Staying cool

On Saturday we finally cleaned out our little pool and moved it onto the gravel. We'll see how long it lasts there... The other kid in the picture is our neighbor who has almost become another member of the family this summer. The kids (and Tim) had fun swinging into the pool too.

Happy bday Claire!

Claire is so happy to finally be 4! She got a new bed for her birthday, along with a bunch of new toys. She had a fun treasure hunt to find her little pet shop present, and then for her party we had a treasure hunt to find the pinata. Here's the link for all her bday pics:

Claire's 4th bday

Snakes!

It was the long-awaited snake show at the library! Yes, it was long-awaited--we got there at 9:45 for the 10:00 show, only to find it was already "sold-out", so we had to wait for the 11:15. But it was worth it! The kids loved holding the snakes. The last snake they pulled out was a 6-ft-long yellow one, called Hurricane Joe--they found him after Hurricane Katrina.

Colorado!

We went to Colorado for Grandma Junne's 80th birthday surprise! All of her kids were there, along with most of her grandkids and great-grandkids (about 80 people total). It was held at the church on Saturday, June 21st. There was lots of yummy food, a talent show (Tim and I performed our Hallelujah Chorus duet), a photo scavenger hunt through town, and water games. Staying at Tim's parents' house was like being at a bed-and-breakfast--I think there were almost 40 people staying there, most of whom I met for the first time. And Kathy had beds & separate rooms/sectioned off areas for every family! Yes, they have a huge house. It's on a little mountain in a little town south of Colorado Springs, with the most amazing view. We had fun four-wheeling, feeding the chickens, picking eggs, going on hikes, and playing with relatives.

On Monday the guys took the older kids (Tim took Tyler and Claire) on a camping trip in the mountains. Us girls and little ones went to visit them that afternoon, and we actually got stuck on the road as we were leaving (there were ditches in the road a couple feet deep, plus it was starting to rain so the dirt was slick!). I had to run back to the campsite and get the boys to come "rescue" us. It was quite an adventure! The next day they took a 3 1/2 hour-long hike (they weren't following a trail and got lost), with Tim carrying Claire most of the time. They didn't bring enough water or food so they had to carefully ration it, not knowing when they would make it back to camp. That whole experience made me realize that the family I came from is SO different from Tim's family! If it had been my family, we would've turned around the minute we saw the broken up dirt road. Or we would've just stayed home! :)

And the weather was so crazy when we were there. As soon as we got there, it started pouring rain. Then all of a sudden it started hailing, big marble-sized balls. As this was happening, a huge rainbow appeared in the valley, the biggest I have ever seen in my life. The end of the rainbow seemed to actually touch the road. I guess even though we didn't go during the winter this time, the kids still got to play with snow/ice!


Sorry the pictures aren't better-we relied on Tim's camera phone because the resolution is actually better than our camera, plus it's more convenient. But we didn't realize it was on the wrong setting the whole time! I'm hoping his sister Keri had better luck with her pictures.

Happy birthday/father's day

June 15th: We celebrated Scott's 2nd birthday, along with Father's Day. We had a celebration at home with our friends the Swansons. Scott (and Tyler and Claire) loved the new ball popper.

Blueberries!

June 11th: We went to a blueberry farm for playgroup and brought our neighbors Briana & Kirstin along. It was a lot of fun, even though it was REALLY hot. Tyler and Briana didn't want to leave. For dinner I made blueberry pancakes. That's when Tyler & Claire discovered that they don't like blueberries after all! Of course, Scott loved them--he probably ate 20 or more while we were picking them (luckily, samples are free). He didn't have any left in his bucket when it was time to leave.