It was a beautiful weekend in Colorado. Both days were in the 80s, and it was so nice to be outside all weekend. Today was especially beautiful. Look at that sky. I have yet to see a sky bluer than the one in Colorado. Must have something to do with the altitude.  

The hubs and I went "hiking" in Waterton Canyon, which is a beautiful canyon that goes through the foothills. The Platte River runs through it, and people love to walk/run, ride their bikes, and ride their horses through it. It's been closed for about 2 years because they've been dredging the dam in the canyon, trying to get silt and ash out of it from previous forest fires. Of course, about 2 weeks after they finished (and did a poor job), there was a fire, and more ash definitely fell in it. You know what they say...

Waterton is home to bighorn sheep, which means that dogs are not allowed since they are considered predators. When we were walking along the road, we saw a big herd of the sheep up on the foothills. They're so majestic! Here's a few pictures. Make sure to look in the rocks, and you'll see quite a few of them. I cannot wait to get a "grown up" camera so my pictures are better and clearer.

As an update to previous ramblings posts, the fire is contained. Also, I should be waking up to rain/snow tomorrow, so it'll be out soon. Yes, it goes from 80 to snow. Does that happen elsewhere?

I'm on week 9 of my running program, and I ran 30 minutes today. First time ever! If you started the program, keep with it. It gets better! At the very least, you'll be proud of your accomplishments.

Remember last week I showed you a picture of smoke behind the mountains and you thought I was crazy because it looked like clouds? Well, here's the proof I wasn't crazy. Apparently it was a controlled burn last week, but it re-ignited yesterday because we had crazy high winds that were over 50 mph. As of this morning before the sun came up, the fire was at 3050 acres and was 0% contained. The winds have died down, but the fire is less than 10 miles from my house. One person has died, and at least 5 homes have burned. If you are a praying person, please pray for the people and animals who were displaced (and some large animals are still trapped) and pray for the brave firefighters who are going in today to try to contain the fire. Here's some pictures I took of the smoke yesterday. This is on my way home, and they said that it was 6-8 acres at this point. In an hour, it was over 1000 acres.

The rest of the pictures were taken an hour or two after the first picture, and they're all from my front porch/lawn. By the way, I'm still waiting to hear if we get an evacuation call. I have some important documents/pictures packed by the front door, just in case. I don't think our house is going to burn down, but it wouldn't surprise me if we got a reverse 911 call.

The next time I take a picture from the car, I'll be sure to roll down the window. That glare is funky. See the white over the mountains that looks like a cloud? It's actually smoke from a forest fire. In March. Man, things are dry around here, and this is the second fire in a week. We're facing a nasty fire season if we don't get some rain or snow stat. However, it's supposed to be in the 70s all weekend, which is awesome. I'm loving the weather...we just need some quick afternoon rain showers. Is it dry where you live, too?

And yes, I see cattle every day on my way to and from work. And horses and sometimes some emu, too. Right now the calves are with their mommas, and they're very cute.