Home sweet home

The month of April positively flew by! It started off with a friend's wedding, included 40 miles of running, a four-day work trip to the East Coast, an 8-day trip home to visit my family and meet my niece, rocking out to the Cave Singers at the Larimer Lounge, and lots of great dates with my boyfriend! 

Friends, meet O. :) He is beyond a doubt the kindest, most incredible man I have ever met. I am completely smitten!!

With O at the Cave Singers show

The night before I headed for home toward the end of April, O and I went to see the Colorado Rockies play the LA Dodgers at Coors Field. We had fun watching the sunset, half-paying attention to the game while chatting and cracking each other up. Spring has definitely hit Colorado, and it's beautiful! 

It was such a treat to take a week off of work to return to Washington State to visit my family and meet my sister's newborn baby girl! The flight into the Pacific Northwest was perfect. You could see Mount Hood from the port side of the plane, and Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams were visible from where I sat on the starboard side. Once you got below the cloud level, it opened up into cloudy, perfectly grey views of lush green below, the Columbia River, and home sweet home - Vancouver, WA!

Hello, Cascades!

My family was so happy to see me, and I them. The last time we had all connected was at Christmas! My folks have been doing a lot of work on the house this spring and they had just finished up a big overhaul of our back yard. The house has always had a really nice back yard, but something about all the flowers and the soft, early morning light of Spring was particularly breathtaking.

The "Grandma" fairy garden my mom set up for my niece in my folks' back yard!

The irises were stunning in the dappled morning sunlight!

My dad, who is the greatest day trip adventure buddy out there, took most of the week off during my visit, and on Thursday of that week, we woke up early and headed East along the Columbia River Gorge to hike one of our favorite (and challenging) trails - Dog Mountain. 6.6 miles roundtrip and 2,500+ feet of elevation gain made for a tough hike, but we did great! As a perfect Springtime added bonus, we happened to hit the trail during the very peak of wildflower season, which was rather early this year. Both of us had hiked Dog Mountain several times previously, and we had heard how beautiful it was when the wildflowers were in bloom, but neither of us had expected just how gorgeous it wound up being! Wow. 

The scenery on that hike was definitely the most beautiful natural thing I've yet seen in 2016. So many flowers, so many colors! Blues, purples, coral reds, white, yellow, and the GREEN! My oh my. As much as I love sunny, dry, land-locked Colorado, I have missed my cloudy, lush, water-hedged home state. The hike was part classic Pacific Northwest, part Switzerland vibes, part Scotland vibes, and all stunning. I'm so glad my dad and I decided to go for this!

The gorgeous early morning view of the Gorge from the lookout at Cape Horn, along Highway 14.

Wildflowers galore!!

A lovely, lone Trillium on the trail.

Such verdant forests!! I couldn't get enough of it.

And of course, getting in plenty of good snuggles with the family pets is always a highlight of my visits home. Excellent cuddle times were had with Elsa puppy and my Scouty girl!

Last but certainly not least, the main reason for my visit home was to meet baby Søren! She is the most darling little one, and the perfect addition to the Tyler-Ranger tribe. In addition to experiencing lots of Søren/Auntie Afton snuggle times, feedings, naps, and little baby smiles over the course of the week, I was able to reprise my role as my sis and bro-in-law's "official family life moment photographer" and take some photos of the whole family! We went to Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver and took some gorgeous pictures among the spring greenery. 

Congratulations again to my sister and brother-in-law on their perfect little girl. They are such a great team in parenting; it's amazing to see them in this new phase as "Mom" and "Dad"!

While I was sad to leave my family and wonderful Washington after a relaxing, laughter-filled week at home, I was very happy to return to Denver to be with O and continue this Spring's adventuring. Here's to love, family, and another beautiful season in the West!