The Blanch Herd: Out There {May 2022}

May was a great month for being outside. I feel like most of our pics for the month fit in this "out there" category. Winning!

1 May 2022: Family Bike Ride Down Stringtown

A lovely Sunday afternoon ride with the fam - we saw clouds and cows and the kids both had new bikes which made it extra fun.

3 May 2022: Two Walks Around the Neighborhood

I walked in the morning and saw the fresh snow on the mountains, and then I went out again after dinner and basked in the golden hour light making the neighborhood glow.

5 May 2022: Blossom Walk

An evening walk and blooming trees - at last!

6 May 2022: Wading in "The Stream"

It's not really a stream, and I have a hard time believing it was really warm enough in the first week of May to hop in, but this little canal across the street from our house is one of our favorite spots to cool off on a summer evening. When the leaves are out it's simply magical!

8 May 2022: Yard Explorations

The tulip spotters have found some open buds!

11 May 2022: Let's Go Fly a Kite

We assembled the cheapo kites the kids got from the library and took them to the park for an after dinner attempt at flying. Sometime they worked okay, or maybe even better, but a lot of the flying was Cal and Sam running and running and running, pulling the kites behind them. A good way to wear them out before bed, anyway!

12 May 2022: Kite Flying, pt. 2

We came back the next afternoon and had a bit more success. Some other kids were playing at the park and Cal and Sam were kind enough to share their kites and their expertise with them, too.

15 May 2022: Hearthside Blossoms

A Sunday afternoon walk with the kids (Gregg wasn't feeling super great) to see the blossoming crabapple trees at the Hearthside - my favorite!

15 May 2022: Total Lunar Eclipse

I peeked outside to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse - it was pretty cool!

16 May 2022: Blossom, pt.2

I love that the valley gets their blossoms after Ogden, so we get two rounds of spring!

17 May 2022: Blossoms, pt.3

These beauts were on the bike path near the blacksmith shop.

18 May 2022: Blossoms, pt.4

A morning walk around the neighborhood to check on the blossoms.

18 May 2022: Nature Journaling on the North Arm Trail

It's been a minute since we had an honest-to-goodness hike and nature journal, especially on our beloved North Arm Trail. But we did today, and it was glorious.

19 May 2022: Blossoms, pt.5

Dandelions definitely count as blossoms to me! Plus more from around the neighborhood and our backyard.

These are OUR apples!!

I did not know we had a frittilaria growing
inside the lilac bush in the front of our house.

I was amused by the striped nature of the dandelions
across the street from our house.

Even the spruce tree buds were colorful!

These are from our front porch - I forget that we get
blossoms out there!

20 May 2022: Rainy Walk to the Park

Puddles and blossoms. Spring, spring, spring!

21 May 2022: Blossoms, pt.6

23 May 2022: Old Highway Walk

We took a little morning walk down on the beach at Old Highway. It was great to see the water levels getting so high (not nearly peak high like we have seen in the past, but much higher - covering the road!) that last year! We noticed someone had left sticks to mark the rising water levels, much like Christopher Robin did when the Hundred Acre Wood was flooding. :)

No road!

Water level sticks.

Like a mirror!

24 May 2022: Walk to the Park

The kids climbed up on a big ol' stump across from The Hearthside as we walked home from the park. I like their sillhouettes.

25 May 2022: Middle Fork Geocaching

This didn't start as a geocaching trip, but midway through we remembered about our geocache find from last year and I downloaded an app and we found our first "on purpose" geocache. It was an amazing motivator for the kids to keep hiking (running at the end) up a hill that I never would have gotten them to climb cheerfully without. Tyke hike hacker level up!