An unexpected house guest

Saturday afternoon Valerie was on her way over so we could head to the movies. She walked through the gravel and found....


He spent the afternoon in the sink in a pyrex dish with gravel and water. When that didn't suffice, he got moved to a 5 gallon bucket. He hated it, but survived the night. I asked Scott if he had an aquarium anymore I could use and he said, "no, and we aren't keeping it, let it go."

I'm pretty sure he's going to go stay with Valerie. But for now he's living in our pond with about 40 gold fish. He looks content to me. :) He can't get out very easily but he has shown a spunky personality. He is not afraid of people at all and almost never seems to hide in his shell. He wants to be on the move at all times.

Memorial Day Camping Trip

This past weekend was an awesome camping weekend! First I heard it was the first time in more than 5 years since we have had a nice weekend, then I heard it has been more than 10 years, THEN I heard, it's been since 1969, LOL. I think the alcohol was talking by then. But who knows, we've been camping every year on Memorial Day Weekend since Scott's parents bought the property and every year we've been in sweats and holding an umbrella.

This year was beyond perfect weather wise. It was cloudy in the mornings, but the sun came out and we had 65-70 degree weather! On Sunday Scott and I floated the river with some friends and on Monday, we were able to go out on the boat, with a motor, no work trying to avoid the currents or trees and rocks.

Aside from the fact that our trip had a bumpy start... I had to show 5 houses prior to even loading up to leave and saturday we had to drive a sick Jocelyn back to her mom, we did a lot of relaxing. One question though... maybe someone has an answer... HOW does relaxing for a 3 day weekend cause exhaustion?! I came home and just wanted to sleep.

As always, I have LOTS of pictures. I love taking pictures of my family and the property. The river has been the subject of many of my pictures and my next goal is to turn one into a puzzle.

The picture at the top of the post is of Braden when we first got there. Goofy boy in his hat and backpack. Oh, and of course, his glassman sweatshirt.
Daddy and Braden doing pushups. :)

Kelsey, our wood splitter. She actually did split several!!

Silly boy, he was helping big sis with the wood chopping and decided to put the bark on his head. Looked like a bonnet to me.

The usual... throwin' rocks!

Have I mentioned, I love the river?!

Here we are floating!
A view of our property from down in the boat.

Scott and the kids getting ready to go for a ride.

Braden - ecstatic to be in the boat!! He was asking all day to go!

Braden checking out the water.

Hmm.... for some reason this picture reminds me of that stupid snake movie - Anaconda! Stuck on some river with crazy large snakes who eat people.

Baseball in May...

So, apparently Washington has missed the fact that it's May and not October - above is how we've watched all games except for the last one. I think there have been more game cancellations this year than in the previous 2 years Kelsey has played. This post is mostly going to be pictures because I promised pictures of Kelsey playing baseball and I had some bad luck with my camera. Or maybe it was my memory malfunctioning... game one -I forgot it all together, the 2nd game I missed so I could go to Braden's practice, the 3rd game I remembered the camera, YAY, but forgot the memory card in my computer so was able to take about 5 pictures. FINALLY.... I remembered it, so be prepared for picture overload!!!!

Before we get to the pictures, I just want to point out that Kelsey is becoming an awesome Third baseman, err, third base-woman, uhh... third base player???? Not sure what the proper term is. She can throw it, with accuracy all the way to first base from third. She almost had an awesome play. She caught a ball that would've been a fly ball if it hadn't bounced right before her, threw it all the way to first where the first baseman barely missed the ball and the ball smacked the runner in the back. LOL, I call that hittin' the target. :)

Check her out batting left handed!
Kelsey? Kelsey are you under there??? I think you should pull your helmet up just a bit.
Ahh... the "cool" dude. This was the first warm game!

How does a little brother entertain himself during a game? Well, I don't know how normal little boys entertain themselves, but Braden throws rocks at himself.....

Kelsey going for a ball.

Jocelyn, the monkey. This is how she entertains herself when she gets bored. :)

Okay, had to throw this in because it's a typical Kelsey shot. She is a perfectionist. The night before this game, she'd gone to the batting cages and I think psyched herself out. She struck out both times she was up to bat and she was being very hard on herself for it.

Well, since I didn't want to add on a sad looking picture of Kelsey, I thought I'd throw this one of Braden in. He was hot and grandma poured some water on him. He's very proud of his Mohawk, so DON'T TOUCH IT or he will yell at you.

An Impromptu visit with Ronald McDonald

For Braden's first soccer game, we had my cousin's son, Aidan with us. Aidan was a lot of fun and a sweet little boy. I haven't seen as much of him the last few years as I saw of his brothers when they were his age. He kept Braden completely entertained for the entire weekend and as I told Tricia, he is welcome to spend the weekend with us any time!

Anyway, after Braden's first soccer game, which was hillarious I might add, lots of running and laughing, but very little kicking of the ball, we ran some errands and decided to take the kids to McDonalds. When we got to McDonalds there was zero parking which seemed odd because it was 1pm. Even during the lunch hour we've been able to find parking. When we went inside... we discovered the reason. Ronald McDonald himself was there to visit! There was lots of fun, coloring activities, music and dancing, give aways and pictures with Ronald. The kids had a ton of fun even though they didn't win any prizes. I was hoping one of them would win the soccer ball that was given away. I mean come on... Braden was even in a soccer uniform and all 3 play. OH WELL....

Here are a few pictures from that day.



Braden before his first game

The kids and Aidan with Ronald

"smiling"

Slacker

I really have no good excuse. I've got pictures and stories. I just haven't had the time or energy to think of something witty or interesting to write.

We've been busy with soccer games, baseball games, an extra child last weekend, which honestly, was easier than dealing with my own two by themselves. My cousin's youngest, Aidan, spent Friday night and most of Saturday with us. He kept Braden beyond entertained and completely out of my hair. I've got some cute pictures and stories of the two of them which I swear, I will try to post this weekend.