Last night at the ranch.. the 10 days are over. It was a lot of fun . Lots of snuggles while lilja slept with me in a king size bed, lots of barney walks, eggs galore each morning and saw three new calf and named them..leo, Leona and arianna.. yep it was an interesting and exciting time. So tonight was our last swim in the hot tub. Lilja has figured out that if she blows on the noodle, water comes out the other end. So she is trying to make me wet . However I have figured out I can do the same that's why she wants to do it so fast .. she wants me to stop video taping because I can't do two things at the same time.. I'll take that :()

Our little monkey

Lilja wanted to do it all by herself.. she is 1 inch to short to get hanging from the ground.

little monkey #2

welcome to this world

Mom, this is for you. I think it turned off in the excitement. He just walked right up to us, so close and told us off.

today

I asked lilja what she wanted for dinner tonight...her answer ...couscous, turkey and fruit made into shapes.. well..it is springbreak..so ofcourse we can make that !!!

Lilja chose water melon, and cantelope, the green one for her little dinner art experiment .. 

Here are chief, barney and maynard posing for a photo I just send to their owners. Notice lilja  creeping down the stairs oh so quietly. she wanted to be close to me during quiet time . There is going to be an adjustment being back home next week. Oh well, it's spring break, we are house sitting and we are tired . ..great excuse! 

more river shots

Are you getting tired of the river shots ?? Well, we have 7 more days of house sitting to go . I took off a couple of days this week as lilja has spring break so we can do some fun stuff this week. Keep posted !

Momma is this really deep ?

Just some fun photos of the girly

eggs galore

The fun thing about house sitting is that the house is a ranch with cows, horses and now chickens galore . And chickens make....the best most colorful eggs

So excited..one egg!! We made the best french toast one morning and hard boiled eggs the next .

One day there is one .. next day three !! Thank you chickens 

David, the caretakers is amazing with lilja . He let her feed the chickens some kind of worms. 

fresh eggs !!

today...

Today is the first day of house/dog sitting for 10 days ! We always get alot of special time in. Today after I picked up lilja from our house ( last night was mommy night ) lilja had a birthday party for her friend Yara and they were allowed to paint pottery. Lilja chose a unicorn and worked on it for a long time . On Tuesday we can pick it up. Very cute idea fir a birthday party. Then Lilja and I walked Barney to the river for the first time this year. The water was freezing, but lilja wanted to feel it anyway. She would sit and warm her feet up in the sun and go back in the water. She loves the cold !!

Barney does very well walking on the leash with lilja until he finds a smell...

Momma it is freezing!!

The finished product.. just a couple more dots 

Dance recital piggy song

Love the look lilja gives to the little girl when she runs in to lilja ..

Dance recital , the finale

the dance camp finale

5 days of picking up lilja from school at three and dropping her off to dance from 3:45-5:30..yep a little long for these little ones and for this old mom. But it is done and lilja really enjoyed it. However she just informed us that she did not like being a piggy and "brather" wanted to do the dances the big girls did. We told her to practice and practice ..

Rachel and lilja after the recital, such good buddies.

Maddie and lilja, the other twosome 

Ms lori , the girls and lilja. Got two babysitters out of this dance class. They loved lilja, and lilja really loved them  especially Caley , the girl on the right 

Very proud daddy, and a flower for lilja 

a mommy's epiphany

So I walk dogs as a job and lilja has been walking dogs with me for 5 years. It has always been fun and lilja seems to enjoy it. But lately she has not been so into it. Friday was one of those days. And I was in the "job"mode. So I was pushing lilja to walk a little faster because "I was working " . At a certain point I was turning around to see lilja way behind me ..and I was going to say ..hurry up. But here she is bend over,picking the tiniest flowers for the tiniest bouquet . And it hit me . Next year she will be going to school for 5 days !! We will not have these "working" days again. Let's just say that we had a very short slow walk, but we had the prettiest weed bouquet ever !!

Lunch after our walk.. yep sushi...she loves sushi !!

Lilja found a walking stick for the way down. It did not help her walk faster, but sure looks cute 

The next two pictures were my epiphany photos.. yep I will blow them up and remind me of this day 

The tiniest flowers ..

The tiniest bouquet

The cutest girl 

Just in her own little world.. have lots of talks with me, Casey the koala and the flowers .. doesn't get any better than that.
During this walk I saw an old family center member of mine and she asked what we were doing..I had told her before my "moment that I was dog walking and that it was my job. Well, she walked all the way up the mountain and met us back down the mountain probably pretty much at the same spot. She commented that we had not gotten far.. my response..I guess I am not working today..it is picking flower day today .. she smiled and I beamed  .  

anecdote

Lilja: "Momma I took a nap at school today !"
Me :"really" (looking in surprise at the teacher who smiles and shakes her head no )
Lilja: "it was just a little one.. Not in the beginning, not at the end..but right in the middle..just like a sandwich .

first day of dance class

dance camp

The high school dance team is doing a dance camp fundraiser. They are teaching the kids of bayfield dancing for 5 days and even hold a recital. So we signed up lilja..it's for a local good cause and lilja has been asking to dance again . Luckily maddie and rachel also came so she knew some friends. Lilja was pretty apprehensive but she warmed up quickly. The teacher was amazing !! Already teaching them the basics in the first 15 minutes .

Being frogs teaches them the start of a plie'

Maddie, rachel and lilja , right on the beginning, a little apprehensive. ...all three of them :)

Perfect form !

There were probably 30 kids signed up. They were divided into 4 groups. Lilja is in the 3-5 year Olds 

My name is lilja ! L.i.l.j.a. she was very determined to make sure they knew her name correctly 

Aran's day on the job !

biking around

Lilja is riding her bike to keep up with me walking barney far... I gotta work, she has to learn to bike ..perfect combination !!