Summer Fun Begins

As usual, we went to Bear Lake for Memorial Day weekend and even though it was the last weekend in May, it snowed. We've had an unusual spring this year, but that didn't stop our fun. I

had been looking forward to this weekend more than most visits to Bear Lake because my cousin, Ryan, was bringing his boys.

Kyson never has any playmates up at the Lake, but this time, he'd have two. We arrived on Friday morning and Kris and I got started imediately with work. We figured that if we could get the work done on Friday, we could enjoy the rest of the weekend. I started unloading the car, while Kris started mowing the lawn. I thought it was really sweet that Kyson helped me carry things in, without even being asked. Kodi wanted to ride the lawn mower with her dad - what a surprise.My mom and uncle arrived shortly after us and between the 4 of us (6 including kids), we were able to get almost all the work done. That evening everyone else arrived and the fun began. Ryan's

boys were so cute and the older one, Aiden, slept in the dorm. That was absolutely fantastic

because then Kyson wanted to sleep in there too. It was nice not having him on the floor in our room for once. Immed- iately necessary work done. While pulling weeds, my mom even stumbled onto a bird's nest with an egg in it.

Kyson and the other boys seemed to hit it off. Then Jed arrived with his beautiful daughter. She was also close to the same age as everyone else. Every child there was about a year apart:

nearly 6, just turned 5, just turned 4, and just turned 3.

Saturday was a beautiful day. All the kids rode 4-

wheelers, and Kyson drove a 4-wheeler by himself for the first time. He had a hard time keeping his finger on the gas, and turning to avoid hitting things was tricky too. Jed was such a good sport to chase him around the yard and make sure he was okay.

Sunday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow.

I've been going toAfter some inde- pendent 4-wheeling, the kids rode along with Ryan and Jed onto the beach, and later Kyson played by himself on the beach throwing dirt with a big shovel. It was cute to watch him from a distance.

Bear Lake since I was a little girl and I can't remember being up there a single time when it

snowed. Amazingly enough, the snow melted

rather quickly and it turned out to be a beautiful day. The kids even went out onto the beach and played on the swingset, made

sand castles, and then they discovered the magic of water coming from the water spicket on the house. Kyson was drenched from carrying buckets of water over to the dirt. Kodi stayed out of the water and played on the back ramp with her riding toy.

I think everyone enjoyed the weekend and Monday morning when we were packing up to come home, Kyson was sad and something seemed wrong with Kodi. Until probably about 3 in the afternoon, Kodi acted as if she

was drugged. She wouldn't smile, respond to people, or make any sound. This is so out of character for Kodi and after a few hours we started to get worried. Kris wondered if may she got into some of the D-Con, and we considered taking her into the InstaCare, but fortunately, she started acting normal again. We still don't know what happened, but we're grateful she's back.

I loved the entire weekend and I can't wait to go back.

Unusual Visitor

Living out in the boonies gives us the opportunity to see a lot of wildlife. We've had many birds, many dear, and even a mountain cat of some sort. The other day, however, there was a gray squirrel in our yard. Kris grabbed the camera and took a picture of it and said he was even able to walk right up to it. Unfortunately, I wasn't there for the event, but I guess it was pretty cool for everyone.

A Birthday BBQ

Since getting our new awning and new BBQ grill, we decided that there wasn't a better way to enjoy them than with a BBQ. We also needed to have a birthday party for Kyson so we combined it all and had a great evening. Everyone was able to make it except Grandma and Grandpa Bodily. Even my grandpa Gunn was able to come out thanks to my aunt and uncle. The food was good, the company was great, the only downside was the awful wind. It would have been a picture perfect birthday party if we could have eliminated the wind.

My nephew Josh was the entertainment for all the little guys. With 4 kids between the ages of 3 and 6, Josh was such a good sport to play with
them and let them beat up on him. I do believed they loved it, and I truly appreciated it. I think every little kid needs a teenage cousin.


The presents were a hit. Everyone obviously knows what Kyson loves - bugs and cars. We were the only ones who didn't get him something in those categories. We got him a big wheel in hopes that he's stop using that riding toy that he's too big for. At first
he didn't seem to care for it, but by the end of the
evening he was pedaling around in it - Success! As for the other amazing gifts, he got cars, a car mat, some gigantic plastic bugs, about a thousand real lady bugs,
and a butterfly garden (where you get real cater- pillars, they build their cocoon and then they become butterflies). He told all of his guests "Thank You" many times and I was so grateful for his exemplary behavior. It was beautiful evening and it was so nice to have everyone there.

Life is Better with Friends

I've mentioned many times that Kyson adores the little girls next door - the Holts. Since the weather has warmed up, they've spent a lot of time over here, which I think is great. A while back I had asked some of my friends who
had grown children, "How do you keep your children from getting into trouble?" They said, "Be the cool house." Basically, if you can be the house that everyone goes to, then you know a lot more about what is going on with your children. While Kyson is still very young and thankfully wouldn't be getting into the kind of trouble I worry about for the future, we're working to establish our reputation as the "cool house." We'll see how long that lasts. I can say it is fun having so many kids over. The other day we had 5 other kids at the house playing besides Kyson and Kodi.

They were playing ball, playing on the jungle gym, and then they decided to get crazy and fill up a little pool with water and put it at the bottom of the slide. Kodi didn't

care for that one, and one other little girl left when Kyson got

her wet, but everyone else loved it.

It's good prep- aration for Bear Lake.

After a long afternoon of fun in the sun, we went to the Holts house for smores. That was a lot of fun. Kyson didn't care so much about roasting marshmallows as much as playing with the fire,

so we gave him a roaster stick with nothing on it to

roast. Lise is an amazing marsh- mallow roaster and cook them to a perfect golden brown - mmm, mmm, good.

I'm so grateful for friends: my friends and my children's friends. I hate to think about how dull life would be without them.

The New Awning

For years I've dreamed of having a nice patio cover for our backyard, but never felt that I'd be able to afford it. When we moved in, we poured a large RV pad, and patio, which I'm so grateful for, but because our backyard is South-facing, it's hard to be able to enjoy it. We've been working very hard for the past year to finish all of the backyard, and now with an awning, I want to spend a lot of time out there. Now we just need some patio furniture - maybe next year.

An Afternoon at the Park

We decided to go visit with my parents the other day so Kris could sit on my parents' massage chair, so I thought it would be nice to take the dogs and kids on a walk to the park. My dad came along and was a good sport about pushing Kodi in the stroller. Kyson and I each took a dog. Whenever we take the dogs on a walk, we always take them to the elementary school by their house because they have a nice big grass area for the dogs to run, and great play- grounds for the kids. I think they all really enjoyed it. While at the play- ground, Kyson latched onto some strangers playing football, and they were such good sports to play with Kyson when in all honesty, he was probably ruining their game. My dad even joined the fun by climbing this rope-thing on the play- ground.