Vacation, flowers, and butterflies

We're taking a trip toward warmer climates for a little while. Our trip has been delayed while we've waited for our van to be fixed. It's finally ready - so we're heading out!

Just before we departed, a big event happened for us high-altitude mountain folks - our first wildflower, the pasqueflower (a wild crocus), blossomed in a few select sunny spots. It's such a big event that everyone in the neighborhood leads off conversations with "Did you see the pasques?". Then, they list all the places where they've seen them. It's our first glimpse of spring.
















A second, less flashy flower also blossomed - the flowers are tiny - about a centimeter across. The name used for it around here is "snowdrops" but I'll have to look it up when we get back from vacation.Finally, I saw a Mourning Cloak Butterfly this morning! Spring is breaking out here. It'll be fun to see the myriad of changes when we return.

For our trip, we're first going to Fruita where there's beautiful canyon country near the Colorado River.Then, we're heading to Moab for slickrock mountain biking and trail running. Yes, we're prepared with 13 boots to protect every dog paw in the pack - and to account for the one that we'll surely lose! Below, you can see our campsite from last year's trip.
And, K and R galloped on the slickrock. We learned last year that even if the dogs are relatively sedentary during a visit to the slickrock, they need Ruffwear boots. All three pups had sore paw pads.
And then snoozed in the sun.
To end our trip, we're returning to winter by visiting family in Aspen. This photo is not a winter scene but rather a fall foliage scene - I found that I don't have any winter Aspen photos. I plan to ride my Fatback snowbike up toward the highest pass above Aspen. That'll be fun.I'll be off-line almost the whole time because we'll be camping. I hope that everyone enjoys the slow dawning of springtime in this wonderful time of year!