Hunt Family Adventures : Spring 2024

This past Spring some Eurasian collared doves built a nest on our pergola. We got a perfect view from Tyler's window. They laid some eggs, and the kids were really excited to watch them hatch. Allison made a video about the doves and nest with some accurate facts and some assumptions the kids made based on pictures online. Unfortunately we had a few days of snow that kept the parents from returning to their nest, and the eggs never hatched. The parents came back when the weather improved and tried caring for their eggs, but eventually they pushed them out of the nest onto the concrete. They or another pair of doves tried again with new eggs a few weeks later, but that didn't go well either. There was no snow this time, the eggs had been there longer than Google says it should take for eggs to hatch, and they were getting bird poop all over the covered part of our concrete (which was VERY difficult to clean). In the end Oscar cleaned out their nest and put up spikes so they wouldn't rest to poop on those areas of the pergola.

Tyler was very happy to have his expander removed, though he still has to keep on the braces for several more months.

Cute kitties! I love how Nibbler hugs me!

Tyler and Allison did a great job at their school talent show! Tyler wanted to record his song again at home since there was a lot of background noise (they decided to sell cotton candy at the show this year). His song has a lot of dynamic contrast, so when he'd get softer and people in the back couldn't hear, they thought he was done and started applauding. Allison played loudly throughout most of her song, so she was happy for me to just post the recording I made from the talent show. Tyler's song is "Song of Kilamajaro" from the Faber Lesson 3A book, and Allison's is a song she created called "Unicorn Masquerade Ball."

Granny sent the boys some ties and Allison some cute hair clips.

One day Tyler and Oscar took a walk and Tyler zipped up his coat to keep the midges and mosquitos away. It snowed later that day and rained for a couple more, hence why the dove eggs didn't make it.

Here's a big dirt mound, or as we call it, a "giant ant hill," and some interesting rain clouds.

Tyler had fun at his Marble Run after school camp and the stake Stripling Warriors mother son activity.

I can officially add "The Big Bad Wolf" to my resume now! It was certainly one for the books! In April and May I was involved with Opera Theatre of the Rockies' production of Seymour Barab's children's opera - "Little Red Riding Hood." This is an outreach program where we go around performing at area elementary schools, similar to when I did "Hansel and Gretel" with NOISE in Washington. I'd been covering the roles of mother and grandmother and had a performance scheduled to play those characters at my church, but one day our Baritone wolf got super sick and couldn't make it. He'd already pushed himself through illness the last few performances and that morning his voice was just gone. He let our director know around 5:30am, and I got a call just after 6:00am to ask if I could possibly fill in for him for an 8:30am and 10:20am performance at two different schools. I had to use my score and spoke a lot of his singing lines, but I think it went as well as it could go. The kids and teachers were very responsive. I hammed it up as much as I could and had a ton of fun. I did a pretty awesome howl during the 2nd performance! At the first school they were rehearsing for their own production of "The Little Mermaid," and they told me they would use me as a teaching example to help the kids understand how to support their colleagues when the unexpected happens and that in the theater business - "the show must go on."

Tyler had his class science project later that evening and I rewarded myself with Indian food for lunch after playing the wolf.

In early May after they had their assessment hour at school, I took the kids up to the Denver Children's Museum. They'd just opened their Adventure Garden play area a couple days before. The kids LOVED it! I think they were there at least an hour before going to any other part of the museum.

I finally downloaded the kids school pictures from 9 months earlier. The download codes had been sitting on my tall dresser long since forgotten.

A few days later I took Leela into the vet for what I suspected was a UTI after finding blood in her urine. I wasn't super concerned since she'd had blood in her urine a few years ago in Washington. There the vet diagnosed her with a UTI, gave her antibiotics, and it cleared up within a few days. This time they gave her an ultrasound to find her bladder before performing a urine analysis, but they ended up discovering a malignant tumor. The prognosis was extremely poor, even treatment would have only given her a few more months, so we decided it was time to end her pain and lay her to rest. We had the vet give her comfort measures and brought her home for the next several days to say our final goodbyes. We loved on her as much as possible over those next six days. Unfortunately she was so upset with us for taking her to the vet she spent the next couple of days hiding and didn't get lovey again until the comfort measures had worn off. I should have known. She's held grudges against us before for making her uncomfortable.

I asked Tyler if he wanted to do a school of magic escape room in Utah for his birthday. He was thrilled!

We tried to put on "Red Riding Hood" at my kids' school, but unfortunately the principal said it was too late in the school year to schedule anything. Instead we put one on at the church on May 10th when D49 was off school.

It went really well. Oscar counted 52 people, and they made an excellent audience. It was fun to have more adults than we get in schools. They got a lot more of the jokes. Oscar sat next to the bishop and said he chuckled a lot.

It was also Oscar's birthday that day, so we had cake that evening. We got sprinklers going again for our grass, and Oscar gave Leela some sweet loves.

Mom came the next day to stay with the kids while Oscar and I went on a trip he'd won through work. I'll write more about that in a future post.

Two days later we helped Leela cross the rainbow bridge for a long awaited reunion with her buddy Fry. For years she'd been suffering with arthritis, dementia, and kidney issues, but she'd always been so sweet and affectionate in spite of all that. Once we found out about the tumor, we knew it was time to let her go. Our vet told us he doesn't often see cats her age (she would have been 18 in August), and she never would have lived as long as she did if she hadn't been so well loved and cared for. All of us enjoyed some final cuddles with her and are glad we had so much time to spend with her. She was a lovey, adorable, beautiful kitten and a sweet, affectionate, wonderful cat. We will miss her dearly!

I took mom to the Grand Overlook at Palmer Park.

I worried about how Nibbler would adjust to being the only cat. He didn't seem sad to have lost Leela, but he was extra lovey with us now that he didn't have her to snuggle with. He struggles more when we go out of town now, but otherwise seems happy to have us all to himself.

On Tyler's birthday he was invited to participate in the district science fair with the DNA project he'd made for his own school's GT fair. He had to be there for a couple hours, so Oscar picked him up and stayed with him there. Allison and I came later, picked up his friend Nolan, then we all went to a restaurant for dinner. Back at home I gave the kids Harry Potter themed goody bags.

We had cake and he opened a few gifts that night. He was too tired to open them all, though. He'd struggled to sleep the night before since he was so excited for his birthday.