First Campin' Trip Of The Season

We FINALLY got to go camping! We have been wanting to go since early May.... but the weather didn't seem to get the memo that it is supposed to be summer! And in these here parts, we don't tend to have COLD May's.
However, June has decided to play nice so we packed up monday morning and headed to our favorite comping spot. I gotta say this just might have been the best camping trip yet. Our friends decided to join us, so it gave the kids someone to play with, and us someone to socialize with..... which we did 'til 1 in the morning every night! (Side note, I am too old to be staying up that late... ughh.)
We went fishing as a family, which usually irriates me because I LOVE to fish, but when the kids fish, it is impossible for me to fish. They are always tangling their lines, or reeled in the line and want me to cast, or they are waving a hook around a sibling and fighting! So this time I decided that instead of fishing myself, I would just man the kids poles and help them. It turned out to be far more fun, because all the kids caught fish. Watching their excitement was so much better than catching one myself.
Abby was particularly funny, when she gets excited about something she tends to shake her hands while her whole body is stiff and shakey! But it is nearly impossible to reel while shaking, so she would reel for a minute and then stop and shake for a minute all while yelling, "I gotta fishy, I gooooootttttaa fishy"!
Too stinking cute.... oh, here's her fishy.





Gabe learned how to cast while we were fishing. He still needs some work, but he's getting the hang of it. This is the first time he took a real interest in fishing, which of course makes his daddy so proud.



And the big news of the trip is that Gracie learned to ride her bike without training wheels!!!!!! I must note that Gabe has yet to accomplish this milestone so there is even more pride for Grace that she beat her big brother at something. I'm not sure what was cuter, her beaming smile as she did it, or her daddy whoopin' and hollerin' running behind her!




We also took all the kids to a little creek to cool off. It was sooo cold, but once the kids were in for awhile they didn't seem to mind. I think they went numb from the cold and couldn't feel anymore! I leave ya with a few pics from that, and hope you are all enjoying summer as much as we are!

Bummer

A few weeks back a baby duck found its way straight from heaven and to our house. She was maybe 3 or 4 weeks old and soooooo sweet! One of the neighbor kids knocked on our door and said they had found a lost baby duck. So we rescued it.
Meet Waddles.


After we rescued Waddles we read that ducks are very social and need other ducks, so we ran right out and bought our 3 week old duck some babies to raise.

Meet Quakers and Peep.



We also went out and purchased 6 mature hens so that we are getting 6 eggs every day until our baby chickens start laying. Which probably won't be until the end of summer. So on this farm we have 18 chickens, 3 ducks, and 3 dogs.... e i e i o!

Until this morning.....

At 6 AM the dogs wanted out for the day. Clint stumbled out of bed and opened the back door and let them out. It was VERY cold and windy out this morning and he wasn't really coherent and didn't want to go out in his skivies to kennel the dogs.

At 7 AM I wake to hear the chickens going nuts....

At 7:05 Gracie comes running into our bedroom screaming "Daddy, Bear has a chicken!"

We leapt out of bed and ran outside. Bear and Bailey had broke into the chicken coop!

There was carnage everywhere! My baby ducks were dead. 5 of my chickens were dead.

I'm not sure its normal to sob over farm animals.... but I did.

I'm pretty bummed about the chickens, but I am really bummed about the ducks. Waddles was soooo sweet. And the babies were adorable. Waddles did such a great job being their "Mama" and not letting the chickens peck at them.

*Sigh* I don't think I'm cut out for farm life.

Rest in peace sweet duckies..... you will be missed.



PS - Anyone want a broken golden retriever and a oaf-ish black lab...... they may come up for adoption soon! Grrrrr Killers!