Summer 2016!!

Huntin' Wabbits

The kids, plus the neighbor kids, caught a poor little rabbit.

The rabbit.  The boys borrowed a dog cage from the neighbors to keep the little bunny in, but, thank heaven, she escaped through the too-wide bars.  Afterward, Dash complained that there was no warning on the cage advising not to try and keep rabbits in there.  And this is how law suits start.

Twins! 

Sport likes to try and match Tag whenever possible.  On this day they dressed up and went into the yard to tee off with Dad's golf clubs.  Tag whacked Sport a good one when he wasn't looking and they called the game. 

 Swimming Lessons

Sis started swim lessons this year and loved every second of it.

Colt passed of his level and also passed the test to be able to swim in the large pool!

Per his usual, Sport was a regular fish.

Dash opted out of swimming lessons this year, so while the other kids splashed about, he and I took Tag on walks and he schooled me in the finer points of the NBA playoff games.

 Clayson Family Reunion 2016

The kids voluntarily come up with some interested sleeping arrangements while at Grandma's.  Dash likes to spend the night sitting upright in a banana chair.

Kamber's sleeping arrangement might not have been so voluntary...

While the grown-ups worked on sheetrocking Grandpa and Grandma's garage, the kids played in Mile's pool.

Gracie, Sis, Colt and Hannah.

Hard at work!

Cierra leading the water balloon challenge.

Water fight!

Water fight, part two!!

4th of July at Aunt Cam's.

Colt's a cheese head.

So is Sport.

 Flight of the Tagster

Good thing we have high ceilings.

Dash's 10th Birthday!

Dash invited some friends to meet him at the park on his birthday for baseball, speedball, water balloons and root beer floats.

Dash's cake.

 Madsen Family Reunion 2016

Sis and Ali in the Warm River in Yellowstone.  Warm is a relative term.

Brandan and some of the boys.

Sport and the girls.

The river crew.

The river bank crew.

Tag loved the water, but if I didn't stand behind him he would have floated down river.

More of the ladies.

You can only pretend the water is warm for so long. Tag finally had to get out and huddle in a towel.  Actually, he completely naked under that thing. Shhh.

Checking out the elk in Yellowstone,

 Wabbit Hunting, Take 2

Sport caught a poor little injured rabbit and before we knew it, he had the thing inside and was making him a bed all while spreading wild animal diseases to the whole family.

 Canning Beans

The kids really loved helping snip and snap the beans Grandpa Madsen gave us.

 Kittens

We brought home two kittens from the Madsens house.  The darn things are so good to the kids, they let them haul them around like baby dolls and pull their ears and hold them upside down.  We're paying for their patience now though.  Every time we crack the door open they're in the house and drinking out of the Master bathroom toilet.  I think they think they deserve it after their ill treatment.  Probably true.

Yard Work

We spent a lot of our summer working on our landscaping.  Brandan put in a surface well and I stressed about it.  Then we put in a sprinkler system and planted grass in the back yard.  If only it was growing...

The surface well storage tank Brandan rigged together.

The surface well hole from my nightmares.

Misc.

Pouring the cement for our driveway and porch was our last summer project.

Tag loves all food- in Dad's bowl.

Sport and Colt walking on water at the County Fair.

Colt and Dash in the water walkers.

One day I heard wild screaming from my bedroom.  I went in and found this.  Colt is literally stuck. Naturally, I took a picture.

Indoor volleyball.

Summer is awesome.  And exhausting.

Memoir of the Madsen Family Mom: May

May 1
If I wait long enough to make dinner, Tag will feed himself with bits of food from the trash. I'm not lazy, I'm teaching my children to be self-sufficient.

May 6
Brandan and Colt and Sport were playing catch in the back yard. Every time Sport threw the ball to Brand, Brandan missed it.  I'll let you surmise why it was so hard for him to catch. Feeling bad for the old man, Sport started consoling him after each miss with a "So close, Dad!"

May 7
Dash has taken over cooking breakfast.  He makes muffins, scrambled eggs, french toast, pancakes (from scratch!) and one Saturday, he fried up homemade donuts.

May 8
Mothers Day. Colt dropped four eggs, all at different times, while making me breakfast in bed.

May10
Tag will systematically pull apart pancakes looking for chocolate chips.  Not all the pancakes I give him have chocolate chips.  Its a bad day when he can't find chocolate chips in his pancakes.

May 12
Sport stores his art in the freezer.  Now all our boxes of frozen butter are covered in red glitter.

May 15
Maybe after the kids grow up and move away, Brandan and I will throw all the couch cushions and pillows on the floor for old times sake.

May 21
Sissy is like a Alzheimers patient.
Sis: Mom why were you calling and calling me?
Me: Was I calling you?
Sis: I don't know. I never heard you.
Me: Wait...what...?

May 24
The family needed to do some grocery shopping, which Dash hates so he was complaining loudly.
Me: I hate shopping too. Why don't you do the shopping and I'll sit in the back of the van and complain.
Dash: Fine. Then I'll take a really long time and yell at everybody about being grounded from screens.

Touche.

May 29
The kids were dragging their feet while getting ready for church so Brandan used the threat of having to ride home with me instead of him as punishment/incentive.  It worked.

All Stars

Dash was selected to play on the Bridger Valley All Star team after the original season ended.  So we packed the family and stuffed the van full and headed over to Riverton for a week in July.  We like adventure (and saving money) so we tent camped at a campground in Lander.  I had serious reservations, but it was actually fun.  We had a shower and a place to sleep, we roasted marshmallows and the kids played at the splash pad. 

Headed to Riverton.  

Dash's All Star team lined up for the first game.

The ball park in Riverton was a complete pit.  There was no grass other than what was in the outfield, no trees and lots of dusty grimy dirt.  The weather stayed in the high nines and low hundreds every day we were there.  The kids were a dirty sweaty mess.

This is Tag two minutes after we arrived at the game.

Tag and Colt playing through the camp chairs.

One afternoon, we had some time between games so we headed to a trail head just a few miles from our camp.  After a two mile hike, we came to a natural stone waterslide.  Basically the stream dropped off some smooth rocks into a small pond.  You could climb up the side of the rocks and ride the water off for a 15 foot drop.  We met some other teammates at the slide and Colt wowed us all by dropping over the edge of the waterfall immediately after arriving.  By the end of the night we had all gotten good and wet.  This is a picture of us hiking back out.

Sport found ways to stay entertained at the games.

Dash with his teammate signed ball after the last All Star game.

Dash's All Star team after their final game.  They battled through to become consolation champions.  Overall it was a good experience for Dash.  He learned lots and made friends from both sides of the valley.