Bob and I have always expected to come home from work to find our house collapsed into a pile of rubble, with Paco sitting on top of the heap waving his own flag, full of pride. I never expected my cat to attempt murdering Coda!

First, I should explain that Paco doesn’t like any items on a surface if he is sitting on it. For example, if he wants to sit on my nightstand, he will knock my cell phone onto the floor so the nightstand surface is clear for him to sit on. If he’s on the dresser, he will shove headbands or pennies off of it. You get the point.

Around 5:30am this morning I heard him shoving something across a 6 foot tall bookshelf. We left a hammer on top of it because we were hanging pictures in that room. Paco had the hammer teetering over the edge of the bookshelf by the time I caught him. Coda was directly below the hammer. One shove later and Paco would have clobbered Coda in the head with a hammer!

No pictures of this event. I thought it was important to stop the murder of our dog instead of grabbing my camera.

This week marks the 2 year anniversary of Bob and I moving out to colorado. In our best effort to pretend to be a Colorado natives, we decided to be outdoorsy and take a hike.

The view from the parking lot was amazing enough. Those are the Flatiron Mountains. They kind of look like… flat irons don’t they?

It started off as Bluebell Trail. I can’t think of why it would be called Bluebell trail. Colorado sure is good at stating the obvious.

We passed a place on the trail that had hundreds of rock piles. I added a pebble to the top of a pile just to contribute to the natural art.

The Bluebell Trail turned into the Royal Arch trail and suddenly things got difficult and rocky. No wonder the trail is labeled as “moderately strenuous” in guide books! We had about a mile of a nice dirt trail on Bluebell, then 1 mile of rock climbing on Royal Arch trail. Good thing a park ranger was nearby me at all times. Oh wait, that is Bob.

Here it is: Royal Arch! I just saved you all 4 hours of a hike so you could view this photo in the comfort of your home office or living room.

The view from the top was quite amazing. I must say I was excited to head back down. It was hot out and we were sweating buckets and I looked forward to being back in an air-conditioned car. I even negotiated a trip to Glacier Ice Cream as soon as we finished the hike. I had caramel oreo, thank you very much!

Many folks have been asking for pictures ofour home. I finally got the family room together so here you go!

Re-doing a kitchen usually costs a small fortune (especially with my taste). We aren’t ready to make any big changes yet by knocking out walls and getting granite counter tops, so we opted for something that would have a smaller impact.

Handles! I had no idea how confused I’d be about handles. I liked about 5 different brushed steel handles then finally chose one. Then I wasn’t sure if I wanted knobs on the drawers. I bought knobs then decided I didn’t like them. I ended up returning the knobs AND the handles to Home Depot. I went to Target and found similar handles for half the price. Woohoo!

Bob cut out a pattern on cardboard to make the measurements consistent and it was very easy to use to drill the holes in the correct places. Hey mom- that finger is for you, with love. Let daddy papa know Bob didn’t curse once during the whole process!

The inside of our house is still in disarray, but the outside isn’t too bad. The previous lady of the house, Alice, apparently loves flowers and gardening. I can’t take credit for any of this except the hanging basket. Before we even unloaded one box from the moving truck, I bought this hanging plant. I thought it would feel more like “home” if I walked up to a hanging basket. They got a little wind-whipped last week during our tornado warning though.

There are tons of little roses along our main walkway.

And a few random snapdragons. They aren’t so scary for being monster flowers.

I’m not sure what happened, but I fell asleep next to these poppies and midgets.

There are some over-grown parts of the gardens. Mom is visiting in 3 weeks and weeding is on her to-do list. I am confidant she will have all of the gardens looking spiffy! I like to garden, but am focusing on the inside of the house right now. Hopefully in a few weeks I can pay more attention to the flowers and start my veggie garden.