Fishing Storm

We took another fishing trip to our new spot on Lake Lewisville (Westlake Park) to show Ray's sister how nice it was. We were surprised by how crowded it was! There were very few empty picnic tables and the water was full of boats, music and swimmers! It was nothing like the quiet spot we found during the week. We decided we could still have fun though! Here's a picture of Yvette and Nehemiah getting their poles ready.



I didn't last long fishing because all the little ones kept getting snagged in the rocks. I quickly tired of freeing their lines. So I opted to just jump in and go swimming with them! They like to fish, but they LOVE to swim! It was Jada's first time to swim in a lake instead of a swimming pool and she was very nervous about snakes that might bite her or fish that might touch her or water too deep for her, etc. Poor baby! I wanted her to be informed, not scared!



Soon we started seeing lightning in the distance. I decided we had better get out of the water.


Before long we could see a dark cloud moving over the lake.


We watched in awe while the sky literally opened up in front of us! (All the while Ray was still fishing, of course!) In this pic, you can see the ducks flying for cover and the boat racing to get out of the water!



We decided we'd better put everything in the truck in case the rain came. We left only our fishing gear out, hoping that the storm would pass. This looks like an evening shot, but this was early afternoon!



When the rain finally came, it hit hard! We ran to the truck with our poles and praised ourselves for being so smart as to put away all of our other belongings before the storm hit! We made it to the truck safely but it was raining so hard we couldn't see through it to drive!


So we had to wait it out. Luckily it wasn't long before the worst of it was gone.

Westlake Park

We decided it was time to branch out and try to find a new fishin' hole. Ray did some research and learned that the best local lake for catfish was Lake Lewisville.

We looked at a map of Lake Lewisville and found the name of a park to try. It was great! We went on a Friday so it wasn't crowded at all. We were surprised at how cheap it was, only $3 for all of us! And they even gave the kids complimentary coloring books and crayons.

We found a nice picnic table right by the water and set up. We had lunch and then fished right next to our table. Sweet! We were fishing in the shade! We also looked at some of the books we recently checked out from the library.

After a while, I took the four youngest and we headed to the beach area to swim. It was just a short walk away. We had a blast in the water and it gave Ray and Nehemiah a chance to fish without little "helpers" and constant cries of "I'm snagged!" or "I can't get this fish off my hook!" or "I hooked my own shirt!" or "Help me hook this worm!"
On our way to the water we found a dead fish which we promptly inspected using a stick. We also saw a catfish head. When we were in the water we saw several grasshoppers. Samara and I caught them and put them on our heads. We declared ourselves "Grasshopper Princesses"! All of us looked closely at the grasshoppers and talked about how long their legs are and how far they can jump. We talked about their antennae and how they can sense things compared to how we sense things. We also talked about where grasshoppers live. Seth and Samara assumed they must live in the water since that's where we found them. Isaiah and Malachi knew they lived on land and explained it to the twins. One of the big ones jumped on Seth and scared the crap out of him! Poor baby! He's the most squeamish around creepy crawly things and they always seem to head for him! We saw some minnows swimming around us and wondered what other things were swimming close to us. The kids wanted to know why there were cold spots in the water which was something I couldn't explain. We performed tricks for each other, stuff like handstands and flips. Malachi got some water up his nose and said he wished he didn't have a nose. I laughed and told him that then he couldn't smell and that would be weird! We made jokes about all the situations he might be in where he would hate the fact that he couldn't smell, like smelling good food or cake, or freshly cut grass, or poop! We all had a good laugh about that one.
Since this was only a day use park, we had to leave by 10pm. When darkness came Malachi caught a small toad. Samara loved it and wanted to bring it home with her.

We stayed as late as we could as you can tell. Here's Nehemiah's silhouette still fishing in the dark.

Hickory Creek Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Hickory Creek on Lake Lewisville. We were glad to have the pop up to keep us in some air conditioning and keep us from sleeping on the ground.

But unfortunately, we drove all the way to the campground with the crank still in the back of the camper. So when we arrived at our campsite and got ready to pop up the camper we discovered that we had no way of doing so. Crap!

There was nothing to do but go back home. We got on the Internet and found a place that sells the cranks! Phew! Thank goodness we were able to buy one that fit for only $14. So we headed back to the campground with the utility trailer loaded with bikes and fishing gear and chairs and the grill and coolers and anything else we thought we couldn't live without.

