Dates

Lee and I have been on a couple of more "official" dates lately thanks to the ever amazing Lois and Sadie!  

We made our usual trip to the DC temple on Friday.  That morning we got up around 5am to head to Ft. Detrick to get reserve cards.  I'll just say it was a waste of time.  Ah, the Army memories, ha ha. Despite the waste of time, I really do miss the military...the great amenities on base, the awesome people, living on base, shopping at the commissary, hearing Taps every night at 9pm, etc..... Also on this trip we saw the townhouse Lois and co. just moved in to!  I love it!  It has so much storage and lots of fun, interesting nooks and crannies. After the temple we went to the Ward BBQ for our local church congregation.  We arrived very late, but Lee and Clark enjoyed playing kickball and hitting some softballs.

The next night Lee and I went to a play.  Yes! A play!  We love going to concerts and plays, but haven't been in an incredibly long time. Years, actually!  While we were paying off our student loans the only "extras" we really spent money on was traveling to visit family.  Other than that, we were tight wads.  Then of course we started saving for the time when Lee would leave the Army and open his own practice. Anyway, when I heard that my friend was in a play I wanted to go see it!  Saturday night we headed out to the local theater and saw Harvey.  It was a fun play.  Some friends from church were there too, which was fun.
 

My friend did a great job!
 

Afterwards we went to Cold Stone. One of the teacher's that I did copies for last school year gave me a gift card to Cold Stone.  It was YUMMY! Several weeks ago Lee and I went mountain biking with some friends from our ward.  This was my third time doing this with Lee.  I walked a lot, fell off my bike a few times, got sprayed with mud, and received a few bruises too.  I am very inexperienced to say the least! Despite the crazy adventure, I would love to go again with Lee. I was really glad that Lee was able to go mountain biking.  It's a rare treat for him these days.  Hopefully he'll be able to go on several rides this summer when we go out West. Also, a few nights a week, if we're not too tired, we've been watching the BBC TV series of Agatha Christie's Poirot.  They have been really fun to watch.  Well, I should say I've enjoyed watching them.  Lee usually falls asleep in them, poor guy.
Thanks for the great dates Lee! I enjoy all of them!

Cal's Birthday

Just one more birthday to go and the stretch of birthdays will be over this year for the kids. I was hoping that Elden would be born in April, then the birthdays would be April, May, June, July.  Of course he couldn't wait and came in March instead.  But as Clark pointed out to us, it is fun that the birthdays in our family run youngest to oldest from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.  Anyway, the first part of June we celebrate Cal's 7th birthday!

First, a picture of the girls and their neighbor friend.  She is in Cal's grade and is a really nice girl.  Shanna LOVES playing with her.

One night during a family movie night....


So here is the cake!  Cal wanted a castle but it turned more into a fortress.  Either way, Cal liked it so our job was accomplished!
 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Cal!
 

 

The morning of Cal's birthday the cub scouts had a hike in the Shenandoah National Park.  It sure is pretty up there.  We went to Dark Hallow Falls again.  My kids have been on this hike three times in the past few months.  They don't want to go again for awhile, ha ha.  

 

 

Lee was at work that morning so I was glad there was a hike to go on...something fun to do that morning! A few people commented on how impressed they were that I would go by myself with five kids on a hike.  It was nice because I knew what the trail was like and so did my kids.  I guess I do so many things with them by myself it didn't phase me. But, it did help that I knew what to expect that morning hiking wise.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture of the kids.  See the muffins in their hands?  I made some for breakfast that morning and I think only one or two kids ate them.  I am a stickler with food that I make for my kids.  If they don't want to eat it, fine.  But they don't get food later! I brought some muffins on the hike in case they wanted a snack.  Well, the kids eventually wanted them!  For several of them, this was their breakfast. 

Afterwards there was a hotdog roast at a nearby picnic area. See the plate in the bottom left of the picture?  That was my lunch.  Not healthy in the least I know!  Well, neither are hotdogs for that matter.  I don't like hotdogs though, so I had some s'mores and chips!
 

 

 

 

 

We kept the day super busy and after we got home from the hike and cleaned up we took off again.  We got a summer pool pass and hit the pool for the first time this summer.  Can't wait to go back again!  

 

After homemade pizza and baths, we had Cal's party.  Happy Birthday Cal!  We love you!
 

One more random picture....some fireflies.