New York trip

As a lot of you know, Bret and I went on a fun/business trip to the Big Apple! Bret was going for a CME (continued Medical Education) conference, and I was going for the sights and the shopping! We left John and Marilyn, (Bret's parents) with the kids on a Thursday afternoon catch a flight to New York! We took our first New York taxi to the hotel, and I must say those guys really know how to drive! They aren't hesitant at all! I couldn't believe how fast they were going in so much traffic and such narrow streets, with sooooo many people. The cab driver said New York in December is the worst time. So many people come to the city! He wasn't kidding. Radio City Music Hall!! I've seen this place and heard it mentioned so many times in all those old movies I watch, I just had to see it. Our hotel was only a block away! We went and saw the Rockets Christmas spectacular show there, it was incredible!!!!! Again LOTS of people!

We were only about two and a half blocks away from Rockefeller Plaza! We saw the wonderful tree and the ice rink, and NBC studios! A lot smaller than it looks on TV. Was pretty cool. Fifth avenue was only one block away and that is the shopping mecca of this area! I went to Sacks, and Armani, which I really felt out of place in, a little country bumpkin like me. The Trump building is on that street. Very nice building, also the biggest Gap store I've ever seen, and Anthropology, JCrew, The NBA store, NIKE, and many many other stores with big names to numerous to mention. I must say I felt the most comfortable in the Gap and the NIKE store, I got some cute clothes in the Gap, and new running clothes at NIKE. Armani was just amazing and ridiculous. Definitely out of my league, it's for people who can afford to spend $1,500 on a single dress, and $800 on a pair of shoes!

Times square was soooo cool! I stood where I've watched on TV for so many years, the ball drop on New Years Eve! It was just incredible during the day, and even more spectacular at night when you have all the lights from the billboards and buildings, and sooo many people! Speaking so many languages! We went to lunch at this little French bistro, and there were two little old Italian Lady's sitting next to us that were jabbering away in Italian. Our tables were only about 4 inches away from each other. Tiny tables too. Every where we ate it was like that. They try to pack in so much in such a little space in New York. After a few days of it I was ready to come home though. Don't like crowds to much.

We went to the top of the Empire State Building! This is taken from the Observation Deck. Beautiful view! We had a long wait to get up there, but it was worth it. We saw the statue of Liberty, and all of New York and beyond. It was very cold though. After the observation deck, we went up even farther, to the very top. It was all glassed in though so the view was better off the observation deck. Just fyi :0

Our many activities included going to see "Wicked" at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway! I loved the show! I was wishing Amber was with me, I know she would have loved it. The singing talent was amazing and the costumes were just incredible! A really interesting twist on the story of the Wizard of Oz too. I've always loved Broadway musicals and this is my new favorite!

Sunday we slept in a little and started packing up to fly home. I was getting a really bad cold, and wasn't looking forward to spending all day flying in and out of airports. When we were waiting for our flight to leave New York we were sitting next to the windows in the terminal and a little gray mouse came out from under the chairs. I've never seen a mouse in an airport before. It was pretty funny! He ran around looking for a free meal and about scared this one girl to death when she saw him run at her shoes. Pretty funny!

We came home to happy healthy kids and a very tired Grandpa and Grandma.

My first buck.

It was Saturday, and I was busy getting up the Christmas decorations for the outside of the house. Bret was home so I was taking advantage of him and had him help me with the lights on the roof. I can do most of it myself but I don't like crawling up in the highest peak. I was wanting to go hunting with Bret also in the afternoon. It wasn't extremely cold and I thought it would be a good night to go out, as I'm not a fan of sitting in a tree stand in the really cold. It came time to go and I was really wanting to finish up the decor outside, but decided to go hunting. So we got on all of our scent lock hunting garb, and I picked up my bow ready for the hunt. I really enjoy these times with Bret. It's just us, no kids.

