After our foray in Colombia and Panama, we returned to Colorado and spent a month visiting family and friends in the Mile High state, waiting for the weather to warm up enough to brave the climate at the cottage in Michigan. It was a good decision. As it was, it snowed the day after we got back in mid-April. Our van parked outside my Mom's house. The blossoms on the crab apple tree had it bending to the sidewalk under the weight of the wet snow. It only lasted a day.
I heard warbling, mewing noises coming from the fireplace inside. It's been closed off and unused for years, so Jason and my brothers climbed onto the roof to see what was making the sounds.
Brother Jim has a look. There was no cap on the top, so...
A mother racoon and her babies had set up home in the abandoned chimney flue!
We hoped she'd climb out and leave if we put a rope and a netting down the flue.
Meanwhile, Holly and the kids came over for a late Easter egg hunt in the backyard. We scattered 200 plastic eggs around and Scott and Abby skittered around picking them up while we watched.
I wasn't hard to fill their buckets.
Jim offered to smoke turkey legs so we visited his house where Jason and Mom got to play with all the toys, too.
Brothers in the kitchen.
For some adult fun, we went to Blackhawk for the day to donate some money to the casinos. The old mining town buildings have been redone inside and are full of slot machines and gaming tables. Nearby Central City used to be the richest square mile on Earth in the gold rush times. Jason bought us all prime rib dinners, too. Yum.
Jason checking to see if we could get the racoons out from the inside.
Nope, so we hooked up a light and a radio and played loud music all night to try to get the mother to move her den.
The racoon moved all but one baby and it died, so we had to get the remains removed before it started to decay and stink. An old mop handle and a long piece of pvc pipe taped together were long enough to lower and scoop the baby out gently and lift it out of the flue successfully.
The neighborhood has foxes, too. No shortage of wildlife here in suburbia. The animals have adapted.
We made fun of the Kentucky Coffee Bean tree the city had planted in Mom's front yard. It's the skinny white sticks held up by the tall white pole; you can barely see the 'branches' against the crabapple blossoms behind them. It's also the sticks you see in the fox photo above. Eventually, they did sprout green leaves and it's reportedly on its way to looking like a real tree instead of just a broom handle stuck in the ground.
Dad and I at a local restaurant where he bought the family dinner.
My niece, Flora, and her hubby and two boys drove down from Montana to Cheyenne, WY so her eldest son could play baseball on the travel team. Brother Tom and I drove up to Wyoming to see them and watch the game. First time I'd seen Flora in decades and I was glad to meet her family at last. I'm dressed for winter on the far right. Others just thought it was cool.
I also got to connect with Annette, one of my best friends from high school at her house. We had so much fun in those years!
Flowers out of Mom's garden. So colorful and they lasted a good long while.
Tom got me into painting this pallett at his house to hide the utility box. It came out great, if I do say so myself!
Scrabble is ALWAYS on the agenda in Colorado. Jason claims it's a blood sport in my family's household, but we've gotten mellower about the rules over the decades and no longer force folks to lose a turn if their word is challenged.
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