Springing and Falling in Boundary County

Well, it was springing because beautiful new leaves were "busting out" all over. And, it was falling because in the spring, the Snow Falls are falling with great gusto.

My sisters, my hubby and our beloved Kiwi enjoyed a pleasant outing yesterday with Snow Falls as expected to reign as the highlight. 

Well, the falls were impressive, to say the least BUT they were SO impressive with wild and wet energy that our bodies and our camera lenses experienced a spray bath like no other.  

Mist-covered lenses don't do well with picture taking, so we snapped quickly, enjoyed the sight, and before our outfits were completely wet, retreated to the trail.  

That was okay, though.  Twas a nice walk, and we even met one of Bill's co-workers on the trail. 

On a day like yesterday pretty much anywhere along the Deep Creek, Snow Creek drainages in Southwest Boundary County provided us great scenery and wonderful photo ops. 

We took a rest stop at the Bonners Ferry Lions Club park where Bill will be helping out with a group of Clark Fork students this next Friday.  

As part of their outdoor experiential studies, the students will be visiting the classroom at the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge, learning about fishing regulations and then having the opportunity to fish in the Lions Club pond. 

My sisters especially enjoyed seeing the park for the first time where Snow Creek rushes through its north side, feeding the pond which occupies its midsection. 

We also stopped for a few minutes at the refuge where a soft breeze, blue skies and billowly clouds added a nice touch to this always beautiful expanse of wetlands and open fields set aside for the wildlife. 

On our way back across the Kootenai Valley toward Bonners Ferry where we planned to treat ourselves with those generous and delicious 25-cent ice cream cones at Super I, we stopped several times while Barbara used her big, dried-off lens to catch some nice shots of an eagle, which kept flitting from tree branch to tree branch.  

I think it's been the object of photo ops before because it seemed to know how to put on a great show for us. 

As always, the "clickin' sisters" trip provided a nice break from the usual work back at home, and it's pretty nice to know that we'll have "clickin' sisters" trips aplenty in the future.  Both Barbara and Laurie made their upcoming retirement from teaching official this past Friday.

Lookin' forward to lots of great outings ahead.  

And, speaking of family, while we were out road tripping, our grand nephew Jacob was a celebrity of sorts at Coeur d'Alene's Arbor Day activities. His artwork honoring trees was chosen for the local t-shirt and stickers for students in several schools. 

Jacob, we are all proud of you. 

Happy Sunday to all. 

Dance of the water bug on Lions Club pond.  I'll bet if someone set waterbug activity to music, it could go viral. 

Fun with special effects.  Who says if we can have purple tomatoes and red carrots that lupine leaves can't be pink?