New Edition to Our Family!

Well as you can see we have a new edition to our family. The kids have been begging for a new dog since our Min Pin died. They have stated emphatically that they will take care of feeding, watering and picking up any landmines the dog leaves in the yard. Wills' family always had a dog when he was growing up and he's a sucker for anything Marian wants so he finally caved in. So after alot of looking we finally found one that meet the requirements. One, it had to be a breed we liked and two it had to be cheap. She is two months old and seems to be pretty smart. Like your typical puppy (or baby for that matter), if she can reach something it's fair game for being chewed on.
~Sparky giving the puppy the HooDoo Voodoo Eye aka the Stink Eye~ Sparky has been our house cat for almost 2 years now. My kids brought him home when they found him half dead on the side of the road. (Remember I said Will is a sucker when the little princess makes a request) Sparky thinks he is the king of all he sees so he can be a little tyrant at times. Kind of a miniaturized, furry Darth Vader if you will, so we were a little concerned about how he would react with the puppy. He actually did pretty good. In typical cat fashion he ignores the puppy until she goes to sleep then he comes sniffing around. Obviously the peasants can't see that the king might be curious! My guess is that it won't be long before they are putting the smackdown on each other.


We still don't have a name at this point. We'll have to see what her personality is like before we can come up with the appropriate name.

We are so excited for the boys to come home from Nevada on Sunday. They do not know so it will be a big surprise. Plus our bomb technicians already have landmines in the back yard that need defusing. It will be good to have a dog back in our family.

River Rafting Trip 2009

Okay so I tried to arrange the pictures, but it was to big of a pain. So the ending is starting at the beginning. We went on our yearly trip again river rafting with Will's crew. Craig and his wife Courtney are awesome enough to arrange it for us. We went to Snake River in Wyoming. I ended up really sick before we left, but it was still so much fun. The first day we went rafting we were not sure if we were going to do it again the next day because it was soooooo cold. Ended up being beautiful the next day so we went twice. Our camp ground was right over another river that was amazing. We did a lot of cooking smores over the fire, eating, river rafting, and visiting. The kids would rise early and play tell they would just pass out in the chairs. I love the great out doors and want to go more often. We had such a good time as a family and we can't wait to go on more trips.

The last night we were there William Jr. talked Craig O. and Jack to go down the rapids by our tent in the duckies. William said it was a lot of fun but hated the mosquitos. (I have to say, I did not get bit once)
We were waiting on the bridge for them to come down the river. Will of course did our tradtional picture of sneaking a grab for the picture. Ha! Ha! I just love him.

Tony's dog Roudy wanted to get in the water so bad. When one of the kids through a rock in the water he went after it. We thought he was going to take a ride all the way down the river. The water was moving really fast. I think he was scared just as much as we were. eeeek!

This is Craig B. and his daughter Madison. Craig luckily had a lot of supplies to help us make our breakfast. We were not very prepared. His camper was also the local hangout. (I think Antonio had a crush on Madison) lol

This is Tony's wife Kristen and her new little baby. The little girl was Dave's and Robins. Kristen was my local coffee shop buddy.

This is Craig and Courtney. They are who make this trip possible. Plus they are just really cool people. I hope we can go on more trips with them. Craig had been teaching Will how to guide the raft so we can get our own raft.

The little girl Lyndsy is Craig O. And Courtneys. The man next to her is Paul. He has the raft that we call the tank. The kids love riding on his. He is not on the crew but a friend of Craig O. We are greateful for him to. Without his raft we would not be able to take as many trips during the day.

This is Craig and his wife. Yup you read that right. We had three Craig's on this trip. Craig is a retired fire fighter. Now he is a Harley man. This was their first year coming with us. Hope they come again next year.

This is Dave and Robin. I met them last year. They have two little girls and one baby boy. Dave always has good stories for the kids about his toes. Kids love to hear about them.

This is Tony(Will's captain also married to Kristen) and his new baby girl. He is also the one with the dog that almost drifted down the river. He is a lot of fun to be around.

Brian also is on Will's crew. He was very funny. I think he was given the name Bear. (inside camp joke) He thought it would be funny to come to our tent in the middle of the night and sound like a bear. The only problem is he did not know Will had a gun and that Will pulled it out. He did not do that again. lol (by the way there was a bear on our camp site the night before)

William and Antonio could not get enough of the river. They had to go everytime. I am just glad they were not on the raft that flipped over.

Marian and Jose were ready to go. The day before Jose was so cold he was balling. I am surprised he went again. I have some tough kids.

It is always a long process for everyone to get on the raft and get going.

My girl and I getting ready to go have us some fun. She was so brave and sat at the front of the raft. Go Marian!

My sexy Fireman and I. Boy I love him!

We rented port-a-potties for our site. And boy was I so very grateful for them.

Our tent was set up right next to the river. It sounded so amazing at night to fall asleep to. I wish I could always hear that sound when going to sleep.

This is the view by our tent to the left. Plus all of our kitchen set up.

This is the eagle that lived on our site. Craig did not realize it when he set up his tent. There was so much bird poop all over the top of his tent.

It was so beautiful and such an amazing trip. I think everyone had as good of a time as I did. And I cannot wait to go next year. Already counting down days. I took a water proof camera but have not gotten it developed yet or put on a disc. When I do I will post them.

Ward Pool Party

Last night was our ward pool party. The water was very very cold. Ended up having a really good time with the kids.

A whole bunch of us grabbed hands and created a circle. Everyone starts going really fast and it creates a whirl pool. You ended up dragging the little kids because they could not keep up. It was a lot of fun!

Jose and Dakota would hold hands and jump in the water together. They are best buds!

Look at my strong girl. lol Go Marian!

Melanie and I goofed off and kept doing hand stands. See us old folk, (as the kids call us) know how to have fun to.

The boys wrestled in the water and played keep away with th e ball. Oh and they also did a little flirting lol.

Trisha was a party pooper and did not swim with us. We had some pictures of us holding up loser signs over her head, but they were not good pictures.

Anyway, we had fun eating good food and swimming. Now tomorrow we are leaving for our river rafting trip! Woo-hoo! We are so excited. I will post pictures when we get back.

Our Fourth of July Weekend

Well our fourth of July was a lot of fun! The bummer part of it was Will had to work his 48 hour shift. I was able to go see him at the station Saturday morning because he forgot all of his work pants at home. (Will works every holiday this year including my birthday :( )

Well Melanie was really sweet and invited us over for a Barbq with her family. She made home made root beer. It was so Yummy!! (and I have never cared for Rootbeer and I now crave it) We had lots of yummy food .

When the kids got to wild at Melanies, her brother would hog tie them up. But of course Jose thought it was quite fun. Later that night we took the kids over to Thanks Giving Point to watch the Fireworks. We got a awesome spot. Although this year they were dragged out. Kids were even complaining they were bored.
Some of the fireworks were really pretty. We gave the kids glow necklaces and they played around with those until the show started.

And of course we had to play around like the kids.

Since it was so late we decided to do the roasting marshmellows the next day. We were not well prepared to start it. So we tried with what we had. "Come on baby, light up". UGH We both tried over and over....And then there was fire!! Woo hoo!! Kids were very happy. But then we made them wait until we could get some good flames going . Then they were'nt so happy. lol Woohoo Marshmellow Time! And of course the fire starters had to have some too!!

Well it was a good weekend. Wish Will could have been there. I guess they ended up having a watermelon eating contest with the cops. I would have loved to been a fly on the wall and seen that. We will have to get creative with our holidays this year. In a few days we will be leaving for our river rafting trip. And of course I will be posting some pics.