too.  He wanted cupcakes, cake, balloons and streamers.  We did make a cake.  As usual, all he was interested in was the icing.

He likes all opportunities to celebrate.

Tonight we went on a Family Moonlight Walk.  It was sponsored by our town rec center.  We met at dusk.  There were probably 15 people?  Davey was the youngest child, but he didn’t know it.  He jumps right in there with the older ones and doesn’t mind telling them what to do.

“Mommy, he’s talking too loud!”

“Hey!  Don’t kill that cricket!”

He’s very interested in the other kids and wants to move along in their pack.  David and I were instructed to stay back.  He kinda moved to the back to indicate how far back we should stay.

We learned about bats.  For awhile, we looked for bats and saw several.  Then all the kids became interested in identifying every bug they saw on the sidewalk.  All flashlights would point at this small bug.  Davey would squat with them and they would identify the creatures which were primarily crickets, roly polies, and daddy long legs.  They had great fun with this though.

Davey had a new flashlight (Buzz Lightyear!) so he was pretty much set for any scenario.

I wish I could have taken pictures.

Davey was up way past his bedtime and when he did get to bed, he fell asleep within 10 minutes.   As did David!

Today I decided it might be fun for Davey to help me pot some African Violets. I think he will also like helping to take care of them.

I went to Home Depot to get the basic supplies.

Davey helped me put potting soil in the bottom of the pot  (He immediately got very dirty which was as it is always meant to be with him).

He wanted to place the plant into the pot.

He carefully grasped the plant

and eased it into the pot.

I told him we could talk to the plants.

He was apologizing to them here for having gotten dirt on some of their leaves.

This may have been when he decided to name all three of them Winkie.

Davey took a liking to Winkie, Winkie and Winkie.  He told David that he knew which Winkie was which.  All these Winkies.  I guess it makes it easy to remember names.

Now the Winkies are sitting on the sill in the front room.

Davey did a fine job!

I thought I’d try to take some pictures with Koko Puff this evening.

I brought her out on the porch.  Koko always knows what she wants to do and always does what she wants.  She did not want pictures.

We managed to get her in a few pictures though.

Koko’s head is very tilted due to a vestibular problem she has developed again.  She’s a little sideways but has been doing ok.

We love our Koko girl.

It’s been a nice Friday.

I took Koko to the vet this morning.  The ulcer in her eye is getting a little less deep and it seems to be healing.  I will hope it continues to make progress.  She had a fever the other day, and I think an ear infection.  We got her a new antibiotic and her ear looks much better today.  And no more fever! And she’s eating more again!

The trip to the vet just about wears her out.  She’s been asleep for most of the day.  Although she likely would have been asleep most of the day anyway.

Davey went to tumblin’ with David and had a great time as usual.  Next week he will go a 3 hour camp there.  It’s going to involve real firemen and a firetruck.  He is going to love that.

Tonight we went to Casa Bonita with his great friend Olivia and her family.  Olivia and Davey walk nearly everywhere hand in hand and play and play and play together.  It’s so fun to watch them together.  They are almost the exact same size and they are just cute!

Oh and today we received our first postcrossing postcard!  It came from Japan. Davey enjoyed it, but I think I am still getting a bigger kick out of it than he is!

I am also now a total ebook reader convert.  I downloaded Anne of Green Gables the other day from Project Gutenberg.  It is a great source for free ebooks.  Lots of classics.  I never thought I would like the whole ebook thing, but after I got a free Kindle as a result of opening a new bank account, I thought I would give it a whirl.

One of the main reasons that I like it is that it makes it much easier to knit and read.  The Kindle is nice and flat and easy to position. I knit abit and read abit as I seem to be afflicted with the problem of needing to be doing more than one thing at once.

And I loved loved reading Anne of Green Gables  again.  So much so that I downloaded Anne of Avonlea today.

That’s all.  Davey fell asleep quickly.  David too for that matter!