Spring Break at the Black Bear Cabin

 Spring Break has sadly come to an end.  We enjoyed relaxing at the house, with minimal time spent in the car!  hooray!  We had a play date on Friday with some of Jordyns friends from school.

 The kids had fun jumping on the trampoline, driving the barbie car, climbing the treehouse, and of course, throwing rocks on the frozen river!  Meanwhile, the moms enjoyed relaxing with margaritas and adult conversation!

 We had fabulous weather all week, so we did a lot of work outside, and at night i did a lot of quilting inside.  Here is a photo of my little monster...its her new "scary" face...boo!

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Here is Jordyn sporting all the green she owned, including some little shamrock socks!  No pinches for her today :)

 and none for Aunt LeAnn either...so my little leprechaun decided to help her work on the ditch. Hard to believe the ditches will be running in a month and a half, but we always look forward to that!

 On Saturday we had some friends come up to help us clear out some of the beetle kill trees out on the island.  We discovered several of them were infested with Moutain Pine Beetles in August last year, and knew they would have to come out,  so it was nice to have the help.

 This was the first tree down, and you can barely see Jordyn, but shes down there helping trim off all the branches. 

 The trees were cut into sections and hauled up the hill with our tractor...and some extra man power!

 Here goes another one...T I M B E R!

 Time for a cocktail break with Aunt LeAnn and our neighbor Russell...it really was a beautiful day!

 This was the last tree of the day (they cut down 6 total), and as you can see, there are plugs all over the tree showing the signs of Mountain Pine Beetle infestation.  It was sad to see these trees getting cut down, but necessary to prevent forest fires.  We still have another 15 or so to be cut down, so our island will be a little bare when they are done, but i suppose that will give the aspen trees a chance to flourish for a while :)

 We spent most of Sunday relaxing and doing some fun projects...Jordyn painted for a while, while Justin replaced our telescope stand with a new aluminum one, and i did some quilting.  We did go down to the island a bit to survey the trees, and Jordyn and Daddy counted the rings on the last tree we cut down to see how old it was....105!  :(  Poor tree!  We will use all the wood for firewood and other projects though, so none of it will be wasted.

 And finally...here is the miniature quilt top i made for a swap on about.com.  It still needs to be quilted and binded, but its almost complete.  I made two, one to swap and one to keep, and im glad i did.  I think this little quilt turned out cute!  The 9 blocks are only 3 inches each, and the overall size is 16" x 16".  Anyways, its a secret swap, so i hope the receiver of this quilt likes it!  I had fun making it!