The Ward Bar-b-que

Saturday was the Rusch Park Ward Bar-b-que.
Calvin has been sick with a low grade fever and a bit of a tummy ache so he didn't really get into the festivities. Oliver on the other hand was all over the water slide!

Party in the Park

Friday night was fun. We went up to Brents house for a bar-b-que. Brent pulled out some of the toys he had from teaching kindergarden. The boys enjoyed lining up cars and building roads to drive on.

A bit blurred but an example of the park we went to later. It was an annual event held at this park in Auburn. They had a couple of bands playing, one was Reggae. The boys did some good dancing. Then they got to go on a pony ride.

Aunt Crazy Visits!

This week my sister Jenn came through for some research in the area and we were able to visit for a while.

Jenn and Oliver

Calvin, aunt Kimberly and cousin Claire

Uncle Rick after getting a hug from Oliver

Our very cute niece, Claire

Sun Splash

On Thursday we decided to hit the local water park.
We feel almost neglectful knowing that our boys really aren't swimmers yet. This is a great way to get them comfortable with water.

The wave pool was the kids favorite thing. Calvin and I went down the red and blue one on the far left, together.

It's kind of hard to see but behind the blue and pink one, there is a green slide that you skim down on a mat. You get going really fast. Calvin did it all by himself twice!! We are very proud. Unfortunately you don't really keep the camera handy when you are running around in the water so the pics aren't what I'd like them to be.

Looking Around

A couple of weeks ago we took a drive to look for more options for Ilene and Morgan's reception location. One location was nice enough to walk around for a while. I have a hard time not taking pictures of my beautiful family.

We ended up at the mall to pass on our findings to Ilene. Of course the boys always insist on riding "Big Brute"

Fordyce Lake

After 4 different camping trips in "civilized" camp grounds I had had enough! It was time for the real thing. We the family even Ammon jumped in the Jeep and headed to the hills.
We got off the freeway about an hour and a half north east of here and hit the dirt. About 8 or nine miles of dirt and 4 wheel drive roads took us to Fordyce Lake.

The drive took us up along a beautiful creek.

Oliver kept himself entertained quite a bit with his "Jeep" as he calls it.

We did a bit of fishing. Daddy got to untangle a couple of different messes.
Calvin can actually cast a line out there!. Oliver really enjoys pretending to cast by smacking the water with a full swing of his rod.

One great thing about this kind of camping is that Ammon can run free! He does great camping. Never really goes far but definitely enjoys the freedom to roam.

These boys really love each other. Truly best friends.

I felt so honored to be able to join them on the rock.

Christi saw no reason that back woods camping should prevent her from taking care of her womanly duties. Yes she is shaving her legs. Nice legs at that.

We took the Scrambler exploring a little. The Fordyce Lake is very close to the famous Fordyce 4X4 trail. We actually got stuck in the middle of this small creek crossing. A little bit of the winch and some proper rock placement remedied the situation.

Our long time friend Brent joined us for the weekend.

We were right down on the water. Very cool!

Birthday Partys

The weekend of June 7th and 8th found Christi busy taking the boys to birthday partys. There was one on Saturday for Emily Freeman, I stayed home to move 20 yards of woodchips to the back yard one wheel burrow at a time. On Sunday we went to our friend Tabatha Eller's 30th birthday party

Teneal, Tabatha and Christi

Best Friends
Can anyone guess what Oliver is up to?

My Queen for always.

Calvin and his buddy Bryant.

Happy birthday again Tabatha. Thanks for inviting us!

Camping Rollins Lake

On May 30th we met five other familys up at the Penninsula camp ground at Rollins lake just north of Colfax. It was Beautiful. The roll included the Detlings, Freemans, Salazars, Portellas, Ballards and Macys. That makes 6 couples and count them 16 kids and 2 dogs. Whoa! The kids had the best time. They loved playing with each other.

I have many great pictures that I have struggled with to try to post.
Gary help!
I will post them when I get it figured out.

The Screen Play!!

Although we have not been able to travel the distances we would like to see all those people we love, we have still tried to stay active. So we are going to rewind a little bit and recap the last couple of months.
I wish I had the pictures to document it but to be honest I forgot the camera again. I took the boys camping on Friday night the 23rd to Beales Point, Lake Folsom. We went with Brandon Ballard and his 3 kids and Sebastian Salazar and his son. Yes three fathers with 6 kids. It went really well actually. The whole reason for the camp out was to give Christi and her writing partner a night and a day to work on the screen play. The campground was a zoo (Memorial Day weekend) but the kids loved it. We got rained on in the morning but not bad. We all took a walk down to the lake to throw rocks for a while. Brandon and his kids, my boys and I then took an exoploration drive up to Forestihill and down a new to us dirt road that went to Colfax. It met up with the one from an earlier trip and post that let us cross that swaying bridge again. While on that trip, Christi and Annie gave us a call to tell us that the screen play was finished!! Exactly one year and one day from the time they started writing it. Very cool! Hopefully you will all get to see the feature film. Questions concerning details on the screen play will have to be addressed to Christi. Again sorry no pics.

Princess Christiana?

You Are Esmerelda!

Mysterious and passionate. You are a survivor. Even though life has swung you some difficult situations you have a strong intuition that gets you through. Also, you have the capacity to sympathize and relate to a variety of different people.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Our friend Bob.....

Every group of friends probably has one. If not they should. Ours was always Bob Bowman.
The guy that would take everything just a bit further than it should have gone. He'd make a nasty comment even nastier. He moved down to Florida with his wife Cynthia a few years back. I believe that this was a Christmas card they sent us. Lovely eh?
If it is at all unclear feel free to click on the picture for an even better view.


This was what he wrote on the back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIK!!!

My Dear Friend Rik Chuntz is a year younger. Kind of .
Rik is one of the best friends I have ever had and I am so thankful he is and has been a part of my life. Through him I have met many of the other friends I hold dear. In fact through the lines of Rik, I met my wife Christi.

Lake Tahoe, Fall 1998

San Filipe, Mexico Thanksgiving 1994 (the first trip)

Near Gemini Bridges, Ryan and Rik. 1997?

Backgammon Tournament on Lake Shasta, Rik almost took down the great AL ROBINSON
Summer 1998

We met and served together on our missions in Quebec Canada.

This was taken at our wedding reception, October 16, 1999

Rik joined in for more than one trip to Lake Shasta with the Macy family.

I love you bro.