First day of school- 2012

Its hard to believe that school started 3 whole weeks ago!  We've got a 1st grader and a 4th grader in the house. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate much and it was the hottest week of the year so far (topping out at 118 degrees one day)  meaning indoor recess. It was a long first week for the kids AND the teachers I'm sure!

 

 Heck yes!! School:)

And she just had to be a part of the photo shoot too. She's getting so big, I can't believe it.

Big Lake... The finale

Boy, this post has taken me FOREVER! My apologies...

So Day 5 was THE DAY we'd been waiting for. The Day we were renting a speed boat (or a row boat with a trolling motor, SPEED BOAT sound so much cooler to a 9 year old!)  All the guys went out in the morning. And check out what they came back with:

 Tanners catch (with... LOTS of help from Dad)

 Chasetin caught 2 this big, coming in at 15 inches.

 Grandpa's was the winner at 16 inches long

 The crew!  We had a serious fish fry that night.

 I can't tell if she's happy or grossed out here. ??

So later in the day I had to have a turn too. I paid $40 smacker-oo's for a fishing license and I WAS GOING TO CATCH A FISH dang it!!

 Unfortunately, I kept catching these little buggers.

 So, after my 5th craw-dad, I was starting to get ticked, when low-and- behold, I thought I had another one and there was actually a fish on my line. Now scroll up and look how big my boys fish are... now look at mine. That's why I have such a cheesy grin in this picture. Cause I was laughing my butt off at how small it was!!

And here are just a few more from the rest of the week. We went on lots of hikes and did a ton of exploring. 

 Have you ever seen a more beautiful (filthy) face??

 Sienna loved piggy backs. EVERY WHERE we went!!

And this was a little lesson in blogging for me. Don't wait a whole month to blog about your vacation. The details start to get a little foggy!!

I'm so excited! Kadie over at Seven Alive is giving away one of my quiet books today!

Check it out:)

Guess what came in the mail...

Last night my door bell rang at 9pm, Scott opened the door to find a very tired UPS man, telling us he had a very large package for us. Scott gave me a bit of a glare, the look said "What the heck did you order???"  But I didn't order anything. It was a box from my dad, weighing in at 108lbs!!

This is what was in the box:

The most awesomest TOY BOX ever!

 And to give you some perspective on the size, here it is next to my beast of a 2 year old:)

Inside were some of my Prom Dresses my mom found in the back of her closet. I laughed when I saw them, cause I wore those like 13 years ago. The best part though- one of them fit, the other 2 that had to zip over my ribs, didn't quite fit but that's what having 3 babies will do to you. So that really brightened my spirits, apparently all this running I've been doing IS making a difference.

Thanks Dad, you're the best:)

Big Lake- Day 3 & 4

Day 3 was Sunday, and we have a no fishing rule on Sunday. (Nearly killed Chasetin cause he STILL hadn't caught a fish!

My face here says "Um... I think there is a weight limit on this thing!!!"

 

We lounged around all day, and then in the afternoon did a scavenger hunt, I found it HERE. It was so stinking fun!  We paired up and then headed into the forest.  My “treasure not on the list” was an old pair of fishing shoes. Scott’s was an old tent. Conveniently,  the tent was really beat up, but it’s poles were in perfect condition and the same size as ours.  We were missing one right over where the kids were sleeping and so we popped it right in.    I was also lectured by all parties involved that we cannot find an ACORN here because we don’t have oak trees. Honestly, that never even crossed my mind!

After the scavenger hunt, it started raining. And it didn’t stop till the middle of the night. That’s what was kindof funny about Scott finding that tent. I would have potentially had 3 wet little ones if we hadn’t found that extra pole. “The Lord shall provide” became our theme of the day!

This child could have colored Dora ALL DAY!

After about an hour of rain (and being confined under our tarp) we decided to go for a drive. We found some deer out enjoying the rain. 

 

And then we drove over to Black River to see the destruction of last years “Wallow Fire”  it was very sad to see how much was burned, but also promising to see how much has already started to grow in just a years time. 

Stay tuned for Day 4... It's a good one:)

I need to rant for a minute...

You don't mind do you?

So this won't sound very CHRISTIAN of me, but I think that that idiot that shot up that movie theater in Colorado (I won't even give him the pleasure of googling his name, cause I can't remember it off the top of my head) should just go to HELL... and frankly, I'm sure that's where he's headed.   It was a terrible tragedy, and naturally I was horrified for the vicitims, but really it didn't effect me here at home... or so I thought.

A week later we are in a movie theater getting ready to watch ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (I know, in July- I didn't make the movie schedule!)  they are playing Christmas music and we're all just hopping in our seats. Except for Chasetin... he seemed down and kept fidgeting. I asked him several times if he had to pee, to which he said no.  Finally he leans over and says to me "Mom, was that shooting at the Batman Movie in Arizona?"   And that's when it hit me... He was TERRIFIED to be in that movie theater.   I told him no, that it was in Colorado and crazies like that don't live here (made him feel better at least!)  But then he says, "What do we do if someone comes in here with a gun?"  To which I told him, to lay as flat and still as he can on the ground and pray like you've never prayed before!   It made me so sad! This was a conversation that I should not have had to have with my 9 year old. What kind of world are my kids growing up in??  Seriously, this guy has inflicted physical pain on too many people, but what about the emotional terror he's inflicted on the rest of the country?  Have you heard about the people who are arming themselves just to see a movie?  It's just crazy.

