Women Drivers

Grandpa Jackson surprised us several weeks ago when he called to see if it would be ok if he flew in that very night. We were thrilled of course and that was only the beginning of the fun! It was the last week of school for Allie, her first week of piano lessons, and time to get to work on our backyard but renting some serious equipment. Just in case you were wondering... bobcats are really fun to drive. Except for when they tip over. And stump grinders are very heavy but they get the job done. Jason had to work, a class and go to LA during the week so he ended up missing out on a lot of the fun.

Ok, here are a few before shots of the backyard. Well, this is after it was mostly destroyed by last years remodeling adventures but before Grandpa's visit:
We are taking down the apple tree in these shots.
The shot below is the wall that used to separate the backyard from the front and where the garden plot was:
This is of course a bobcat... on it's side.

And now our wonderful neighbors coming to the rescue... again.
It's all fun and games once everything is righted again.

The not very fun stump grinder working on the apple tree stump. Ugh that thing was a beast.

A casualty of the bobcat. No not the roll over accident, the yanking the old sprinkler pipe out of the ground and having a piece fly off and hit you in the face which made you lip swell up and turn black and blue and blood everywhere and you are afraid you broke some of your teeth accident. And sorry about the horrible close up- it doesn't even look that bad in this shot.
Our good friend Sam taking down the tree out front which means you longer have to worry about sap dropping onto your car.
And now for the tractor. Who knew my backyard was big enough to plow a field in?!
Each of the kids got the chance to drive the tractor all by themselves (they were NOT interested in riding in the bobcat- too scary). The tractor was really really exciting on the other hand.

Oh what an exciting future awaits our backyard!

My baby is growing up!

My first baby that it is. Did you know that she lost her first tooth? And of course it was the first tooth that came in (never realized that is how it works). But I am getting ahead of myself here. Well, actually, I am behind but whatever.
The end of May brought a lot of firsts, much excitement and a lot finality. Allie had her last mini dance recital for ballet. She was beautiful, like watching a graceful rose petal. Ok, she is 6. She liked ballet but after the first week or so she said she didn't need anymore lessons because she already knew how to dance. We committed to one year of it so now, that is the end of dance for us.

She had her first last day of school. She was excited about that and that Grandpa was in town to get to be there for her last-day-of-school-kindergarten-picnic (I am so glad they don't do kindergarten "graduation"). She also went bowling for the first time the week before on a very fun field trip.

She ran her first 5k. Ok, she walked while her mom dragged her almost the entire way. The last 200 yards she agreed to run across the finish line.

Toward the end you can kind of see that she sort of wasn't soooo miserable. Still not sure if she enjoyed it in the end.

She also drove her first tractor... but more to come on that shortly.

This is my life- OFTEN!

And really, what is it with Wesley's fascination with smearing, rubbing, plopping things on his head and hair???

Bob's our Hero!

Some of you may have heard that we were burglarized on Saturday. After taking the kids and the truck out for a Saturday outing of picnic and hiking in the mountains (while looking for a spot for cub day camp) we came home hot and tired. Turns out the pools were closed already so we opted for a movie. While we were in the theater someone came and smashed out the back passenger window on the drivers side. Glass was all over the cars seats. They stole the iPod and it's transmitter as well as Jason's backpack with GPS and ham radio. AND they stole our garage door openers and took our insurance card that had our address. That is what they were really after- our home.

With our address in hand and our garage door openers they drove to our house and pulled in the driveway. The woman went to the front door and rang it a bunch of times and then jumped into the drivers seat. The man came in and set to work. What they didn't expect was our neighbor who saw this happening and knew something was not right. He came out side and stood there across the street staring at the woman sitting in the car. She knew the gig was up and laid on the horn. The man came running and they sped off as our neighbor tried to approach them. In the end they made it into our bedroom - ran out of time and ran off off with my purse and check book.

We got out of the movie, saw the broken window and glass, quickly cleaned it out and came home. By the time we got here, the police were already here and our neighbors were all outside. It wasn't until that point that we realized the garage door openers were gone.

They dusted for fingerprints (yes, the magic fairy dust) because our new mayor is really cracking down on property crime. Eventually (we hope) they will catch these people and then they will be accountable for our burglary and every other one they do.

In the end we were very lucky! If it weren't for Bob, our neighbor, who knew something was wrong and did something, it could have been sooo much worse. They probably figured they had about 2 hours, the length of a movie, to help themselves. If it weren't for Bob, who knows what else we would have lost. It wasn't just Bob that helped us out. Our other neighbors and friends were here to help. They helped get the kids in bed while we checked the house for other stolen items and began calling the cancel our credit cards and talk to the police. They were here for hugs and support. They were here to help vacuum out glass. They were just here! Wow we have such wonderful neighbors/friends!

Hip hip hooray for BOB!!!

Technical Difficulties

We have a lot of blogs posts to do but for some reason we are having trouble with our camera cord connection and the ability to download the pictures. So in the meantime here is a little conversation I had with Luke this morning while putting on his shoes. As usual it was totally out of the blue.

Luke: How come I turned that 4? When am I going to turn the other 4?

I had no idea what he was trying to get across, then I finally figured it out.

That four (notice the shape):
The other four:

I guess fours come in several flavors and he turned the four that touches at the top, not the open top four.