Early March 2021

A while ago, Grandma Karen asked for a new photo of the girls together. Evidently, the last photo that she had was one I took in front of a tree at work in December 2019, right before a little Christmas service that we held at one of the Columbine Facilities. So, I told Grandma I would see what I could do and take some pictures of the girls. 

While Cory was gone on Sunday, Feb 28th (also Ella's 15th birthday, incidentally), we took a little walk/ride along the Poudre River trail and I tried to capture some smiles. 

Ruby got these great rollerskates two Christmases ago from Grandma Margie, and as luck would have it, they still fit. I have been so impressed by her interest in skating along the path--she seems to love it, and leans on me occasionally. Here's a video of her skating. Scout, cruising with the scooter, gets bored quickly since she ends up ahead of us given her ease and speed with that scooter. Good thing it was a pretty day. McDonald's followed all of our efforts here on that Sunday. 

The other day, I met a friend and we took a long walk around Arapahoe Bend Natural Area. The weather was perfect and we were so lucky to see a huge hawk, a huge bald eagle (pictured) and another eagle flying overhead later in our walk.

I liked the walk so much that I brought the kids back later in the afternoon (on March 2nd) and we found this cute little rock propped against a fence on the trail. Ruby has been really interested in gnomes lately, so it seemed fitting that we would find this on our walk. The rest of the walk was pretty much a "bust" since the kids were roasting, the dogs overheated and essentially injured their paws and nails (that hasn't happened in a long time, but I think when they got so tired in the heat--it was in the 60s--Furley especially started dragging his paws along the pavement), Ruby got a blister from her new shoes and everyone was ready to return home. But, you can't win 'em all, right?

The girls can now say that they've tried a Shamrock Shake

We've done a LOT of this during the pandemic

 And last but not least, today the kids received their Baby Yoda/Grogu stuffed animals (?) from Grandma Karen. The kids have been very interested in all things Star Wars and we finished The Mandalorian series on Disney+ a few weeks ago. These little stuffies will be well loved!

Here is the previous (old) photo that mom had of the girls--it's hard to believe how much they've changed.