Colorado gardens and riding in the rain.

In Colorado I went to visit my brother and his very pregnant wife. I'm happy to say as of this morning she is no longer pregnant. Hooray!

When we pulled up and I saw their yard and garden I was so sad. I was sad because I want my yard to look like that. Only remembering that they have lived in that house for eight years and I have only lived in my house for eight months assuaged my disappointment in my home. The front yard is just adorable and I love their selection of flowers. I am going to follow their lead and at some point put in irises, catnip and poppies. It made the house so inviting.

In the back they have some nice raised bed with lots of peppers, lettuce and hops growing. I'm really jealous of the peppers. We don't get enough sun in Oregon to get the peppers going properly, even though I am going to try.

The backyard itself is an oasis. I hope my yard will be like this someday, instead of just looking out on the street through the chain-link fence. I guess get back to me in eight years and we'll see where I'm at.

I also went to my family reunion in Colorado. There was tons of family fun and my dad and I went horseback riding. We scheduled the trip a couple days in advance, and the day of it was cold and raining. Pretty standard Portland weather, but I wasn't packed for it. After much debate, given late nights the night before for the both of us, we decided to go ahead with it. The other group who was going to do the ride cancelled because of the rain, so it was just me, my dad and the wrangler. Pretty cool. Despite nearly freezing my hands and thighs off it was an awesome experience. We rode right through the middle of a herd of elk, which you could never do on foot. It was like we were one of them. Just a slightly taller four-legged friend.

When I was a kid I never really understood why people drove cars. Even back in the 80's all you ever heard was holes in the ozone layer, carbon emissions, recycle, drive less, etc. As a kid hearing that I didn't understand why we didn't just start riding horses again. Obviously, this presents an issue in the city and you can't go as fast or as far. But, you know what? Riding a horse is fun. One of my concerns about ever moving to the country is that I would be dependent on a car again to get me anywhere. But, this trip reminded me about horses. So, if I ever move to the country I'm going to be that crazy lady who rides her horse to the market.