Saturday fishing and playing at the river ...

On Saturday the boys woke up early and went fishing at City Park Lake. Ben caught a 12 1/2 inch catfish that he is so proud of! Grasshopper season is paying off for the fishermen.

Once the fishermen returned we packed a picnic, loaded up the van and headed to Estes for the day. We had planned to hike but found such a sweet spot by the stream we just picnicked and played. It was so relaxing and fun although we were eaten up by mosquitoes!
Anna and Rachel crossing the stream.
Timmy found a tadpole.
Jacob caught a bunch of bugs and put them in paper cups ... Grandpa while cleaning up the picnic site BURNED the cups ... so sad ...
Mike and Lizzy.
Anna, Timmy, Rachel and Mary looking for the lost tadpole.
Barefoot Ben ... our shoes were soaked so we gave up and went barefoot...
Anna ... YIKES, the mountain water is cold!
Joe ... this apple doesn't fall from his father's tree.
Lizzy warming up by the fire.

Pickles!

Rachel showing my first jar of pickles!

The Wormiest Day EVER!

While digging for worms to take fishing Timmy exclaims, "Today is the wormiest day EVER!"

Winston eyeing my tomatoes ...

Elizabeth Celtic Festival

We returned from the Elizabeth Celtic Festival on Sunday night! We had just a fantastic weekend. Mary placed 1st in four dances, 2nd in two dances and won overall best beginner both days. On top of all this excitement we spent Saturday afternoon swimming with Patrick's family and finishing the day with a lovely dinner courtesy of Aunt Marcy. The highlights of the weekend for the little girls was playing with Sophie and staying at a hotel. For Mary of course it was the dancing and for me it was just getting away with the girls.
Mary preparing for the Lilt ... isn't she beautiful! I love the white dress with the tartan sash.


Mary's biggest fans! Anna and Rachel!














Preparing to do the reel ...
Mary had to do it twice because they didn't have an even number of dancers ... wow was she exhausted.



Future dancers Anna and Rachel.

Friday Chores, New Crowns, Service Projects, Dinner ...

Friday Chores have turned into Imaginary Chores as of late. We've had appointments or commitments on Fridays the last few weeks and our house is beginning to show the neglect. Of course, this morning I committed Josiah and Mary to help with yard work at an elderly friends this morning and I get to have my new crown made at 10:00. Not ideal for getting anything accomplished. My plan is to give the 3 little girls and the 3 little boys giant laundry baskets and have the girls throw anything that needs to be put away from their room into the basket while the boys throw all the junk in the van in a basket. For example, Anna and Rachel's beds are so full of stuffed animals they can hardly fit in to sleep. I'm hoping to find a few missing shoes in the van ... it's bad. When the big kids return we'll all hit it hard and do actual cleaning. Asking 6 kids under the age of 9 to work diligently without my oversight is pretty ridiculous but we'll see how they do!

The girls and I leave tomorrow morning early for a Scottish Festival in Elizabeth. We'll stay the night in Castle Rock. We're all very excited! I need to pack for that and prepare food for the troops and ourselves this afternoon as well.

Tonight we'll be going to a friend's house for dinner. They are an older couple who live on a living history farm called "The Bee Family Farm". We're really excited and I'm hoping the carrot of that will encourage quick and hard work from my children.

8 Bunnies, a German Shepherd Puppy and ....

Mike found this picture and thought it was a perfect illustration of our kids. 8 bunnies being guarded by their big brother (Josiah) the German Shepherd. I guess come March we'll need to superimpose a 9th bunny and honestly Josiah will be almost 16 so the puppy will be a full fledged dog but until then ...

Child Labor, Fishing and Turtle Girl

We've been in the throws of stripping wallpaper, painting, adding doors ... all sorts of fun summer projects before the school year begins. So, I told the neighbor kids they'd have to go home for a bit so my kids could help me get some work done and they all decided they'd rather work than go home so ...
Kyle, Mary, Timmy and Shayla ... the little kids were cleaning up what they stripped while the rest of my kids were cleaning the garage.

On Saturday mornings Mike and the boys have been fishing ... it's really fun. Timothy especially is just engrossed in fishing lately ... he spends his Fridays digging up worms.
Timothy
Benjamin
Luke and Josiah
Jacob

And, finally, we bought Lizzy a floating turtle to take to the pool and she LOVES him ... so much we have to hide it from her .... she had it in her room and dragged it into the tub ... Mary had to come get ME to get her out of it ...

Chris Rice - Untitled Hymn

Wow, does it get any better than this?

Chris Rice - Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus) Lyrics

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for love is passing by
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain, so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

And like a newborn baby
Don't be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk
Sometimes we fall...so
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live!

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain, then
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live!

O, and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can't contain your joy inside, then
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live!

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

The 4th of July, 2009

Traditionally we like to go to Estes Park for the 4th of July but with the 4th falling on a Saturday (making getting ready for church difficult after a late night) and a 70% chance of rain in Estes we decided to stay local. We started our day with the boys fishing at Mammoth Lake early with Grandpa. Everyone caught several little fishies and we were able to keep two big fish to eat for lunch. Once the fish mess was cleaned up (ewwww) we headed to Old Town for the 4th of July events down there. We parked at Uncle John's and walked.
The crew walking along ... they are even cute from the back.
Everyone wants to be Mary's buddy ...
The petting zoo ... Anna, Timmy, Jacob, Rachel and Kyle, our neighbor, he goes most places with us these days ...
Benjamin petting the biggest bunny I've ever seen ... I was actually scared when it hopped towards me.
Jacob and a donkey ... Jacob has always loved donkeys.
The crew eating $15 worth of cotton candy ... Ben and Lizzy are looking at Joe because I had just said, "Joe, can you try to smile and not look like you're on guard duty." You can take the boy out of CAP (metaphorically speaking)but you can't take CAP out of the boy.

Our plans had been to also go to City Park to watch fire works but it rained and rained and a few kids fell asleep on the couch watching a movie so we actually hit the sack early to the sound of neighbors enjoying illegal fireworks. Ahhhhhh.