Yeah for Dell!

Dell is replacing our computer for us.  Our 2 1/2 year old computer has had several major problems over the past year and they have graciously agreed to replace it with a new one.  The motherboard died, the heatsink went bad, and the technician came out to replace the mouse also.  The hard drive crash came just months after the two year warranty expired.  They allowed me to purchase an additional year's worth of warranty and then replace the computer.  So we're getting a brand spanking new laptop along with our one year warranty.  Not too shabby.

The other laptop we purchased from Dell is still going strong after over 6 years and never given us a problem.  We're hoping our new one will also be a workhorse.  It's so refreshing to find good customer service and a company that will stand behind their products. Go Dell!

Jammie Night

It's nice to be up and operational again after our computer was out of commission for a bit.  We love Chick-fil-a and all the family activities and free food promotions they offer.  Tonight was Jammie Night.  Come in your jammies and get a free breakfast entree.  Danica got to decorate a pillow case, too.  July 8th will be Cow Appreciation Day:  dress like a cow and get a free meal.  Watch for a photo of our "herd" coming soon.

BLORA

Our hard drive crashed, not fun.  And no, we hadn't backed up our data very well.  It crashed the day Dave was in charge of the youth fireside.  When he went to load up the presentation he'd put together he discovered the crash, making it that much more exciting.  I hear that Dave still did a great job somehow!

We're getting our first harvest of peaches off of our tree.  They are so good!  When the first one was ready, we cut off the half that was bug-eaten and then slivered up the rest to give everyone a taste. I realized that if that particular peach was in the produce department at the store I would have stayed sooo clear of it.  Guess when it grows in your backyard you're a little more invested.  Our little plum didn't produce anything this year.

Dallin and Dave are off at Enchanted Rock on high adventure. They'll do some hiking and rock climbing.


Yesterday I saw the first cardinal in our yard.  Pflugerville isn't exactly a forested wonderland, but I guess there's getting to be enough trees for a few pretty birds to venture out our way.  After four years of only brown and black birds, it was such a treat to see some color!  I miss the robins of Utah.

We went with a big group of friends out to a fun place called BLORA (Belton Lake Outdoor Recreational Area).  It was an hour drive, but so worth it.  There was a lake with paddle boats and a sandy beach as well as two big waterslides.  All for only $8 a car!  It's part of Fort Hood and the lifeguards are a bunch of laid back military guys.  The lifeguards are what made it so fun for the kids since they were relaxed about the rules.  My boys had nicknames for several of them by the end of the day.  Devin and Danica got to ride the slides even though they weren't tall enough.    Devin wanted to ride with me the first few times down.  Then he went by himself once and loved it so much that he adamantly told me, "Just me, mom.  And not you.  And not you, mom!"  He had no fear and would go head first on his tummy.  At first the life guards would catch the little ones as they came out the shoot, but soon they didn't need help except for escaping the current and getting to the edge of the pool.  I thought his little legs would tire out after hiking up so many stairs, but after an hour or more I finally had to pull him away kicking and screaming.  (He was asleep five minutes into the car ride.)  The older boys and their friends loved the slides since they got to make trains and play whatever games their creativity could inspire.

More Toads

We now have 4 toads:  Cow Patty, Cow Hamtara, Cowie, and Chunky.  Dayton brought the fourth one home last night and he's huge.  Then the boys went on a June bug hunt and brought back a feast.  Sometimes I try to imagine what my life would be like if I had a houseful of girls instead.

Summer Days

The summer is quickly passing.  The boys are working hard on their summer work charts.  But we slip away to the pool from time to time.  Robby's family had us over to their pool this week.

My friend, Deanna, with Devin.  She's so cute with the kids and brought lemonade and snacks to the pool for them.

A Trip to Aunt Suzy-Q's

We took an outing to Aunt Suzanne's house today.  She took half a day off work to play with us.

She had puppets, games, and books set out for the kids

But far and away their favorite activity was her railing-less staircase!

The kids watched a movie on the stairs. Then there was freeze tag and hide and seek in the studio apartment. 

