Stripped Kitty!

We were mowing our lawn one night and Ryan looked over and saw this

there were feathers everywhere outside the chicken coop. He went inside the coop and there were 3 dead chickens. So we went and got some traps thinking we were going to catch a cat (our neighbor has about 10 cats). Well the next day was Sunday so we went outside and the trap was tipped over but the chickens were still acting weird. Jenna looked in the coop and saw a dead chicken so she came running in to tell us. So Ryan goes out to take care of it. When he opens the coop he sees a little black and white stripped "kitty" looking at him. We didn't know what to do so we just shot it, but boy did it stink and still does 2 months later. We saw more digging a few days later and set the trap again. This time our dog Penny went out to investigate and got sprayed by it. She comes running in and into her kennel. Ryan and I were upstairs and we smell this horrible smell and sure enough we had caught a skunk. But now that we caught it we didn't know what do you do with a caged skunk. We didn't want to shoot it so we read on the internet that if you cover it with a blanket it won't spray you because it can't see to spray. So we did that and then drowned it.

Here it is in the cage.

After Ryan drowned it. We have killed 4 skunks since then. Hopefully we have got them all!

Zoo

The weekend after the hike we went to the zoo. We haven't been for a couple of years. The kids really enjoyed it.

The Hogle zoo!

Who's the biggest ape?

The zoo has a new exhibit with polar bears and seals. The polar bear would swim rigth up to the glass and then swim back. The kids loved him, but so did all the other kids and it was hard to take a picture. But here we are posing outside of the exhibit.

We really like the bird show that they do. It is awsome! The birds fly right over your heads. Ryan snapped this picture of Liberty the bald eagle. Liberty was injured by a car and can't be released into the wild. She actually can't fly just flap her wings. What a magnificiant bird to represent our nation!

Kids and hike

Here are just a few random pictures of what we had done this summer.

An awsome fort that the kids made with almost all of our blankets. They had fun making it but cleaning it up was not so much fun

JT loves the water and can always find things and balance in them for a boat

Jenna with our two new "kids"

Lindee being cute!

Luke earned his Bear this summer. Ryan is the cubmaster and I am on the committee over Ryan so it has been lots of fun to both be in Scouts with Luke. At the beginning of summer we have a list of things that we want to do with the kids, by the end of the summer we rush to get the last few things in. So every weekend in August we have done something fun. The first thing we did was go on a hike. Now it wasn't just a little hike! It was a 7 mile hike. Half of it was up a mountain and the other half was down the mountain. We hiked into a lake and it was beautiful. We had a great time and the kids did great. Even Lindee did a good job but declared after the hike that she did not want to go hiking again for a long time!

Resting on the trail

I think we were only a fourth of the way of one of the mountains. We were tired especially JT.

On the side of the mountain resting.

Here the kids are resting by a rock. We were about half way at that point.

This was usually my view. The 3 older kids would be way up ahead while, me, Ryan, and Lindee followed.

Here we are resting on a log that had fallen over the trail.

When we finally reached the lake after 4 hours we all stripped down into our underwear and went swimming. We had our own private lake until about 10 minutes after we put our clothes back. Then someone joined us. Here is Luke enjoying the water.

Posing by the lake. It had a great view.

Here is a view on the way back from the lake.

We made it. It took us 4 hours to get up to the lake and 3 hours to get down. We were only planning on it taking us 5 hours round trip. But we made it and the older kids already want to go again. Posing by the front of the trail.

McCormmick

We went to Ryans hometown over the 4th of July. We had a great time with family and took the kids to their 1st rodeo! Usually we have grandma watch the kids while we go, but we decided that they were all old enough to enjoy the rodeo and they did. They even got to participate in the pig scrabble. If you catch the pig you can keep it or arrange to sell it. I am glad that they didn't catch one of the 4 pigs. Shame on me for not getting any pictures because it was the funniest thing to see all these kids run after 4 piglets! From Ryans house we went to visit his brother Scott and his family. Scott and Cassi have an awsome house with a holding pool that feels up when they get water. The kids had a ton of fun playing in it.