We drove to our property called Rivendale, about a mile south of a little (and I mean little!) town called Irwin. It's a beautiful place, with a pond that we put in a few years ago, and a small forest, with some pasture land with lots of CRP. Bret has put in a lot of work and money into making this place a great place to hunt and just hang out. We park the truck at the Benson's house, a guy who lives close to the property, and we put on the rest of our hunting clothes to stay warm, and have our last spray down of scent block on our feet and our whole body, then we head out to the timber where our double tree stand is. We walked about a quarter of a mile and we see a couple of does bedded down on a nearby hill side. We duck down and start crawling so we don't spook them. Umm, crawling on the ground in full hunting gear, and carrying a bow is not easy. I also had to roll under a barbed wire fence. I felt very military. Anyway, we're almost to the stand and we scare up another doe. Bret was a bit miffed about that. But she wasn't extremely spooked so she didn't sound an alarm or anything and she didn't go very far away. So we're still good. We get to the stand and I tie my bow on the rope and as quiet as a little mouse I climb up slowly to my seat. Bret follows and I pull up my bow, load it with a nice sharp 100 grain Muzzy broadhead arrow, and sit back and wait. Bret is hoping those does we saw coming in will head our direction and walk right by the stand to a field they like to feed in. We see a deer quite a ways off on a hill side that is a nice big buck but he heads off in he opposite direction. I'm looking in front of us in this high grass and I see some movement. It's a buck but a very small one, coming right towards us. I elbow Bret, and he says "what are you looking at?" I say "A deer" and then he sees it. We watch it for a while and it walks around our stand, and he ends up going up the hill behind us where we first saw those does. It wasn't a shooter. He was only a couple years old, so we let him go. So time goes on and the sun is going down, and it's getting colder. We see the big buck go up the hillside away from us and then we see about six does up on the top of this hill right on the edge of some timber. We watch them through the binoculars, and they aren't really going anywhere. Later, two of them slowing make there way down the hill towards us. I would be happy with a doe, but I really wanted a buck. Didn't have to be huge, just a nice buck. More time passes, and my fingers are really getting cold. Then I see Bret look across me in a strange way. He looks like he sees something but isn't sure. Then he tells me to slowly stand up. So as slow as my legs will let me I stand up. Then we hear a deer walking behind us so we slowly turn around and we see a doe walking down the trail. Bret says "It's the broken leg doe. I don't want to shoot her, she's kind of like a pet." I guess they see her a lot. Her leg had been broken and healed funny, so she walks a little crippled. She gets like 10 yards from us and just stops and stares as us, like she isn't sure what we are, but she knows something isn't right. I didn't dare blink or move a muscle! Bret was behind me frozen as well. She watched us for a long time, and decided we weren't anything dangerous because she started nibbling on something under this log. Then we see this buck come up out of some bushes. It's not a monster buck, but it had a weird rack. One side was a nice 5 point but the other was a bit deformed it only had 2 points on it and curved different. He was walking with a little limp on that same side too. He sees the doe, and starts slowly up the hill towards her. He gets about 10 yards from us, but I don't have a shot because of some branches that are in the way. We keep watching him, and the doe turns around and heads back up he hill, we figure he's going to follow her and not get a shot, but he makes a right turn and goes right behind the tree we are in. I'm slowly turning around trying not to hit my bow or arrow on the tree trunk as I swing around to the other side. Bret is trying to get out of my way with out spooking the deer so I can get a good shot at him. He clears the tree trunk, I pull back my bow, and Bret says "put the top pin right in the middle of him." So I pull back and get set, I wasn't sure what it would feel like to pull back an arrow with thick gloved, very cold fingers. I was worried about my accuracy, because I'd never practiced with full hunting gear on. I put the pin on him through my site, and it was hard to see him really well just because I hardly had any light left. But I could see it good enough, and I didn't want to wait to long because I was afraid he would start moving. As he was quartering away I let the arrow fly and saw and heard it hit the body of the deer! He did just what they do on TV too. He hunched and his back legs kicked up and he took off running. We watched him run off and turn a little down the trail. Then Bret said,"You just got your first deer!" I was really excited and shaking and couldn't believe it! I was so worried about missing or just wounding it or something. But I new it was a good shot. I had done it! Bret was hugging me and quietly whooping and just showing general overall excitement! You don't want to be to loud because you don't want to scare your deer off any farther, or let any other deer know you're there. We waited for a few minutes and decided to head back to the truck and go to Irwin and grab a bite to eat, (We had some calzones at this little eatery in the gas station, pretty good too I might add) then come back and track him, just to give him time to lay quietly and die. You shouldn't go to early because he might jump up and run off, and that kind of taints the meat a bit also it makes it harder to track. So after about a half hour we go back and begin the search. It's dark so we've got our flashlights and instead of starting where I hit him we started where we think he went. After about 10-15 minutes, Bret calls me over and I see some blood on the ground. He said he saw a pair of eyes looking at us that got up and ran off. We were worried that it was my deer and not dead yet! I was worried that we would never find him. But we followed the blood for a little ways and found him laying in the grass just off the tail. He was dead. The eyes must of belonged to a doe that we scared off, thank goodness! But he was there and he was my first! I watched Bret gut him, because I'm not ready to do that. I wouldn't even no where to start. But Wow, what a mess of organs. He hadn't gone far after I shot him, and was probably dead by the time we had made it back to the truck. Which I'm glad because I didn't want him to suffer to much. We got him back to the truck, and tried to take some pictures in the headlights of the truck. I sent some to some friends and family and was so happy to have that first buck. After watching, and taking lots and lots of pictures of people with deer that they have shot around here, it was finally me. I can't wait until next year!

