Around the house

Marian caught this giant praying mantis and it needed to be documented.

And by the way, Adam's family came to visit for a day before we headed to Nauvoo.  And I suck because these three photos are the only ones I took!  But here is Miley, trying to pull Carter on the zip line.

She was so doggone cute! 

 And the kids played pirates so I needed a picture of it.

Callie and her Chicks

 Callie loves the chickens And she spends hours tromping around the fields catching grasshoppers to feed them.  She has trained them to come and eat the grasshoppers out of her hands.

The now annual Pie Party

 Dad had his second annual Pie Party to celebrate his birthday.  I think we had 22 pies?  It was a lot and they were tasty!

The kids were fantastic at making these adorable labels for the pies and helping to set things up. 

Here are about half the pies.  There were two of most of them. 

Selfie with the pies!

Hailey gave it two thumbs up and a messy mouth.

Something interesting is that the very first pie to be completely devoured was the Chicken Pot Pie!

Playing at the Lake

 We went to the lake one afternoon with Deborah's family.  Much fun was had by all.

Yes, I was there and I may have gotten a little wet.

Callie built this impressive compound of sand. 

The kids LOVED the raft. 

Marian posing on the rock. 

Marian having a good time in the water. 

Callie lounging and relaxing. 

 Having a good time.

The girls want to make sure I got a picture of their creation from this angle as well.  

Back in Mountain Home

 We spent three days driving and made it back to Mom and Dad's.  Deborah and her kids were there already, much to the delight of my girls.

They built this delightful blanket fort.

And posed for a picture with it. 

I had to take the rental van in to get this tiny screw removed and the tire repaired. 

There was some chicken wrangling.

The baby chicks are now ugly teens. 

Ugly or not, the kids still love them.

We also prepped for Dad'd Pie Party.  The kids wanted to help peel apples. 

Grandma wanted an apple pie, so we peeled and sliced apples for it. 

 This girl cracks me up!