Bear Tracks for Seth

Tonight we had pack meeting. Seth got his bear rank, his Faith in God knot, and an arrow point. I thought he was close to getting his bear, I guess I should have looked and counted sooner (I'm such a great Den Leader!). We had a fun time roasting hot dogs and making s'mores. I am really proud of him, and it has been fun to be able to spend time with him in scouts. There is a lot of estrogen at my house, so the time I get to spend with him is a great break! Here is a slide show of his ceremony.

Thank You Mr. Fadell

This afternoon Pyper was being very quiet....too quiet. Usually she is my little shadow as I move about from room to room, jabbbering all along the way. I realized that I hadn't seen her for a while, so I went searching, thinking that maybe since she hasn't felt well, she had fallen asleep.


She had snuggled herself and Fannie in on the couch and was watching "Coraline" on my iPod, oblivious to everything! And I got in a few more quiet moments!

What we do while Hannah shops...

This girl takes a LONG time to shop. Sometimes us other gals have to keep ourselves entertained...

So we try on sunglasses,

and take cheesy pictures,

 and generally act divalicious , until she's done!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school. I have mixed feelings, it is great to be on a "schedule" again, but my house is so quiet when the kids are gone. I miss them, they are so fun to have around. Luckily, Pyper hasn't started quite yet, so I won't "be too only" for the next week! She will still be here to keep me company! So here they are in all of thier shiney new polished glory. Lyra actually let me fix her hair this morning, I wonder how long that trend will last!

A "long haired freak" no more

Last night I told Seth that I was going to trim his hair for school today. I have been asking him for quite a while if he wants it cut, I figured it HAD to be hot to have all that hair! He always told me no, until last night when he asked me to cut it off. I don't know if he got the long hair out of his system, or if he just got sick of being called a girl--that really put him out! So here are his before and after shots!

BEFORE

AFTER

Here it is...

I guess I have kept you all in suspense long enough! Here is the post about all the fun things we did this summer, or at least the ones I remembered to take pictures of!

This was Hannah after the first time she helped to set everything up. She was filthy, and it probably didn't help that she played in the paintball goo! Don't worry, promptly after this picture was taken she went directly into the shower, clothes and all! She was very money oriented, and decided that she wanted a job this year. She did set up and tear down and ran the ticket booth. She saved $500 in the few weeks we were gone! I am so proud of her, she did the work of someone much older and was very responsible!

We spent a little time in Alma, Colorado--otherwise known as South Park. Yep, home of the famous cartoon! Did you know that it started out as a high school project that the creators FAILED?!? Sorry, I got a little off track there, I digress...At this town there was a skate park. Seth practiced his skateboarding skills and tried to "drop in" from a ramp.
It took a few people to encourage him, but he did it! Shortly after the snapping of this picture, he ended up on his tush! But he got back up and tried again!

Next we headed out to South Fork Colorado. (No we didn't see and Ewings or oil wells, that would be the TEXAS South Fork!) There was a loggers competition and it was pretty cool! They cut a square from the middle of a log with a chain saw.

They also used the big two man saw, which had teeth that were about 3 inches long!

They had a HUGE pile of sawdust that had toys buried in it. The kids all got to go out and dig in the sawdust and find toys.

There was a hatchet throwing competition...

It was pretty amazing to watch them actually HIT the target, much less the bulls eye! The hatchet weighed about 35 pounds!

We then headed off to Montrose, Colorado. The fairgrounds there had a BMX track. Seth wanted to race, and since I am such a great mom, I said OK. This is him just before the big raceJust after I took this picture, his cousin Boyde decided that his helmet was unacceptable, so he loaned him his motorcycle helmet. Here he is racing..

And he is one awesome racer! Of the three in his race, he took THIRD PLACE!! He has some amazing skills! He even got a trophy, which he proudly showed everyone and then displayed in the camper!
We next went to Tooele, Utah. It was a very long drive and out tushies were very sore, so we spent some time at the pool to relax and cool off. After the cool 75 degree weather of Colorado, Utah summer was a big slap in the face! *There are no pics of this....I was in my swimsuit, so I PURPOSELY left the camera home! (I am smart!)*

Next we travelled to Richfield, Utah. Again no pictures, sorry! I just didn't get the camera out! We got to watch a bear show, get balloon animals from a clown, and ride the mechanical bull.

And then it was on to Beaver, Utah. We didn't actually spend much time at the fair. We went "camping" at a nearby lake. (Or as camping as you can get when it includes electricity and satellite TV! Ah yes, that is the life!) There were crawdads in the lake and our dad used to catch them as a kid and then they had big crawdad feasts. We decided it would be fun. We told the crew we were going to make a crawdad dinner for us all. We made a homemade crawdad catching net by tying hot dogs to a piece of safety fencing...

Then we took it down to the water with visions of millions of crawdads for our feast! See the giant bucket we took to put them all in?

We threw the net in and waited. Seth took a piece of hot dog tied to a fishing line and threw it in to catch some too.
Pyper played in the water, but not too far in cause she "doesenent know hows to swim!"

And Lyra found some shells, which she proudly displayed for a photo op!

We waited ever so patiently with our mouths watering....we pulled the net back out, and.....nothing! Not even ONE stinking crawdad! We could see them swimming around, but apparently they don't eat hot dogs! So, the next day we went down to the boat dock with bacon, fishing line and a newly purchased crawdad trap. We caught 12 lousy crawdads after 5 hours of trying! But, we cooked 'em up anyway with some corn on the cob, baby potatoes, smoked sausages and plenty of Old Bay seasoning and everyone got a taste! It was the best crawdadless feast ever! And we had loads of fun trying to catch them!

We also bought some cheap fishing poles and let the kids fish. It worked out well. They didn't have to have a license if they were under 12, you couldn't use bait only lures, and anything smaller than 22 inches had to be thrown back. (Which meant that I didn't have to gut any fish!) Again, there are no pictures of this. I risked my life just by standing on the same dock as Seth, Pyper, Bugga and three poles that had lures with three hooks each! Could you imagine trying to take pictures too? I only got "caught" once, and luckily it was just on my shirt! I was larger than the required 22 inches, so they said they didn't have to throw me back, thank goodness! They also each caught a fish! *Aunt Kari, we waved at a plane while we were fishing, we hope it was you! ;)* It was a good ending to our summer adventures and we reluctantly headed home!

So there you have it. A very long post about what we did, congratulations for making all the way to the end!

Home

Well, the kiddos and I have made it home. I have been trying to get up the gumption to post about all our fun, but my crabby attitude for today just keeps putting a damper on the situation! So you will just have to stay in suspense a while longer! But we are home, and we are safe!