Thank You Cousin Jess

The kids got these two awesome kites in the mail a couple weeks ago from their cousin Jessica who was on vacation in Bali. Then last weekend when we went camping, their uncle Dennis brought them each a donkey puppet (newly named "Daddy" and "Tulip") from her as well. Thank you cousin Jessica for the gifts. The kids really enjoy playing with them (and luckily mommy's good at untangling them!) They're adorable.

Here's a 2 minute clip of Uncle Dennis's puppet show during camping. It was night so the vision is limited, but my favorite part of the show is hearing the kids giggling in the background. This video features narration by Uncle Dennis, lighting by Nana, and video recording by mommy. The actors are Tulip & Daddy (puppets), Nathan, Daddy, Great-grandma Tanyon and cousin Catie....

A Lost Art

There must have been a time when it was one of the rights of passage for a young man to learn from his father how to clean a fish. Our little man certainly was pleased to get to experience it with his daddy. I'm pretty sure that a large percentage of grown men these days haven't ever even seen it done. Cheers to tradition~

Saddlebag Lake

While on vacation up in Mammoth last weekend we went on a 5 mile hike near Saddlebag Lake. The weather was crisp but beautiful up there at over 10,000 feet. I'm not sure there were really 25 lakes we saw, as the locals claim, but there sure were a lot of them. I was very proud of our little hikers. My little girl hiked almost the whole way with only a few bouts of complaining and her brother hiked about 1/2 of the way, which is awesome for a 3 year old considering he takes 3 steps for one of ours. What a great way to spend time in the great outdoors.

Why He's Insufferable

From time to time I have had people (okay maybe more than "from time to time") tell me that my husband thinks he's so great that he walks on water. In fact once or twice (okay, maybe just once) I've had someone tell me that they think he is so great that he MUST actually walk on water. I have to admit, when it comes to life, he got the lion's share of luck. Well, here's our latest camping trip where he caught upwards of 30 fish in two days. You know that parable where Jesus says "If you give a man a fish he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish he eats forever"? Well, apparently fishing wasn't all Jesus taught him.

Before

Why do I get the feeling that this will someday be used as a "before" picture...