Camping #2

The last time we went camping, the boys were fascinated with the deer family that liked to walk through our camp each night. This time, they pretty used to the ungulate collection that we shared space with . Fortunately we didn't run into the bear that Cousin Nate saw on his way to visit us.

We spent more time on the boat on this trip. Our friend Travis came out and he seemed to be the most daring on the tube.

Courtney and Connor gave it a try.

We all went out as much as we could on the boat. And our friend Jonathan came out with his son.

Idaho

Daddy took the kids to Idaho to visit with Grandpa Tim because Mommy took some classes over the summer. Apparently, they showed up in Salmon at the peak of mosquito system because the little buggers were so bad that they spent most of the time inside playing with legos and their amazing cousin Austin.

Austin was the hero that supplied most of the stash of legos for the building. The boys love their legos.

Grandpa loved having the kids visit, as usual. Even with Brownie screaming (and the girl can scream) in his ear right before they left.

When they weren't playing legos, they were having a good time with the laptop. It's nice to know that even though Austin is getting ready to start high school he still has time for playing with his little cousins.

The boys love playing together. And Austin is taking a break before he has to go home and get ready for football.

Camping Trip #1

We decided to expand our camping expeditions this year and went out for five entire days. So, we packed up and headed to Frenchman's Lake for some family time.

The boys (all three of them) managed to catch their limit of fish all day. It was mostly rainbow trout, but our fridge is full for quite awhile. We will not go without our essential fatty acids all winter.

The boys woke up early to fish with daddy. Most of the time they were out by the nearby rocks. However, they ended the day on the banks by us. We also learned about a new defintion of time. When Daddy says he's going fishing for "twenty minutes", he'll come back after an hour. We're going to use this same explanation of time the next time we go to Joann's or another fabric store....

Daddy did have an unfortunate experience and in the act of doing a good deed (keeping a lure out of someone's face...) he ended up with a fish hook in his finger. It went through the nerve, which made it a rather painful experience and we decided it should be treated by an expert, so we took a camping hiatus to go to the hospital.

The boys played with their friends, Connor & Bradly all day long. They also played with Cheyanne & Shawnee. The kids played very well together from sun up to sun down. We had some really tired and DIRTY kids.

Brady became very good at catching frogs. He waited until they came out every night and they had a great time.

We did end up leaving a little bit early. We were rained out and ended up in the truck at about midnight the night before we were supposed to leave. We had to wait to go and get the boat, or we would just headed for home.

Bronwynn turns one!

Who would have thought that a year could fly by so fast with three kids, two dogs, one cat, two full-time jobs and almost thirty college credits. Whew!

However, here we are celerating the addition of Brownie to our family. We are lucky in many ways. The luckiest thing is that when I get sick carrying my children, my body takes it out on me and not them. We are even luckier that this time I noticed the pain right away and it was able to be treated quickly....although I do think I had the longest ride back from Truckee ever!!!

So this Mother's Day, we celebrated. I always keep "Happy Birthday" signs around for just such an occassion. This year, however, I had to break down and buy some new ones....with butterflies. Somehow, the dinosaurs just didn't seem right. Everybody liked the hats.

I didn't make the cake this time, but it came out pretty. The lady couldn't figure out for the life of her why I was having her put something about dessert on a dessert until I explained that my daughter's nickname is "Brownie".

We had great friends-like the amazing Wamre women-come out to the house.

And Nana Shelby was around, too. It was a wonderful day!!!

Grandparents Visit

In honor of Brownie's baptism, Mamina & Grandpa Bill came to visit. Because the kids were out of school for Good Friday (and I was not...) the Grandparents got to take the kids to the Wilbur D. May Museum for the Dragons and Dinosaur exhibit. As you can see, a good time was had by all.

Bronwynn's Baptism

This year we celebrated in Easter in the most amazing way~we baptised Brownie. Our church was recently closed due to a lack of membership. So we have started attending St. Catherine's of Sienna which is held in the beautiful chapel of Bishop Manogue High School.

My amazing friend, Cheryl, along with Papa Bob and Nana Shelby agreed to serve as her godparents. Cheryl has been a blessing to me as a friend for a long time and I am so excited to have share such a special place in Brownie's life now, too. Cheryl befriended me when I started teaching at Mendive and as it turns out, we were pregnant at the same time with all of our children (except her oldest). It is so wonderful to have a friend like her!

Probably the best part was being able to have all of the kids together for the Easter egg hunt. We all had a great time!

Despite the gact that Brownie is almost a year, she was still able to fit into the christening gown, which is made out of the remainder of the fabric that my wedding dress is made out of. It also is beaded with the same designs from the bottom of my dress. Mamina made it for us (as she did my wedding dress) it is perfect!

Brady's 5th Birthday!

Brady has had a long-standing love of pirates (or Raiders) and so this year for his birthday we thought it only fitting that he have such a party. It was complete wtih a scavenger hunt for buried (well, not actually buried in our case) treasure. In fact the kids were so excited about the process that they forgot all the extra loot that we had for them. Brody got to be the official map reader.

We had Pin the treasure on the map, everyone got to get some new "ink". There were pirate hats and lots of goodies. We had a great time erupting a volcano at the end of the day (after all, aren't there volcanos on deserted islands). Brady was happy. That was the best part of all!