Course a Lure

The Dog and Kids festival at Thanksgiving Point was fun. Kodiak who had done the Course a Lure before kept barking at the Lure as if to say "Get back here" It had the announcer laughing. Sadie cheated the first few times by jumping over the fence then running across the center of the course to jump back in on the other side. The last time she stayed in the fence but almost cleared the entire tunnel by jumping over it. It was fun to hear people in the crowd say "Oh my gosh"

The Tulip Festival At Thanksgiving Point

The Bullfrog was a fun sight!!

Crockett loves to ride the 4-Wheeler

It has been years since I have been on a 4-wheeler and longer since it was for fun. (ok so I love going hunting on them but it's not the same as going fast down a hill!)

I decided to take Crockett and he loved it. He'd just let his back legs hang over the edges of the seat and put his front feet on the gas tank.

My sister's family got the first bit of dirt on their new 4-wheelers and their 4 yr old rode a motorcycle! (with a little help and lots of giggles.)

Its so fun to see all my neices and nephews enjoying motorcycles and 4-wheelers like my brothers and sister did when we were kids.
We all had a blast. Thanks to my brother setting everything up and getting a perfect campsite.

A fun Saturday

Thanks guys for Blast on Saturday!

Shooting, BBQ hot dogs, funny movies and just hanging out. What a great Saturday! We had our friend and his 3 boys over this Saturday. We used all the ammo we brought shooting and had a great time. Everyone got to try different guns and found out which one they liked and didn't like. One boy nearly got knocked on his butt when he shot a 45, the other had a blast with the BB gun and will likely have sore arms today from having to pump the gun. The other somehow, we don't know how, got 3 targets spinning from 1 bullet. The First BBQ of the season turned out great then we helped a friend out of the mud pit that tried to eat her truck. Two funny movies later it time to call it a night.

This is how much Sadie LOVED having kids over.

She takes Kill them with Kindness too Seriously! He loved it though.

We are going to miss the snow!

The snow on Sunday was such a fun surprise.  It was so beautiful and just the right amount of chilly.  We all feel so much better in the cold weather that I don't want it to end. 

We are Licensed!!

Our License arrived in the mail today!  We can have up to 2 foster children but will start with just 1.  It may take a couple months before we get a call because there are so many foster parents signed up for to take 0-2 year olds. So here's hoping things work out...

4 Weeks till a Foster Care License???

We got our home visit and still have to lock up a few things. We had the licensor laughing. I think if the parents who have their kids in Foster Care had to go through what we do, as well as their basic parenting skill updated, lots of children wouldn't be going home.

I do think that having smoke detectors on all levels and having a good Fire Extinguisher is very important and everyone should have them. But locking up, I mean really locking up all chemicals is a pain. How many of you have oil in your garage that is not behind a locked door? The little easy child locks don't count. It need to be a Keyed lock, Magnetic lock or a Combination lock.

How many parents need to prove car insurance, have an escape plan, two ways out of a room (thinking of invesing in a fire ladder for second story windows??) and background checks? How many parents have 32 hours of classes?

Adoptive Parents do and Foster Parents do. But wouldn't we have better parents if everyone did? It certainly makes you think about parenthood and we haven't even gotten into the safe plastics, chocking hazards and parenting skills. Just a word of advice. NEVER ever think that adoption is easy. Its more complicated legally and emotionally.

We did all the paperwork, passed our backgroud checks, had our lives inspected but you know what... We are excited!! Its the feeling of getting on a big roller coaster after getting off the last one. How big are the challenges going to be? How far down are the dissapointments? Although we are sure we are going to keep our lunch down, we'll just have to see how well we walk after. We might be a little wobbly.