Memorial Day, May 25, 2015

Our backyard bird and squirrel sanctuary.  We feel blessed to have so many little furry and feathered friends!

One of our favorite summertime things to do is have fires in our firepit.  We started our Memorial Day festivities the night before by sitting out back and enjoying this beautiful fire.

 We got up early and headed to the Mountain View Cemetery where we planted flowers by my mom and dad's graves.  We also visited my grandparents graves.  It was a wonderful reminder of our great heritage.  

Next, we headed to the mountains to Estes Park.  We visited the Elders at their home and did an inspection (they passed!) and then we all  met our seniormissionary couple friend's, the Besties, for lunch. We get to wear our missionary tags when we are on missionary housing business!

Elder Clavell, Elder and Sister Bestie, Elder Christiansen

 After a delicious lunch, Mike and I took a lovely drive up into Rocky Mountain National Park.  We saw a lot of Elk and even some Big Horn Sheep.

 We stopped and walked a little ways up the Alluvial Fan.  It was a gorgeous day in the Park!

We walked around town a bit and saw some things that made us smile.

Happy Memorial Day!  We are blessed to live in this great nation where so many have died to preserve our freedom! "I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free!"

As we drove home, the clouds were low on the mountains creating a beautiful and eery scene.

Here are a couple of pictures of our yard at this point in the season, always something in bloom!

Beautiful Lupines

Some early bloomers; Pansies, Salvia, Basket of Gold and Japanese Iris

My Mother's day present!

It's a beautiful time of the year around here.  I remember when we traveled to Italy a couple of years ago thinking that we should never leave here in May because it's perfect here in May!