The Saga of Steve (Sara) Shortlegs

The girls found a caterpillar outside and begged me to let them keep it as their "pet." As an allergic Mom, who will never allow a cat or dog in the house, a caterpillar seemed like a pretty harmless way to let them have a pet.




They named him Steve Shortlegs and made a habitat for him. They didn't know what to feed him, so JJ suggested sugar water. They made a little sugar water trough for him and also put dropperfuls of sugar water around the bottom of his "house" for good measure. They also put a few leaves in there for him.

JJ and I went on an errand and while we were out we got a phone call from Montana:

Montana: "Mom? Can I talk to JJ?"

Montana: "JJ? I have some bad news. The caterpillar is dead!"

JJ: "No, Montana, he's just sleeping. O.K. Bye"

When we got home, we checked on Steve Shortlegs and sure enough, he looked pretty dead. He was just sitting there in a pile of his poop. JJ remembered that in school she learned that caterpillars breathe through their bodies. We thought maybe he had drown in all the sugar water. So the girls cleaned out the tank, put the caterpillar on the cement outside, and pretty soon Steve Shortlegs was moving around.

The girls were ecstatic! They couldn't believe their eyes. "He's the luckiest caterpillar in the whole world!", they said. They got busy making him a new habitat (without the sugar water everywhere.)

At some point, they decided Steve was a girl and renamed him Sara Shortlegs. She kept them busy most of the day! Thank you Sara Shortlegs!!

Sunday Quiet Time

Doesn't he have a pleasant sleeping face? I think it's because he LOVES sleeping so much!

This is what Sunday Quiet Time looks like at our house. I love it. In fact, I think it's my favorite part of the entire week. There's nothing quite like a Sunday nap. You would see a picture of me asleep if I knew how to take a picture of myself asleep. (And if my sleeping face looked as good as Hank's) I would probably have drool coming out of my mouth or something.

Desitin, anyone?

You know the feeling when you have a 2 yr. old and things get a little TOO QUIET? I do. Most of the time, when that feeling creeps up, it's a mad rush to find Little Guy and see what he's into that's keeping him so quiet. But once in a while, I take a little gamble. It's crazy, I know. My experience with my three previous 2 yr. olds tells me that something is definitely up. That I should go right now and find out what's going on. But this evening I was reading a most interesting blog entry by Azu'car. I took the risk. I kept on reading and ignoring the nagging "Little Guy's into something" feeling. What the heck, I thought to myself. My house is babyproofed. How bad can it be? Afterall, maybe he's just upstairs quietly reading his books. Uh-huh. That's it. When the nagging feeling got the best of me, I went to investigate and this is what I found peeking over the stairway.

By the way, have you ever tried to scrub desitin out of carpet? It's not fun. Scrubbing it off his face wasn't easy, either. I think he still has some up his nostrils.

Camp

Montana and her counselor, LaLa, after a long day at Camp

JJ and her friend, Rachel

JJ and Montana are having a GRAND time at camp this week. They get to swim, play games, sing, ride horses, drive bumper boats, go rock climbing, etc. It's a day camp run by a local church. Some of their beliefs differ a little from ours, so we talked to the girls and told them they might hear some things that are different from what we believe, but we could talk about it each day when they get home. So their ears were perked and ready to discover any differences. After the first day, JJ told me about a story they heard about Jesus. She was asking about some details of the story when Montana piped in to tell me that she heard that she was supposed to drink lots of water (the camp is mostly outdoors in the sun.) She wanted to know if we believed that in our church. So I assured her that, yes, our church believes in drinking lots of water.

Hangin' with Grandma Dorothy

Mom and Dad drove to pick up Great-Grandma Dorothy and bring her back for a week or so. They stopped by here on their way over to the coast. WE LOVE GRANDMA DOROTHY !!!

Goodbye Aunt Sally and Cousin TyTy

We had to say Goodbye to Aunt Sally and Cousin TyTy today after a GREAT 2 weeks of having fun and making memories. They're on their way back to Texas.

Waving Goodbye

Goodbye Hugs

Goodbye Picnic

Our Boys are Back!!

Hank and Reed came back today from their week long hiking/backpacking trip in the Mountains with the 12/13 year old Boy Scouts. They each carried their own 40-50 lb. pack. It was a challenge for everyone involved, but overall a very successful trip.

The girls, Little Guy and I are very glad they're home. We missed them a lot. Little Guy had started asking for Daddy and I'm sure wondering where he and Reed disappeared to. After they got home, Little Guy followed Hank around all evening and wouldn't let him out of his sight. He panicked when Hank got in the car to move it around the corner. He started screaming "Wait!! Daddy! Wait!!" He was afraid Hank was going to leave again.

** Warning: Gross feet pictures ahead...

Hank and Reed looking tired after a long hike back to civilization

Reed sliced his toe open on a sharp rock in the Lake

Hank got a nasty blister from his new hiking boots

Summer Fun at the Cabin

Grandpa teaching Reed the "J" stroke

Uncle Brad taking Grandma and Montana for a boat ride

Sisters

Reed and Uncle Brad in the canoe

(before Brad tipped it over!)