Prepare to say "Ahhh!"

Simon, a friend of ours, found an adorable little puppy at his job site a few days ago and since it didn't have a home, he took it with him to find it one. We asked if we could babysit today so the twins could play with it. They weren't really sure what to do at first. The puppy is probably about 5 to 10 weeks old, and so it is not overly affectionate yet. It likes to look around and sleep.

The puppy's temporary name (until Simon finds a permanent owner) is Smoke. Kyle hasn't quite mastered the "sm" sound, so he called the puppy "Moke" all day.

We have these very comfortable rugs as you can see in the corner, but, no, Smoke wanted to sleep on Katie's flip-flops.

Kyle laid down by Smoke while he was sleeping. "Moke! Moke! Sleeping Moke? Wake-up Moke?" Thank you, Simon! We had so much fun.

Norway Beach Camping

This past weekend was our annual camping trip to Norway Beach Campground with our parents' Bible Study group. We have been doing this camping trip since 1999. Hallie and Katie enjoying supper Friday night.

Erica and Cole

Cole sporting his cowboy hat.

Cole, Katie, Erica, and I around the campfire Friday night.

Games on Saturday morning. I'm not really sure what they were doing.

Leanne, Katie, and Kayla.

Nice face, Leanne.

Ben, Kayla, and Zach entertaining the campground.

I don't know if this was just Benjamin being crazy or if his expression has something to do with the musicians in the background.

Serious seniors. :-)

Some of the "kids." On Saturday, it is our tradition to bike into the Dairy Queen in Cass Lake. We also did a lot of walking, eating, singing around the campfire, and shooting (or watching out for!) Zach's potato guns. A very fun weekend!

Beautiful Blooms

The rain we've had the past few weeks has been great for our flowers!

Tree Climbing

Kyle and Ella love playing in our tree, and they are so cute to watch. Unfortunately, posing for the camera is just not high on their priority list. So here are some of the pictures I took, trying to get one of them both looking at the camera.

Sarcasm

Just in case you didn't catch the sarcasm dripping off yesterday's post, believe me, that stuff looked gross and smelled terrible. I could still smell it in the house this morning. And I don't eat fish anyway, so I'm not looking forward to the final product, but I hope it will be good for Dad's sake. We'll have to see...

Appetizing

Yum-yum, eat up! Dad and I are trying a new recipe for pickling northerns. This is the final brine. It has vinegar, white wine, onions, and pickling spice. And it smells even better than it looks.

Recent Pics

Last week, the three of us girls took the twins to the park down the road from our house. They loved it! Ella spent the most time swinging, and Kyle preferred the slides.

They thought going down the double slides at the same time was so cool.

Peek-a-boo!

On Monday, all of us except Amy went fishing. It was a cooler day, so I had on long pants and a sweatshirt. I didn't even think about sunscreen, but I had to roll up my pants to get into the boat, and just left them rolled up. Oops. The worst part of it is that only that side of that leg got burned. Lesson learned: wear sunscreen.

Kyle LOVES this book. He wants you to read it over and over again. Mom took this picture today when he fell asleep.