Durango Palmers

 Mark planned our Fun on Friday outing this week.  He's been wanting to take the kids fishing for a long time so we decided to invest in fishing poles for this, and future fishing trips while camping, and head to the pond near our house.

We've got this wonderful fenced in pond that is for residents only.  It has a sandy beach that was perfect!  We will definitely be visiting this in the summer when the kids can swim in there! Or at least wade in the water and build sand castles.  Can't wait.

Mark was a busy fisherman.  He had to get all their poles ready and put hooks and bait on them (I know nothing.  I did not fish.  Ever.).

The pond had apparently just been stocked.  The kids would cast out and then reel it in with a fish.  Seriously almost every time they threw their line in the water they caught something.  Granted it was 3 inches long but it was thrilling none the less.

Mark could barely keep up with the release part.  I wasn't much help.  I can't say I've ever been thrilled about touching a fish, pulling a hook out of it's mouth, and then releasing it.  I need to practice though because if our kids continue to fish like they have been Mark won't be able to handle it all.

 After a little bit I started marking down a tally.

Kale caught 11 - including the biggest one caught that day.

Kate caught 8 - I think she would've had more but she didn't fish nearly as long as Kale did.

Jack/Jill caught 3 - We were a team effort and even though he liked it, he'd rather just eat lunch.

Mark caught 1 and it was tiny - that's only because he was so busy releasing all the rest of our fish!

 Kate went to put her sweatshirt on and we found a bug laying eggs.  She was grossed out...

Happy campers on the way home.  I loved that it was a five minute drive!!

Here is some more randomness for your Saturday enjoyment (hopefully).

While I was up in Denver for the bridal shower we went to Heaven's Superstore (you may know it as Costco - I really wish we had one in Durango...) to get food stuff.  I, however, also found some sunshade sail thingys for a great price for our back deck.  We've been looking online trying to find affordable ones but it was tough.  I brought them home and have been begging Mark to help me put them up.  

It was somewhat of a project since we didn't have poles to attach them to away from the house.  Our first try was with iron hanging plant holders.  They looked super nice but turned out they couldn't withstand the gusts of wind we can get {hence the need for the sails -- we have a shredded umbrella that has pretty much had a tour of the neighborhood thanks to the wind).  The stands bent somewhat so we took those down and searched for stronger metal poles.

I'm super pleased with the results and have LOVED sitting out on our back deck during the day (something we've never really been able to do in 10 years!). 

Here are the before and after pictures.

I wish I had another one from the back view but apparently I didn't take one and I'm too lazy to go take one, load it on the computer and then upload it to the blog.  You'll have to trust me that it's awesome and I'll post another picture later.  I spent most of the day Thursday planting flowers in my pots and cleaning up the yard.  We (as in me) have more plans for more landscaping.  Mark just goes along with it most times.  Although I did join Pinterest (yes I know...finally) and have gotten a couple cute ideas for landscaping.  Mark seems to think I'm gonna turn our yard into a junkyard.  No I will not plant flowers in a toilet. I promise!

Here's my little superhero, Jack, enjoying the swing on our newly covered deck Thursday morning.  Cracked me up with his goggles on.

Kale has had a couple baseball games.  He used to hate to catch and now I think he tolerates it.  He looks like such a big kid in his uniform.

These two are from his game this morning (they lost).  It was a gorgeous day!

 Jack, my fearless one, came in this morning while we were getting ready to leave for the game and brought this.

The kids started yelling "Jack's gotta mouse!!!!"  I didn't believe them at first but I looked over and sure enough he was holding it like a pet in his hand.  *gag*.  I tried not to get grossed out {pretty much failed at that} and excitedly told him to throw it outside and wash his hands!!!! 

I was gonna just throw it over the deck (Mark was gone by the way) but Mishka was far too interested in it so I had to pick it up (with the shivers) and throw him away.  What a way to start off my Saturday.  Blech!

 After baseball we headed to a garage sale and picked up a couple light sabers. My 2 little Jedi Knights were pretty stoked.  Fun light effects eh?  That was natural I promise!

After the garage sale we met friends for lunch then came home for naps.  I did some yard work (we're gonna do the straw bale gardening again and I had to prepare the garden) while Mark worked on his message in the office (aka the trailer - love that thing!).

