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I'm in love. The things I love, I love so so dearly. But today I'm going to talk about a new love and an old love combined. It always takes me a while to fall in love with a new place. I don't know why. It just does. I'm not a mover. For the first 19 years of my life I lived in the exact same town (population 8, 500 people), in the exact same house, with the exact same people. The only change I experienced was when someone would leave. Anyways, I learned I hated change about the time I found myself bawling in my dorm room (in Hawaii of all places) dreaming to return to Price UT. It took me awhile. But by the time I returned to BYU-H for my second year, I was in love. 

No matter how determined I have been to not repeat that same mistake, I find myself always unhappy with my new location (thankfully this time around, there were no tears shed). I've been living in Colorado Springs for almost one year now. Wow. One year. And the summer storms have hit. Every afternoon the big dark clouds roll over our constant sunshine, and the lightning begins striking, the thunder begins rolling (Canberra begins shaking), and the rain begins to pour. I love the memories this brings back from last summer's storms (and even back to the beloved summer storms of Ohio). And yesterday as we rushed through Red Rock Canyon, praying we wouldn't be hit, I realized I'm  officially in love with my beautiful city of Colorado Springs. It's become home.  

As the thunder lit up the mid-night sky, last night, I found myself sitting on the back porch with my best friend. Watching as the lightning silhouetted the rocky mountain range surrounding the West side of our beautiful world. Bolts would strike down. And I would cuddle with my love as I told him, this is better then the fireworks! In the midst of our show, the rain began to pour and as we scurried inside to take shelter, I thought back to last summer. After our sweet baby boy had gone to sleep, Ben and I went outside and he pushed me on our tire swing. Sounds cheesy (okay, it is cheesy :) , but the swinging was actually more wild than sweet, as I would scream in fear of hitting the old tree. I love my best friend. I love my home. And I love our world.

The Quarry

I love this photo of Ben and Rivs playing together. Ben is such a good dad. I know these two have so many fun times ahead.

I think these stairs leading to the Quarry are awesome. It always reminds me of climbing the disintegrating stairs of the old temple ruins around Angkor Wat (Siem Reap Cambodia). BTW they feel way steeper then this photo portrays.

Tasty.

Rivers loves his dog. And Canberra loves her boy. There's no doubt about these two are destined to be best friends. 

The loves of my life.

The Quarry. It's pretty amazing how they cut out the rock. 

Ahhh . . . . Over exposure (but I kinda' like how it turned out )! Ben scrambling up the Quarry. 

Leader of the Pack

Testing Rivs Rock Climbing Skills

Ready for a long afternoon nap.

We do a lot of hiking in this family. Springs is filled with trails, and we're determined to know each trail like the back of our hand. :) You see, hiking is the perfect activity. Everyone is welcome (including "The Pooh" aka Canberra), plenty of talking, exercise (which makes everyone happy - scientifically proven - thank you endorphins :), lots of exploring (=adventure), fresh air, sunshine (boosting our Vitamin D intake), but most of all lots of together time (which = extreme happiness). On beautiful days, like this particular day, we take it easy, and let little man out of his backpack for some serious investigation. He loves climbing over the rocks and checking out all the nature has provided for us.
Post Script: Rivers is becoming an insanely good climber. Today he climbed up my rocking chair, while I was across the room putting toys away! And tonight he gave me his first wave. Oh my goodness was that adorable! The kid kills me (and the only problem is, I think he knows it)!

shhhh . . .

"Colorado Springs' winter: Colorado's best kept secret." That's what the grandmother at the park told me, and I think I believe her. After all our little family had just finished lounging in the sunlight over peanut butter sandwiches and banana puffs, soaking up the 60 degrees on a January afternoon. It's a strange thing rarely wearing sweaters in January. I'm use to Ohio, where leaving the house without layers of sweaters, scarfs, hats and gloves is absurd. But I think I've adapted rather quickly to the mild temperatures of Springs.  Now I just need to constantly remind myself that it is in fact still January so Easter Egg hunts and swimming pools are still months away. 

love these boys

yes - bare feet in January

 all smiles. this kid is so much fun!

Rivers tries out the swing. 

Canberra always watching.

Backflip. . . .yea, I thought I was cool jumping off the swing :) Somehow Ben always shows me up.

legalize

the first week ben was on the job, he walked into "eagles nest sanctuary"- getting to know the fellow business owners in colorado springs. right when he entered the "eagles nest sanctuary" he knew there was something a little off with this particular business. he described the shop as a cross between a nursery (with no plants) and an aquarium. having no idea any kind of marijuana was legal in the united states, he was surprised to learn this particular business was in fact a shop that made a business selling marijuana. "is that legal?" i exclaimed when i heard this story. i guess medicinal marijuana is in fact legal in the great state of colorado. getting high to kill the pain. the majority of the votes probably originated in bolder where they celebrate april 20th (4/20) every year, with thousands of people gathering together to smoke pot. every state has it's vice: bikinis of hawaii (okay drugs too :), mormons of utah :), alcohol of ohio, or the drugs of colorado.

raccoon gang

we have a raccoon gang who frequents the neighborhood at late hours of the evening. we were first aware of their presence the night the truck arrived with our stuff. unknowingly we set canberra's containers of food on the back porch. the next morning ben walked outside, to find the large plastic containers (which had been taped down) ripped open with large quantities of food missing.  that night ben was working on some wiring down in the cellar, when all of a sudden he heard some scampering around on our deck. 

now to give you a heads up our house is very old (as i have already mentioned). but it's very old, located in a kind of a ghetto area, and has the potential to be a little creepy (especially when you are unfamiliar with it). it was late and i had already gone to bed when i was awakened to the tune of my faithful guard dog barking like crazy. ben ran in and told me to grab my camera. so i jumped up to see what was going on, and this is what i found: three little rascals out to steal our trash. 

i can't help but love the little guys. initially i decided i was going to begin putting food out for them each night. when my mom heard this she laughed, and told me that was "a dreadful idea." she proceeded to explain to me that before long we will not have just three raccoons, our yard will be filled with them, and if i ever intend to grow a garden next summer, all my harvest will vanish in the night. when i realized this i began putting a lid on our trash, and not leaving food for my friends. and even though i think they are awfully cute, if i ever do need to go outside at night canberra is my right hand man (they tend to be scarred of her, but ben or me, no way. i think they can tell we have a soft spot for furry, potentially rabies-infested, thieves, like themselves). 

old

while all the men in our ward were helping us move from our one bedroom apartment in gahanna. brother keck's (whom ben and i have nick-named "white nephi") two oldest sons were running around knocking on doors (and talking our neighbors into giving them a tour around their apartment), raiding the freezer (whatever was left . . . "take it! take it! please take it!"), and of course carrying out big boxes for little boys (although we all know they won't stay small long :). in the middle of all the action they started to quiz me about our apartment complex (they were making plans to move in, since they secretly fell in love with our next door neighbor). suddenly, outside our front door, they noticed a spider web. that's when they said "this must be a very old house." "how come" i asked them, since, it was actually a pretty new complex. "because, only old houses have spider webs."
i didn't realize how true that statement was until we made the drive across the country and found the perfect home for our little family. this home is quite the opposite of our one bedroom apartment. frankly, it's old. very old. i guess there's a small park near this place, with a picture of our house. not to attract stalkers but to feature it as the oldest house in the area. and like the keck boys said . . .we know it's old because there's a spider web. only there's not just a spider web, there's millions of spider webs. we clean each nook and cranny but then, the next day, there's yet a new spider web developed.
among all the webs, here's one of it's creators.