Our attempt at a garden. So far we have radishes, carrots, corn, sweet peas, green beans, lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, zuchini, crooked neck squash and lots of weeds.
Our celery and onions haven't done anything yet-not sure if those are a lost cause or not. The watermelon is still inside because it is too cold at night. We haven't had much sunshine so they are a little stunted but progressing. Conner's corn just popped through (rows 2-5). We also attempted some red potatoes. We will take another picture when it looks more like a garden. Hopefully we can keep the squirrels away long enough to harvest.

The slideshow below is mostly of our surprise visit from Candys and Brandon. It was a great weekend.
The others are of Porter at outdoor school.

This is Mason handing off the baton fo rthe 4x400 relay--each person ran 1 time around the track. His team dominated and beat all the others by almost 1/2 a lap.
The second picture is Mason running the 200 meter race. He usually took 2nd in this race.
Never thought Mason would turn out to be a runner--I remember baseball when he was little, he would run so hard and just looked like he wasn't going anywhere. Amazing what stretching the legs can do for someone.

Mason's record beating jump

This is Mason beating the Baker Middle School record for the high jump. The record was set in 1977 at 5'7". Mason beat it at his last track meet jumping 5'7 1/4". He tried 5'8" but couldn't quite make it. This was a very exciting day for him and the school. No one ever came close to Mason during competition--he took first in all his meets. The 2nd place usually jumped 4'10" maybe 5' if they were lucky.

Porter & Conner ahd their first track meet on Wednesday.

Porter did the 4 x 100 relay, long jump, 100 & 400.

Conner did the shot put, 400, 4 x 100 relay and javilin.

Baseball has begun--Freezing weather and all.

Mason played 2nd base and pitched the last 2 innings.

It was a fairly uneventful start to the season.

Congrats Conner

After 12 pinewood derby cars, we finally have a winner.

Conner took 1st place at tonights pinewood derby against 12 other cars.

Conner is recieving his Bear Rank advancement finally-he earned it back in Sept but is just know getting it. He is well on his way in Webelos and enjoying every minute of it.

You can't see if very well but Lance is standing in the middle of a heart and he drew in the snow Lance Loves Shauna. The letters were as tall has he is. Just couldn't get a very good angle and not enough contrast to get a good picture. What a sweetheart!!

This is the view of the mountains and frozen lake we were walking on. It was an overcast day but is a beautiful sight.

I know you have all been dying to know what an Ice Fishing hole actually looks like---well this is your lucky day--it looks like a hole in the ice--suprise, suprise.

Porter & Conner made their first welds. Grandpa Cline would be proud. They, with the help of dad, made a tether ball pole and Porter & Conner welded this piece on.

Made a trip to California for Shauna's grandpas funeral Had a great visit with Candys & Brandon, The Crumps and many more family members.

We finally got enough snow to go sledding. It was very fast and slick but they had a blast. See the slide show with pictures. I am trying a new site I found for slide shows. Hopefully it works. I think if you click on the slide show it will go full screen.

This was one of the waterfalls we saw on the hike up to the lake.

Austin & Mason were trying to roll this tree trunk into the water--didn't have much luck.

Took a hike on Labor day--10+ miles round trip (going up almost 2000 feet in elevation--not flat by any means) to a secluded lake. Would have been a great lake to swim in except it was way tooooooo cold-although it was tempting. Saw some beautiful sights--next time we have to remember our fishing poles.

We took a quick family camping trip to help Porter get his Second Class rank advancement for scouts. Since he is the only boy in is group, he has moved quickly along. He is first class and already working on a merit badge and he won't be 12 until Nov. Great job.

His goal is to have his eagle by age 14. I am all for it--get it done and out of the way.

canning

So my cameras are on the blitz--The lens is stuck on one so it won't take pictures and for some reason the other camera is stuck on video and won't take a picture.

So, you are stuck with a video. This year I tried my hand at canning without mom & grandma around to help. Lance's sister gave us some raspberries from her garden so we made homemade raspberry syrup and jam. I made the syrup recipe last year but cheated and just put it in the freezer until it was used. This year I thought I would try to be more of a old style homemaker and can it. I have heard several pops so far so I must have done something right. Thought about sending some to Mom for a belated b-day gift but not sure the jar would survive the mail.

during a drive in the country--Austin was getting some drive time in--we almost hit a badger crossing the road--he was taking his sweet time going back and forth. We had to wait a few minutes for him to clear out so we could pass. We also saw a wild baby turkey.