And that's the last few days in a nutshell!

in the saddle.  Back on the wagon.  Back behind the computer screen.  Call it whatever you'd like but I am back and attempting to get blogging again.  I am quite positive that this has been the longest I've gone without blogging since I started it 4 years ago.  Crazy!

I'm not sure why it's been a struggle lately.  I think I needed to remind myself why I do it.  I do it to remember things with my kids.  I don't scrap-book so this is my only outlet.  I just have to figure out how to fit it in between school, housework, naps (mine!), baseball, church, playdates, art class, meetings, Fun Fridays, trips, vacations etc...Lots to blog about (although it may not all be that interesting to you) and because there's so much to blog about it leaves me little time to actually blog it.  I just need to adjust my standards for my own blog.  It doesn't have to be lengthy to be meaningful.  Right?

Anyway, because I'm Heinz 57-ing it (catching up) it's gonna be a phone dump blog!  Fun times!

I realize that I promised photos from the men's retreat but I still have yet to get them off of Mark's phone.  There's a few keepers in there for sure so that's on my to-do list.

For now I'll show you some pictures from a recent FF adventure where we drove to town to get an iPad for me (yes mama got a new toy with all her hard earned money from her job - it's been awesome for ministry and school and....Words With Friends...let's be real here people...). While in town, Mark wanted to show the kids the joys of putting pennies on railroad tracks to see what happens.  So we got a front row seat of the train passing {don't worry, kids stayed in the truck while it went by}.

 Here are pictures of the tables and decorations.  My sisters and I are not crafty (Kelly is but we are not...lots of pressure!) but I think we did a pretty good job.  It was on May 5th so we could've either gone with Cinco de Mayo or the Kentucky Derby.  We opted for the Derby.  Hence the horseshoe dessert and big hats (to come).

  The drink table with coffee punch!  Shout out to Jan!  So delicious....

 While we were getting things set up for the shower, Kelly and her fiance, took Kate and Jack out to entertain them.  My dad took them to see the Lorax during the shower.  Could not have done any of this without their help!

 Meghan (Lilah's mom), my mom (bless her heart for putting up with all of us), Kelly (the bride), me and my NY sis, Katie.

 Added to the picture are my future sis-in-law, Sara, and on the other end my cousin Danielle.  Aren't we a cute bunch?

After the bridal shower we cleaned up, packed up and headed to a mountain retreat for a bachelorette party.  Kelly wanted to do it all on the same weekend since Katie and I don't live in Golden.  So we spent the night talking and laughing. The next day we woke up, had breakfast, drove back to Golden to get my kids then made the trip back to Durango.  I was soooooo tired when I got home.  Did I mention I'm still recovering :)

 

Fast forward a few days and I'll show you a reason why I can't be distracted too long...We hadn't quite started school yet.  The kids had had breakfast and I was cleaning up and packing lunches and finishing getting myself ready for the day.  They decided it was a perfect time to bring out every pillow and blanket they could find and make "nests" on the floor.

 I try really hard to not freak out over every mess.  Even when it's overwhelming like this one is.  And for the most part I do pretty well.  I just calmly tell them that in order for them to watch cartoons in the afternoon every single thing must be put back.  Usually they get it back together and they did this day as well thank goodness.

 Last Friday Kale had another baseball game.  Some good friends of ours invited us to meet them for dinner at a place in Bayfield so we went and hung out, ate huge pieces of pizza, smiled "nicely" for the camera, watched 8 year old boys play baseball and worked hard at letting the coaches coach our son and keep our mouths shut even if Kale seemed to be in another world at times.  Both Mark and I have issues with the keeping our mouths shut part. 

 Saturday we had a women's breakfast.  My first one being in charge.  It went really well I think.  I talked about loving one another.  So much what God has been teaching me lately.

We spent the afternoon in between rainstorms, patching up the trampoline, setting up sprinklers and mowing the "lawn" (or green weeds that look like lawn when it's mowed).

Mother's Day was lovely.  My sweet family bought me a Keurig coffee maker so I can have a fresh cup of coffee anytime during the day.  What an awesome gift!  I had almost forgotten I wanted one.  I just figured we'd have to wait till our other maker died.  But Mark (a great gift-giver) didn't forget and he and the kids went and got it for me on Friday.  It's so wonderful.  I'm super excited about making iced coffee when it gets hotter.

 That's all the pictures I have for now so my rambling and Heinz 57-ing is all done.  I hope to find something else interesting in the near future to ramble about!