catching up

Wow, a lot has happened and now I have to back track a ways to get caught up.

Our nephew Glenn visited us in September for a bit of deer hunting. He was very excited to bring down this doe, and provide some meat for his family. It was fun having him here and I hope he had a good time. Next time maybe we'll get him a big Iowa buck!

Also in September we had Benjamin's 13th birthday. Which he got a lot of great presents. Funny how the older they get the more expensive the presents get. He's a Saints fan so he wanted a jursey with his name on it. Cool eh? And of course Sam looking his best.

Ben loves Harry Potter, and he got a really cool wand for his birthday. He was casting spells all evening.

A wonderful life

Yep! That's what I got. I have great kids, a wonderful husband who makes a good living, and loves me and I him, the spirit is in our home, (most of the time), and I have wonderful friends! What more could anyone want!? My lovely sister Jaime is visiting with us and we were fixing lunch for ourselves and she just looked at me and said, "Don't you just feel like your in Heaven every day?" I thought about that for a second, and said "Yeah, I do!" Because this is what it's going to be like, surrounded by people we love and just loving life, and I do.

I know I haven't updated this in a while, and I'm sorry. Just lots going on right now and I've been so tired at night I just want to go to bed.
I've been called as the Seminary teacher and it seems like all my spare time is taken up with that. I'm trying to compact a weeks worth of lessons into one hour. It takes a lot of thinking, and praying. Also it's fall, so that means soccer for 3 kids, marching band for two kids, and the hunting season, for my biggest kid. Lots of stuff going on

We had Ben's 13th birthday on Sept 17th, he's officially a teenager, now I have two. Although he still looks and acts like a little boy. I'm anxious to see him go through the "change" should be fun.

We had Glenn Jr Jr, visit us last week. It was so fun! He was so excited to do some hunting. You'll have to go to Bret or Glenn for the hunting stories. But he did get one, a nice big doe. It was yummy eating too! I hope they are enjoying the rest of the meat they took home.

My sister Jaime is now staying with us! She just got here yesterday and it's so fun having her here. We went running this morning and she kicked my butt. Her pace is much faster than mine. She'll be staying with us for about a month. I hope she doesn't get to board.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon!

Amber's new look

Well after two long years of yucky braces on her teeth she is finally free of the metal! It was a good day last Wednesday. She was so excited she could hardly sleep the night before. At the ortho's office waiting her turn. They're about to come off!! I was really excited for her too.

Now she's a thing of beauty. And the first thing we did afterwards was go buy an apple so she could eat it whole! Then after buying Ben some birthday presents we went to lunch at Famous Daves.

She hasn't been able to eat corn on the cob for two years. She was really savoring the moment. All she did was smile the whole day at people and run her tongue across her teeth! She's very happy and now has to re-learn how to blow into her trombone :)

Keaton starts school

Keaton started school! He started a week later than the other kids. Don't ask me why, but it was a very long week of having him home all day with no brothers to play with, and him asking me every 20 minutes if it was time to go get Ben and Sam yet, and "when do I get to go to school?" Also his new backpack and lunch box, his new shoes and school clothes were laying in his room very lonely. He wanted to wear them! But couldn't until school started. Finally the day came and he was up with his brothers getting ready for the school. He helped me pack his lunch and got ready with plenty of time to spare. He was very excited and was all smiles in the car. Which if you know Keaton, that is rare. Its hard to get a smile out of him.

