A couple of fun things that we've done lately.  (I'll leave out the dental surgery & the fact our family car was totalled - life is GREAT!)

                 We're working on the back yard.  Had fun doing the fire ring - idea from Pinctrus (sp?)  and       modified by Goodie, Luke, and the grunt (me).  Thanks for the help - I'll post more on finishing.
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We've also been watching a humming bird nest in our back yard.  Bree's interest in this got me going again.  I LOVE humming birds!  They're SO fascinating!  250 bpm heart rate at rest, over 1200 bpm in flight; can eat 1/2 to 8 times their weight every day! (and it's all SUGAR!! wouldn't that be great?!)  They visit over 1000 flowers a day and can remember EACH one - they know how long each flower takes to fill up again.  Super smart - largest brain and smallest body in bird family.  They're only found in the Americas naturally - Chile to Alaska.  Lay 2 eggs (we saw this, thanks Bree!) - baby birds will weight twice as much as the mother when they're ready to leave the nest (she gets FRAZZLED feeding and caring for them - sound familiar??).  I could go on & on, sorry.  Yep, were getting a feeder or two.  Here are the pics:

   The nest next to my thumb - size is amazing!  Nest is made up of bottle brush fibers, mother's feathers, spider lichen, and poop. 2 babies, laying end to end opposite of each other.

   Here's the two little guys almost ready to leave the nest.

Mom feeding her babies.  Is this cool or what?!!  They've left now :(

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We made a quick trip to Oregon to pick up the Caddy & spend time with Drew and Kim.  Had fun as usual.  It was cold - doors were frozen on the Caddy when we got ready to go on Saturday morning.  Oh, Mom & I bought a truck - probably one of the dumbest things we've ever done, but it was sure fun driving from Redmond to Kim & Drew's!  (Except when Mom suddenly stopped to look at a motorcyle and I almost plowed into the caddy - that would have been interesting!).  Here's the truck (love the purple!):


Yes, that's ICE on the windshield!

 We may never get it home to California (sorry Kim, you can use it for a planter, maybe), but the thought was fun.  Good trip home from Bend.  We appreciate all you do for us.  Dad.