Happy Birthday Macy Sue!

Macy only wanted two things for her 5th birthday. A purple My Little Pony and to go camping and fishing! On the 18th we headed up to the White Mountains. It was a little wet and chilly, but she (and Joey) had a great time!

It rained most of Friday night and hailed Saturday morning, but we still headed to the lake to fish. We finally found a good spot and settled down to fish. However the weather had other plans and a thunder storm was quickly approaching. The kids had their rain ponchos for wet weather, but as the lightening came closer we started to pack up. Donald reeled in Joey's line and he had caught a giant crawdad! We ran back to the Yukon in a hail storm and decided to drive around the back roads until the weather cleared up so we could go back to fishing. We found some other secluded camp areas for next summer and then D decided we should go for a hike...in the rain. We saw some beautiful scenery and heard lots of elk calling nearby. Macy learned the difference between pine trees, Douglas fir trees, and Blue Spruce (we'll see if she remembers when we go camping next spring!)

Saturday night we heard lots of elk calling as they came down to the lake. At some point the trailer battery died which meant that the heater fan also stopped. Luckily we have nice down comforters on our beds, but it was quite cold in the trailer! We woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning. We had the last of Macy's cake for breakfast and started packing up. A squirrel ventured into our trailer as I was trying to load up the Yukon, and it scampered out and sat on a nearby rock as I came back inside. We put some chips on the rock and the kids had fun watching it eat. As we were packing up, both Macy & Joey asked where we were going next and were quite disappointed that we were headed home instead of to another camping spot! We have some minor repairs to do next Spring before we head out for camping again - Joey now wants to go camping for HIS birthday!

New Tree

Yes, once again we have planted a NEW tree in the yard. We loved our Bottle Trees, but they are extremely susceptible to Cotton Root Rot. Over Labor Day Weekend, D found a small Silver Dollar Gum Tree (Eucalyptus) at Lowe's for $20. They are immune to the root rot and are fast growers. So D pulled out the little bottle tree, dug a new hole and we planted this new tree. It seems to be doing well and we can't wait for it to grow a little taller and block out the view of the neighbors' homes across the greenbelt!

Rag Curls

I rolled Macy's hair up in rags, tied them and she slept in them over night. She loved having tons of bows in her hair yesterday and was even more delighted with the springy curls this morning!

Water Trail in Celery

This weekend the kids each chose a stalk of celery and placed it in a glass of colored water (red for Macy & blue for Joey). Later we saw the path that the water took throughout the stalk. Daddy put a thin slice of celery stalk under the microscope for Macy to examine.

Terrariums!

On Friday Macy and Joey made their "gardens". Now every morning they come downstairs to see how much their ivy has grown and to watch the leaves "breathe".