Hangin' With Dad

With David gone so much this past spring, it was a delight that he could be home to go on the Father/Sons Camp Out with the boys. They love camping!

Enjoying a little breakfast around the campfire.

A little smoky for Noah and Josiah.

Wow! Just wow!

Sometimes I wish that David would embrace a love of picture taking. He usually just takes a few photos, all within minutes of each other because he's just remembered that he was supposed to take some for me, and so he tries to make it up, thus producing pictures all of the same thing. For example, the photos just shown from the Father and Sons; they are all from breakfast. That's it.  But sometimes he gets it right, like on the hike he took with the boys a week or so later. Noah needed to go on a mile hike to pass off some requirements for his Wolf in scouts. From these pictures I was able to more fully enjoy the experience they all had on their hiking adventure.

One of the requirements on the hike was to spot different things in nature, such as trees, bugs, and animals.

I don't think it's going to budge.

They sure do love spending time with their dad! (And I love the pictures!)

Spring 2016

Throughout the spring it rained. A lot! Really...A LOT!! We were starting to think the sun had deserted us.

What do you do when you're stuck indoors because of all the rain and mud outside? You play all sorts of different things, including Star Wars. And of course when we play Star Wars at our house the boys are always siths. Xander becomes the emperor with a freakishly uncanny ability to mimic his voice and Noah is the apprentice ready to serve.

You also try to Facetime an uncle for his birthday, preparing to greet him with silly faces. When he doesn't answer you realize that you absolutely must take a picture of the silly faces because it's just too good to pass up immortalizing this image.

Every once in awhile the kids are super good so we treat them to a special dinner.

And we pretty much through the whole thing because these kids are just too funny!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, David spent the majority of his spring months away for work so it was always nice when he was home. Of course when he was home he was working as well...at least, that's what he says he was doing. This is how he does conference calls! Hey, at least the sun was shining for him.

We also made sure to vote.

One evening the boys and I headed up to their school for the annual art show. Xander's masterpiece:

and Noah's:

In May the Pierces came for a visit. Although they were out here for two weeks, they spent the majority of their time in Virginia doing family history work. We only got to spend 4 days with them and in that whole time we didn't take a single pictures. Shameful! They did take Savannah to her spring concert, attended the Memorial Day breakfast with us, and took us to dinner one night. I guess David just enjoyed taking pictures of me and Noah rather than the kids with his parents.  We did have an enjoyable evening with them at Famous Dave's!

And then there was that one afternoon when we were getting ready to leave for baseball and Xander came running into the kitchen to tell me that a fire truck had pulled up right in front of our house. Panicked that a fire had broken out, we raced outside. Our next door neighbor quickly explained that they had had a smoking light so he had called just to be safe and they apparently sent out the whole fire brigade! Three trucks and several other emergency vehicles showed up. It was definitely some excitement for the neighborhood but it did make us a bit late for Xander's game.

They even went in to our neighbor's house through the back. Now that's what I call thorough!

My other neighbor Merly had to park down the street and ran up frantic, having seen all the fire trucks in front of her house and not knowing what was going on. I quickly assured her that we were all okay. In fact, the kids were great at hamming it up! It truly was a blessing that it was nothing more than a smoking light and we could pose for these kinds of pictures instead of losing our homes to a fire.

Memorial Day 2016

The Ward Memorial Day Breakfast, our family's favorite! David had a new cooking buddy this year, Chip Berg.

And each of the kids found their buddies for the morning - Savannah and Carolyn...

Xander loves hanging with the Washburn boys...

and Noah always goes where the action is.

Breakfast is always good;

and the Primary kids were pretty cute patriotic singers!

The bishop always has to say a few words;

and Savannah found a new little buddy during the program.

My handsome men!

A little bball...

and soccer...

equals hot and sweaty kids!

Noah looking on...

and deciding it was time to get wet!!!

Xander and his little buddy Paxton.

Paxton is definitely a favorite of ours!!

When we got home the kids suited up and headed to the river with the neighbor kids. A little while later I got the following two pictures from my neighbor Adore - Celine and Savannah jumping off a rock...

and the fish that Noah "caught" with his bare hands!

Oh, yes, he proudly brought that fish home to us and asked if we could cook it up for dinner. That would be a no.

Even Princess was a little worn out from the day's events.

Around 4:30 it was time to head to our annual Memorial Day softball and BBQ event.

This year the Uhligs brought some kind of stick game that Xander was very interested in trying.

A little warm up to get ready...

and toss!

Next came the softball game. David warming up as pitcher;

X getting a hit;

and Noah running the bases.

The pictures end there because I joined in with the kids and Greg Klein who were playing soccer and we all had a blast! But of course there are never pictures of my fun, ha ha!