Once we got set up we had a great time. Our campsite was right next to the bathroom which was very convenient. We went on a walking trail, tried fishing (no luck), rode bikes and swam in the lake. They even rode bikes in the lake! It was very windy and there were a lot of waves making very difficult to stay upright on a bike. But it sure was fun trying. (My camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any pics of the bike riding in the lake.)

The first night we were there, there was a fireworks show on the other side of the lake. We sat outside and enjoyed the show.

The next day, Ray had to leave to go to a minicamp for the upcoming flag football season. I stayed at the campsite with the kids. Ray came back with a surprise! He brought two of the boys who live on our street back with him. Marcus and Bruce are our new friends. They are visiting their mom for the summer. They came to spend the night with us at the campground. Nehemiah is in the red shirt. Bruce is holding the meat up front. And Marcus is dancing while turning the meat over on the grill.

"Sea Shuttles"???

We tried a new fishin' hole in Garland. We didn't get a lot of bites but the ones we did get were nice sized catfish. Since the fishing was slow, the kids put down their poles and played around. Isaiah pretended to be the leader of the army and led the others with "Hut...two...three...four...Hut...two...three...four!". They each had a good sized stick in their hands which served as a rifle. If Isaiah thought an enemy was near he would hold up his hand as a signal for everyone to "get down" and "be quiet"! They would all crouch down on either side of the sidewalk or sometimes hide behind a tree. I enjoyed watching them while waiting for the fish to bite.


They also found lots of snail shells that Jada called "sea shuttles". No matter how many times I corrected the terminology they continued to call them sea shuttles. Here's a pic of their discovery.

(No Seth does not have a Charlie Chaplin mustache, he fell on the concrete last week while playing basketball with the big boys.)

They also found a little baby turtle shell. They wanted to know why the turtle died if it was only a baby.

And what would a blog be without a pic of someone "throwing up" a peace sign?

Fishing

We went fishing again. This time we took Ray's sister, Yvette, and her daughter Jada. Toward the end of the trip we saw a cottonmouth snake in the water eating a fish. He had moved onto some moss at the side of the lake in order to swallow the fish. It was facinating! I took some pictures but I haven't figured out how to upload pictures to the computer from our new camera.

And Samara learned how to cast! Now she just needs to learn how to hook her own worms and take a fish off her hook and she will be an independant fisherman, umm, I mean, fisherwoman!

I Quit!

Ok...some say I'm crazy and maybe I am. But I needed a break from the long hours of employment before we move. So...I resigned.

And I have really been enjoying being with my husband and kids.

We have spent time out mowing lawns and/or handing out flyers and trying to get more yards to do. Trent even went out with us to do this. Trent had us all laughing because he was too afraid to knock on people's doors. The one time we convinced him to knock on a door he argued with us that no one was home. Then he rang the doorbell and walked about halfway back to the car with his back to the house and waited to see if anyone would answer. What was so funny was that he turned his head slightly and then cut his eyes back to see if anyone was opening the door! Ya just gotta love Trent. He's hilarious.

One day we went to Sonic to eat. We were all sitting in the car looking at the menu when someone spotted a duck. It was funny because we never see ducks at Sonic. We always see grackels or crows but never ducks. It was a beautiful duck with a green head. The kids took off their seatbelts and moved around so they could see the duck better. Then Malachi said, "Look, a chicken!" I told them it couldn't possibly be a chicken and looked where he was pointing expecting to see a crow, but there was a chicken! It was so weird. The carhops were just walking around like it was normal.

Samara has learned how to hula hoop! Her friend Jada, who lives across the street, let her borrow a hula hoop. I guess Jada showed her how to do it. Samara came home proud to show off her new skill.

We finished reading "James and the Giant Peach". It was the first chapter book that the little kids have ever finished listening to. Their favorite part was when the centipede had purple paint dumped over him and he said:

"The paint is drying! It's going hard! I can't move my legs! I can't move anything!"

At which point the Earthworm said, "You can still move your mouth, and that's a great pity!"

The kids asked me to read that part over and over and over again. They loved that part!

After we finished the book, we bought the movie. It was a terrible movie. It did not have any of the parts of the story that we were looking forward to seeing. The movie did a good job of casting for Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge though.

We have since finished 2 more books. "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson was the next book we read. After reading it, we watched the movie. We liked this movie a lot more than the James and the Giant Peach movie. This movie stuck with the book as much as possible. We just finished "Hank the Cowdog" by John R. Erickson. The kids are already asking if there is a movie about this one!

