Big Sand Lake Lodge

Colby is one of the luckiest people I know. As my younger brother would say.

Really though, he is.

Papa Kent is partner in the Sportsman's News, and every year

 [almost]

he takes Colby with him somewhere in the country...or world...fishing or hunting something.

What a life!

Here's a bit of Colby's week long trip to Manitoba, Canada.

June 10 - 17

33" Lake Trout

Daily shore lunch - Walleye, fried potatoes, and baked beans - Every Day!

42" Northern Pike - Master Angler in the Province of Manitoba caught on a fly

Dinner in the lodge

Even though they got fogged in and missed their original flights home,

Colby had a great week on this much needed vacation.

We're glad he had a good time and that he's home safe.

Happy Father's Day

to the best dad in the world!!

and to all our papa's and uncles too!

Oh...Love! Love! Love!

I said how we did a little photo shoot yesterday. Well it was for Lexie.

Her birthday is in December.

December is ugly.

I've always wanted to do cute spring pictures of her...

so we did.

She usually gets very camera shy.

Won't look at the camera, or smile.

And she's the world's best ignorer

And sometimes...like this time...

she pulls the fake cheesy smile.

I love them all because they capture her little personality,

which we all know she has a lot of...

and well...

just look at them!

This is her '2'

We'll consider these her 2 1/2 year pictures.

I just couldn't wait 2 more weeks to share them.

Oh sweet girl...

How I Love You!!

Fisherman's widow

I guess I probably shouldn't announce that. But since my blog's private I should be safe! Guess we'll find out. Colby's outta town, maybe out of the country??? Fishing.

I'm doing my best to keep my sanity, my patience, and my voice!

No, really, the kids have been pretty good so far.

Right after Colby left, we ate lunch and hopped in the car so I could get my hair done.

Dropped the boys off in Cedar and Lexie came with me to Minersville.

Last night we were all up until about 10:00.

This morning we woke up late...9:30. It felt so good.

Except Lexie & I had been up from 2:00 to about 7:00, so it was needed.

We hurried to get ready.

Did a little photo shoot

then went swimming.

Grandpa even joined in the fun!

Or made it more fun.

I'm sure we'll be spending lots of our 95+ degree, dad-less days here.

Wish me luck!!

Carson's Baptism

June 4

My brother's oldest son was baptized last weekend. I feel so bad I didn't get as many pictures this time around. I did however take this one of the kids in front of the font before the baptism. I might get in trouble for it...I don't know. Is that bad? It's not of him being baptized.

 I just love watching all the little kids watching the ordinance, and being so excited about it!

It was so fun having almost the whole family together...

it doesn't happen often.

Congratulations Carson!!

Memorial Day

Since Colby was working I decided to ride up to Minersville with my mom and spend the day. I love going to the cemetary with my family to see my 2 uncles' headstones. My mom, her siblings and parents always do so much on Memorial Day for them.

My sister was there with her family and her girls rode back home with us to stay at my mom's for the week. Cutler's been asking when he's going to get to play with them forever, so I was extremely happy they had the whole week. After going through my pictures, I forgot I had these on my camera from that day. These are just a handful of the 39 great-grandkids...eating lunch on grandma's kitchen floor.

 Not a good picture at all, but I had to get one of Grandpa dancing his jig.

 And just before we left these two were being silly, but I had to get a picture of them with my grandma.

Memorial Weekend

Oh...what a weekend! It was one of the best camping trips we've been on, honestly.

We pulled the trailer up to Gray's Ranch on Thursday night, then went back up Friday and stayed just one night. With the Razor, we can't take everything up at once so we have to make multiple trips. [We've gotta get a toy hauler!!]

While we were setting things up and getting everything out and ready to use,

Lexie was in the trailer on 'bug patrol'. She's good at that.

We did a little hanging out...

Check out Lexie's hand-me-downs from the boys!! Ha!

and some sittin' by the fire

with a little s'more lovin'!!

Without fail...someone always catches a grasshopper...or two...or three.

And lately, Lexie is not a fan of getting her picture taken.

See!

And we have a couple of [Sharp Shooters] who's new loves are the BB gun and the 'Machine Gun', Colby's automatic .22

Fun Times!!

Noah's shooting at the little bird at the very top of the tree.

We loaded up a little earlier than planned, but we had some things to take care of. And the weather was starting to get a little gnarly. Sunday was the worst we heard. I'm so glad we came home when we did.

Happy Birthday...

Grandma Sherie!!

You know it's summer break when...

We go from this...

to this...

Like I've said before...
the boys love it and beg for it for a month. Usually I do it a week or two after school gets out. This year we barely made it to the day after.

Preschool Graduation...again

May 25
Even though Cutler graduated again from preschool, he still has another year of it. Poor kid. He could go to Kindergarten this year, but he would be the youngest kid in his class...forever! I don't think that's good for boys. And I wouldn't say he's totally ready for it either.

This year he went to Ms. Kathy's Preschool. This cute lady who does it in her basement. Cutler says "Ms. Kathy says she's 5, but she's really not" with the cutest little smirk on his face. He loved her, and I thought about sending him somewhere else next year, but figured...why? He learned a lot this year, he loves her, and she already knows him and his personality. Let's not make someone else try to figure this kid out! So he'll go back in the fall. And I can't wait to see what else he learns!

All of the kids that go to Ms. Kathy's. The front row is the morning class, and the back is afternoon, Cutler's.
This was her 25th graduating class.

My camera was doing something funky, so some of these are really blurry. But I loved this one showing him singing all the songs.

 He waited...and waited...and waited to get his book. He was the very last one.

 Ms. Kathy & Cutler

Getting his 'congratulations' talk from dad 

After the little program we had a picnic.

 Cutler and his little friend Max.

 I love this! Ms. Kathy measured them when school started and then again at the end of the year.

Cutler wants to start Kindergarten so bad. He's been told all his life he gets to start school when he's 5. So he's not totally understanding why he doesn't get to start this year. We tell him just enough to answer the question and move on to something else.

One day he'll thank us.