We also went to a water park with Scott and Aven. It was a blast. After that we headed up to McCormmick with Connies motorhome (I will never tent again--Thank you Connie for letting us use it again this year!)All of my brothers and there families were up there this year. The only person we were missing was Ryan's wife Lori. I didn't take many pictures (which I always regret) but we did a lot of eating, visiting, and even gots some pinnochle in! The fishing isn't as good as it used to be but each of the kids did catch a fish (even Lindee with a bit of help). Our best fishing was when we went out on my parents pontoon boat. We went down the snake river a ways and started fishing.

JT and Chaz had a great time together.

We noticed some dark clouds, but mostly they just go around the park so we werent too worried. Well, it wasn't too long before my Uncle Bill comes zooming down the river to tell us to hurry and get out because the storm was going to hit us. So we kind of took our time getting things packed back up but by the time we got to shore the rain was hurting us. We quickly got the kids off the boat and my brother Shay jumps in so they could go put the boat by the dock so it wouldn't bang agains the rocks. It was really coming down by then and the wind was bad too. Luckily someone had tucked our little campsit away so all of our stuff didn't get blown away. The storm didn't last very long but all the tenters had 2 inches of rain in the bottoms of their tents and some had rips and broken pools. They were able to dry everything out by bed time but it sure will be a storm to remember! The highlight of the trip besides catching fish was the tubbing. Every year my Uncle Bill pulls all of the kids on the tub behind his boat. My kids love it. JT is a little daredevil and would let go of the tube with both hands! Thanks Uncle Bill for the fun memories.

Jenna and Kamber doubling it!

Luke waing to go.

JT and his craziness!

Lindee loves the tube!

Big spider and big trout

We found this creepy crawly in the window well of our basement. It was the biggest black widow I have ever seen. We caught her while she was making her egg sack so hopefully we don't have anymore.

Ryan went surgon fishing with Shay awhile ago and caught this huge trout. Shay wanted him to cut it up for bate but Ryan said no way he was going to eat it! Ryan didn't end up catching any surgons but Shay did after Ryan left for the day.

3 birthdays!

Another year and wiser too! Happy Birthday to 3 of us. First I turned 33

and then 6 days later it was Lindees turn. She turned 4. My parents were here visiting us during Lindees birthday. We were all going to Tysons baptism so they took Lindee with them in there new for a few days and then we met up with them. So we celebrated Lindees birthday a day early. She loves Tangled so my mom and Jenna helped decorate Lindees cake. It turned out pretty good. Lindee is a true red-head and can often be heard voiceing her opionion (which her way is always right). But she loves to color and can be really sweet when she wants to be.

6 days later we celebrated JT's (or John as goes by sometimes. He still loves cars and requested another cars cake. JT is our little clown in the family. He loves to make up silly things to say and make people laugh. He is a happy and loving boy and loves to play outside.

A month and a half worth of activities

So I already broke my news years resolution so I am going to make it up and post a ton of pictures of what we have been doing to make it up!

When Ryan travels he likes to get things for the kids. One of his resent trips he picked up a 3D puzzle of the capital building. It was fun to put together.


Grandma Ussing gave the kids gift cards to Barns and Nobles. Jenna took a long time decided and finally she found a book on painting toe nails. It came with polish and great tips. She just had to try them out on dad!


Last month JT lost his first tooth. I was starting to get worried that he wouldn't loose any of his teeth. I didn't even know it was that loose when he comes home from school with his tooth in an envelope. He had pulled it out in library. Silly boy! But he sure does look cute :)


During Spring Break this year we decided to get some more yard work done. I think it will never be all done. But we rented a skid steer with a rock bucket and got all of the rocks out of our garden and sloped the evaporation ditch that is on our property. We still have to put up a temporary fence and finish the grape trellis and then we are done. We also planted 4 fruit trees. 2 apple that are on the side yard and 2 peach that are in the back yard. I can't wait until we start getting fruit. You can't tell very well but Jenna is actually in there helping dig the rocks! All of the kids took turns "driving" it

Here are the 2 peach trees

Easter came at the very end of our spring break. We colored eggs on Friday and then the kids went to an Easter grab on Saturday and then Sunday morning they work up and the our Resurrection eggs (where they learned all about the reason for Easter and what Christ did for us. Then after church the Easter bunny came and they got to find eggs and chocolate bunnies! I would like to say that we ate bunny for Easter but we didn't. We had barbecued ribs with Jeff and Neeleys family. Maybe next year or just maybe tomorrow!





Having fun coloring

The Easter bunny at the Easter grab.
After church!