We walked to his room and saw his teacher, "Miss Sue" or Mrs Lawson. She sent me a couple of pictures of Keaton's first day. He made some friends and got to play with lots of fun toys. I must say that Keaton didn't start Kindergarten like I wanted him too. He's in what's called PreK. Didn't think he was quite ready for that this year. So he goes everyday from 8 to 1:30. Which he really enjoys and has a hour and a half at home with me before the boys come home. He's been really into coloring lately so we do a lot of that, and also he gets to enjoy the Wii with out anyone else needing to take a turn.

family vacation part ?

Traveling along the coast of California and Oregon was so wonderful! But we had to get on with our vacation. We drove to Portland, OR where we stopped and visited the Temple. This is where Bret and I were married 18 years ago, and 4 kids ago. I feel it really made an impression on Amber. Which is always a good thing. We had a nice man take our picture, but I wish we would've been a little more dressed up. But one can't be picky when your on vacation. Bret and I were able to do a session the next morning at 7. It was just Bret and I and about 5 other people. Smallest session I'd ever been in. We got to be the witness couple. I thought that was very appropriate.

Next it was on to visit family and friends. Bret had an old High school friend that lived in Kennewick, and she invited us over for lunch. It was on our way so we stopped and the kids had a great time playing with their kids. I must say that the landscape was a lot different in southern washington than what we've been seeing and the drive to Kennewick and to Ephrata was extremely dull, and seemed to take forever! We spent a few hours with Jannie and her family which was nice just to be out of the car. Then on to Ephrata, where we stayed for about 4 days playing with all the cousins and Aunts and Uncles, and Grandpa and Grandma! It was so fun watching all the little cousins play together. They divided into teams and played a game called Astronauts and Aliens. It was so fun to watch. Everyone got along so well and played so much together. I wish we lived closer to everyone just for more moments like these.

Last stop was Spokane to visit Grandma and Grandpa Heileson. Most of that trip was spent at the lake. Which we all love. John and Marilyn surprised us with a brand new trailer at the lake! it was so nice! I wish we could've spent the night there. Maybe next time. Everyone had a good time water skiing and riding the tube, and playing on the beach. Ben and Sam for the first time rode on the tube! It was a big moment for all of us. Bret did the water skiing thing and loved it. He's fun to watch too :)

This is Sam and Bryce watching the big boys Sam and Ben on the tube!

It was sad to see out vacation end. Sad to say goodbye to the rental car that had been our set of wheels for so long, that was now full of memories. Also sand, crushed pine cones and seashells, and the crumbs from many many meals and snacks eaten in the car. We headed to check in our bags, and go through security, they had to stop and check the boys backpacks because they had big sea rocks in them and they weren't sure what those were on the X-ray machine. They kept saying "More rocks." We got on the plane and flew to Minnesota to change planes. We were about an hour and half late taking off because the flight attendant that was supposed to be on our flight didn't show up for work! So we got into Omaha around 1 am and home a little after 2am. We just dumped our stuff at the bottom of the stairs and hit the sack! The next day was Saturday, and thank goodness because we all slept in till 11:00! But I have to say that this was the best vacation we've had so far. It is so much nicer, easier, and so, SO, more fun to go on these kind of vacations with older kids, than with a baby or toddlers! Well done everyone!!!

More vacation photos. We just all loved the beach! It was so refreshing and it smelled so good, and it was so hard to leave. But we had to continue on to Washington for the family reunion.

So on to Portland, OR. and Washington for the next leg of our trip.

family vacation, part 3

The Ocean is one of my favorite places, I wonder why I live in the Midwest. This was a beach we saw right off the highway, it was just open sand no rocks and the waves were crashing against the sand. I love that sound! We almost lost Keaton though when a big wave hit him knocking him over. We got him pulled up before the current took him out to sea. Kind of a scary moment.

