Family Campout

 Last weekend we had a family campout in the backyard.  Ty brought out his Wii shotgun to protect us from bears.   We sat around the campfire and chatted for a little while...a very little while because the boys kept asking to go to bed (!) since we were sleeping in the tent.  While we were sitting around the campfire, we were talking about where Reecie was going to sleep and what she does at night and stuff like that.  Ty asked me if she kills things at night.  I said something like..."Oh, I'm sure sometimes she does."  And he said, "So what do we do with the things she kills?  Do you pick them up and put them in the toaster?"  HA!  I think my cooking was being insulted.  Justin about fell off the bench laughing.

Finally, the boys got their wish, and we went to bed.  It's been getting a little chilly at night lately, so I had them all bundled up in layers of PJ's and sweatshirts and blankets.  But their Daddy put a heater in the tent, so turns out they didn't need any of that stuff.  I slept with just one blanket over me and was fine even without getting in my sleeping bag. 

We had a blast, even if we did all get the sniffles the next day.  I'm so thankful we have a yard we can camp in now!!

My Little Artist

Here is Ty's picture of Jesus that he drew on the way to church this week.

Ellie's 2

Miss Ellie's 2nd Birthday party

 

Take Me Out To the Ballgame

After Ada's birthday party, we headed to Victory Field to watch the Indians play the Columbus Clippers.  Justin got free tickets through his work, so we decided to see what the boys thought of a real baseball game.  Dallas wasn't really too interested, except when a batter broke his bat and it went flying into the stands.  He thought that was pretty cool.  The rest of the time he went up and down our row pushing the seats up and down.



Ty was more interested than Dallas was.  Of course, we had to enjoy some hot dogs and Cracker Jacks.


Ada's 9

Miss Ada's 9th Birthday party at the park

Picnic in the Park

A few weeks ago, Mom had Ellie on a Saturday, so she and I took the 3 musketeers to the park for a picnic.  They had a blast on the slides!



And feeding the ducks!

 



Dallas discovered that he loves watermelon.

 

Just about all Ty wanted to do (besides feed the ducks) was go down the curly slide.  I remember going down it alot when I was a kid, too.  I went down a couple times with Ty.  Funny, I don't remember it making me so dizzy when I was a kid!

New Preschool

August 8th was the boys' first day at their new preschool, Faithful Beginnings.

 



Here's Dallas on his first ever day of school.  He did great, no crying when I dropped him off.  He seems to like going to school just fine.  His teacher's name is Miss Ginger.

 



Ty is getting used to his new school, although he says he misses his old school and Mrs. Heideman (of course). His new teacher's name is Miss Tina, and he really likes her.  Right now he is learning how to write his numbers.  He has showed me all of them except 5, 6 and 9.

Iron River 2012

This year we took the long route just to go by Black River Falls and get Dallas' picture in front of the moose.

 



Here's Ty's first catch of the year, which he caught completely on his own.



Ty measuring my catch

 

Stories at Nap time

 



This year the Olympics were on, so here's Ty doing his pommel horse routine the night we watched the men's gymnastics competition.

 



This bass is one that I hooked and let Ty land.  So right as we were taking this picture I told Ty it was a picture of our "team effort" fish, and he said, "Daddy, look at our Team Pteranodon fish (from Dinosaur Train).  The next picture is of me laughing uncontrollably.

 

Here's Dallas' first solo catch of the year.  He wouldn't hold it though, so Ty's doing the honors.

 

Justin's FIRST muskie of 2012.  He caught 2 this year.  Both at night.  It was a good year!

 



 

Watching for Daddy's boat with his "nockylars."

 

One night's haul





More gymnastics

 



Mammaw on the boat!

 

 

Our cabin

 



Cousins fishing

 

 

Justin caught this snapping turtle out in the middle of the lake.

 



 

Dallas helping Uncle David build a tent.



 

The boys spent a LOT of time playing in the dirt.  Which was unfortunate because there was no washer at our cabin, and somehow I managed to forget to pack a whole stack of shorts for both of them, so they were limited on clothes this year.  I ended up having to go to the second hand store in Iron River and get them some shorts and pants.

 



Mammaw fishing!

 

Ty and "Uncle Gravin"