New Bikes, Fences, and Haircuts, Oh My!

When taking Steven out to ride his bike at home following the guys' campout I noticed the chain guard was no longer there. I went online and saw that this was a safety hazard. Steven had been riding the hand-me-down bike with the seat up all the way and was coming due for a new bike. So he and I headed out. We found one at Target. Here he is with his new bike that is the same color as Rob's motorcycle:

It took about 5 seconds and he was riding his new larger bike with confidence at the school down the street:

This past weekend Rob's Dad, Larry, came up to get us started on the fence. Too bad Joan wasn't feeling good enough to come up too. We missed her. My Dad also flew in this past week and is with us until June 6th when he and Mom will fly back to Iowa. That made for quite a work crew.

We got a good jump on the fence.

I helped a little on Monday with the setting of the bricks for the mowing strip. My job was to be the anal retentive one, I mean detail oriented one, who made sure everything was just so since we have never laid brick before.

I have no idea why this text is underlined and blue it is annoying but oh, well. We still have a lot of brick to lay, pickets to hang, and painting. Dad said I'll have to be sure to take photos of it when it is all done. He doesn't think we'll get it done before he leaves. We'll see.

Yesterday Mom, Mackenzie, and I got our haircut. Mom also got highlights.

Me with my freshly trimmed do:



Mackenzie playing with troll dolls while she waited her turn.

I know what you are thinking...what hair was Mackenzie getting cut off? Well Holly trimmed her up a bit to clean up the wispy pieces. This way her hair will grow in thicker.



Here's a movie of the big girl's first haircut:



Then Holly worked her magic. First she blew her hair out using special techniques. Don't you think Mackenzie's hair looks thicker?:


Then a little product to give her hair shine:



Then she cut her some bangs:



Okay, I'm kidding, but it was pretty cute. Mackenzie, though shy at times, loved Holly. Here she is with Holly:

Now we are ready for Mackenzie's first birthday party tonight. Happy First Birthday Mackenzie!

Father and Son Camp Trip

This past weekend, Rob and Steven had a Father and Son camp trip. Here they are at their reserved site:

Rob said he had never been on a camping trip quite like this one. There was not much just sitting around camp and the campfire. Here's Steven clowning around:

In fact, Rob struggled to get their tent up and watch Steven. Rob said he would call out Steven's name and the deal was that Steven always had to answer back so Rob would know he was okay. Well, Rob got the tent set up and turned around to find Steven here:

This is no optical illusion. The stump he climbed was huge. Rob asked him how he was going to get down since Rob couldn't just pluck him off the top. So Steven showed him how he could slide down one of the large ridges on the side.

They got home base all set up:

Here's Steven by their tent and ready to do some bike riding on the trails:

Biking on a trail:

Look at this gorgeous wild iris they found:
Steven having a Capri Sun before his next adventure:

Then they headed out for a hike. They hiked up the mountain and found this clearing:

Then they hiked down to the river and Steven went for a little dip:

Steven caught an uncommon female tailed frog (Rob sent the photo to Fish and Game and they identified it). WooHoo, he's definitely my boy!

They let the frog go and then dug into their cooler and made ravoli for dinner.

Rob said Steven hardly ate the entire trip. They went to bed at about 10:30 that night!

A Visit to the Circus on Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend was a blast. It started with Dad (Grandpa) sending Mom (Grammy) some beautiful flowers. In fact we just had to finally toss the last of the flowers yesterday! They lasted a long time.


Steven and Mackenzie got a cool tile to decorate for Grammy to take home with her. We had a good time decorating it.

Mackenzie got into the action too! Sorry no pictures of that. Of course it took two of us to get her hand print on there. Here is the finished product:



Steven was kind enough to let Mackenzie wear one of his Pittsburgh Steeler shirts:

On Mother's Day we went out for breakfast and then Rob cooked dinner. He barbecued steaks, baked some potatoes, and made a salad too! He also treated us extra special and did the dishes too!

