the hope of things to come

This has felt like the longest winter of my life. I'm sure everyone that lives in the centre of this entire continent has felt the same way. I was hoping to spend these last couple months of pregnancy enjoying brisk walks outdoors, but now that the snow and ice is fi.nal.ly abating, I am in too much pain to put much effort into walking. Spring has arrived, though, and for that I can be thankful.

Yesterday we spent some time in our back yard. Two tiny strips of grass have appeared like islands in an ocean of white. It is enough to let the boys loose on, so I'm not complaining! 

While I sat there watching them stomp the new spring grass, thousands of geese flew overhead. Wave after wave filled our skies with their victorious honking. It is a beautiful thing to witness their return. A less victorious (but equally awesome) sight was a kettle of turkey vultures circling overhead. It took us a long time to figure out what they were - they just looked too majestic to be vultures. Google Images confirmed their species to us.

We also saw two very large red-tailed hawks with them. The partnership seemed so strange that we were unwilling to identify them as such at first. Again, thanks Google.

The boys were SO HAPPY to be outside. Benjamin was proud of his sweater pocket skills. As you can see, his father is doing his part to introduce him to excellent style at a young age. 

I foresee many, many hours in this back yard in the warm months.