Kids at the fair

We did the typical stuff: antique tractor pull, livestock, rides, and the petting zoo. I think the petting zoo was their favorite:

Tree takedown

We had a tree in our front yard that had to be taken down. I have cut a lot of trees on our property, but these were just too close to our shed and the power lines. So we hired an arborist to do it.

Before:


After:

Sunday outfits

Fishing

I took the boys fishing yesterday. I think they had a nice time but we didn't catch any. Ethan had a couple good bites though.

iPhone launch chuckles

Here's a news video showing a lady who showed up at an AT&T store w/ $16K in cash and the intent to buy all the iPhones in the store.

http://mobilitysite.com/2007/07/iphone-idiot/

Sleeping fawn

Bambi slept in Emily's garden last night. I found him (her?) in our front yard just before I left for work this morning. We never saw an adult deer, so we're not sure if it's mom is around or not.

This picture is pretty fuzzy b/c I took it through our screen.


Here's a closeup. You can see how small it was compared with the tomato plant it slept under.

Happy 4th!

Every kid loves sparklers. :)

Family trip

This year we collaborated with two of my brothers' families for a vacation to North Conway, New Hampshire. We invited Nana along, since she & Gramps used to take us there every year. We went to Storyland, Clark's Trading Post, and the girls shopped at Settler's Green.

Clark's Trading Post

Ethan in the ice cream parlor


Asa patiently waiting (!!!)


Ethan waiting for the trained bear show


On the way home, Asa clutches a partial McNugget in his sleep. Yes, we do feed that stuff to our kids occasionally. :P

Storyland

Ethan & Asa with Humpty


Ethan with uncles & cousins


On the twirling teacup ride

Toad

Ethan found a little toad in our yard. It made for fun picture taking. :)

Update

The morning after:

More washout! From April 16 northeaster

A bridge across town from us washed out--or rather is still washing out--from the rain. It has gotten worse since these pics were taken. That's my friend Micah in the foreground. He and his family live on the road past the washout.

April snow

 

New linked blogs

Check out Joyous and MissionsGear in my links list!

Layers

 

Clearing some snow

 

Ethan & his snowman

 

Washouts!

We got a bunch of snow and then it rained really hard all day. There were a ton of washouts all around the area due to the storm drains and culverts being clogged by snow from other prior storms. What a mess!

This is across the street from us. The damage blocks access to a private road where 7 families live:

This is the set of steps in front of our house. We went out to run an errand and this is what we found when we returned! The water was rushing across the road, hitting the snow bank, and traveling down the side of the road until it reached our driveway. Then it came barreling down the drive and over our steps. I took a shovel up the road and shoveled a big hole through the snow bank. That fixed most of the problem by routing the water across the street through the woods.

We had washouts at the top of our driveway 8-12" deep. Not too bad when we consider how much damage others had. We're very thankful.

Artists