Randon water skiing, pretty good for his 1st time.
Exploring one of the nooks and caves of the lake.
Joey, our captain, and excellent water skier.
Joey, Randon and Kelcie jumping off the bridge.
Canyon Lake must be one of the most stunningly beautiful lakes I know of. It is not incredibly large but, it is a feast for the eyes. Charis spotted a wild mountain Ewe with large curly horns on the rim of a mountain, a ram based on her discription.
Everyone who wanted to ski got to try it several times, Mommy, Charis and Addi did not care to try. Randon, Kelcie, Morgan (for a brief moment), and Joey (an old pro at skiing) made it up on their skis. Scott and Cameron tried but it was too hard. We really got a lot of fun out of watching everyone try.
The kids had a lot of fun stopping the boat to swim or to explore the rugged ’shores’, if you can call them that, most of them go straight up 100 ft. or more. They also swam into an underwater cave and explored the hollows in the mountains.
At the end of the trip the kids all wanted to go see the one car bridge that you cross at Canyon Lake. When we got there, there were two women who jumped off the bridge. Immediately Kelcie decided this is just the thing for her to do also. I objected, as any sensible mother would, but her father over ruled me and said that he would not only take her but jump with her. Joey followed (Joey is the son of the friend of ours who owns this boat, our boat captain for most of the day and a friend of our family). Cameron, Scott, and Addi wanted to jump too but I put my foot down with them, they COULD NOT GO!!! To which Cameron protested feverishly telling me that his dad would let him do it, why wouldn’t I?! He got so irate with me that he decided it best not to speak to me for a while, LOL. I truly felt like the stereotypical mean mother that knows better (For the most part I am pretty liberal with my kids so I don’t often feel this sensation). So they jumped and I didn’t hear the end of how unfair it all was. This was the only notable upset of the day. The kids all said what a great trip it was and how much fun they were having.
More pictures on our flickr, link in the blogroll—->
Mommy is going back to school when the kids do this year. It was always our plan to send me back to school when we had no more babies at home during the day. So, this year as Charis starts school for the full day, the time has come. Big changes bring challenges and excitement here, we tend to embrace change so, we are excited!
Everything is ready, I start Aug. 18th. I will be working on a degree in English Literature. The first two years are mapped out.
Our hike to Horton Springs on the Mogolion Rim on Saturday. This was a long 4 mile in (uphill) and 4 mile out (downhill) hike. The kids loved it! That is not to say that it was easy. 8 miles is a long way for anyone to hike so there were some complaints along the way but they all wanted to do it again next Saturday. Randon and I feel that one long hike a month is plenty. Charis spent the day with Gma Johnson and had fun there.
The water from the springs was absolutely delicious and very cold. We started our hike at around 10 am, it was 85 degrees. It was 99 degrees when we were through.
The kids enjoyed exploring the beauty all around. They played in the stream that the spring creates, picked flowers, colected cool sticks and played with horned toads. Kelcie even found a large cave of which the bottom was all water, we don’t know how deep.
We seem to have become true weekend warriors! Next weekend we are taking a boat out to Canyon Lake, after that we are going to hike into Fossil Springs.
Michelle, Heather & Lisa at Lisa’s house yesterday.
Heather drove in with her new husband Steven from Ft. Bliss in El Paso. None of us had ever met him, but we loved him right away! It was fun to catch up and have some laughs together.
How do you pay tribute to the most fabulous man in the world? With some of our very favorite dadisms…
dadism #14 “Rise and Shine! The Early Bird Gets the Worm.”
Dads take sadistic pleasure in rousing the rest of their families from bed early in the morning. Perhaps Dad figures if he has to get up at the crack of dawn to go out and earn a living, the rest of the family should share in the misery. Some Dads use this morning ritual to play motivational speaker. Sometimes, even mom hates this one.
Dadism #15 “Look at me when I am talking to you.”
Most Dads are under the misguided impression that they have their kids’ full attention when they have achieved eye contact. That’s why many dads insist that the child actually meet their gaze when getting a good tongue lashing.
Dadism #40
“We’re making good time”
Whenever a dad (or any man for that matter) climbs behind the wheel, he becomes hopelessly engaged in a game of Beat the Clock. Whether it’s across country journey or a hop across town, Dad’s immediate and all consuming goal is to make “good time”.
“Good time” is a subjective term that usually means “faster than last time”.
A dad will go to any lengths to make good time. That includes restricting family rest stop breaks to two minutes, exceeding the speed limits by upwards of twenty mph, and purchasing exorbitantly expensive radar detectors to avoid getting stopped by the highway patrol. (It’s not the speeding ticket Dad fears, it’s the accompanying ten- minute delay.)
Dadism #41 “Don’t make me stop this car!”
In the odyssey that is the family vacation, this dadism should be considered a last resort ultimatum. It’s the red flag that should alert the family that dad is nearing his breaking point. Should he actully have to stop the car; God forbid, all hell will break loose on the interstate. note: rarely will dad actually pull over and stop the car because that would jeapardize his “good time” delay arrival at his destination, and forfiet his bragging rights until next year’s vacation. (Yessir, this year we made it in seven hours flat. Last year, it was 7:48. Must be that new radar detector”)
Dadism #49 “Don’t give me any of your lip, young lady (man)!
Lip (n): a euphemishm for talking back, usually in a raised voice. Teenagers love lip but are not allowed to use it.
Dad’s are the only ones entiled to use lip. Lip is reserved for booing a referee’s bad call, mouthing off to the next car in traffic, or talking back to the TV.
Dadism #52 “Don’t use that tone with me, young lady (man)!”
This ism stems from every dad’s belief that he is the only one in the household entitled to use an authoritative tone of voice. It is the ‘tone’ that gives Dad his superior strength and power. It is exclusively his. To lose tone would be to lose everything.
The above dadisms were taken from a book so named by Cathy Hamilton.
On a serious note, we all love the daddy in our home. He is the most amazing, wonderful, tender man in the world. He is a teacher and a lover. He is a comforter of hurts and a maker of jokes. He is the best father I have ever seen in action. He is our inspiration and our life.
Our ever zealous eldest daughter Kelcie came up with a fun idea about 2 weeks before school let out. Her idea….Have a big bonfire in the back yard, invite lots of friends, cook some hot dogs, play some games and some music, and burn all the attendants school work!! Crazy child. When she proposed this idea Randon and I thought it very typical for this child of ours and thought it would be fun to sit back and let her plan a party. She did too, with minimal assistance from her parents. She made invitations, planned and shopped for this party. I happen to think that self-sufficiency is a very positive virtue and so I am very proud of her. It was fun to watch her plans blossom into a full fledged event and as you can see in the photos they all had so much fun!
We had a wonderful, busy first few weeks of summer with our vacation and Aunt Hesper’s visit (and mommy and Morgan being ill for several days, you don’t want to know, trust me). We woke up this morning feeling healthy and ready for summer!! So now I am trying to come up with our summer schedule, not really rigid just a sketch of what our days will look like so that we have a game plan each day and don’t lay around all day. After all there are so many fun, exciting things to be done!
Cameron is here for the summer and we are really having a lot of fun with that. He and Scott are bunking together and getting along great, except the occasional squable, like brothers. He has really added a fun dimention to our home.
Michelle
Randon
Kelcie
Morgan
Scott
Addison
Charis