School clothes shopping

My least favorite chore of the year is done. Me, Kaitlyn and Stephanie went and did school clothes and supply shopping today. 6 hours worth. Cody hates to go clothes shopping so he told me to buy what ever. We got all the school clothes for $601 and $80 dollars for supplies. Not to bad when I had budgeted $3oo per kid. Our school used to have us pay $30 dollars per child and they would purchase the supplies. But this year they did not offer it because to many parents would say they would buy then not pay for them. It was so much easier when all I had to do was pay $30. But at least it is done.

Camping trip

We went on our first camping trip of the summer. We left after work on wed. Got to camp around 9:30pm. I forgot how unforgiving the hard gound is. And how even the smallest rock can feel like a big boulder in your back. We went on a little hike and walked through the forest. Around noon we decided to set up to have a little target practice. While we were setting up Kaitlyn picked up a metal pipe that someone had used to shoot at and split open the meaty spot below her thumb. It looked like it needed a few stitches. So we tightly bandaged it, packed up camp and headed down the mountain. By the time we got to urgent care it had closed on its own and they just use super clue to close it. The kids were bummed that we had to cut our trip short so we are planning on heading back up on wed. afternoon. By friday we had to doctor up her cut as it split through the super glue. But we had fun for the most part. I forgot how peaceful being up in the mountains is. Here are some pics of our trip. I love taking nature photos.

Cody, Kaitlyn, Stephanie

Kaitlyn's cut after we re-bandaged it

dragonfly

dragonfly

local wild life

view of the camp site

dead stump

forest

view from our tent door

wild daisy

4th of July celebrations

We had a pretty good 4th of july. The weather was colder then normal. It was only 70 and was a little windy. My Mother in Law has a park behind her house. So we got out our lawn chairs and watched the other people in the neighborhood light off illegal fireworks. By the time they were done the kids were only slightly interested it lighting off the fireworks that we had. Each year their interest gets less and less. But overall I think everyone had a good time.

I tried to get some pictures of the fireworks, these were the

best I could get.

Kaitlyn, trying to jump on the pogo stick,

she just couldn't quite get the hang of it

Cody up in the pine tree, I knew he was part monkey

My nephew Steven standing in the middle of a pine tree.

Backyard fun

Yesterday we decided to get a pool for the kids for the summer. There were predicting a heat wave for the coming week so it was going to be HOT. So we set up the pool yesterday. We started filling it around 6pm by 10pm it still was not full. It took 2 more hours this morning to completely fill it up. Cody and Kaitlyn have been having a blast. They have been in it most of the day. It is currently 100 degrees. Don't look at all the weeds. We have yet to put the yard back together after having to tear it up to fix the septic system 2 summers ago. Someday I will get it back together.

Target practice

We decided to take a trip to the mountains to do a little target practicing. We usually do this many times throughout the summer. I feel it is very important the my kids have gun safety. I want them to understand that guns are not toys. I want them to be able to walk up to a gun and be able to safely check if it is loaded. We have been doing this since the kids were small. Hopefully some of it will stick. They seem to have a good time. We will be taking a camping trip to this spot in about 2 weeks.Quick lesson on how to shoot the bolt action 22

Setting up targets

Kaitlyn finding targets

Cody finding targets to shoot at

Stephanie shooting the mini 14

Cody shooting the mini 14

The mini 14 was a little big for Kaitlyn So Gery needed to help
her shoot it

Stephanie shooting the 22 rifle

Cody shooting the 22 rifle

Kaitlyn shooting the 22 rifle

Wildflowers

Here are some pictures of wildflowers that I took on our recent trip to the mountains. I love taking nature pictures. I really wanted to dig up some of these while we were there. I may have to on our next trip.

Flowers

Here are some of the flowers in my front flower bed. I planted these last summer. I am

going to need to move some of them as they have gotten taller then I had expect and they

are to big for this flower bed. I harvested seed last year for the cupid's dart and the musk mallow alba. If you are interested in some of the seeds let me know I would be happy to send you some. They both get about 30 to 36 inches tall.

Musk mallow alba

close up of the musk mallow alba. I was not sure if I was going to keep this one

last year it was very straggly looking. But I decided to give it one more year

I am very glad I did. I will have to move it as it has gotten much taller then I had expected

and it is to big for the flower bed it is in.

Spider wart

Cupid's dart

Blue sea holly