Opening Weekend of Camping Season 2014

Luke and Daddy around the campfire.  Consider my heart melted. 

Our campsite was cool, grassy and down by the lake.  Josh was in the tree for every meal and most of our down time. 

Speaking of down time, my mother's day gift hammock was clutch for relaxing this weekend. 

He was so at home up here...

Luke made it up the tree...several times...

The tree was really peaceful, I can attest first hand. :) 

My sweet Lukey put a flower on my pillow while I was running Saturday morning. How sweet is that? 

Ruby had a great weekend, she had tons of exercise, including our little jog. She carrier her leash all folded up for convenience surely.

The Explorer 200 was a huge hit.  The boys have wanted a little boat for themselves for a long time.  They just need a bit more freedom, clearly.

This is my new favorite summer picture!

Josh was the rower and Luke was the shooter.  They had a code -- P for aim at parents, D for aim at dogs.  Love these two...

We camped with our friends who rented to SUP boards, and they let us try them out. Super fun!  Josh was a quick study, and took a quick trip with his daddy. 

Josh was kind of hard core -- he took his fishing pole out on the SUP.

Josh got to learn to fly fish finally. Santa gave him a rod and reel, and so 5 months later he finally go tot try it out.  He said he loves it so much!  (The first hour was rough, and he was down on himself for snagging in some bushes, but he came around...)

He caught two fish this weekend, and won our family fishing derby, both from the boats. 

This was a kokanee salmon, which was delish! (Josh kept saying "I caught dinner")

Luke liked his fishing trips too.  He loved having one parent at a time to talk talk talk talk too. 

This girl ran and swam and ran and swam and slept.  Poor girl has not moved yet, and we've been home for hours. Success is wearing a dog out. ;) 

random extras

This is how tired boys sleep...upside down and sideways.

We decided to celebrate some warm sunny weather with ice cream floats!  We did several different kinds of soda -- lime, strawberry, root beer and root beer salted caramel -- with vanilla ice cream. Josh was clearly very excited about his. 

Chores

Josh wants to earn money by doing chores because he wants to build a go-kart.  He's been asking to mow for a few summers, and I finally let him.  He did a good job, but did not pay attention whatsoever to the path of the mower.  So I was working on some nice lines, parallel to our sidewalk, and he took off across the yard with no rhyme or reason. He'll get there.  And I'll be drinking a margarita supervising. 

FORE!

We put the kids in golf lessons this spring -- 4 lessons in 4 weeks.  So far, they just like to screw around outside.

Luke's group is a bunch of screw offs too, a lot of behavior that is not typically allowed on a golf course.  But I see promise in both boys.  They might just get this golf thing...

BMX dudes

Josh has been wanting to do BMX for years and we just finally let him get the full face helmet and give it a try. He's loving it! This is at the real BMX track -- where they race three days a week. 

He loves his "big air" jumps.

Luke was no slouch himself. They both made several laps around the big track.

The tongue really helps. 

Working hard...

We have a graduate!

Luke's school had a preschool graduation program to celebrate the preschoolers becoming kindergartners.  I love this stuff!

Here he is in all his glory.

They sang two songs and recited one bible verse, and there was some clapping involved.

I just think he's too cute.

Look at that huge smile!

I love his too-small suit from the Christmas Program.  He said it's his most handsome outfit, and he's right! 

Silly faces are his specialty!

A true smile, one that melts my heart. 

We will miss Ms. Jen so much!  

A weekend with Daddy

Mike's been working so hard at work for the last two months, and this was his first weekend off since Spring Break. We LOVED every minute of it!  Here are some highlights.

Ruby got to ride in the back of the pickup for the first time ever.  She digs it!

Luke got a new 18" bike on Thursday.  We rode around the neighborhood, and Luke was thrilled to have daddy right behind him! 

Then we went to Dinosaur Park, and this picture makes me happy to my core. 

Josh was at the BMX pump track for the entire time, but Luke was more into trying everything. Here he is mastering the boulder. 

Friday Luke and daddy brought our camper home for the weekend, and they did little "summarizing" activities to it.  One thing on their list was put this bike (or firewood) hauling little platform to the back.  Luke is a huge helper, and I'm not just saying that like a delusional mom. He gets it done! 

Saturday while they went shopping for a new gun for Josh, I cleaned out the garage. Someone stopped by and asked if this was a garage sale. Uh, no. 

I got a portable hammock from Josh for Mother's Day. I love it, but so do the boys. It's in our living room now, and I wonder how we'll ever get used to NOT having a hammock on the living room. 

On Sunday we had a soccer game in the windy cold luckiness. Luke was awesome -- playing good defense and also making three goals. He smiled the whole game. 

It was chilly, so our sweet coach cuddled the kids while they were subbed out.  

Ruby's Boyfriend

Meet Chip. He is 2 months younger and quite a bit bigger than our Rubylicious.  They took daily walks together before Ruby got spayed, and since then (mid-March), tehy haven't had much togetherness.  This week I've brought Ruby to work three days, and so they're back where they belong, next to each other.

We are so lucky that we have a trail right outside our work. These two run miles together, between rolling around and wrestling each other.
I love Ruby's "smile" in this picture.

Chip got a stick, and Ruby proceeded to take it from him.  Vixen.

 

Then she taunted him with it for a long time.  I LOVE her ears in this one...

 

And what would a dog walk be without a healthy romp through a mud bog? 

 Thanks Karen and Kelly for walking our dog!  And thanks, Karen, for these fun pictures!