a painted pony story.

over the last few months the kids have loved hearing painted pony stories. what is a painted pony story you might ask? well, my dad told painted pony stories to us long ago and his dad told painted pony stories to him long, long ago. honesty, i don't really remember anything in particular about the stories - expect that painted pony - was always involved and that he was always on some sort of adventure.

anyways, over the years i've told a few, but over the last little while the kids beg me to tell them one - even just a short one - each night. some nights there isn't time with dance and baseball and whatever comes up. but on those wonderful nights when we get lying in bed early, i sit or lay in the hall and tell them a painted pony story.

we've added some friends along the way. the friends and adventures usually coincide with what we've been doing...

"painted pony" {a painted pony}

"beltie" {a belted galloway cow - it's a striped cow that we saw a few times coming home from boating} 

"screechy" {a small screech owl - like the owls we had in the backyard}

"mutton" {a little lamb - like the one connor rode while mutton bustin at the rodeo}

"clucky" {a chicken - like grandpa packer's chickens}

"mr badger" {can't remember how he came about, but the next day we saw a stuffed badger at cabela's}

"chinook" {a spawning salmon - nate sent us a video from seattle of the salmon run}

i'll have to ask the kids if that's the whole clan. they remember every detail of the last story and usually have to remind me what their last adventure was. 

we've had stories about exploring caves, playing in the meadow {hide 'n seek is their favorite game}, swimming in the river, going off a rope swing, sliding down a water fall, baking a birthday cake for pony's mom, making bread for mr. badger so he'll be their friend, helping clucky get her eggs back from a sneaky fox, exploring the forest...and lots more i can't think of off the top of my head.

fun in the sun.

lake powell 2013 was incredible as always. it's a lot of work getting ready and a long way to go. but to be away, i by away i mean from cell reception, is soooo worth it. no work, emails, texts, fb, instagram, nothing but family time. a-mazing. thanks to ryan and sara for all the fun!

here are some of the fun we had. beware, there's a lot of pics to go along with all of that fun :)

the wave runners were sooo much fun this year! 

nice to take the kids out for some one-on-one time.

this is how will got around on the boat.  

you just had to watch out for him, he's sneaky and fast! 

and he was coming for your ankles!

one of connor's lizards. ben and connor caught 3 that they named: shaky, dependable, and cuddly. but then dependable's name got changed to speedy cause he wasn't so dependable! :)

off to set the crawdad trap. 

sadly the trap now resides at the bottom of lake powell...

...along with the go-pro. may they RIP. 

and let me just say, that if lake powell ever drains, hopefully that never happens, 

but if it did, there's some serious loot down there!

this is lizard island from 2 years ago. the water has come down just a bit {a ton} since then!!

my wakeboarder.

the slide is always fun. we couldn't get mabel to go off it, maybe next time...

ryan and cory "playing" with the wave runners. 

makes me smile watching always having fun together.

best flag holder on the boat.

during the last rain storm.

cory got to play with the camera a bit.

connor floating away. and no, we didn't let him drive alone, 

cory was about to swim and get him.

elsie loved the hot tub on top the houseboat.

cory and i love the panoramas from here. 

gives a little better glimpse of the amazing, awesomeness that is lake powell.

building a sand castle.

will always made his way down the hall 

so he could look out the window and see what was going on.

we had some seriously amazing skies while we were there.

mabel's catfish.

connor's catfish. we later grilled them up. yummy!

collecting her shell treasures.

connor practicing his bb gun shooting. 

cory checking his shot with the binocs.

this was will's playground!

late tube ride for the day.

halfway through the week we changed spots. this is our second and final spot.

connor and cory went exploring one afternoon. they were looking for arrowheads in the same spot we found one a couple years ago. they didn't have any luck with the arrowheads, but found this awesome fishing lure!

ben and connor shooting the guns. 

we brought cory and ryan's bb guns from when they were little.

sorry for the pic overload. have to journal a bit before my forgetful brain does what it does best. we had such a fun trip!! thanks again ryan and sara!!

first day of school for else.

it's hard to believe that elsie is on her way to her first year of preschool! where has the time gone?!? she is totally ready and suuuper excited. all her life she's dropped off a sibling there and now her time has come! she's been so excited to have ms. chris, ms. ann and ms. karina as her teachers. she's also excited to have mabel be in the next classroom over. i feel so blessed that my kids had been able to have preschool in the elementary where the other kids are. she goes 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. she absolutely l.o.v.e.s. it! she has a little class of 3 year olds, only 9 in her class. only 3 girls including else. there were only 2 until another little girl came today. so we're pretty excited about that! there aren't any little girls her age in the neighborhood, so we're loving her this time with other cute girlies.

the sun was bright, but look at that cute little face!

this is totally elsie lately. 

i ask her to look at the camera for a pic 

and this is what she does. almost always... stinker.

an empty owl box.

cory and the kids surprised me this year for my birthday with the funnest present. they made me an owl box! i think i've missed the owls the most and it was so thoughtful of them. so last night we got it mounted and it's all ready for our owls to find their way back...or we'd love to welcome a new owl family! 

here's to hoping our empty box won't be empty for long!!

to kindergarten she goes.

i have a lot of mixed feelings as i sit and write this. i'm so excited for my beautiful girl to finally have her turn to ride the bus. i'm excited for all that she'll learn. i'm excited for the new friends she'll make. i'm excited for my miss mae. but a part of my heart was hurting as i watched her get on the bus. she quickly found a spot on the side i asked her to so i could take pics of her and watch her for just a little bit longer. her smile said it all, she was sooo excited and sooo ready. i saw a little nervousness in there too. but so much excitement. i tried to keep it together as she waved at me. oh so precious. i cried as the bus drove away. and then before i knew it, it was time for her to come home! such a fun adventure begins for both of us!

oh how i love miss mae! she is such a light in our family. she is the little mama of the home. she is such a great helper. oh how we will miss her while she's away, but can't wait for all the experiences she'll have.