end of summer camp-out

The kids and daddy spent the night in our yard in the tent. It is the closest to camping we could get this year but the kids don;t care to them it was a night of fun and memories.




Putting up the tent proved a bit tricky they waited until it was dark and that made it a bit harder. They where just to busy having fun to realize it was dark. But it did get put together.With out much bickering:-)







They roasted marshmallows by the fire pit and had glow sticks and necklaces, which broke so they used the glow gel and drew all over the place and our whole patio looked like a million stars by the time they where done.

Then it was into jammies and into the cozy tent for snuggeling and stories;-)Shawn and i went inside for the night.





they had a great night sleeping in the tent with daddy, though daddy did not sleep too well:-) This is a time they will always remember, .How blessed we are to be able to spend this time with the children, just enjoying them watching them be silly and love life. The innocence of childhood is fleeting but it is something we all should try to hold onto- Remember Jesus said ' Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for it those such as these who will enter the kingdom of heaven'-.

Happy Fourth of July

As we celebrate our country's birthday let us remember those who have and are still serving our country. And as we cookout and enjoy fireworks remember the founding fathers who signed the Declaration Of Independence many of whom where killed or lived in hiding and /or poverty the rest of their lives but so believed in our right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness they where willing to give the ultimate sacrifce . Freedom isn't free so lets give thanks to those who paid the price for us to be free.

And thank God who blesses us everyday.And whom without this great nation would not be standing.

Adam's fishing weekend

Saturday night the girls went to spend the night with my mom so Adam and Doug went fishing. It was a great chance for them to hang out and be guys together and for Adam to try out the rods he got for his birthday. Here they are casting and waiting for a bite. Adam did get bored at first and went swimming in the pool in between bites.But then this really big fish took a worm and almost pulled the rod off the pier.






a huge channel catfish, Adam caught, this was a pretty good sized fish, Adam could not pull him out of the water by himself, he was very excited and had to let it go himself- we catch and release here,most of the time-.





after rebaiting they threw the lines back in to see what else might be biting this evening.





baby rock fish, or small-mouth bass as they are called as well. Adam and Doug actually caught several of these, there must have been a small school of them swimming by us.

a hot and stormy day

today is the first reallyhot day so far this season- more to come I am sure- and they are calling for severe storms this afternoon, the last two we had knocked our power out for a day, what fun,hahah. The kids enjoyed it we are on a dead end street so when a tree goes down the kids can skateboard, and bike all over without worrying about cars. They have even talked a neighborhood dad into putting upa skateboard ramp in apart of his property for the neighborhoodl to use.

Anyhow the pool is just about ready for us to use, we can use it today for sure-whew I am sweating- good thing for popsicles and wading pools. We have also put a huge float in the river for them to jump on and hop in outof the river from. They have even rowed it across the river, with our dog the ever faithful Bandit pulling them along.

And tonight we have Grace's softball it is a bi-week for Madeline so everyone can go watch Grace she is very excited about this, I hope the storms hold out till shes done, and of course until after we stop for snowballs- a softball game tradition:-)-.Adam calls them 'blue skies';-}for the sky blue flavor he likes. Madeline wants to get a snowball machine and sell them here in our driveway this summer the machine is about $50, so I am thinking on it, it would be a good junior business for her to get into. And the start up cost is small, ice and flavor not to bad. Guess I will research if we need a license and how much that is first. I don;t want to go to jail over some crushed ice:-)f course Madeline will have to pay all of that back from her profits- to see how much her bottom line really is-. I think its a neat wway to learn basic accounting , budgeting etc..of cours eshe has already bribed Grace and Adam to work for her with the promise of free snowballs:-) Well when your 4 I guess thats a good deal.