MOOSE

We went up to my parent's cabin for Memorial Day weekend and went for a hike Monday morning after breakfast. We came across this lovely lady whilst making our way up the trail. The funny thing was that my mom pointed out the hoof prints on the trail and I was just about to say "those look like they're new" when my mom spotted our friend here. She eyed us as we passed by but thanks to 2 noisy kids, I think we had given her enough warning we were coming and we didn't seem to startle her.
Grace found an earthworm on the hike too and wanted to hike with it. I was okay with the idea until she tripped and nearly smashed it all over her hand. After that I made her let me carry it on the end of a stick (which happened to be a wand to open blinds with that she had insisted upon bringing on the hike). Grandpa soon pointed out that he wouldn't last long that way so we found him a new home under a rock. I didn't think to take a picture of that adventure until it was over.
We came across some water on our trail. The water is crazy high up the canyon right now.
Grace talked Buck into letting her get wet, which meant he had to get wet too. He's a good sport.
I love this picture even though Buck is the only one that looks normal (barring his wet feet). Grace is busy jamming trail mix down her throat. Luke's hood is up because I forgot to put sunscreen on his scar. I have lost my favorite sunglasses...or misplaced them...and have been wearing these ones in the meantime but when I smile, my cheeks lift the glasses up out of place on my face and they look silly. Oh, well. We had a very fun weekend.

The House That Kim Built...

...mostly. This year we decided to blow our tax return on a new swing set for the kids. We had it for over a month before I finally got started on it. I kept putting it off because I knew it was going to be a long project and so I was waiting for a good stretch of warm weather without rain. I finally got my chance and started on it 2 mondays ago. I started out thinking I could do it by myself, but there were several times that I had to call for a second set of hands and was glad for all the willing helpers that came to my aid.
These pictures were taken on day 2 of my journey. It ended up taking me 9 days of sneaking out of the house during nap time. My kids LOVE to be helpers in all I do and my tools kept walking away!
I finished it today and am so glad to be done! I do still have to stake it down but I'm pretty sure it's not going to move before I get around to it tomorrow.

spring recital

Grace had her spring dance recital a couple weeks ago and she was fabulous. It was a big improvement from her Christmas recital where she danced only half of the first dance. She is on the front row on the right.

best buddies

Grace and Luke have been so cute together the last week and a half. There has been a lot less fighting and more playing together and it has been so cute!
I closed myself in the laundry room the other day because I was getting a little too much "help" with the laundry and opened the door to find them like this.
They have been so cute watching movies lately. Grace will get under the covers of our bed and then Lucas will scoot right up next to her under the covers too. They were watching TV with Daddy here.
I turned on the radio the other day and Grace wanted to dance with Lucas. She insisted on holding his hands to dance with him. He was not such a willing participant in this and you can see in the last picture that he was trying to break free of her grip. She was having lots of fun though.

It is one of the happiest things in my life to see these two getting along and playing together. I know that they really do love each other and I hope they continue to be such good friends forever.