Mother's Day Weekend

While I wish I could have spent Mother's Day with my Mom and Mom-in-Law, I had a pretty good day with my dog baby.  We went for a hike in Red Rock and I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of flowers that are still in bloom!  All pictures are from my cell phone and unedited.

About half way through the hike you cross a small stream and Oscar was determined to get the stick stuck on the bottom.  We were just about at his heat tolerance limit, but we stopped at any shade we could find.

Super tiny flowers!

I've been doing lots of pruning and watering lately, and Oscar's been a big help unstacking my stick piles.

And I got a hammock!!  I've been wanting one for years.  Not sure about my rigging but it hasn't failed yet!

Flower pictures from our yard coming soon....

Spring Part 1

This is our first spring at the new house and we're lucky enough to have tons of different desert plants.  Many of them are in bloom right now, or right on the verge.

The pictures above are Beavertail cacti I believe.  I'm not sure if we have a few different subspecies or something (I haven't investigated that closely) but different plants have different colored blooms (though most are the pink color)

I'm not sure what this is - some sort of sage?

Hedgehog cactus blooms.

Cholla (it's hard to pick, but I think these are my favorite)

This is a bush in our side yard...

(Below) we are really happy to see that many of our cacti have buds on them - we're especially happy that the couple that weren't looking very good seem to be growing as well.  

Not sure what this is but it was a nice surprise out of what looked like a patch of weeds!  That's one of my favorite things about the desert, things can look completely dead or uninteresting most of the year and then all of a sudden they bloom!

I hope all is well for all of you.  I'm looking forward to summer, not for the heat, but for all of the fun stuff that lies ahead!  (except for the fact that I'll probably only see Adam for about a total of 2 weeks :().

Lots of Love and keep in touch!

Pat and Karen Visit

By now you've seen quite a few posts from the visit so I won't bore you with the same stories, but here are some pictures from a slightly different angle?  Thank you for making the trek Pat and Karen!  We had an amazing time!

Amazing Time Lapse for you Fungus (and all-around-nature) Lovers

Out of order picture post

Love this guy. 

On a walk with Karen, Adam, and the dogs. Crazy mild weather. 

Porter the adorable puppy. 

We had a nice trip to Ellicottville (spelling?). Here's Adam snowball throwing. 

Oscar was sad we were leaving for a minute...until his favorite Aunt Christi came over to get him. 

Oscar loves Adam. 

We found a little bit of snow on Mt. Charleston. Can't wait to get him in some deep stuff. 

Fun day climbing at Lime Kiln Canyon near Mesquite. 

Bowling at the Frank Christmas party. Had my best game ever!

Mostly pictures of Oscar

I never get tired of the sunsets around here!

Oscar has quite a personality.  Here he is pouting after I took his bone away (it was a giant rawhide and I didn't want him to get sick).

Doggie selfie!

Handsome boy

Buddies at the hot springs.

Took a trip to Santa Barbara with the cross country team - so nice!

These are shark eggs!  So cool!

Oscar the chiropractor.

Adam has done a great job of teaching Oscar how to be a rock (and tree) hopper!  He does some amazing (and scary) scrambling!