Amelia is 2!! June 30th, 2026

 Amelia is 2 years old today. I still remember the call saying she was being born 3 months early. She was so tiny. And now she is a happy, healthy, smart, curious 2 year old. She loves playing in the sprinklers, and going to the park. We had our neighbor Zeke here for a day, and she loved blowing bubbles, and swinging, and he taught her to kick a soccer ball. One hot day,  she tried her first ice cream smoothie. She really liked it. She likes playing with the neighbor cats that come around. We finally got some rain for an hour, and she had so much fun standing in the rain. She wasn't sure what it was, but she didn't want to come back in the house. She has learned how to climb up on the counters, etc. She keeps us very busy. She likes to color, and her favorite color to use is purple. (my favorite color) She gets frustrated when we don't understand what she is saying. She found our grapevine the other day, and won't stop picking and eating the grapes. Here are some photos from this month!!

Amelia's 2nd Birthday Party - June 2026

 It's hard to believe Amelia turned 2 already. MaKayla went to a lot of work for her party. The theme "Two Fast, Too Curious" was a lot of fun. Their place was decorated so cute, and all the food she made had a theme to do with cars. Her outfit matched the theme. Amelia didn't care about opening any of her presents because she was busy playing with her little cousins. Once things calmed down, her parents gave her their gift which was a motorized car. That is the only present she loved. She rode it for the rest of the day. It was a fun party. 

Summer Puzzles - June24th, 2026

 With retirement, we have more time to do puzzles. MaKayla bought us a few at a thrift store. One is a 2000 piece puzzle. It is a camping scene. It was fun to do. The other one was a 1000 piece puzzle that my neighbor Roxanne gave us. (She has over 100 puzzles, and is now giving them away to friends.) It was of Sydney Australia. We love doing puzzles. It is very relaxing. We do the edges first, and then we pick a side and go from there. 

Panguitch Lake - June 11-14th, 2026

 We drove to Panguitch Lake for a couple of days. It is 2 hours from home. We can see the lake from our camping spot. We drove 30 minutes to the town of Panguitch, but there is nothing there, so we drove back to campground. We fished for half hour, but it was too shallow. There is a nice cool breeze here. We ate tacos, and played games and watched TV. The next day we bought worms from the little store, and fished in several different spots. We didn't have any luck. I guess we don't know the right bait, or spot to fish from the shore. We went for a walk around camp, and then played Scrabble. On our 3rd day, we got up early and fished for 2 hours. Zero fish... In the afternoon, a rainstorm came through for an hour. It cooled it down. We went out again, and Doug finally caught a nice fish. We left the next morning. I don't think we will come here again unless we rent a boat and fish from the boat!!!

Amelia and Zeke - June 3rd, 2026

 We had Amelia here today, and we invited our neighbor boy Zeke to spend the day. He is 9 years old. His mom and sister went to girls camp, and his dad was at work, so they asked us if we could keep an eye on him during the day. I didn't think he would want to go with us, but he was excited to go to the park. He was so kind and helped Amelia on the slides. Later, after her afternoon nap, he saw us in the backyard, and came over and brought bubbles for her, and he also taught her how to kick a soccer ball. They both played in the sprinklers. Afrer he was gone she kept asking for Zeke!!!

Amelia - 23 Months Old - May 30th, 2026

 Amelia is 23 months old. It is hard to believe. Doug bought her a tree swing. She didn't want to get in at first, but then she saw what it was and loves it. She likes to swing "Teddy" in it sometimes. She had a bad cough and was sick for a few days this month. I loved when she just wanted to be held all day. We have a neighbor that is 91 years old. His name is Dick Kendall. He loves when we visit him and bring Amelia. He always asks about her if she is not with us. We take her outside every time she is here, and she like playing in the water, and tries to help us do yard work with her little green rake. ! We had one cold and windy day and a lot of branches fell from the trees, and she was trying to help us clean it up. She doesn't play with her toys as much now, because she is too busy getting into things. When we were in Page, she went into Brad's garage, and was really interested in his Javelin! Maybe she will drive it one day?? Here are some pictures from this month.

Desert Tortoises - May 2026

Now that we know where to find the tortoises, we went 4 times to find them. One day we saw 3, then another time 10, the next time zero, and the last time we saw 4. You never know how many will be out. We go on the Berm trail in Ivins, Ut. We studied and found out some interesting facts about them. When we took Rocky out there, we found a pretty big one, and it walked very fast over to him and was trying to eat his red shoes. He moved around, and each time it did the same thing. And down the trail we found another one, and it did the same thing. So we came home and looked it up, and found out they loves colors like red and orange, and they will go up to the shoes and try to eat them because they think it is a cactus... They are usually out in late April /May, and come out of their dens when it is cooler. We have found all sizes, from the size of our hand, to some that are 12-14 inches long. It is fun to watch them eat the plants. They love to come out after a rainstorm.