As we leave the City we get on the highway that drives you up the coast of California. We are so excited to see the ocean, and look for shells! We found a state beach, that was very beautiful, it was also very foggy! So we couldn't see very far out, but it made for some beautiful scenery.

We saw all kids of sea life on these rocks, and in the water. Lots of start fish, and anemones or however you spell that, and shell fish. It was a bit chilly as well, that damp cool sea air. I loved it. We could here he fog horns going off on the boats out at sea, and hear the ships bells. I could've stayed there for days. We had such a nice time, and the boys loved looking for things in the sand and watching the waves hit the sand. The boys got wet and covered in sand, and we all loved it.

Family vacation. Part 2 Yosemite, and San Fran!

This was in Yosemite National Park. It was a beautiful day, a little on the warm side, but we loved the scenery and all the trails to hike on. Bret and I had our Iowa shirts on for the day :) The kids had a great time climbing all over the rocks at this water fall. Don't remember the name of it. Sorry.

We had to take a picture of the kids running down the trails it was good to get out of the car and stretch our legs.

Then it was off to San Francisco! It was so exciting to get close to the city, and drive through all the hilly streets to find our hotel. We stayed at the Beresford Arms. Quite the cute hotel. It was a few blocks from Union Square, and it was one of the older hotels, so it had all the woodwork and design, and charm of those classic structures. I loved it! Bret couldn't have picked a better place to stay. After we settled in to our room, it was around 9 pm and we hadn't had dinner yet. We inquired of a family place to eat, and we were told there was a Cheese Cake Factory at the top of the Macy's building. So off we walked to Union Square and headed to Macy's. Wish I could've done some shopping. We had a wait so we went out on the roof and had a great view of the square.

It wasn't soon after we had our food that Sam got a little tired. He had finished his pizza, and went to sleep. It had been a long, fun and exciting day! I had the best meal! It was a pecan crusted cat fish, with this amazing sauce, and garlic mashed potatoes with this corn salad salsa stuff. Soooooo yummy! And we couldn't go with out having some cheese cake! The city was so alive! It didn't feel like it as almost 11:00, so many people were still out! We walked back to our hotel, I had to carry Keaton, and Bret carried Sam, they had both fell asleep at dinner, I must say it was a good thing I'm in such good shape, because Keaton isn't exactly lite, and it was mostly up hill. I was very proud of myself and it didn't hurt to burn off a few calories because I'm sure my dinner was way over the top!

So after falling asleep to all the city noises, we woke up and had breakfast then walked to the square again to catch the trolley car to the wharf. It took us a while to get one that wasn't' full of people. It cost 5$ per person for one way. It was fun hanging off the side going up and down the streets of San Francisco. The wharf was a lot of fun! They had this big old ship, like the ones from the 1800's that we could go on and walk all through, it was amazing. Ahh to be a sailor out to sea on one of those. I would've loved it!! We took so many pictures and I just wish I could put them all on here, you'll have to check out my face book page for more. After getting some fun things at the souvenir shops we headed back on the trolley car to our hotel to check out. It was off on another road trip up the coast of California.

We HAD to go over the golden gate bridge! How could you not go to this city and not go over it! It was very exciting and was over way to soon. But it was just amazing!

Our family vacation! Part one

Our vacation started out, and I won't say "bright" and early because at 3 am it's still dark! But that is when we left our home to catch a 6 am flight out of Omaha. We were all very excited to start our adventure! This was uncharted territory for all of us. The boys had a great time in the airport and on the plane.

I had bought each of the boys a few new toys to take on the plane with them, including new Pokemon card packs. I got them about a week before we left, and the deal was they couldn't open them until we were on the plane, so that was a very big deal for the boys. Amber had received two new books, so she was excited to start reading those.

We landed in Fresno, and were all tired but very excited so we didn't really feel it. It was nice to be out of the airport scene and out into the fresh California air. In Fresno it's very hot and dry.

We picked up our luggage and rental car and armed with a GPS, we headed for the nearest Wal Mart, picked up a cooler and some food for making picnic lunches and snacks and headed for Sequoia National Park.

We couldn't believe the size of the trees there! It was like they weren't real but apart of some movie set. We walked around and looked at all the wonder of Gods creations and just enjoyed the very nice non-humid weather, and had a lot of fun.

