Rough day at work!

This is how Chris spent his rough day at work! What!? You thought Chris was an attorney, not a sailor? Well, in all actuality, this attorney was a sailor for the day! Chris flew over to San Diego this morning to accompany (or shall we say "chaperone") the summer law clerks on their activity today, which was sailing around Coronado and San Diego Bay. Can't really beat it, I guess! He wasn't sure he wanted to go....but why look a gift horse in the mouth. A day at the ocean will do the soul good. Especially when its supposed to be 107 here in Las Vegas! But, all good things must come to an end....he just called from the airport and they are on their way back.

Lovin' the country life....

My kids are such "city kids!" That is one of the reasons I love to go to the cabin. Up there, they find lots of different things to do like play with sticks, throw rocks in the creek, build forts, make snow caves (in the winter, of course) and other things that don't involve the computer or any type of media! Well, this last trip was no exception. During the week, we had an electrician come up to the cabin to do some work. He came by later with an invoice, but we were not around. So, the next afternoon we decided to take a drive into town and stopped at the Davis' house to take Mark a check. I had Parker run it up to the door and the next thing I knew his wife was headed out to the car to meet us. She started up a conversation with the kids about her chickens. Well, before we knew it, we were parked and the kids were running around the yard chasing about 30 chickens. You would have thought they had died and gone to heaven. Even Parker was totally into it.

Here are Parker and Tanner trying to feed some of the chickens.
The neighbors across the street had this new baby horse that the kids all went over to see. (They actually hopped the fence and climbed up into the neighbors treehouse as well.) All this was under the direction of the Davis children who do it all the time.
The next most entertaining thing was this small boat attached to a fishing pole that the kids dragged up and down the ditch in the water. This kept Tanner entertained for at least 30 minutes.
Alligators in Oakley? Who knew! This is what started the long visit to begin with. Mark Davis had told us about this alligator in his yard, so we had stopped to look for it while Parker ran to the door with the check. It looks totally real. It looked especially funny when the kids had it with a chain around its neck and staked by the ditch. It looked like a pet!

This is another one of my favorite things about the cabin. I can send the boys at to roam around and not worry about them! One day while the Waid's were visiting, Parker, Carter and Davis decided to walk down to the tennis courts and play a little tennis. After they were done, they started to walk back to the cabin. We came along on the ATV's and picked them up....but it was nice to know I didn't have to worry abou them.

Tanner finally gets a chicken to hold!
Carter too! Tanner LOVES horses! I say its in his blood. He actually climbed right through the fence to pet them without any fear at all.
Here are the boys admiring the egg that Sister Davis gave us from their chicken coop! I don't know if they have ever put two and two together since we buy our eggs in cartons from the store. This was such a fun afternoon. We had not intended to play in the country that day, but the kids had a BLAST!

The Final Days of School...

Can it possibly be summer already??? It just seems like yesterday that last summer was here. Where has the time gone? Well, the last week a school was a busy one for the boys. There were many "parties" and great excitement on their part. We had a great school year with fantastic teachers. I hate to see the year end.

Here is Parker with his 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Baril. We will miss seeing her around next year as she is "retiring" to be a stay at home mom to her sweet little girl, Ella. Can't say I blame her.
Carter is enjoying the "fruits of his labors," i.e. a pizza party for mastering 30 sight word lists (300 words) this year. He worked very hard to get those sight words done. He has had an incredible 1st grade year.
Here is Carter with his 1st grade teacher, Ms. Ecklund. We love her to death! She has been the most amazing teacher and such a great friend this year. She is going to be teaching kindergarten next year, so we hope she sticks around for at least another year so Tanner can have her.
Mom, Dad and Parker at the year end awards assembly. Parker received honor for all A's the last trimester, the Principals all year honor roll and a special honor in math. We are so proud of his accomplishments.

Here are the boys on their last day of school. Now on to 2nd and 5th grades! WOW!

Out with the old....in with the new

For the past couple of months, Carter has been on a "quest" to lose his first tooth. It seems that everyone around him, including both of his brothers have lost teeth and had visits from the "tooth fairy!" Carter will turn 8 in September, be in 2nd grade and is dying to lose a tooth. Well, on a visit to the dentist last December, he told Carter that his teeth were in there pretty solid and it may be ANOTHER year before they came out. Now, I wasn't too surprised that Carter has hung on to his teeth this long. He didn't cut his first tooth until right before his first birthday. On top of that, he cut the top two teeth first, not the customary bottom two. Well, every night for the past week, Carter has wiggled and wiggled and yanked and yanked that tooth. Last night it finally popped out! He was so thrilled. Of course, he said the tooth fairy needed to bring him "five bucks!" Ha! He was lucky the tooth fairy could scrounge up a couple of "golden dollars" (the new one dollar coins). Whew! Crisis overted.
Here's Carter's new look! The other one is loose too, so I am sure it won't be long before it follows. He is one happy boy. Thank heavens he still has two and a half days of school left to show all of his friends.
This is Tanner's new look. He too, was missing his two front teeth. Around February he bonked his mouth on the trampoline. I didn't think much about it, but the tooth died and an abscess formed. Long story short, we had to pull the front two teeth. But, now, with the help of some "cosmetic dentistry" he has some new front teeth. He is so thrilled about them, he has been showing everyone. Hopefully they will help with his speech also.

Our last tooth story comes from Parker. He has been in braces for the last 18 months. We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for him to lose a few teeth and have some new ones grow in. But, this process has been agonizingly slow and at his cleaning appointment, the dentist "suggested" maybe we help those along. So a few weeks ago, Parker enjoyed his first experience with "laughing gas" and had SIX teeth pulled. Essentially, they were all shells and the gums were hanging on for dear life. One tooth had a bracket on it and there was more bracket than tooth! We have actually seen a couple of teeth pop through now that the others are out of the way.

Needless to say....we have been keeping food on our dentist's table! Hopefully we are done for awhile.