Lazy Blogger

When school got out and we began making our summer plans I had so many ideas for blogs, but I didn't follow through on any of them. We have been busy this summer, but mainly I have just been lazy about blogging. These are a few of the pictures I took with the idea of posting at least once a week. I went to Lovell for Memorial Day and while there my sister, niece, mom and I went to Cody and had lunch at the Irma Hotel. I took a few pictures of the beautiful bar, but none of them turned out. But.....we did have a delicious lunch. The main purpose of my trip was to visit my dad's grave in Cowley. The cemetery was beautiful, they have added a really nice fence and they take such good care of the grounds.

Ken's parents grave.

We had a young man from our town killed in Afghanistan this spring. During the town's annual celebration they held a dedication ceremony renaming the Legion baseball field after him. This Marine Color Guard added a beautiful touch to the ceremony. He was the first person from our area killed in the war.

On the fourth of July weekend we camped above Red Lodge and took in their parade. There were a lot of horses, cars and flags. The first half hour was fun, but it lasted 1 1/2 hours! Way too much parade.

I noticed this woman right away, all decked out in red, white and blue. Her husband was sitting there quietly in his normal looking shirt, when she walked down the street and returned with this hat she plopped on his head. He looked less than thrilled.

A very large flag. Really cool!

A really strange parade entry.

Luke looking like we all felt at this point "isn't it over yet".

Whew! what a busy month

When the weather finally settled down and decided it was time to be summer, we loaded up the trailer and headed to the Big Horns. Tanner didn't want to miss out on a camping trip so he went with us. The guys spent most of their time fishing so I just lounged around and read a book.

They may have brought me along to cook, as I did plenty of that too.

This is one of my favorite spots on the mountain. It's the south fork of the Tongue River and it's a beautiful hike up the river.

We camped at the Sibley Lake campground, there were a few other trailers parked there, but for the most part it was nice and peaceful.





Ken and Tanner fished while I hiked and took pictures. They caught a few fish, but threw them back (thank goodness). Not a fan of trout.

While we were driving down the highway I spotted this moose off the side of the road, but by the time we got stopped he was partially hidden by the brush.

The day after our camping trip we started painting our house. I shouldn't say "we" as I didn't even touch a paintbrush. Ken hired Wendy, Colette, Cami and Tanner to help him. Before you all think I was just being a prima donna I was at work while they were painting. I'm working 10 hour days now so I had a good excuse not to help. They all worked their tails off and had it done in two and a half days. Taylor got the job of watching all the little kids while their moms were painting. We made sure she was paid well too.



When I got home from work, rather than put on my painting clothes I offered to relieve Taylor and watch the little kids and get a meal on the table for the painters. Watching six kids under the age of 8 and making dinner for 18 people kept me pretty busy too.

When all the kids are together there is always one who gets feeling a little left out. This was Caelen's moment. She got over it quickly and they all had their "poor me" moment.

Talen is usually off by herself making messes or getting into things she shouldn't be into, but here she's entertaining herself with one of the nets we bought at the dollar store. These nets have been used to catch crayfish at the lake and butterflies in the yard. They're a popular item at our house and of course, been the cause of a few fights because we only have a few of them. For a buck each, I could probably spring for a few more.

While I was on the deck playing with Luke the kids decided to climb the tree. Trey was climbing with one flip flop on and still managed to make it up pretty high. Lexie and Kenzie didn't have any shoes and they didn't get too far. High enough that they were squealing for help to get down.

Luke loved being outside, watching the kids play.

It was a busy week, but the house looks great, the girls and Tanner made a little money and I didn't have to climb the scaffolding or get covered in paint.

Sometimes it really pays to have a big family.

As the boy grows, so do the fish

Tanner caught his first fish when he was eight years old and that began his love for the sport. He is 15 now and spends most of his free time in grandpa's canoe on the lake. In the winter he's at the same lake boring holes in the ice to do some ice fishing.

This is the walleye pike he caught last Thursday in the lake. It was 27" long and weighed almost 7 1/2 pounds. He's pretty proud of this catch, just like he was of the one 7 years ago.

Visitor

This pretty little bird was sitting between my flower planter and the house for about 15 minutes this afternoon. I walked right up to him and he kind of puffed up but continued sitting there. When I ran into the house to get my camera I thought he would fly away, but he sat there and posed for several pictures.

I watched him for a few more minutes before I decided to see if he was hurt. My mother is deathly afraid of birds and although I'm not afraid of them I don't like to pick them up so I went in the house to get Ken, but by the time I got back he had flown away.

This is the most exciting thing I have had to blog about for several weeks. Pathetic, isn't it?

My Reality Show Favorites.........Lost!

This extremely handsome, debonair, hunk of a man is Gilles Marini, a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.
It was so much fun to have a contestant to drool over while Ken was panting over Julianne, Edita and every other female dancer on the show. He should have won too. Besides being so darn pretty he can really dance.
















Adam Lambert was my pick to win American Idol from the first week of the show. I really didn't think there was anyway he wouldn't win, but he didn't. He shouldn't have any trouble making it in the music business though he can sing anything. His pitch is perfect and his vocal range is unbelievable. His version of Mad World was my favorite performance. Loved it, loved it!

I did pick one winner this season. Way to go JT for winning Survivor.

Maybe now that all my favorite reality shows are over I'll get my flowers planted, the house cleaned, laundry done and everything else I've neglected for the past 10 weeks.

Camping Fun (NOT!)

This is where we like to camp in the spring because it's close to home and the fishing is pretty good. We left Friday after work even though I wasn't feeling very well. Thursday I had the chills and an upset stomach but I didn't feel any worse Friday so I thought it was a 24 hour bug and I would feel better by Saturday morning. I was so wrong! All I'm going to say about it is that camping is the last thing you want to be doing when you have what I did. Whatever I had (have) has knocked me on my butt. This is the 5th day of this crud, but I am finally starting to feel better.


This was our second trip to Black's Pond this year, the first was the weekend before when we left in a torrential rainstorm. By the time we got there it was just sprinkling so we set up camp and settled in for the night when the generator conked out on us. Ken couldn't get it started but said not to worry we have the battery, well....we had a dead battery. So that night was spent without lights, heat or water. We did have a nice quilt covered bed, so we settled in for the night, but it rained most of the weekend so that camping trip was rather dismal too.

We're going to wait a few weeks before we try camping again.

May 13, 2009

Today is May 13th and this is the scene from the door of the school where I work. Adding insult to injury......it is 34 freakin' degrees outside. By the time I went home for lunch I had to scrape 2 inches of snow off my car! I may deck the next person that says we're lucky to be getting the moisture.