There were lots of places to stop along the roads to look out and take pictures, which was a good thing because the roads were VERY curvy and winding so some of us were feeling a bit queasy.

We drove back to Fresno and had dinner, and found a hotel. We were so tired that we just crashed and when the alarm went off at 7am to get going again we all slept right through it. So we were a little later getting out than planned. Our next stop was Yosemite National park. It was a lot more crowded and it took us awhile to drive through it and find a place to park and have lunch. It reminded me of driving through Yellowstone last year. bumper to bumper traffic and the road construction that seems to always be going on didn't help. But we had a fun time on the trails and saw some very impressive water falls. So far everything was going great, the kids were being so good and we were all having fun!

Sorry about no updates lately. We're on vacation, and I'm sending everything to facebook right now. So check that for updates until I can figure how to get my pictures sent from my phone to this blog. Or I'll just have to wait until I get home. I wish I would've brought my lap top.

Seattle Rock & Role Marathon

Well I'm back from my trip to Seattle and running the marathon. I must say what a great time I had and well worth all the pain I'm in now. I left Thursday afternoon to catch my flight from Omaha, to Denver, then on to Seattle. All the flights went great with no problems, just the way I like it, and Sean was there to pick me up and take me to their house. I was very excited and very nervous for all of this. The very sad thing is that Sandi, who was supposed to run it too, got injured and was unable to run it with me. So it wasn't as exciting as it could've been. Friday we went to the Expo and picked up our running packets with our race numbers and our shirts. Then we looked at all the booths with everything for runners and then some. Lots of free samples though. That's always fun. We didn't want to walk around to much, didn't want to over do the leg muscles, so we headed home, and just hung out and looked through all of our stuff and just talked. We went to dinner that night. I had pasta and chicken breast. Nothing very heavy and went to bed early. Or at least I tried. I layed all of my stuff out and pinned my number to my shirt, and made sure I had everything. Was worried about a lot of things. Didn't want to forget anything. My nerves were getting the better of me, so I tried not to think about it and went to bed. Took me a while to get to sleep. I also had two dreams about the marathon. One before I woke up in the middle of the night and had to go to the bathroom and one after. Both very very weird.

The starting line

Early the next morning I got up and got ready to go. Sandi was driving me and her friend Lisa to the starting point. I was so excited and nervous, my stomach was in knots and I could hardly eat anything. Sandi was trying to get me to eat a power bar, and it wasn't settling very well. I did manage to get down a banana, and some Gatorade. The starting line was packed with people all waiting to start the run.

The first 10 miles went by pretty easy. It was kind of crowded because they had the half marathon runners and the full together for the first 10, then split, the full went over the Washington bridge. This is the picture of that. As you can see there are people going two different directions. We had to run across the bridge then do a u-turn and go back. It was a bit chilly on that bridge and windy. But hey, I'm used to the wind. I finished the next 10 miles and my legs were really getting tired. At every water station I would take a couple of drinks of citromax or gatoraid or whatever they had then follow it with some water. I used three of my Cliff shots, and one pack of Gu. I had my phone with me and was getting encouraging texts from Sandi, and Bret, and also Amber, and Annette, along the way. It really helped to know that so many were cheering for me! At mile 24 my legs started shaking and I thought I'd better walk a bit. Didn't want to fall down or something. I did walk most of that mile, and also most of mile 25. When I hit mile 26 I got a second wind. Or maybe I should say a 3rd or 4th wind. I picked it up and ran down this ramp around the corner and saw the finish line. What a beautiful sight!!!! My legs were killing me and I just wanted to be done! I saw Sandi and Sean and Savannah and Sydney and Spencer all standing there with a big sign cheering me on!!! As I crossed the finish line I hear the announcer say "And here comes Tammie!" That was cool. I went on and got my metal and found the fruit stand, had a slice of orange and a cold bottle of water, and found Sandi and Sean. Sandi said my time was 5:25. I had improved on my last time by 45 minutes. I didn't really have a time goal, I just wanted to do better than my first marathon. Which I did, so I'm very happy. We took a bunch of pictures and listened to the band play. I really just wanted to go home and take a shower. I was very sweaty and smelly. Nothing like a cold shower to take the pain away! I was so happy to have that over. Since January I'd been training and stressing and planning and worrying about this marathon and I'm so glad to have it behind me. Now I can just go running for the fun of it. Which is what I really like to do. On the way home we stopped at Subway, Sandi and her family hadn't eaten lunch yet. All I wanted was some cold chocolate milk! It was the best I'd ever tasted!

