Bike Racing

Everything is a race to Micah. We have been going for a bike ride everyday for the past week and he will be WAY ahead of Janessa & I, then he will slow down and ask me if I can go ahead of him then he will get a little behind and start speed racing to catch up and pass me. It's a great game for him except for when he does it to Janessa...the scolding from her can be heard for miles. Especially because he cuts over in front of her just centimeters in front of her front tire causing her to have to slam on her brakes and scold him for all the world to hear. Its quite the ordeal...and for the past two days we have invited our neighbor, Pam, to join us on our racing/scolding/biking excursions...so I now have a witness of what I have to deal with...

thirsty anyone?

Here fishy fishy!

Alysha's favorite animal was the fish, and the sea lions. Of couse that might have been because the cave was the coolest place so we sat in there and ate our lunch while the huge sea lions put on a show for us.

Ocelots

The Ocelots were my favorite animal. And Janessa was quite fond of them as well

Elephants

Micah said his favorite animal at the zoo was the elephants.

He was especially amazed at the size of the elephant poop! "That poop is as big as sheshe" says Micah.

Grumpy Animals

Happy Animals

A Day At The ZOO!!!

Today we got to go to the zoo. We were all so excited and as it turned out Grandma Joyce was able to come with us and bring cousin Shyrah.

busy day!!

What fun we had today...we began the day by getting to go play at our friend's Lily, Reece, & Wynsome's house. Micah and Reece rode their bikes all around on the trails around their house, Janessa & Lily played house up on a HUGE lava rock shelf, and Alysha & Wynsome played dressup, & messup. Then our friend's Rain & Niya stopped by so we played some more. Alysha was having trouble obeying so need quite a lot of discipline...Janessa also had some disrespectful attitude going on so she received her share of discipline. Then we came home, ate lunch, and Janessa was invited to play at another friend's house, then right after we picked up Janessa we saw Annika & Zach playing at their grandparent's house so we played with them until dinner...we had a VERY BUSY DAY of playing with friends. After dinner Micah played with the dog while Janessa & I cleaned out the kitty's cage and made a nice new cozy bed for them. Then if was bathtime and bed. And tomorrow we get to go to the Zoo!

Daddy why can't we have 3 Kitties???

Daddy look how sad I am...don't you think I need a kitty too? Love Alysha
(just kidding I don't even hardly touch them cause they might scratch me or lick me or something i much prefer to pick up huge garter snakes that coud bite my whole finger off)

Daddy Called!!!!

Today Daddy called us!!! We were soooo excited to hear from him in Argentina! We all got to talk to him and we laughed at the funny things he said and has seen. He told me (Janessa) that he saw a monkey that screamed at him and was yelling at him. That was at a free zoo in Corrientes! We couldn't beleive that there are zoos that don't cost any money...ours costs lots of money. We are going there though we heard mama spelling z-o-o to daddy so we wouldn't know what she was saying but Janessa figured it out so she will have to learn another language so she can tell secrets to daddy.

Sheshe the Sailor Girl

Queen SheShe!!

At the Peck's b-day we got to go to the lake and go out in the boat by ourselves. The grownups had a rope tied to it so they could pull us in. all i (alysha) need is my servant to fan me with a palm branch and feed me grapes as they are rowing me around the lake.

Janessa's Island Adventure

We had such a great at the Peck's birthday party!!!! We got to go out to the island you see in the picture on the left. And we got to fish, kyak, and pretend we were discovering a new land...it was great fun, the only thing we were missing was daddy! We couldn't catch any fish...I can't imagine why...we only had 11 kids fishing with our uncle Mark's "shock-n-awe" technique, and throwing rocks in the water, and throwing themselves in the water. Maybe next time

Celebrating!!!

Today we celebrated! Mama finished all the t-shirt orders that she has been working on all week so we went on a bike ride and to the coffee shop and then we got to go to a birthday party at our friend's the Peck's house. i (micah) got a little to close to the t-ball & bat when my friend was swinging and i got a bat right in my eye socket. i only cried a little and i got a nice little shiner to show for it. then i got to go for a boat ride on the lake, and fish there too. i didn't hook too many people but i did catch the bushes quite a few times. no fish this time though. at the end i did make it over to the island (the water wasn't even over our heads that we were boating in) so i decided to follow what everyone else was doing an walk back from the island but i fell in and thought i was getting swept out to sea so i stood right were i was screaming for my mama to save me and she had to wade out in here jeans to rescue me.

Today's Events

Not a hugely exciting day...I made about 125 t-shirts today! The kids played fairly well together. The most excitement we can report today was the bike ride to Jonah Minstries to deliver some of the t-shirts and ate watermelon and returned home via bikes in the hottest part of the day! The breeze made it bearable though. Oh and the kids got to go to Robin's house (A very nice lady in our church) and Janessa saw crawdads in the creek and some rock creature that she insists daddy told her about but she had never had the pleasure of spotting until this very night!!! AND Micah VOLUNTARILY pulled himself away from the much loved and coveted video game (after only 20 minutes) that he LOVES to play whenever he goes to Robin's house...he was obeying my request that he not play the video game the entire time he is at their house. I got to go grocery shopping without a million and one questions, comments, and fights. And Hood River now sports a Pizzicato...which I treated myself to as payment for all my hard work of grocery shopping, doing the laundry, etc...

Janessa's Kindergarten Graduation

Kittens

Well we have finally entered the world of having kittens. Janessa got her first kitten about 3 weeks ago and the next week we got Micah a kitten because he was so gentle and kind with Janessa's kitten. Janessa named her kitten Rosie Cuddly Colburn and Micah named his Teddy Climber Colburn. It has been quite fun for the kids to have these furry pets. They are actually taking the place of

all the reptiles that we decided to put a stop to the kids catching as they were littering up the porch (after they died) and stinking up the containers that they were housed in.

Today is the first day our daddy has been gone to Argentina. Everytime we hear an airplane we say is that the one daddy is on? We had fun playing with the new toys daddy got us today. We only had fights about them once in a while and tonight we had a fun time playing bingo (Janessa's new toy) Oh and we got to go to John & Michael's house. They are our neighbors who live in the Snyder's house and they have been gone for 3 and a half weeks. It was great fun.

Look at my HUGE fish!

Alysha & Mom but mostly mom caught this whopper at the annual fishing derby that I had to take all three kids to by myself. Thankfully, my wonderful husband who was away rafting on the Snake River arranged for one if the High School guys (Tim) to help Micah and he was a HUGE help. And one of the high school girls in my accountability group (Anna) was there as a volunteer and she kindly offered to be Janessa's very own personal volunteer so that only left Alysha for me to try to catch a fish for and this is what we managed to land!!!