Happy Father's Day!

Guess what we did today?

That's right we pulled out the ugly laminate flooring to get ready to lay the beautiful new tile. I am so excited to get some color on the walls and to get rid of the ugly mint green blinds.

I want to wish all of the dad's out there a Happy Father's Day. I want to thank my dad for adopting me and loving me as if I were his own. I want to thank my father-in-law for raising a wonderful man and then allowing me to marry him. Finally, I want to thank James for being a wonderful father to our children and an incredible husband to me. I love you all.

What did I do?

James' damn dog chewed up my brand new, favorite shoes ever. What did I do to deserve it? Only thing I can think of, I rescued her from a life of living in a kennel, gave her a good home with nice toys and expensive food, and defended her when she made messes on the floor (even the night that James accidentaly stepped in it).

"Ewe gross, do I have to touch it?"

Not this silly people, that would be gross!

Brooklyn went fishing for the first time and within the first 20 minutes she caught her first fish. She was thoroughly grossed out until we were leaving and then she said that she wished she would have touched it so that she would know what it felt like.

Sierra also caught her first fish on this trip. Kayla caught two. She had just taken the first one off of her hook, baited it again, and cast it out and caught the second on within 30 seconds. Tyler did not catch anything this time. Although, he did go with my dad and was the only one to catch something.

Annual Pinata!

Thanks to Aunt Myla's incredible talent we get a homemade pinata every year. This year in honor of Uncle Peter and his irrational fears she made us a Yettie, aka Bigfoot.

The quote that comes to mind is from Mrs. Doubtfire, "Toodle loo, oh I must look like a Yettie in this get-up!" Just made you all want to go and watch Mrs. Doubtfire, didn't I? Still not sure if he was trying to entertain the kids or himself. Although my favorite quote of the vacation came from my mother-in-law. Peter had been going around bragging about the flatulence that he had experienced the night before and Sheryl said, "Peter you have a PhD, show your intelligence." He didn't say another word about it, thank goodness.

Water Fun!

Since we were not staying very far from the lake (close enough that James and I walked and beat them there), we let the kids and Aunt Julie (she snuck out before I could snap a pic) pile in the back of Grandpa's truck. They thought that was pretty cool.

Brooklyn's Big Day

We had the incredible opportunity of having Brooklyn baptized while we were at Redfish this year. We went down to Little Redfish Lake where the water temp at this time of year is about 40 degrees on a good day. We woke up that morning to cloud cover and chilly air. By the time we headed down to the site it had started sprinkling a little. I was getting nervous that we were all going to get soaked and that poor Brooke would be freezing. Just as we were getting started the sun poked through the clouds, the rain stopped, and it was beautiful. It even warmed up enough that when we were all done the kids put on their swimsuits and went down to the big lake and swam for a couple of hours. (I put the pictures of that in the next post.)

Fishing for chipmunks with Uncle Peeps

Yes, you read that right. Guess it is popular in Utah to fish for squirrels and since we were overrun by chipmunks aka munk munks, we had to fish for them. The kids thought is was awesome.

Annual Redfish Lake Trip

Here are some pictures of our visitors this year. They had no problem walking right up to the cabins and eating whatever the kids or the dads left behind.

Gangstas?

Should I be concerned?

Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence goes to...

Kayla Gibbons. Utter shock was spread accross her face. In order to qualify for this award students have to have excellent attendance, maintain a 3.5 GPA for 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, and score within the top 85th percentile on standardized growth assessment tests. We are so proud of her educational accomplishments. She even texted me last night to find out if I have her Jr. High schedule yet. When I told her no and that it would probably not be available until the end of July, she was dissappointed. We are only 2 weeks into summer break and she is already ready to get back to school.

Brookie's 8th Birthday

Yes, she got her very own cell phone.

Fort Caspar

I had the pleasure of accompanying Sierra's class on a field trip to Fort Caspar. It was fun learning some history of Casper and the surrounding area. Sierra was not feeling well this day. She had been home all week with a mysterious rash that we thought was Chicken Pox and had the blood test done. It came back negative, but she was still drained. We also went to the National Historic Trails Center and the Petroleum Club with her class. It is so interesting to learn the history of things. I think that I am going to take all of the kids to these museums this summer.

Finally...

...a new post. James has been on my case for almost two months to get this thing updated. So much has happened since April. It is amazing how fast time flies. I think that I am going to make several posts about the happenings around here. Hopefully I don't forget anything!

"Brooklyn and Sierra making deviled eggs for our Memorial Day BBQ"