About a month before all of this, I told Sandi that for my after the marathon meal I wanted Fish and Chips. I new being in Seattle that they would be excellent. Sean took us to Dukes, which had the best fish and chips I'd ever tasted! Sean never lets me down! Finished the evening by going to Toy Story in 3D. I really shouldn't have sat still for so long. I was very sore and stiff when it was time to get up again! Great movie though!! Went to bed that night feeling very good about myself and happy. I could just relax and sleep. I'll have more pictures of the finish when I get them from Sandi...... stay tuned!

Summer so far......

Okay, It's the first few weeks into summer and we're just getting started with the adventures!
Keaton in his shades showing me his blue Jolly Rancher candy in his mouth. Lovely picture, I know.
Amber is at that point where she doesn't like her picture taken unless her hair and make up are just perfect. Here we are waiting for her appointment at the Orthodontist. Which we found out that she needs her wisdom teeth taken out. So on the way home, she was complaining to our Heavenly maker as to why we needed wisdom teeth! She gave him an ear full. So needless to say, Amber's summer isn't going well for her so far. I made her appointment for July 7th, so she'll be good before we leave on vacation.

Rascal has had some fun this summer and has been the cause of some ruckus! About a week ago, Amber was out doing the chores and let the dogs out to get their daily run in. While Amber was in the dog kennel filling the dogs food bowls, she heard the goats making a pretty loud BAAAA! So she goes running out there, and finds Rascal inside the goat pen, attacking our littlest goat, Pippin. She gets in there and pulls the dog off the goat, screaming her head off at Rascal. She drags him out of the pen, and lucky for him the goats were okay. Pippin was covered in dog slobber, and a little shaken, but okay. Might I point out that when we first got the goats we figured we'd have a problem with Rascal, and also Cody. So we put a shock collar on them and let them out and the first thing they did was jump the fence and go for the goats. Well they both got nailed! Cody went running back to the kennel, and Rascal who's collar was on high, yelped really loud and went running in the opposite direction. Then ran over to Bret, layed at his feet and said, "Please don't do that again sir!" So we figured he'd learned, but apparently he has a short memory. Amber came running into the house saying "CAN I SHOOT RASCAL!" Then proceeded to tell me the whole story. I was very grateful none of the goats were hurt. And when Bret got home from work that evening we had some more training with the shock collar. Also with this wonderful dog, I was in the living room reading and the other kids were out doing the chores. It had been a good half hour since they went out. Keaton was still in the house, and playing up stairs. I heard him go downstairs, and start playing and a few minutes later he comes up and says, "Mom can u come here, I want to show you something." I figured he wanted to show me something he had built, so I go walking down there and look around the corner to the spare bedroom and Keaton points and says, "LOOK, Rascal!" The kids had left the garage door open and the door to the house from the garage and he had gotten inside. He was wet and smelly from being in the pond, and the screen from the window was on the floor ripped to shreds, and he had clawed the window and the windowsill to death. My lamp lay in two pieces on the floor, and their was muddy foot prints all over the carpet. So right now this dog is on my black list!

We are really enjoying our goats. They love to run and jump on things. They love the table and the kids play set. I forgot what good climbers they are.

Pippin is our little male that got to know Rascal a little more than he wanted. But he's okay.

Bret's been busy with all his land, and getting it ready for the fall hunting season. Amber even got to help plant some corn.

I've been getting ready as well trying to be a great and mighty hunter with my bow. This was my best group yet! I know they aren't in the center but the main idea is to be consistent with your shot. You want them to be in a tight group like this.

But we're all doing great. We've got a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks. Amber has Youth conference, in Nauvoo next week. Ben is going to a Pheasant Forever Camp for a few days next week. I get to fly to Seattle as well to visit Sandi and Sean, and run the marathon with her. I'm very excited! And we have our family vacation to look forward to in July. Can't wait to see everyone then!!!