Ben and Rachel in New York

We said goodbye to our wonderful cat, Roxie, on Friday. She had been sick for a couple of weeks, and the vet finally diagnosed her as having an incurable, untreatable sickness. None of you ever got to know her (unless Matt or Jamie is reading this), since her favorite spot during company visits was under the bed. But, to us, she was the most loving, easy-going cat ever. And much, much too young. We miss her so much already.

A less sad goodbye was to Rachel's Saturn, which will hopefully make lots of money for needy kids.

This is how the sky should look in May.
Cassie is loving the spring weather.

We had to build a path between the new(ish) gate in the back yard and the steps to the deck.

Here's how they turned out.
The gate that Ben built yesterday. The old gate is the one in front in the picture below.

Ben just loves spring!

Our friends Jenn and Levent came over on Saturday for a barbeque. Ben and Levent also broke out Ben's beermaking kit (his Christmas present). We now have 24 liters of beer beginning to ferment in our living room. Come to our house in three months and we'll fill you up with (probably) mediocre beer!

We mulched our new bushes. Check out the beautiful red and purple flowers in the boxes above. Who would have guessed that they'd still be flowering 6 weeks later?
And look at the pea plants!
These are our favorite bushes.
The ugly chain link fence is looking a lot better now. Especially since our neighbors are putting in beautiful flowers on the other side, too.

We went for a beautiful ride near Lake George last weekend. This is Rachel's view.

Ben loves the flowering trees.
Even Moses is excited about the beautiful weather.
These beautiful tulips are absolutely everywhere in Albany this time of year. Lovely.

It's hard to tell what's going on here. The picture is taken from directly below, looking up at Ben above the stairs. Rachel doesn't really like to watch him do this . . .

Annie has discovered that she can "pet" herself on the pine tree in our back yard. Just like she does on your shoe when you're sitting cross-legged.

Spring is springing up everywhere!

Just pictures from the backyard and around the neighborhood.


I know this sort of thing is no big deal to those of you in California, but we get really excited about big, beautiful flowers here.

The dog park is beautiful in spring.

Love Spring!