We had a ball the day before, on Saturday, when the circus came to town.

Steven loved tasting all the circus food. First, he had cotton candy. He ate about half and then the rest of us finished it off.

Later he had a snow cone. Mackenzie liked that too! He also just had to have peanuts (no picture).

Mackenzie loved the circus once she got use to all the people. She was a little overwhelmed at first. Here we are together:

They had lions, tigers, jugglers, unicycle riders, high wire acts, and trapeze. Here's one of the photos that came out nice.


Of course, there was also a clown. She needed a volunteer at one point. She was "looking for a man." I thought Rob would be perfect and she agreed! Rob joined the circus! He was in the ring for a while. Here is just one of his acts. I'm so glad I had taught Rob some dancing moves. Unfortunately, there was one thing I hadn't taught him...

Hee, hee,...Rob says he is going to get me back. We'll see...

In Loving Memory of Tinker Wall

Last night Tinker, the mouse, left this earth in spirit. She was Steven's beloved pet and friend.

She has been looking a bit old lately. It is strange how just yesterday I was just talking to Steven about how she is getting old and should be held only when he is sitting down. I also told him she will be going to heaven soon. As Steven was holding her as we talked he said, "I will remember Tinker forever even after she is in heaven." I offered to take some pictures of her and them together to help him remember her after she has passed on. He told me that would be nice. So all the pictures of Steven and Tinker were taken yesterday, on her day of passing.

When we discovered her lifeless body late last night, Rob made Tinker an oak casket and I prepared a scrap piece of pretty purple fabric to wrap her in.

This morning when I told Steven he told me he felt sad and he misses her. Then a few moments later he said, excitedly, we should take her to the doctor to bring her back. I told him she was very old and her body just wore out. She went to heaven late last night. There's nothing a doctor could do for her now. I thought he was going to cry. Then he said, we'll have to say a prayer for her. Then I almost cried.

Her grave side services will be held this morning after breakfast.

Dressing Up!

Alright, here's the last of my "blog cluster." I really need to try and get on the computer more often.

Here we are celebrating Halloween in April! This was fun since I was in the hospital this past Halloween. Here's Mackenzie as Cinderella and me as um...um...some witchy, renaissance, princess.

We got Rob to dress up too and we took a family portrait!

Wow, my hair was out of control.

Rob and I also had a date night. We went and watched our friend's band play at Bear River Casino. I even pulled out my one pair of heels I kept when I cleared out my shoes after my dizzy spell. They are, my "salsa shoes." I just couldn't part with them. I can hardly believe I was able to wear them! We didn't get a picture of us all dressed up because it was hard enough getting out the door. But, I did snap this shot of some unidentified little boy wearing my salsa shoes the next morning after breakfast.

Steven said I could only take a picture of his feet, not anything else. Pretty smart for 4 years old but, not smart enough to realize that just because I didn't take his face doesn't mean there's no evidence!

Guy Time

Last Saturday, the day before Rob's half-marathon, Rob and Steven had special "guy time." They were driving down Broadway in Eureka and saw that the Samoa Dragster Club had some cars on display in front of the bowling alley. Of course, they had to stop and check them out.

Steven, the outgoing guy who knows no strangers, got a chance to sit in one! He was totally stoked as you can see!

And a close up with his "game face" on:

The guys also went by the Math Festival at the Bayshore Mall. On display was the vehicle CR students had built that gets 500 mpg! Yep, that's not a typo! Of course, Steven again managed to get the opportunity to sit in it:

Yeah, it's a compact car to say the least. But, very, very cool.

They also went to the Steam Up at Fort Humboldt. You actually get to go on a short ride on a steam engine. They had some model railroads set up and going also. The guys wore their engineer hats for that.

There's Steven with his engineer hat on:

Here's a shot of one of the steam engines:

The model train club also had their place open to the public and the guys went by there too!

There's my little engineer!

Look Grandpa, it's the Union Pacific (and Southern Pacific)!

What a great day for Father and Son.