As part of our town's celebration we attended a parade and were blessed to have Jaylene and Ellie with us. Ellie is a happy and beautiful baby. She laughed at our dog Chula a lot, and didn't seem intimidated at all. We even got Jared to come with us (those knees in the corner are his). The candy throwers must have been stingy earlier in the parade because when they got to us they had A LOT left to give out. We ended up with a big bag to take camping.
You can see Jaylene's latest haircut, very cute. She's had it for a little while if you haven't been following her on face place or whatever you call it : ) My hair needs help; I got a trim recently to fend off the permanent ponytail. At my appointment my hairstylist also curled it with a flat iron (this is probably an ancient idea to some of you) & showed me how. I'm considering getting a soft perm. Jared has been asking me to get a perm from the beginning of our marriage but now that Jaylene showed me a picture of a friend of hers, it I will consider doing it.
Welcome to our ool! notice there is no P in it? Keep it that way.
Gma Leslie made this great teepee for our boys. Growing up we had one at my house and loved it so grandma "needed to make one for the boys to play with at home". Yes, I'm quoting her. She's got mad sewing skills. That's Ellie sharing some adorable drool.
We took a little camping trip which turned out great. At least until the ride home. This is our pretty campsite between the turn off for Potter's pond and the road to Cottonwood, an area familiar to the deer hunters in the family. We saw many deer, one that was buck and one that was a very young fawn. On a little hike we came within 3 feet of the new fawn. It must have been born recently because our dog basically tripped over it before she realized it was an animal. Our neighbor says that when deer are first born they don't have a scent. Luckily Chula left it alone after we called her off.
One of the fun things about camping these days is that Bennett is big enough to go on short hikes. This timer photo was the best we could get with a dog, two boys, and a rock crawling with giant ants.
Paxton asked, where's my bubble? As he reeled his line in he discovered he had a fish. This was Paxton's first fish he caught by himself. When asked what we should do with the fish he said to throw it back. Grandpa Davis would be proud.
Besides canoeing and fishing on Potter's pond, we also got to watch the pond get re-stocked with fish. The ranger said they do it about every two weeks.
The boys had both wanted to swim so we stopped on the last day of our trip at Huntington lake which is low enough to have warm water temps. Bennett lost his footing and started flopping around, refusing to let Paxton help him, so Mom ran in with jeans on to get him back to his feet. He said "Mommy you saved my life!" He repaid the favor to us all later on.
Thanks for taking the photo, Jared, to prove that I am not aquaphobic.
This here is a picture of underneath our trailer. The metal part hanging is supposed to be attached to the end of the other part curving away, but it is cut in half. On our way home, near the top of Soldier Summit, Bennett said he needed to go to the bathroom so we stopped at the gas station there. As we pulled back onto the road Jared said something didn't feel right as a motorcyclist zipped by pointing down at our tires. So we got off the road and found the two trailer tires were touching (and rubbing and probably smoking while moving). If this had happened at full speed it could have been ugly. Thanks B. We had to leave the trailer there and have a neighborhood mechanic go up to fix it the next day. Luckily it was far enough off the road and the Highway Patrol didn't bother with it so we got it home okay.
Paxton played coach pitch baseball this year. It's been fun to watch him improve and be proud of himself. He has a silly habit of pounding the plate twice before each pitch, which got a few laughs from the people sitting next to us at his last game. Probably because it appears to take more effort to get the bat up and down than it does to swing at the ball.
Bennett entertains himself running up and down the nearby hill and sliding into the blanket. He also loves the sunbrella we put up sometimes.
Some good friends of ours got us into going to the Hidden Garden tour each year. We (especially me) love it; each year there are over a dozen gardens in different areas that are open to the public to see. Usually there's a wide variety, big or small, formal or cottage, and some very eclectic ones too. It's apparent some have hired help, but many seem to be the pet project of the homeowners. So I threw a few photos in from this year.
This last photo is an exception to the usual tour, the homeowner is an artist who has used her skills ALL OVER her house. She is very good, and very ambitious.
