springtime in the desert...dog walks and hikes and soaking it all in

Have I mentioned how much I adore the desert?
I need to write that right here, right now, so I can come back and remember how dear it is to me in July when we are all melting and gasping for breath in the heat.  

Ha!

But really, the desert is pretty glorious right now.  

All the palo verde trees are bursting with yellow blossoms and we are just winding down the orange blossoms, which penetrate the air with my most favorite scent in the whole wide world.

In the midst of it all, Dave and I are training to hike the Grand Canyon the day after school gets out.
I'm using "we" very liberally since mostly it's my friends and I hiking any morning we can coordinate, and one Saturday Dave and I went together.

And I loved it.

But I secretly don't want him to train too much because he can hike circles around me and I want to be able to kick his booty on that trail.

So I "let" him come with me a couple weeks ago and it was such a perfect date.


In honor of spring Lucy and I have decided it's perfect weather for walking to school...with Bo in tow.

I love when we get to the school and these two can hardly stand to separate from each other:
Bo howls and yelps as I lead her away and Lucy blows kisses as she goes through the gate, her cheeks wet from Bo's slathering of kisses before she leaves.  (Gross I know, but she eats up that puppy love.)

A few pics. from some of our hiking adventures:

We loved taking in that army of saguaro cacti spreading out below us.



Another day of dog walking...obviously before Bo's haircut when she could hardly see:



We love that pup but not so loving what she's doing to our yard:
Yikes!  Gotta figure out how to fix that grass.

The big girls have been working their tails off soaking up springtime at tennis twice a week, which I have no pictures of, but here's one of Grace, fresh from soaking up colors at the school color-run:
 And Claire's been racing her heart out at track:
 It's her first year...the first year anyone in this family has done track, and it's pretty fun.
More on that soon...last home track meet is today!

The book fair at school came and went.  In preparation these girls decided they needed to have a lemonade stand to earn money for it just like they did last year.
And boy howdy they raked it in.  I mean, who wouldn't want to stop for those cute faces?  They each earned enough for a few books and were pleased as punch about that little fact.

I just want to remember these little snippets of Spring right while we're in the middle of it.

Because school is out in a matter of WEEKS, and I'm still trying to figure out how Christmas is over!