Family Hike and Bargain of the Century

We have been having VERY hot, dry days here in Grand Junction. Whenever that happens, we like to go up to the Mesa by our house and enjoy the same sunny weather with temperatures 15 to 20 degrees cooler.
Mikey had a grand ol' time in his backpack carrier, listening to us tell him about the flora and fauna as we hiked.

Here he is with Kevin on the trail. We would have done a longer hike, but about 20 minutes into it, we were being swarmed mercilessly by hungry mosquitoes and we didn't have our insect repellant.

Here's our boy, who is now 16 months old! Time is flying so fast. I watched a video today of him at 14 months and he looked so different.


Kevin bending over to look for frogs in the pond. Mikey had a pinecone in one hand and an aspen leaf in the other that I gave him. He held on to them for quite a while, examining them, before non-chalantly tossing them to the ground. If the mosquitoes weren't so bad, or we were equipped with repellant, we would have spent the afternoon up there, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy our nature walk.

Here is a picture of the bargain of the century (see post title). I joined a new group called Freecycle in which members post items that they no longer need, that are still usable, and other members can come pick them up for free. It saves room in the landfills and you can find all sorts of things on this: power tools, swimming pools, clothing, furniture, office equipment, landscaping materials, etc. This particular find was from a woman who advertized "misc. infant girl clothes" and I had no idea how much she would give me. I showed up at her house and she packed three garbage sacks full! I sorted through them and these were the items I decided to keep (one pile of tops, one pile of bottoms, one pile of PJs). I haven't counted, but I think there may be over one hundred individual items, and all in good condition! No stains, pet-free and smoke-free home, and just some fading on some of the clothes. Ginny is going to be all set for clothes. These range in size from newborn to 2T. I also hit a few garage sales and got three grocery sacks full of clothes for Ginny for free from a friend in my ward. I have a lot of clothes to wash and sort!

Here is one of the shirts that was stretched out and stained pretty badly... Kevin thought it looked like it would fit him, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Actually I think he pulled a muscle getting this shirt on. :)

And here is a 26 week belly shot. I learned a magic trick this morning. Put on a black shirt, and "Now I'm pregnant...."

"Now I'm not!" Ta da!