which bit harder, the fish or the mosquitos?

These are our friends Clint and Tina and their 2.5 kids (she's prego!). We went out to the lake with them for some fishing, burgers, and sunshine.

Turns out the fish weren't biting and the Sampsons forgot to bring the burgers. I'll talk about the huge thunderstorm a little later...

We had a FUN ride on the boat! It has been years since I was on a boat. My kids loved it. Mack kept throwing everything in sight into the water. Luckily we saved the important stuff.

So after Clint ran to get some burgers, we ate and the boys went out fishing on the boat. Tina is so much fun to talk to. I just love her. And our husbands have a LOT of similar interests too (hunting, fishing, food). And their kids are beautiful. I love finding friends like them. Everyone likes everyone. Well, all of a sudden a huge rain cloud moved in and it started to pour and blow like crazy. You should have seen the mad dash of two moms grabbing the paper plates, the kids and lawn chairs and shoving everything in the vehicles. We crammed us and the 5 kids into the front seat of Tina's truck and tried to carry on our conversation while the kids screamed and jumped and climbed all over us. We called the boys on their cell, but apparently when the storm hit, the fish started biting like crazy. But they "hurried" back to save their women and children and 40 minutes later they showed up. By then, the rain had passed and a beautiful (almost double) rainbow appeared! And so did millions of mosquitos that completely didn't care that we were bathed in bug repellent.

We honestly had a great time! Clint and Tina are the kind of friends that make anything fun.

summer, yikes!

Preslie's been begging to swim in her pool and finally it was warm enough so I filled it up in the morning so the sun could warm it all day for her to swim after school. My plan was foiled by a construction dog from the lot next door... a pool filled with dog hair and dirt: not cool.

Oh, well. The boys had a great time refilling it. This is a little boy's dream come true: sunshine, water, dirt, tractors, and a dog!

Preslie did end up having a great time playing with Hunter in the pool. Here they are laying out-

...Preslie getting a tan and Hunter under a quilt so he won't get sunburned. This illustrates their personalities so well. My crazy girl and my cautious boy.

School gets more and more fun as the last days approach. Preslie got up Thursday and put her swimsuit on under her clothes because her class was doing a slip-n-slide at school. As I fixed her hair, I noticed something strange and upon closer examination, I knew it was head lice. Several kids in her class have had it and I've been checking her for a couple weeks now. DANG.

We started treatment immediately and got all of it out, but Preslie's school year ended prematurely. Happy Summer, Little Babe! If there is one thing you don't want to take from your first grade year, lice is IT.

Now to call her friends' Moms and let them know. Nice.

Most people know that anyone can get lice. It doesn't mean you are dirty, neglected, and have bad hygiene...but there is still something gross about bugs laying eggs in your hair.

Maybe I'll just put a sign out in front of our house... "HELLO. We are new to the neighborhood and have probably given your child head lice."

Perfect.

And to end off this post, here is my orphan baby that smacked his head super hard on a closet door and my orphan husband that got cold while working in the basement so decided to put on some wool socks.


I wish I could say I am the only normal person in this house. But that just would not be true.

more visitors

This weekend, our friend Kim and her son came out to visit us! We took them to the dino museum for some prehistoric educational fun.

We had to snap a pic by the big dinosaur in Vernal. The city decorates it for every holiday...Valentines, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Christmas... right now it is a birthday dino because of Vernal's centennial this year.

We had a great time catching up, eating good food, and the kids had a blast playing. They get along so well, even Mack loved "Day-ub".

Kim's dad grew up close to here and we drove out to see his old farm land. I'm glad they came at such a pretty time of year when it was so green.

I am just so happy that people are starting to come visit us. There isn't much here to offer, but we still manage to have a great time!

mad Thursday

Today was Hunter's last day of preschool. Yay! Later that afternoon, he went to a birthday party. I picked him up from there to go to his preschool graduation/program that evening the same time as our Cub Scout fishing trip. So I loaded up the kids and went to the grad while Dax met all the scouts/parents at the church and they loaded up and went fishing.

After the graduation, we zoomed out to the creek to meet our 13 cub scouts, 3 leaders, and 5 adult volunteers. Dax ran around like a crazy person fixing tangled line, snagged hooks, and disfunctional poles. The boys had to get tough and cut a piece of worm and bait their own hook. I ran from boy to boy snapping photos, unhooking their fish, and throwing them back. The boys had such a blast and wanted to keep EVERY fish. I tried to convince them to release them, but a few did end up taking fish home.

So much fun and worth all the dirt and fish stink we washed off after we got home!

sniffer

Hunter has the best sense of smell... I got a kick out of him today.

Hunter: (picking up a dirty rag in the kitchen) "This rag smells like hamburgers."
Me: "Eww. Let's go throw it in the hamper."
Hunter: (following me) "Yeah, that rag smells like hamburgers. And I LOVE the smell of hamburgers."


Later today, I ran a note into Preslie at school. When I came back to the car...

Me: "Oh, my gosh! Preslie's school STUNK like rotten fish!"
Hunt: "What are you talking about...fish don't even stink." (he ALWAYS has to contradict, even in OBVIOUS situations... like the way rotten fish smell)
Me: "Fish do TOO stink, why are you disagreeing about that?"
Hunt: "Well, why did it smell like fish?"
Me: "I don't know, but it was SO stinky! Bleh!"
Hunt: "I wish I could smell it. I'm interested in that kind of smelly stuff. I'm interested."

Bro + Abbey + Mya = fun weekend

People came to visit us! Yay. The small town life doesn't provide much for entertainment so Bro and Abbey supplied the Super Nintendo which wowed the kids and took Dax and me down memory lane. I must say, Super Mario is still no match for my skills.

Our town is big on yard sales and Bro is my favorite yard sale buddy. "Five bucks for a box of our homemade videos." Mya delighted with her adorable smile and Dax fed us well. I love having an extra sister...Abbey is so much fun, a patient Mom, and a great walking partner.

I miss living close to these guys! *snif*
Come back soon.

made for the stage

We attended Preslie's spring dance recital which marks the end of dance for the season, and maybe forever. For the past 2 months, she has begged not to go to dance class, but we made her finish it out. She likes to perform, but doesn't like to practice.

She did a darling job on her 2 dances- Music Box and Pillow Talk. We enjoyed watching the other classes too, particularly the older girls from the competition teams. I love dance. I was never very good, but I love to dance and watch dancing. I'm a little sad Preslie isn't into it, but I'm determined to find something that she loves to do. Everyone should have a passion. And although dance isn't hers, she did such a good job. She loves to be on stage!