Staying Cool in the Pool

It was hot outside today, so the girls and I decided to fill up our little plastic pool. They had fun splashing and cooling off in the freezing cold water (hopefully after the water sits in the pool for a day or two it will warm up.) I think they had the most fun playing with Dozer. He kept trying to bite the water. The girls would hold the hose out of the pool and Dozer would attack. He enjoyed being able to cool off too. Charlee got out of the water and said she wanted to go inside because she was freezing; I told her if she laid on the cement she would get warm. That gave Sydnee an idea...She wanted to lay on the cement and make a "water angel." She made one really good one and I would have taken a picture of it, but my camera battery died...dang it.

Cash

On our way home from Keystone, Justin thought it would be a good idea to get a new kitten. I felt like that meant I was giving up on Blaise. (Blaise has been missing for a couple months now; she went out one night and never made it back home. I keep looking out the door at night, hoping she will be on the porch waiting to come in. Blaise was a great cat and we will miss her.)

We stopped at a pet store first. We planned on going to the shelter too, but the pet store was the closest. I should have known that we wouldn't make it past the first place we went too. Sydnee really wanted this cute little kitten. I thought he was cute, but his personality was what I liked. He was very playful and cuddly too. It is kind of hard to imagine that I won't have a Siamese cat. It seems like I've always had a Siamese cat. On the way home we started thinking of names and finally agreed on Cash. This name worked because he is the first cat I have ever paid for. (It seems like there is always someone trying to give kittens away.) Plus, it is fun to call "kitty-kitty Cash."

On the way home Justee decided that if Cash was not sitting with her, she was going to scream. Luckily after Cash settled down, he was happy to cuddle with Justee. I took a ton of pictures of the two of them. (I have had a ton of pics in my posts lately, but I love pics.)

Justee was very interested in the different parts of the cat's body. Here she is studying his ear: Now she is looking at his paw:His tail is very neat too: I like this picture because Justee is cross-eyed because she is staring so intensely at Cash:

I don't have any pics of Charlee because she is a little scared of the kitten. At the pet store she got scratched by a different kitten and she was very turned off by that. When Cash is playing with a string or something and runs towards Char, she freaks out. She has started to warm-up to Cash though and has even asked to hold him a couple of times, but she prefers to watch from a distance.

Sydnee loves to baby Cash. She cradles him in her arms and rocks him. He is a very patient kitty and likes to be held.

Keystone

We had a really good time in Keystone. It was nice to get to be there with Justin, even though we didn't see a whole lot of him (a little is far better than none.) There were plenty of things to keep us occupied while we waited for Justin to get out of meetings. There was a lake (more like a big pond) in the middle of the resort we stayed at. It had fish in it that you could feed. Of course this food attracted ducks and geese as well. There were some pretty big trout in there. The girls loved this part of the trip and couldn't get enough of feeding the fish and ducks. Sydnee was brave and even touched the fish and let the geese eat right out of her hand. Charlee would hold the food out but drop it as soon as a goose was ready to take it. (If you click on the pics you can see the fish really well.)

Feeding frenzy...
Justee wanted to touch a duck or goose soooo bad. She kept trying to just walk right out into the water with them. I had a death grip on her wrist at all times.

Syd enjoying a caramel apple... Daddy joined us...Bombs away...
Justee throwing food to the fish.
Getting a close look...
A close-up of Charlee's t-ball injury.
There was a park next to the lake that the girls played at, and a cute little shop where Syd and Char got a bag of pretty rocks. They were very excited about those rocks.

When we had to stay couped up in the room because Justee was napping, we made necklaces and bracelets with some beads I brought. Sydnee even made a bracelet for "Daddy's Boss."

When Justin was finished with his meetings of Friday, we rented a paddle boat and went out onto the lake. The girls loved this too. They threw food over the side of the boat and we were surrounded by ducks and geese. Justee wanted in the water so badly that we finally went to shore because we were tired of wrestling her into the boat.

There was a family of geese at the lake. They were so cute and the girls were very excited every time we saw them. This might be a cheesy picture, but I absolutely love it! How sweet is this?

Here is a clip of the girls feeding the fish and then a clip of them dancing to some morning cartoons before we headed out for the day...

Sydnee's 1st T-Ball Game

On Wednesday Sydnee had her first t-ball game. Justin had his regional meetings Wed-Thurs in Keystone. His boss was really nice and told him to come home on Wed. night and come to Sydnee's game and bring us back. We had a suite reserved for us and I am so grateful that Corie (Justin's boss) thought of us. She did all of this because this was Justin's last meeting before his deployment and she knows that he has been gone for training and will be gone a lot more before he is gone for a year. She didn't want him to have to be away from us because of work too. She is really nice and a great manager to work for.

I want to go back to Syd's t-ball game. She did a great job! She started off playing shortstop and after halfway through the batting order you could see her out there doing the potty-dance. She had to run off the field for a quick potty break. (We will be sure to have her go before her games from now on.) Her first at bat wasn't great...we have a good excuse...the t was down too far and the coach couldn't get it to stay up. The next inning she played pitcher and she did amazing. She had some really great stops. I caught the end of one on tape, but the filming could definitely be better...it's hard to watch and film while holding Justee;) Her second at bat was better, but still not as good as she is capable of doing. She had a lot of fun and was especially excited about the treats at the end.

Getting ready to bat.

Watching the game.

Running into home.

This video has Sydnee's good stop:

Charlee was having a great time at Syd's game; She was running, dancing, and spinning around in the grass. She may have been having too much fun because she was running down the sidewalk when she tripped and fell right on her face. She scrapped her lip and cheek and then rolled onto her forehead. Poor girl has an awful scab now and a bump on her head.

Sydnee was more excited about this picture than Charlee.
Ouch!

Girl's Camp 08

This week is girl's camp, and I got the privilege of getting to go up for 2 days (Mon. & Tues.) I wish I could have stayed for the whole week, but it just wouldn't work with the girls and Justin having meetings. The time I spent up there was a lot of fun. Today we went to a ropes course at Pengrie Park (I'm not sure I spelled it right) and it was awesome. We got to climb a 30 foot rock wall and then jump off of it onto a cable swing. There was also a 25 foot pole that you would climb and when you got to the top, you had to balance on top and then jump and grab a trapeze bar. The other big thing we did was called the catwalk; you climbed a pole and then there was a horizontal pole (about 20ft high) that you had to balance across. Once you got across that, you had to climb 10 feet higher and walk across another pole, then go back out to the middle and fall off backward (they lowered you down by your harness.) I think most the girls did all three things and everyone tried at least one thing. I got to do all three and it was so much fun. I left my camera at camp, so I'm pretty bummed about that.

The place we are camping at is so beautiful. We are staying in the Chase's cabin and I don't know if you can call it camping when you have running water, beds and a DVD player. ;) The view is amazing and the Chases have collected lots of cool things from plane crashes and stuff. Josh Reynolds made the girls these really cool frames for them to put a camp photo in. I took pictures of all of the girls and had a ton of fun doing that. There were so many great places to take pics that I just kept thinking that my sisters would LOVE to come take pics there. I'm sure they could have utilized the scenery a lot better than I did...I had to come down off the mountain, so I literally had 1 to 2 mins with each girl and it was raining off and on (with lightening) so some things had to be done quicker than I wanted. All-in-all the girls were great sports; they had been camping for two days, have no makeup and still look beautiful.

These are some silly pictures...There were "stuffed" animals all over the cabin. The possum was probably the favorite. ;)

The first day at camp the leaders and YCLs painted toenails...
Nothin' like an outdoor bath..