Christine and her kids also came.  We whipped up some tasty mac and cheese for lunch. 

We did some glow-in-the-dark putt putt. 

It was a fun day of playing together! 

Drew's Arrow of Light

June pack meeting was a special one.

Drew received his Webelos badge...

...as well as his arrow of light.

Way to go, Drew!!

Baseball Game

This was our first baseball game this season.  We went for family home evening and enjoyed the Monday night dollar hot dogs and drinks.

Devin loved his hot dog and even ate two!

Danica and I enjoyed the game. We saw a grand slam and a home run.

Father's Day

Father's day 2011 was nice.  We celebrated with breakfast in bed for Dave and a present that really "blew him away", a blower.  The kids had each made him a special card.  Dave didn't have meetings in the morning and we enjoyed having him home.  We went to church, played with the kids, and got in an evening walk.  I'm sure grateful for such a wonderful husband who is a great father for our five kids!

We got to church 10 minutes early, which means we could sit on the front row or near the back.  Devin chose the front row and was quite the little busybody. He sat on the deacon bench with Dayton for a few minutes before the meeting started.  He's so doted on by all the boys and he looked like such a cute little future deacon.  He sure has a hard time sitting still for an hour.  Upon seeing him so restless, a friend behind us beckoned for him to go sit on her lap and he shook his head no.  Then she held up a piece of gum and got his attention.  I told him he could go get it if he folded his arms.  He looked so cute with his arms folded strutting over to claim his prize.  There are some Sundays when he sleeps the whole meeting; those are sure a nice break!

Scout Camp

Here's Dave's recap on Dayton's scout camp:
The highlight of the week was spending 2 days with Dayton at scout camp. It was his first. He earned 4 merit badges. I was most proud of his effort in archery. He probably spent 5 hours his last day trying to qualify with 5 other boys. He shot over 60 arrows (5 each session before waiting 10-15 minute before another turn) before finally qualifying minutes before they were ready to shut down. Dayton then stayed up late to play capture the flag with me. The next day we went to Bastrop State Park to do some orienteering. We found lots of lizards. It is a really nice area if you are looking for a place to hike or camp.
Dayton fell asleep on the way home but we stopped for burgers and fries at the "Good Luck BBQ" restaurant. I am always one to try different places to eat in Texas. They had a Washer tournament going on out back. We then drove home where Dayton fell asleep in the living room for another 4-5 hours. It was a full week that wore us both out.

Dave didn't mention that Dayton broke the compass in the state park parking lot, so they had to take a 45 min detour to drive to Walmart and get a new one.  I had the chance to go up to camp and see Dayton on Thursday.  He spent his free time digging a whole with a metal backscratcher he'd made and playing hearts with the other scouts.  He really had a good time and I was so proud of him for finishing up all four of his merit badges and his last requirements for First Class scout.  He earned his own carton of Blue Bell.  The week was really quiet without him around.  Welcome home, Dayton!

New Driver in Town

Today Dallin got his learner's permit.  Clear the Texas roads!  We picked up a half gallon of blue bell ice cream to celebrate.

South Padre, part 2

More photos from our fabulous week at the beach.

Five great kids!

I asked the kids if they knew what kind of animal made these tracks and Drew piped up, "Oh I know, it's a chicken."

Devin enjoyed flying the kite. 

This was Dallin's favorite beach pose.  He built big sand walls and tried to keep the water out. 

Christine and I worked in a little time together catching waves as well as some shopping for a hat and shirt.  But mostly we were bucket fillers for the castle builders. 

One thing we did this vacation was let everyone choose a treat.  Danica choose suckers and loved sharing and making everyone happy.  Some of the other treats the boys chose were creme soda, oreos, and white chocolate bars.  Fun new tradition. 

We ate at Blackbeard's the last time we came to South Padre and the kids wanted to go again.

Spending $80 for lunch reminded me why we rarely all go out to eat! 

These ride on cars were some of the toys in our beach house. 

Danica loved having her own princess room. 

Eric and Drew were the chief architects on this masterpiece.  It took a lot of digging and patting and a large work crew to complete it in a day.

