Happy Ending

On Sunday afternoon the kids tell me to look outside that they saw a really big lizard with a furry tail. I wonder what it could be so I go out to see if I can find it. I can't really tell what it was since it was partly hidden behind our toy box on the patio. Just then Cooper came out the door and shuts all but 2 inches of it. Then the animal gets spooked and runs toward the door and in slow motion I see the squirrel running and I start screaming as I realize hes heading toward the open door and is now in our house.

I tore the house apart looking for the thing and nothing. Can't find him anywhere. Pierce is freaking out thinking the thing is going to be biting his toes in the middle of the night. And I'm freaking out thinking about squirrel poop in my house.

So Clint goes to Lowes and buys some traps. The guy at Lowes tells him that no way are we going to catch it and to get a cat. But we set the glue traps out anyways. The next morning-nothing. Then I lay Coop down for a nap and come back downstairs and hear him. Sure enough he is stuck. I feel so awful. He is so cute and so stuck. I called Clint and he tells me to go get one of our neighbors but no one is home. So I have to deal with him alone. I called my mom and she says to drown him and get it over with quickly. I just couldn't do it. I was hysterically sobbing because I feel so bad. Then at my mom's suggestion I got out some rubbing alcohol to see if it would loosen the glue. Nope. Then I tried vegetable oil and it worked! I was able to peel the poor little guy off the trap and set him free back into the desert. He'll probably be coyote bait since he was exhausted after the whole ordeal and maybe a little drunk cuz he really couldn't walk straight. But at least I didn't have to kill him.

Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

Last minute we decided to go camping up by Chevelon Lake and we convinced my parents into coming down from Idaho to go with us. Good thing they came and brought their truck or we would have never managed to get all the stuff up there. It really takes a lot of crap to go camping for 3 days! We found a beautiful spot a long ways from anybody else and enjoyed hiking and exploring the area.

We took a drive up to Chevelon Lake on Sunday. It was only 4 miles to the lake but the road was really rocky and rutted so it took almost an hour to get there. Then we had a 3/4 mile hike down a rocky trail to the lake. The down wasn't so bad but we had to go back up it too. Coop was a trooper and walked up the whole way by himself. He would not let anyone even so much as hold his hand.

Clint, Cole and my dad fished but didn't have any luck. Coop and Pierce played in the mud and caught crawdads. Mom and I supervised and tried to keep Cooper from drowning in the lake.

I'm pretty sure this is the definition of white trash!

Night time is always the best when your camping. We had beautiful sunsets and then millions of stars came out. We roasted marshmallows unconventionally over the camp cooker since we can't have fires with my mom. Our s'mores turned out great and that's all that counts!

While we were hiking around our camp, we found a cute little horned lizard. Cole caught him and named him PinkyDinkyDoo. Then while she's carrying him back to camp she tripped and fell and the lizard went flying. It took forever to find him since they are so well camouflaged. But we found him and then we found another that Pierce named Spikes. So we had two lizards that we kept in Pierce's bug catcher and loved to death. It kept the kids busy since they had to find ants to feed them. By the time Monday came around we had found and caught 6 lizards. Oh my.

Then my promises came back to haunt me. At home I told them if they could catch a lizard we could keep him thinking that they would never catch one of the speedy geckos that live around our house. So we took them home. All 6 of them. We were only going to take home 2 but Clint thought I let them go and I thought he did it and then we get home and there they all were. So we went and bought a cage for them and some crickets. The crickets were $4 for one days worth. So the lizards had to go back home. I'm not spending over a hundred a month to feed lizards. So the next weekend Clint and I drove back up to Payson and released the lizards.

We really had the best time. The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun with grandma and grandpa. I think we need to make this a Labor Day tradition.

Family Slumber Party!!

On Friday nights we have a family slumber party tradition. Sometimes we all sleep in the loft or family room and watch a movie and sometimes the kids just make beds on the floor in our room. It's so fun to see them get so excited about this simple tradition

The First Day of School

The first day of school is finally here!!! I thought the summer would never end. Not that I don't love summer... I was just sick of the fighting and whining and too much togetherness. It was time for them to be gone.

Cole is starting Kindergarten in Ms. Keith's class in the morning and Ms. Clarks in the afternoon. She is so excited! Clint and I walked her in and got her settled and shes like, "You can leave now," in her sassy voice. Well okay then-- all the other kindergarteners are crying and clinging onto their parents, but not mine. In fact the next day I went through the car line to drop them off and on the side of the school they ask if they can get out. I let them since I could still watch them walk across the school grounds and into the gate. That afternoon when I pick them up Cole asks, "Can you drop us off there everyday? We feel like big highschoolers walking to school by ourselves."

Pierce is starting 2nd grade in Ms. McKinney's class. He was so excited to see all his friends and have recess but not so excited about the actual school part.

And I thought Coop would miss them during the day, but I think he's loving not being mauled and being able to play with whatever he wants.

In Love

One random day I came home from work and Clint had gotten me flowers and a card for no reason at all. I feel like the luckiest girl to be married to him!

Summer Movies

We love summer movies! It's a great way to break up the week and the long hot summer days. The kids loved getting together with all their friends and eating popcorn and junk food.

Belize

Hanging out with our friends John and Adrienne that we met on our trip waiting for our $10 lobster dinner. It was so good!

Aji's Restaurant at our resort is the top rated restaurant on Ambergris Caye. It was easy to see why. The setting was beautiful and the food was to die for. Especially the Bacon Wrapped Dates.

Breakfast on the beach. We had Coconut French Toast with Cinnamon Syrup. Yum
Our dives with Ecologic were amazing. We did one night snorkel which was great. We saw lots of squid a few sharks and rays. The real reason we went at night is that Belize is one of only 5 places in the world with Bioluminescent plankton so when you wave your hand in the water it glows. The next day we went out diving on the reefs around Ambergris. The barrier reef here is 2nd to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. This was some of the best diving we have ever done. The reef was beautiful--colorful coral and fish and tons of sea life. We saw a lot of turtles close up and spotted eagle rays. We also saw several large nurse sharks and moray eels since another dive boat was chumming the water near us. It was really an unbelievable experience.
Sunscreen Anyone?

A storm coming in over South Beach in Miami. We missed our flights home when we got stuck in customs and had to spend the night in Miami so we enjoyed it as much as we could.