We have really been busy since I quit. I know it's been forever since I last blogged. I'm trying to remember everything we've done.

Isaiah and Malachi have been going great with our schooling. I have more energy to put into it and I help make it fun.

We've also been going to parks and playing outside a lot! The kids ride their bikes everyday! Seth is ready to start learning how to ride without training wheels.

We have also been going roller skating. It was so funny at first because the little ones couldn't even stand up without falling. But we've been going every week and now they are getting pretty good at it! Well, Seth is still struggling...but Samara can move herself slowly, almost robotic-like. She doesn't bend her knees. Isaiah can skate fast now! Malachi can go around and around the rink without falling! Nehemiah always gets inline skates. I don't know how anyone can skate in those!

We've also been fishing a lot. We like to go to this place in Coppell. It has a great little pond that we get lots of bites. There is a nice walking trail all the way around the lake. The kids like to ride their bikes around while they take turns fishing. There is also a basketball court near the pond and we often bring our basketball. Ray has taught us all how to fish. The twins can't cast yet but they can catch fish! Most of the fish we catch are small perch or baby catfish that we throw back in. But one day we caught a big catfish! We caught a few others that were big enough to bring home. That night, Ray taught Nehemiah and I how to fillet fish. We had a fish fry the next night. It was delicious. There is just something special about catching your own food.

We have gone riding about 3 times. Nehemiah is almost clearing the finish line jump at Shady Grove! And Isaiah can jump high on his 4-wheeler!

The above picture is of Josh and Isaiah. Isaiah has looked up to Josh since he was about a year old. Josh can clear the finish line jump with no problem. He's been riding since he was little too. Isaiah wants to be just like him when he grows up.

The kids finally finished up their football seasons. Nehemiah played in a 7 on 7 touch football team. They played in a tournament at Ranchview High School and Nehemiah played quarterback. They played 4 games that day. His arm was tired after all that! Isaiah had a tournament that same day. Isaiah's team won the first game so they played for the championship later in the day. (Which means that we sat through 6 football games all in one day and I got a sunburn!) Isaiah's team was undefeated for the whole season but lost the championship game. Isaiah cried along with several of his teammates. :(

My best friend LeaAnn got married on the 18th in Austin. We took the whole family to the wedding. It was really nice. She looked beautiful. It was great to see her family and several of our friends from high school. LeaAnn got married by the pool. (Isaiah was ready to jump in!) The kids looked great all dressed up. I took some pictures but then lost my camera while we there. So I don't have any to post. Thankfully, my mom went too and took lots of pics so when she sends me some copies I'll add some.

Nehemiah plays percussion with the DeWitt Perry Band. The band played at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. It was really cool! They played early in the morning so I left the kids at home asleep with Ray. My mom went with me to watch the performance. They placed 11th out of 30 bands. But about half of the bands were high school bands so they did pretty good!

One day Ray's sister Yvette came over and brought her daughter Jada. We decided to do something fun so we picked up our nephews Jalen, Trejan and Koda and took all the kids to Chuck E Cheese. That is a total of 9 kids with 3 adults! It was great to have them all together! We haven't done anything with all the cousins in a long time. I wish I had some pictures!

Malachi turned 6 on May 21st!!! It was a weekday so we were going to wait for Nehemiah to get out of school and then celebrate. But we forgot that Nehemiah had another band concert that night. So we went to the concert then came home and had cake and ice cream. Yvette and Jada came over to celebrate with us. So did Ray's mom. Malachi opened his presents and enjoyed the day.

Last Friday, the 23rd, Nehemiah didn't have school so we all went to Six Flags! It was the perfect time to celebrate Malachi's birthday as well as mine that was fast approaching on May 26th. It was so much fun. The kids are finally old enough to ride some rides outside of Looney Tunes Land. Ray doesn't ride anything at all. You gotta love him for coming anyway. I know it was hot and boring for him. Nehemiah saw some of his friends there so after he spent some family time with us, he left to go ride some bigger rides with his friends.

Saturday the 24th was the opening day for the Rosemeade Rainforest Pool so we HAD to go! The kids have been asking to go swimming for a couple of months. Ray didn't go because he had to put new tires on the Suburban and get an alignment. The kids played on the slides and jumped in the water and had a grand time! And the best part about it is that we won a family season pass to the pool! So we went for free and will be able to enjoy it all summer!

Life is good!