no potty progress

inside

You've seen the outside. Now here's a look at the inside...

goodnight

our backyard

This is a photo of our backyard, highlighting Toby's first garden. In it, he planted about 9 tomato plants and 3 pepper plants. (Please feel free to email me your favorite salsa recipes in about 2 months.) :-) Toby also planted some winter squash and yellow (crookneck?) squash along the fence. Our soil is pretty dry and mostly clay past the first few inches, so it will be interesting to see if our plants survive the season.

Toby built our compost bin, which will reside in the FAR back corner of the yard and will hopefully create the fertilizer for our plants.

Our first tomotoes!

Lovely Lavender

Darling Daisies

Nameless Beauty???

Does anyone know what this plant is??? It's a vine-like plant that grows up our back porch and produces the most beautiful blossoms. We also have two other ones like this back by our storage garage. You can see part of one in the photo below on the left.

Bathing Beauty :)

Elise in action

enjoying our last weekend before it all begins

Toby officially starts his residency orientation tomorrow morning. So, we made this weekend a good balance of work on the house and play. Toby managed to put in a small garden in the backyard (which is unfortunately just a tomato and pepper garden due to starting it late in the season but it will still be fun), and he even built our compost bin. He has spent countless hours in our backyard, and it's looking really nice. Thankfully, the previous owners invested in a lot of nice flowers and plants, so aside from putting in a vegetable garden, we just have to clean out a lot of weeds and do a bit of raking and watering. Anyway, it was an enjoyable weekend. Here are a few of my favorite photos.

We picked up our first "vegetable share" on Thursday night from the local farm we support. It included radishes, leeks, chard, china choy, garlic scapes (an offshoot of a garlic plant, very yummy), and some gorgeous romaine lettuce (with Elise above).

Earlier that day Elise was having fun coloring. On one paper she drew what looked like eyes and a nose. I asked her if it was a face, and she said yes and added (totally on her own!) the round face, ears, legs, and bandaids on the cheeks. See her work of art below:

Brilliant!

On Saturday we joined Carson, Carol, Avery and Linnea for a trip up to the Grand Mesa. It was GORGEOUS. In about an hour we were surrounded by lush green forest and lots of water and snow! We stopped at Ward Lake to have a picnic lunch. This is a must see for any friends/family who come to visit us.

Alexander Lake


A view of the valley south of Grand Junction from the top of the Mesa.

Our front and backyards have some really nice flowering plants. Elise was checking out the red roses in the front. (Thanks for the adorable Hawaiian dress Aunt Lona, she loves it.)

Okay, family and friends, start making your travel plans now. We can't wait to show you around the valley. :)

getting caught up

Finally, we have Internet in our house and it's time to get caught up. We absolutely love our house. It's taking a while to get set up due to many big and small projects, but hopefully by the time Toby starts next week, we will have most things in their place. Even with the house not all together yet, it already feels like home. So, here are a few shots from the past week and a half.

our last time at our old beach with Elise's buddy Jarynn

pulling the tape on my first painting project - Elise's room

the mastermind behind our tiling project in the bathroom - thanks Dad!

Tob's dad hardly took a break the whole time he was here. One afternoon we did stop and check out a local winery. It was beautiful and relaxing. Poppy deserved a break!

wandering in the vineyard

Elise tickling herself with a piece of grass. :)

life is good... a new kiddie pool, in a sweet backyard, wearing one of her favorite "bicycle shirts" and eating a popsicle!

a view of an orchard in Palisade (just east of Grand Junction)

The Cameron Place CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a local farm in Palisade where we are new "shareholders" in the farm co-op.

Okay, it's time to paint the living room. Toby's waiting (patiently)...