July 26, 2011

Here today, gone tomorrow…

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The title of this post says it all! The baby ducks hatched last Thursday.  We didn’t notice until late afternoon, even though we’d checked earlier that morning.  Maybe they all hatched after we checked, but I think the mommy was probably sitting on them so we couldn’t see.  Throughout the rest of the day we had about a million people come by to check out the ducks.  Family, friends, neighbors… That may be why the ducks were gone by Friday morning.  Or maybe the quick departure was all part of Mommy Duck’s master plan.  The ducks were so darn cute.  I’m glad we got to see them, even if it was only for a day.

July 8, 2011

Looks like we’ve got a squatter…

 

This is what we found in our flower bed when we were mowing the lawn on Tuesday.

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This mommy duck decided that our yard looked like a nice place to lay a dozen eggs.  That’s right folks, there are 12 eggs in that nest.  Tuesday was not the 1st time we’ve seen Mama Duck in our yard, but it is the 1st time we noticed her nest.  She’s probably been there for a week or more!  Now that we know she’s there we can see her from Ellie’s window.  She tends her eggs all day long.  Hopefully we will get to see some baby ducks soon. 

July 6, 2011

4th of July Weekend

We spent the 4th in Bear Lake with the Cooks this year.  We headed up on Saturday afternoon.  Eric had read on the internet that the fishing was good at Laketown Reservoir so we decided to take the kids fishing.  Unfortunately, we only caught one fish before the kid’s attention span ran out.  David was the lucky one who got to reel it in.  He was so proud.
Here is Ellie trying out my new floppy sunhat.

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David’s 1st fish.
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A few Sundays ago we discovered a new family activity that we have come to love.  Catherine and JD told us all about geocaching, and now we’re hooked.  We drove all around Syracuse one evening looking for local geocaches.  The kids (especially Ellie) like it because they think we are treasure hunting.  It’s so funny. 
On Sunday afternoon we drove around Bear Lake looking for more geocaches.  We found a few and then throughout the weekend we noticed other people finding the same ones.
 
Here is a picture of a few of us finding a geocache at the Bear Lake scenic overlook.

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After Geocaching, Eric and I took the kids to hike the Limber Pine Trail.  Grandpa Dave and Corey came too.  The trail  is really just a little nature walk.  Perfect for the kids.  The trail goes by the Limber Pine, which is a tree that is 560 years old.  The kids were impressed by the tree in the picture below.  We learned that it came to be like this because of sun and snow.  Crazy.      (Unfortunately, Ellie really didn’t want to come on the hike and cried so hard in the car that she gave herself a bloody nose.  What a drama queen, right?  She was fine once we got going.)
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On Sunday evening we went to Sweet Water and swam in the pool.  It was so hot in the cabin, none of us could stand it.  We were having a great time when the worst thing ever happened.  John fell off the ladder to the waterslide right on to the cement.   He had his lifejacket on and it kind of cushioned his fall, but he still hit his head.  It hurt him so bad.  I was so worried.  I called Dr. Uncle Mike right away and he told us what to watch for in case he got a concussion.  Luckily, he didn’t get one, or break any bones.  He was okay by that evening, and even better in the morning.  Still, that goes down as the scariest thing ever.
On Monday it was too overcast to go out in the boat so we went back to Laketown Reservoir with Catherine and JD.  We fished with a fly and a bubble, my favorite way to fish.  The fish were jumping all over the place, but we only managed to catch two.  It was like they were taunting us.  After fishing we helped to clean up the cabin and headed home.
That evening Alaina, Grandma Jean, and Grandma Teresa joined us on our front lawn for the West Point City fireworks.  Our kids enjoyed them, but were definitely wiped out after such a busy weekend.  Eric has been working so hard lately that is was good to get away and spend some time together.

July 5, 2011

Why this Fathers Day post is so darn late…

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This Father’s Day post is late for a reason… Over the past little while I have managed to fill our ENTIRE hard drive with pictures.  There is seriously zero space on our computer to load new pictures, or anything else for that matter.  So every time I want to upload pics I have to go through our pictures folder and delete a bunch before any new ones will fit. 

It. is. a. pain. 

Anyhoo… We LOVE Eric!  He is the best dad ever to these crazy kids.  We made him this candy gram for Father’s Day and it took every ounce of will power my kids possess to save it until Sunday to surprise him. (We made it on Thursday) David wanted those Lifesavers REALLY really bad.  Eric also got some new running shoes.  On Fathers Day morning we made a special breakfast and then celebrated with our families for the  rest of the day.  We lucky to have such great dads in our lives!

Ellie made this special candy gram for Eric.  I guess the concept was lost on her…  It reads, “Dad, I hope you have a great Milky Way.  Love, Ellie, David, and John 

Very cute.

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