The Next Chapter: May 2014

May 8-9 Spring FOR REAL

May 8-9, 2014

Spring is here. As most of you know, I love flowers, gardening, and being outside. My back is sore, my hammys are tight and my shoulders are sunburned. I am officially in heaven...

Here is a little sampling from our yard.

Narcissus

Tulips

Bleeding Heart

Allium

I bought this for the name :)

After my annual pilgrimage to Baker's Acres, our garden is officially planted. Now please Mother Nature, no frost!

May 4 Nurses' Afternoon

May 4, 2014

I made a quick trip up to Flat Rock, Michigan to meet up with my Wayne State Nursing buddies for the afternoon.

Derek brought his rockets. It was a big hit with the big kids!

Ready, Set...

Take off! We had a blast running around Todd and Lori's neighborhood collecting the rockets and parachute people :) This group is always good company!

May 3, 2014

I made a day trip an hour north of Columbus to Gambier to visit my friend Rebecca who I used to work with a Kenyon College Student Health Center. She made us a delicious lunch, we hiked for a couple hours and then she did a healing touch treatment on me. I feel like I just got out of a yoga class. Om!

Cricket leads the way on our hike through the BFEC trails.

Rebecca leads over a tree crossing to avoid a really muddy spot on the trail.

The sun peaks through the clouds on a wonderful spring day overlooking where we just hiked. Thank you for such a lovely, healing visit Rebecca :)

Apr 22 Earth Day Hike

April 22, 2014

The Hamilton's came down to Hocking Hills for some hiking during the kid's spring break this week. I joined them on Earth Day for a hike.

We started off at Conkle's Hollow and met up with this guy!

My hiking buddies, Luke, Lori, Layla and Todd.

Right after Layla made a heroic save of her brother slipped and ended up in a puddle. Better to be a little wet than off the cliff edge! Its back to the trail for us adventurous hikers.

Trillium, a beautiful sign of spring in Ohio.

Frog.

Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave. This is the first time I've been here early in spring to see the swelling waterfalls. Great idea Hammys'!

Our hiking group, the Kryks' joined us after lunch.

A big snapping turtle.

Millipede.

The sun peaking out toward the end of our hike. What a great way to spend Earth Day! Thanks for letting me tag along.

Apr 16 Paint Night

April 16, 2014

My friend Lucy invited us out for a Paint Night at Average Joe's for Carolyn's Birthday. We showed off our artistic skills, lack there of, or somewhere in between :)

My version of the canvas painting.

Carolyn, the birthday girl's version. She made a little family of turtles.

Fun night with the grllzzz! Chelli, Anissa, LucyPamNelliePatty and Carolyn.

Apr 15 Is it Spring or Winter? and The Boss

April 15, 2014

Well it looks like snow from Wisconsin followed us all the way home. The next morning we woke up to this! A mix and Spring and Winter.

Tonight Ryan, Kevin, Lindsay, Jarrad, myself and Gerald had tickets to see Bruce Springsteen.

We were impressed with over three hours straight of a really energetic performance. No set breaks! Bruce crowd surfed at his own concert. We are all hoping to look this good and have this much energy at 64 years old!

Apr 11-14 April in Wisconsin

April 11-14, 2014

After working a ton lately, we took a long weekend up to our place in Wisconsin. This was partially a working trip to ready our place for the summer renting season. No matter how much work is involved, it still feels like a vacation to me with views like this.