Dad's Visit

We had so much fun while Dad was up for a visit!! We did tons of things, Regina and I worked him half to death between our two properties, and we ended up getting a dog. It's all good!

All the pictures are out of order again, because I swear I'll never get the hang up uploading them properly and I'm way too lazy to adjust them once they're in here. :) They cover Dad and Emily coming to our house, all of us going to Regina's, and Kayin, Kareli and I getting home.

This is Missy, our new Golden Retriever. She's just over a year old and is a sweetie. Kareli adores jumping on her and laying on her and generally tormenting her, but Missy is super patient. :)

Poor Kayin got sick at Regina's just a couple days before leaving. He spent the last days either on the couch or in the bathroom poor kid.

Dad and Regina refused to share the sand with anyone else, but it really WAS a cool castle when they let us close enough to look at it! ;-)

Kayin wanted to help gather water, but didn't want to get wet, so he just sat there waiting for the waves to come in. We laughed our heads off watching him.

Missy LOVES to go swimming

This was the cutest park! The kids loved climbing on the whales and blocking the water that shot out of their blow holes. Kayin learned that sitting on it to block it wasn't the best idea.... that was quite the yell!

Yes, Regina worked our butts off! We spent days in forced labor cutting down blackberry bushes against our will. :(

(or.... maybe she kept telling us to knock it off and come relax and we kept sneaking out when she wasn't looking. :) One of the two...)

I thought... "Hey, it's hot out, shorts are a GOOD idea!" Blackberry thorns, whipping branches, and tons of poison oak later, I changed my mind...

This is a SMALL sample of what we cut and piled up

All the bushes used to be even with the ones in the left on the bottom

We didn't even know these trees were there! They could make the coolest treefort!

Such good climbing trees!

Catching tadpoles

Even with as calm as this oppossum was, I wouldn't have been willing to hold it. Dad's braver than I am! OR crazier....

The kids loved watching the little guy

Ahh, this is the way to chill out!

Adam was so nice to go into that freezing water to make the kids happy! Even stranger's kids loved him!

Fishing with Regina's family!

5 People in one motel room = lots of tight packed fun! This was on the way to Regina's, stopping at Portland for Kayin's ear appointment.

Our sweet chicken adopted all our new chicks!! What a good momma! We're so proud of her. :) She leads the all over the yard and snuggles them at night.

Kayin loves the chickens. Notice how he bricked up the exit door so they couldn't escape him. I thought it was a good idea :)

How does Grandpa possibly have so much energy?!?!

Homemade marble shooters; it used up a slow morning. It's just clothing pins glued to scrap wood with rubber washers glued to the end, then you shoot marbles into tin cans.

Grandpa's so much fun!

Check out that adoring look; somebody loves their grandpa!

Ahhh....

Nothing like the classic underdog!

Whee!

Kareli decided that the floor looked more comfy than the bed, so I decided why not let her stay? Silly little girly. :)

Dad helped me build a tire swing horse, which turned out to be way more work than I expected. For future reference, hacksaws work much better than dremels, drills, and bandsaws. :) And, watch out for fingers!
Dad found this out in the back field so he had us all run out there without telling us what he was showing us. How cute is that?? The kids were amazed and desperately wanted to pet it, so we took it home and gave it a bath and fed it candy so it would stay close.

....... or not. :)

We love having dad up!!! It's always so much fun!!