Talon, Jaren, and Safia playing in the mud

Last Saturday, Matt was working at a side job, the kids had finished their chores and were bored. So they decided to go for a walk up the canyon behind our house. I was busy blogging so I sent them on their own, keep the two youngest. Jileigh and Angelique came back before the other three. Talon, Jaren, and Safia were gone quite a bit longer so I finally went up to find them. Thinking that something was wrong, I actually found them playing in the mud! The creek wasn't flowing but there was still a muddy pond left. The were covered from head to toe! The first picture was just taken with my phone. Then Jileigh took some pictures with my camera. I actually felt some satisfaction from spraying them off with the hose! I sprayed off Jaren and Safia and then Jileigh sprayed off Talon and the dog. Yes, they took the dog and got some mud on her too. Then my brother saw the pictures and asked for them so he could do some enhancements on them. They turned out pretty cool! Thanks Aaron!

Talon's 13th birthday

Aug 28th, for Talon's birthday, everyone in Matt's family pooled money together and we bought him a new twin mattress. I know, not that fun, but he really needed one and he really wanted one. The homemade icecream, from scratch cake, and peach bars turned out really well. As usual, Matt did a wonderful job on them.

Matt's 40th birthday

Since it was Matt's 40th I decided to give him a surprise party and invite his family and friends. I got black balloons and made a gravesite-like cake. It all turned out pretty cute, in a woman's opinion. The family got together and got him a $40 gift certificate for his favorite place, Home Depot.

Jileigh and Daddy's water fight

On Sept 9th, I was making bread. I also made a batch of cinnamon rolls out of my wheat dough, which are really good by the way. As I was serving them up, all my kids started to crowd around me, which can be an invasion in my space. So Matt started squirting the kids with the water squirter to get away from me just to be funny. Jileigh found another water squirter and was getting him back. It turned out to be WAR! They were funny and I had to get a couple of pictures of them.

Browse Creek family adventure

Earlier in the summer, Matt took just our family to Browse creek for a hike. We hiked down the river, 2 and 4 year olds in hand, for about a mile. NOT EASY! But it was pretty cool by the time we got down there. There is a small waterfall. Matt and the older two kids went down it, but getting back up was rather difficult.

A couple of weeks later we took Matt's siblings and their kids down the creek. This time we left the 5 year olds and younger with Grandma back at our house. It was much better going without toddlers. Matt made a rope ladder and brought it along. The guys also brought some cut two by fours and nailed them on the log that was already there. It made it much easier to get back up. After we played for a while, we built a fire and roasted hot dogs. (I buy the ones at Walmart that are all turkey and don't have any nitrites or nitrates.) It was pretty awesome fun!

Matt here: You may be able to tell from the pictures that Amy is down to (and holding at) a very sexy 127 lbs, and is wearing a pair of cut-off jeans that she wore (just to drive me crazy, I'm sure) when we were dating! Yeah baby!

The way back out is going 400' straight up the mountain. It's not too hard, you just have to watch where you are going and where you are putting your hands and feet. A few of the children starting taking off up without an adult. I was frantically trying to catch up with them, but was a little bit too late. One of the kids accidentally dislodged a small boulder about the size of a volley ball and it came rolling down and hit Candy's 7 year old Branden on the head. I was trying to get to him as fast as I could. He ended up getting a gash about 3 inches long. Candy and Nate took him to the Dr. Dave and he told them to take him to the emergency room because he was finding pieces of skull. Branden ended up being life-flighted to primary children's hospital. He had a fractured skull and it was putting pressure on the brain. Fortunately, the head surgeon there decided that he didn't need surgery, just staples and they would watch him for 24 hours. The little trooper turned out to be fine without surgery. The next day they came home. Everyone else in the group made it up the mountain safely.

Eggs - This post is just for fun

On Aug. 5th, the kids gathered eggs as usual. This day we got a huge one. So we cracked a normal size egg and this huge one and put them on the same plate and took a picture! It was fun!

4th of July at the Ranch

We spent the weekend before the(Monday)4th of July up at the Ranch. The ranch has some additions: the playhouse, the escape for couples, and the giant stride.
My kids were all lined up to jump in the water, but at the last second, two of girls chickened out. It was rather funny. Then Jileigh went down the zipline into the pond. (My camera was being funny and making everything look digital. We didn't realize it until we were home and downloaded all the pictures.) Anyway, as always, the kids had a ball.

Fire!

I don't remember the exact date but that it was sometime during July. It was 9 pm and we were watching a movie. Jileigh went outside to feed the dog and informed us that the mountain behind our house was on fire! It wasn't that big and I watched it until midnight and then went to bed. I felt rather anxious about it and got up to get a drink. It had multiplied! The wind had picked up and made it much worse. In the end, it went about 3/4 of a mile from one end to the other, but no houses were affected.

Family decals

I finaly found some family decals on a clearance sale and bought some. Jileigh was really excited about it. She helped her dad get them all put on the back of our car.

Jaren's rain gutter rigotta for scouts

On June 22, the cub scouts pack meeting was at a local creek and had the rain gutter rigotta there. Jaren's didn't win, but he and his dad had a good time making it.

Talon's 6-day scout camp

Talon spent a week at scout camp in June. Matt, as his scout leader, got to go with him.