warm night

temp says102 degrees. thinking me and shuggies are gonna take a nice cool walk around the neighborhood after it cools off tonight. maybe hit the paris fair tomorrow night!

And they're OFF!

Heading out on vacation. 2 weeks of sunshine and canoeing on the Buffaloe River. Throw in a little zip lineing, some tandem paragliding in Oklahoma, a couple days out on the party barge in the Arkansas River, more sunshine, and there you have it-A vacation! Weve never stayed at these cabins before so I'm hoping that theyr nice. Shuggies?! You ready to go? Will post lots of pictures! Oh and a hot air ballon ride of course!....and a Harley ride or two :)

Family Vacation on the Columbia

We did some fishing this year on Lake Roosevelt which is part of the Columbia River. Totally misleading to say that its a Lake when it clearly is not. Too me, a lake is a body of water that is cut off from the direct river. A rivers, a river, a lakes, a lake. DOH! We did however find some actual lakes such as Lake Ellen which was much much warmer than the Columbia so we were all able to swim and lay out on the dock. Two thumbs up for Lake Ellen. We never caught any fish that you could count. The measly little baby fish that Kevin caught certainly didnt count. It was almost as big as the worm he used to catch it. We saw tons of wildlife. Turkeys, deer, eagles, and bear!
We did alot of hiking to Lily Lake, Trout Lake, and Emerald Lake. These three are basically a chain of lakes that you can hike to from two different sides. You can drive up to Trout Lake then hike around to the middle lake which is Emerald. The trail really doesnt skirt the lake like you would think but instead takes you up on a very high ridge around all the lakes. Good exercises but rough on the legs muscles. Kettle Falls is almost a six hour car ride from where we live but certainly worth the drive. Beautiful Ponderosa Pine trees and lots of great things to do outside. We had perfect weather for our trip and lots of great sunshine. I cant wait for out trip to Arkansas in August. I hope theres lots of the same. Sunshine and lazy days. :)

Fathers Day

Fathers Day. Oh Bubba you most definetly got those ears from your Grandpa John. Just look at the size of those babies. Thanks for the curse dad! And if you'll notice that all four of us in the family photo attached have them too! Well...as grandpa always says, "It is what it is" and you know what? Surgery will fix what DNA has given :) I had a great time going through all the old photos looking for these pictures. Found some super funny ones and posted them on FaceBook. I would say about 90 percent of the pictures I ran across were fishing pictures, go figure! Found some great ones of Dad and Grandpa Banks fishing and boating. Funny how those pictures bring back both good memories and bad memories.

Oh Bubba your so funny!

Roll those eyes. Your so funny Baby Boy! Bubba, "I not baby! I big boy!"

Mia's Birthday

Happy 10th Birthday Mia! Yea, We had a really nice birthday. Maka brought cupcakes for Mia's entire class which was a big hit then we celebrated with Mint icecream and Maple bar doughnuts at Mia's request. So much sugar. I dont think any one of us actually finished their doughnut. Mia got a painting of herself blowing bubbles, a Zu Zu puppy, and most importantly she got the cash register she was asking for. Now she can play restaurant and grocery store and "movie phueter". Mia's running in the Fremont 5k on Friday and then Saturdays the Big BBQ and Birthday party. Grandpa Dick and Mutti will both be there along with all our friends and their children. I hope you have a super great day Mia because you deserve it. I love you my little lovely girl :)

It was a beautiful day!

What a beautiful day today was. Super sunny and super warm. The whole family spent the day outside enjoying the warmth. We mowed the lawn and trimmed up the yard. I love our yard and i love the smell of the dirt when your weeding. Fresh cut grass and earth. Nice. Mia made a nice little picnic for us out in the lawn in the shade. Shuggie took a moment today to roll in some neighbor dog's poop. Great, Shuggie. That's just nasty. Bath time.
We had running races in the yard between Mia, Bubba, and Shuggies. Wonder who won? I gotta say that Mia was a close second to Shuggie. Mark, Set, GO!
Scraps caught a mole today and left it in the grass for me of course I didn't see it until I durn near ran it over with the lawn mower. Nasty.
It was such a great day that even Bubba commented and said, "I like today". Well, you know what Bubba? I like today too! I'm glad your my boy and I enjoyed our day together. I hope tomorrow is just as great. Thank you Mia, Bubba, and Chellsea. Cant wait to lay out in the sun tomorrow and do another BBQ. Yeah for Sunshine!