415 West Dale Avenue is now complete. All household members (and regular visitors) accounted for. Gen and Liz have arrived and are settling in, madly looking for employment and testing the beers at Flagstaff's brew pubs. We continue to love the urban trail that runs right by our house. Ada Mae is especially fond of the pond (and the ducks that live on it) that's a 2 minute walk north of us. We've been taking advantage of the late summer weather and spending lots of time on our back porch. If Gen doesn't find a real job soon, she may open a salon out back to earn some cash.
Another frequent household member is Sugaree, Ada Mae's new best friend and neighbor. Shug (as she is affectionately called) is a sweet 6 month old pup who has a nasty case of mange mites (don't worry, they aren't contagious) which causes her fur to fall out and gives her the look of a wise old man dog.

As always, visitors are welcome and encouraged.

there are now three dogs living in our communal backyard. ada mae is the "big sister" to sugaree (not pictured) and mancha (pictured biting ada mae's jowls). they are a happy little pack of funny looking spotted animals.

more hiking photos...tucker and i climbed up kendrick mountain on the last saturday he was here. we saw some beautiful flowers and one teeny tiny lizard (about the size of my thumb nail).

and then we came back from vermont and my little brother and gen and eric arrived. and we went on a hike, enjoying arizona in all her green-monsoon season glory.

we went to vermont to soak up good family, good friends, humidity, swimming holes and bonfires...

So, it's been awhile.
We moved.
Addy turned one.
Rose turned twenty six.
Genna came to vist.
And somewhere in there the camera broke (it saves pictures in aproximately 4x6 pixels - hence the crappy looking pictures)

looking for water in arizona...finding rivers, yellow columbines, and thrift store skirts....

Ginger is visiting - a good excuse to really go out and explore where we live. On Sunday we went to Hart Prarie (our new favorite spot), the dogs swam in a cow pond, we ate lunch in the Aspen grove - and then it was nap time.

A good day.

ada mae still thinks she is a very small dog.

enjoying the spring weather out at hart praire -
sophie helps build a fire,
aspen grove,
aspen grove in the sky,
kelsey and sophie take a walk..

god send easter

and we will lace the
jungle on
and step out
brilliant as birds
against the concrete country
feathers waving as we
dance towards jesus
sun reflecting mango
and apple as we
glory in our skin.

-lucille clifton


loving these words and the feeling they evoke these days.
hope springtime is treating you all well in your respective corners of the world.

We've been spending some quality time with one of our favorite neighbors lately - Sophie, the smartest 2 year old around. One night she and Meg and Addy were enjoying some quality book reading on the bed...






The weather in Flagstaff has been all over the place - blazing hot one minute and then back to snowing. Above are a couple of pics of Meg and I are we got caught walking/running home with snow blowing up our noses (on two separate occasions). Luckily for us, springtime seems to have actually settled in for good these days and we are enjoying the clear skies and warm sun.




complete with dinorsaurs...

Visitors from Boulder....

Amy and Neil came to visit a few weeks ago and we had a fabulous time:

* sitting in the front yard listening to the best radio station ever while keeping our eyes peeled for any wild fires in the neighborhood (one afternoon we looked up to see a fence in our next door neighbor's yard on fire, with flames reaching at least 8 feet in the air. luckily the neighbors were home and had access to a hose and they put it out, but not before we called the fire department and got fully involved in the situation).

* walking the dogs.

* going to see the big ditch.

* and watching a red sox game on easter at a local bar.

*

so, um, yeah - i got a new computer.

so far i don't know anything about it.
except that it has this super amazing photo booth program that offers endless hours of
entertainment,
procrastination,
and way too many self protraits.

get ready people.
this is only the beginning.
really.
i think this is the beginning of a major addiction.