Monday, June 23, 2008

Camping in the Black Hills

We took to the hills this past weekend (June 18-20) for some fun in the sun camping at Sheridan Lake, about 25 minutes from Mount Rushmore, which we also visited while we were in the area.

Isaac and Levi getting ready for a swim... as soon as they lose their balance.


Lukey was pretty proud that he could get the hatchet stuck in the stumps. He spent quite a bit of time chopping anything and everything around camp.


We hiked about a mile one evening to this bridge overlooking the Sheridan lake dam and the canyon it spills into. It was a great way to tire out the boys just before bed.


We ran into some hail on the drive down to the Black Hills -- big hail! Thankfully things had cleared off and dried out a bit by the time we set up camp, but those ice cubes did leave a few small dents in the van.


Our boy-ohs at Mt. Rushmore. They thought the "carved rocks" were pretty cool, but they didn't have the patience to wait around for Wade and I to read all the information signs about the presidents and the carving of the faces. We'll do that another time.


'Lijah was all tuckered out on the way home -- surprise, surprise -- not! I think he looks so big in his car seat these days, more little boyish than babyish, but he's still got another 8 pounds to go before he graduates to a booster seat.

New Portraits

I took new pictures of the boys for the living room frames. We used the portrait ones below (head and shoulder shots, not the full-body pictures, although I was pleased with how those turned out too).

Isaac




Levi




Luke




Elijah

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Turtle, turtle!

Wade called home from work a few days ago and said, "You gotta get out here and see this!" He was only about a mile from our place, so the boys and I piled into the van and went to check out the BIGGEST turtle any of us had ever seen! This guy was a good two feet long including his spiky dinosaur-like tail (think Spike on The Land Before Time), had claws at least an inch long (think Sharp Tooth on The Land Before Time), and when he walked his belly was about four inches off the ground. Quite the specimen!