On our last day at the beach, Drew and I had fun together playing in the sand.  I buried him and we built a sandman together. 

We enjoyed having the Brunners here with us also.  The MASH brothers got some good ocean time in. 

The Brunners invited us to extend our trip an extra day and stay with them in their monstrous rental.  It was enormous enough for three families to fit comfortably. 

On the way out of town we stopped at the Turtle Rehab center.  We'd been threatening to take the boys there all week and I think they thought they'd gotten out of it.  It was neat to see turtles of all sizes and learn more about them.

We even got to feed a huge turtle.

This picture pretty well sums up how well the boys enjoyed it. 

It was a wonderful week at the beach!



South Padre

The night before we left for the beach, you'd have thought it was Christmas Eve.  Dayton wanted to leave at midnight to get maximum beach time.  We compromised on 5:30am.  The kids did well on the 6.5 hr drive to South Padre.  Drew put Danica's pink blanket over his head so he could see his DSi and looked like a pink ghost in the back seat.  Since we would be arriving earlier than we planned, I called to see if our beach house could be ready for us.  The woman I spoke to said that the cleaning lady hadn't been able to get in to clean because her key didn't work.  After attempting to contact the owner without success, it was determined that the unit had probably been forclosed on and the bank had changed the lock.  We were sure disappointed.  We had chosen our beach house back in January to get the one we wanted.  It was right on the beach and was only two houses down from where Christine's family would be staying.  When we arrived on the island, we got to play Choose A Condo.  The agency gave us a few keys for the units that were still available (the leftovers at this point).  The one we chose had a princess room complete with purple bedding and towels and a closet full of toys for little girls.  The other room was a Dallas Cowboys decor, perfect for the boys.  It was a longer walk to the beach than we had anticipated having, but I guess that's why it was still available.  It also didn't have internet access and since Dave needed to work a few hours he had to sit at McDonalds to do it.  The first thing to be done was to Devin-proof the house.  There was a large glass coffee table that looked like Devin fodder.  Dallin and Dave gently moved the sheet of glass into the master closet.  Just when they nearly had it where they wanted it, Dave lifted it to move it onto a rug when it 

EXPLODED!

 

Bam! It shattered into thousands of pieces.  We looked for a broom and couldn't find one so we set out to buy one.  (Last time we were here our unit didn't have a broom and Amy bought us one out of pity for our lousy 15 yr old broom at home).  About this time, Dayton let us know that although we'd heard nothing but "When can we get to the beach, this is taking forever!" he'd accidentally left his swimming suit and rash guard at home. We added those to the shopping list and headed out.

Danica loved the store of course.  She found all kinds of cute things to try on.  Devin had found and broken a plastic toy before we had been in the store 5 minutes.  We hurried the kids along and held Devin.  When we finally finished our purchase I was grateful to get back to the car without further incident, only to find that Danica had a guilty look on her face.  From her pocket she pulled out two pretty rocks that she had taken from the store.  She and I went back in to return them and talk to the manager.  So far this vacation wasn't turning out quite like we'd imagined!  We didn't have the beach house we' anticipated, we'd broken a table top and a lacross toy, had to buy a swimsuit, and stolen something.  I guess that's what having a family is all about, the unpredictable.

Finally we were off to the beach!

Where the kids had a blast building sand fortresses, riding waves and catching minnows.

Monday evening we got together at our place with Christine's family for FHE.

Drew had had a big day and fell asleep.  In the middle of the night he came into my room wide awake to accuse me of sleeping in, "Why is everyone asleep, its almost noon.  Lets get to the beach."  When I woke up enough to tell him it was 11:53 pm he let me go back to sleep.  The next morning I learned that he'd put on Looney Tunes at midnight.

There's just something so fun about the beach.  I love it because it's a relaxing vacation. Some trips you return home just exhausted, but never the beach.  Drew and the kids enjoyed feeding the seagulls.

It was so fun to have Christine and Eric there with us.  Sweet Trevor ate a lot of sand.

One of my favorite things about the week was simply spending time together with our whole family. 

more to come...