Ok... Rant over... days 3-5 of Big Lake are coming soon, I promise!

Big Lake- Day 2

Day 2 began way too early thanks to the car alarm all night long. But there’s no sleeping in when you are in the woods, so we got up and got to playing.

Everyone was itching to go fishing, since we were all too tired to do it on day 1. While Scott went looking for more firewood (we’re way too cheap to actually buy it!) Me and the kiddos went exploring, which turned into a very cute photo shoot. I thought I could photoshop the dirt off of them, but really you can’t tell that they are filthy!

Finally we went down to the lake, our camp site was just far enough away that we had to drive down there, and found a spot on the shore that no one had claimed. Chasetin could have fished ALL DAY!  Tanner was discouraged about 10 seconds after his hook hit the water, and Sienna took over my pole almost instantly. Eventually we teamed Tanner and Sienna up.   We took their hook off and Tanner would cast it out, and Sienna would reel it in. It entertained them for like 3 whole minutes!

They also spent some time picking me every Wild Flower on the Hill. I felt so loved!

Finally we went back to camp and let Scott and Chase go fishing by themselves, entertaining a 2 yr old and a 6 yr old near a lake was too wet of a task to do. We stayed back and played card games with Grandma and more Corn Hole with Papa. Papa let Tanner keep score, therefore he had a blast “Kicking Papa’s butt!”

When Scott & Chase got back, Chase still hadn’t caught anything, so he wanted to go again. So I took him out again. We’re sitting there on a rock, both have fishing poles in the water and he says to me “Hey mom, do you know how to take the hook out of the fish if we catch one?”  I said “No, do you?”  He thought for a minute and then said a little sheepishly, “Well, no… but I guess we’ll figure it out!” It made me laugh. It was good to spend time with him, just the 2 of us. That doesn’t ever happen! Fortunatley in this case, we didn’t catch anything, only crawdads, and a bunch of snags.

We had some awesome beef stew and dutch oven biscuits for dinner that evening and all slept gloriously that night.

To be continued………….!

Big Lake- Day 1

 Somewhere in the White Mountains of Arizona (about 5 hours from here) is a lake called "Big Lake" - creative right?  Since our favorite spot near Big Lake burned down, we went with the next best thing. And I was pleasently surprised to find Flush toilets and running water! Can camping get any better?

Scott had the fabulous idea to leave at 4am. His theory was that all the kids would stay asleep. Ya, that didn't happen this time. So, we're all awake at 4am, and driving each other crazy during a 5 hour drive.  After we got camp all set up, I wasn't surprised to find this:

Scott had some fun building this "Corn Hole" game.   Tanner kicked butt, until I started keeping score, then he started changing the rules on me. You should google the game, it was easy to make and alot of fun!

 

Say "cheese".  This little girl LOVED the forrest!

And of course, we had to have a campfire!

We were all exhausted by bedtime! Unfortunatly, the stars were not inline for us to sleep this night. For starters Sienna was so excited to be in her own sleeping bag, that she took turns hopping from bed to bed. Then she ended up in our bed, by Scott, then by Me, then she wanted her back rubbed, then her feet rubbed. Finally she fell asleep and I moved her to her bed, then she fell off the air mattress, and I found her asleep on the tent floor. I woke her up trying to put her back in, so then I layed her by Scott and tried to sleep in her sleeping bag, then she tried to find me again, and we both slept in her sleeping bag. If that wasn't bad enough, our neighbors were leaving in the morning and had alot of alcohol to consume before they left. I have no idea when they stopped partying, but at about the time they did, a car alarm started and went of every 10 minutes for the rest of the night! It was exhausting- and then the crows woke up with the sun, waking up anyone that might have fallen asleep. The next morning, when the car alarm went off again, the whole camp ground started yelling. Aparantly, I wasn't the only person having trouble that night!

To be continued...............

Scott left me for 3 whole days and went to Scout Camp.

 Chasetin told every body he met that "Mom's happy Dad's gone because she gets to watch what she wants on TV."  I was totally kidding when I said it, although there is maybe a small amount of truth in there. (I even rented "The Vow" (which I thought was just "ok") because he refused to watch if with me). 

This was kind of my prayer for the 3 days he was gone:

I told Scott that if he gets a call from the County Jail to just leave me there, I'll need the break:)  

But I joke, and no such call was made. Fortunately, he's back now and we all survived! 

(He's just not allowed to leave again!)

Wolf Scout

So proud of Chase!  He earned his Wolf Badge, 3 Arrow Points, and 2 Belt Loops at his pack meeting yesterday.   In just a few short days he'll be 9 and moving on the Bear Scouts. Woo Hoo!