The elusive polliwog

 

Sprout has discovered the summer pastime of every farm kid- hunting for polliwogs. First, you must get a visual on them. 

 It helps if you have a tadpole catcher, but your hands will work in a pinch.

 Sometimes there is some tricky maneuvers like crossing the ditch.

 Hurdling tubes.

 In the end, you have hours of entertainment. I'm not sure what we're going to do when the water is turned off.

Preschool Graduate

 

A few weeks ago Sprout had preschool graduation. Here she is when her name was called to come onto the stage. 

 The kids had a short music program with a few songs they performed. Sprout has her guitar and is rocking out. She decided the mortarboard wasn't her style and it was quickly abandoned. It was a great ending to the school year.

Colorado Trip

Our good friends, the Dares, moved to Colorado several years ago, yet we had not visited them until recently. This was our first big road trip with the kids.

We left after work on a Wednesday night and spent the first night south of Salt Lake. I use the term "night" loosely. Karen and I got less than 4 hours of sleep that night. Of course Marcus, who slept during most of the drive, was all over the continental breakfast as soon as they opened.

Undaunted, Karen and I took a selfie at the hotel prior to starting our second leg of the drive.

We arrived to great weather in Delta. The kids played outside most of the time that we were there. The nice weather allowed us to stay close to the Dare home to relax, visit, and enjoy the sunshine. Here the Dare girls (Eleanor on the left and Alice on the right) demonstrate their skills on the "together" swing. Elena had this mastered by day two of our visit.

 The kids did lots of playing in the dirt and rocks, as you can see below.

One morning Matt and I hung out in the yard with Elena and Marcus while everyone else was out. Matt, E and I puttered in the yard, cleaning up some things. Unable to pull weeds or reach the trash can, Marcus found the next best thing...Matt's coffee cup.

On Friday night we decided to walk to a local bar and grill for dinner. The place is popular and was fairly busy. The kids were starving as we waited for our order. Tension was building, but our waitress was on top of it. She brought pretty much everything she could think of to snack on that she wouldn't have to charge us for.

 The result: Cheetos grin!

 Marcus found that everything tastes better with fry sauce. Even lemonade.

Speaking of Marcus, he had some trouble going to sleep while we were there. Enter Jacci and baseball. Problem solved!

On Saturday (the morning of our departure) Jacci had to work at the local rec center. We decided to crash her work and take the kids swimming. They have a great pool and it was a good way to burn up some of the kids' energy before we departed. Marcus wasn't very happy at first, but he warmed up to the idea and had a great time.

You can always determine how much fun kids have had by how hard they crash afterward.

 

Thanks again to the Dares for hosting us! We look forward to visiting you again soon.

Random Cabin Stuff

This is the new background photo on our desktop PC. I love it.

I have been remiss in blogging; I think there were four cabin visits since my last post. First, I couldn't stand the plumbing situation anymore, so I went up there by myself and swapped out the supply lines from this:

To this. It can all be gravity-drained (via the convenient floor drain) in about 5 minutes.

The plumbing project took a little longer than expected. I called Karen to tell her that I would be home late Sunday evening. She basically told me to get my a$$ home ASAP to help with the kids.

Luis and I took all four kids to the cabin over Mother's Day weekend to give the wives a break. We had a great time, but didn't take many pictures. I called Karen on Sunday morning to tell her that we would be heading home soon. She told me to take my time. Take LOTS of time.

Here is a picture of some elk I saw on the drive to the cabin for the Mother's Day weekend.

Since Cascade Reservoir is next door, we decided to take my grandpa's boat to the cabin. We spent quite a bit of time doing maintenance, cleaning, and outfitting the boat for our needs at Cascade. I gave Elena a rag and she spent a couple of hours spit-shining the interior of the boat.

Our first family fishing trip on the boat was a bust. We caught zero fish. On the second trip, I dropped Karen and Marcus off at the Williamsons' cabin and picked up Justin and his son Zarek. We caught one perch. The following day my neighbors told me where the perch were and I caught a bunch while the kids were sleeping. I fished from the bank. Go figure.

We have done some mushroom hunting at the cabin. Hunting has been fair; the exercise has been good. Over Mother's Day weekend I found what I would guess to be a grouse nest. Two weeks later we found a few more shrooms. 

 

  We have a rabbit. A snowshoe hare actually. Elena named him Mr. Rabbit.

I think this may be Elena's first selfie. She was playing with my phone and managed to turn on the camera, switch the view back towards the screen, and snap some pics. I'm sure she'll be posting to Facebook or Twitter in no time. We'll have to work on lighting next time.

Easter

 

We went to my parents' house for Easter this year. If nobody takes a picture of the meal, did it ever exist? Maybe not as far as the blog is concerned but we had a great brunch.

Both of the kids were really excited to hunt for Easter eggs this year. Nana made sure there were plenty to be had. Elena employed the Blitzkrieg approach, while Marcus combed the yard methodically. I think both kids collected about the same number of eggs. 

Good Doctor Visit

I have been remiss in posting, but I wanted to provide a quick update on Elena's hip. We visited her orthopedic surgeon today for a 6-month review. Basically they take an X-ray, the doc draws a line across the bottom of the pelvis and measures how flat the hip socket is in degrees. Normal is 165-170. The hip socket needs to grow around the ball in order to stabilize it. Last time we visited him, he hissed and sighed as he drew the triangle at 148  deg.

Karen and I approached this appointment expecting to schedule surgery. Once kids approach 4, things generally don't approve on their own. However, she has made an improvement to 155 degrees, 7 deg better than last time. Considering her improvement, and her small stature for her age, he opted to play the wait-and-see approach.

The Cabin at Ice-Off

We decided not to let the spring thaw deter us from visiting the cabin (this was a while ago.) It's actually supposed to be the best time of year to catch big trout on Cascade Reservoir, and Karen had to visit her student in McCall anyway.

The road to the cabin this time of year sucks. The drive is like living a promo video for Subaru. We tried both north and south routes and determined that they are equally sucky. At least the views are nice!

 

We attempted fishing at the church camp area near the cabin. We had the place all to ourselves, mostly because it's not a good bank fishing spot. By the time we decided to abort and move somewhere else both of the kids were wet, cold, and ready to head back to the cabin. We did manage to scout some better-looking spots for next year though.

The animals are starting to return to the area, as evidenced by the goose tracks behind Elena. We saw a few deer and lots of sandhill cranes. The snow is melting fast and I think we will be able to walk or drive pretty much anywhere around the cabin next time we head up.