'Tis the Season

As of late, Tyson has been completely obsessed with Cabela's. At night when he's supposed to read before bed his book of choice is the Cabela's catalog. And free time on the computer-Cabelas.com. The other day he found a DVD on big bucks he talked Dad into buying (so difficult) and now he has spent hours watching it. Hey, but he cleaned his room so he could so it isn't all bad! Poor Joshua gets dragged into everything-not that he seems to mind. Last week they were cowboys............

Gotta love it!

Last Splash

We made our once a year trip to Ross Park last week with Grandma and the cousins. Josh thinks he's a fish.

Savanah and Joshua

Kadyn and Joshua

Tyson and, what? No Joshua?!?

Cousin Russell- Aunt Ashley's little one.

Hopefully this isn't really our last splash before summer's end but it is going so fast! I'm not ready for it to be over. Okay, mostly because it means that I have to get up at 6:00am too! For a very pregnant insomniac that just is not a pretty picture. Most days I'm lucky to have managed 4 hours sleep by 9:00am. And that is heavily (and yes safely) drugged. It's great and makes for a very pleasant day, for everyone, I'm sure.

Camp out

The boys riding the four-wheeler on the ranch. Darin and I took Joshua out for a ride earlier and we came upon a bunch of cows hidden in the trees. I said, "Josh, I see a critter! What is it!" He said, "Oh, my gosh, I sthink it's elephants! No.........it's not bears..........oh, it's just cows." Huge sigh of disappointment followed.

There are naughty stools in the woods too!

Sleeping beauty.......this after Mom gave her a Benadryl in the middle of the night so she would quit listening for bears!

Just cute!

This was our first return to Island Park and the scene of "the crime" (Joshua's accident). The whole way up all I could see was what it had looked screaming down that hill 100mph in an ambulance. When we got there, the first one's thank goodness, I bawled for about 20 minutes and then I was fine. Grandpa asked Joshua later about last time he was there and he told him all about it, so he remembered quite well where he was. Thank goodness it didn't seem to bother him a bit. It was so much fun, and as usual it was hard to come back home.

One year anniversary

This coming September 1st will be the one year anniversary of Joshua's little "accident". For those of you that don't know the whole story let's just say it involved Joshua and Daddy's shotgun and a little boy who is way too smart for his own good. We are extremely lucky and grateful to only be mourning the death of two little fingertips. We have been filled with "what if's" and regret, but reality is we couldn't have done much more except leave the stupid gun at home, and let the bears eat us!

Sorry, a little gore, but I want you all to take a good look and know that you should NEVER take chances and always take a second look even if you think you've done everything to protect your children. You don't want to look back and wish you had tried harder, believe me!

Now, "fingers are all better!" as Joshua constantly tells everyone that wants to look at them. He doesn't really know what the big deal is because they don't hurt anymore, so what? I had to point out to him the other day that he was missing two fingernails and he just looked totally perplexed for a minute and then shrugged and off he went.

The ends seem a little sensitive, not much tissue covering the bone, and the one even grows a strange little fingernail. But, he uses them just like there's nothing wrong with him and most people that don't know any better never even notice.

I'd just like to add that when you think life is hard, look out because you can find out in an instant just how much harder it can get. We had a heck of a year and a half! But, even though I still feel my head swimming sometimes and feel a little gunshy ( oooh, bad pun) and still kinda wait for the other shoe to drop so to speak, the reality is we're still here and all actually is well. Life does truly go on. The important thing is to keep moving forward. Sometimes we stop and take a breath and wonder " what the heck!" but at some point we have to acknowledge that we aren't meant to always have the answers right now. They may eventually come but even if they don't sometimes we do have to just hand it all over to our Father in Heaven and say, "I've had enough, I can't do this. Help me!" And he will. We just have to learn to be patient.
Now I just need to reread this and take some of my own advice!

Brace yourself.......

This is what a mere $4300 can buy you these days. No diamond studs are not included, Savanah all ready asked!

This is what an Idaho State Champion Wrestler looks like

In May (okay so I'm a little behind) Tyson beat out 17 kids in his age group and weight class at the Idaho state championship wrestling tournament that was held this year, luckily, in Idaho Falls. Way to go, Tyson! Looks feirce, doesn't he?