And so Summer Begins!

With Memorial Day comes the official start of summer here in the states.  

Today is a day for Americans to remember all those who lost their lives fighting for their freedom!

For, me, I hope a quiet day at home.  I worked a 12 hour shift yesterday and quite happy to stay home with a little scrappy time fit in, I hope!

Suppose to be cooler today with showers and a big warm up expected by the end of the week!  We have been in quite the cycle of cooler air and storms.  Thankfully not the storms of the south!  I couldn't live in tornado alley!  I could not sleep at night!

One of the pages of Auckland with its pocket page.

Doozy of a Storm!!

After I nicely get all my little plants in the ground we hate quite the storm last evening!  It just popped out of no where!  We had thunder, torrential rain and pea size hail.  And Kirsten who lives about 4-5 mi west of me only got a little rain.  Harlee was here and hadto go out in it.  Tim arrived in the downpour to take her home.

They are saying nicer weather for this holiday weekend.  

I got to go out for lunch today.  12 oldies from the NICU got together.  One of the gals had come from Denver to visit.  This was my work family as my girls grew up and we spent many a night shift together.

Combined in years there was 517 years of nursing experience!  It was a great way to soend a Friday afternoon.

One little layout!

Up Early and Out the Door!

As Curtis had to be up to the airport by 7am to drive for Avis.  So across town we went and I was back home shortly after 7.  

I ptook this picture with my phone from up at the airport.  Can't figure out what it wants to do today-rain/ shine?  

The  picture below is of the storms as they rolled through last evening.

I came home and headed outside and finshed planting my flowers.  They are all in the dirt now- whether it be pots or garden beds.  I want them to get established before it warms up.  Because it will go from 60 to 90 in no time flat.  I also thinned out my day lily garden and took a bunch of starts over to Kirsten.

I finally got showered and ran to the grocery store and filled the rig up with gas.  Ate some lunch and will have to go retrieve Curtis in about an hour.

My layout is about the gannet colony at Murawai Beach outside of Aukland

The tag with the hearts, under the photo, has my journaling.

My second layout is all about the tour we took our first day in New Zealand.  

I included a map of tge area and a description of the tour.

Away we Go to Costco!

Sunday we decided to take a jaunt to Costco.  For us that means a 90mile drive down the Interstate.  Mind you, there is usually minimal traffic.  And the drive is one of my favorites around here.  About 20min. out of town you drive along the banks of the Mighty Missouri and then through all the tight corners of Wolf Creek canyon.  The Missouri invites all kinds of fisher persons and there were plenty on the river on Sunday even though it wasn't that warm out. And remember all these photos were taken out the car window, while driving down the road at 75MPH. 

 Everything is looking so lush and green after all the moisture we have had lately.

 It is the season of road construction, which is very short season here in MT

 Oh, yes, fresh snow in those mountains down the road

 Some beautiful wild flowers growing near the river.

Yesterday, I dropped off Curtis at the dentist to get his new crown and a filling.  There in the middle of the road was a duck.  He was a little off his coarse. 

Ding, Ding, Ding!!!

Just an alarm reminding me to update my blog!  Sometimes life is so busy, or I am just too tired at the end of the day to think about it.

Oh, my gosh, we have had rainy weather the last two days!  Yesterday it poured at times and we had thunder and lightening.  That is the projected weather for the next week.  Annd our highs have only been in the 40's!!  Not sure when I will be able to plant some flowers???  It seems the sun is shining brightly out there this morning.  

Yesterday Curtis and I watched the boys.  Kirsten had her Poker Run as her Relay for Life fund raiser.  Despite the weather she had a few participants and was happy.  The boys were good. Cooper was not impressed he could not be outside and play.  

Check out Curtis blog for more awesome photos from our trip to Benton Lake.

http://www.dailylife.barrowroad.com/

Have been trying to work on my Australia/ New Zealand album.

The above layout has us arriving in Auckland airport with the map of NZ after many hours of flying.  Think we don't look too bad!

I used New Zealand specific paper from Reminisce.

The title as cut on my Silhouette

And the sticker on the R lower corner I picked up during my travels, as the flair button

This second layout, I used old Cosmo Cricket paper.

An actual map of central Auckland where our hotel was.  

The little hotel card was from Jilli Bean soup.

The love arrow I cut on my Silhouette.

Location:7th Ave S,Great Falls,United States

Benton Lake- Part 2

Few more photos from Benton Lake.

The blue birds were busy building nests in the little houses.

This little fellow came hopping down the trail while I was shooting the bluebird!

A couple of antelope grazing as we left.

They are predicting rain and storms for the next few days.  I ran up the street and filled up the gas can. Then out to the front yard.  Kirsten and Coop showed up and Kirsten did the back with the hill, while I weed eated.  Coop didn't want anything Kirsten offered him to eat for breakfast, but he gobbled 2 packs of oatmeal at nanas.  Then I went with her to the grocery store to help keep rein on Coop.  He was really good and Kirsten filled her cupboards up a little..

It was a quiet afternoon.  Did some scrapping .  Working away on the Australia/NZ photos.

Early Morning Adventure!

We headed north out of town, only about 10 min.  Pretty overcast start to he day!

We arrived at Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

It was pretty busy with birds and waterfowl and a few critters!

For those of you interested I shoot with an Olympus PL5.

Why do birds think the road is theirs too!

Lots of yellow headed blackbirds!  They are so beautiful, but what a screech they have!

The waterfowl don't like it when you move along in your car.

Enough for today, I hope to be back with more tomorrow!

Getting elements together for my next "DownUnder" page!