A new shed

Our shed was destroyed in a little storm that blew through town a few weeks ago.  Sustained winds of 60 mph with gusts over 80 was just too much for it.  The wind blew our shed, ripping it off the platform foundation it was attached to, over the fence and into our neighbor's yard.  We used a little family teamwork to put up the new shed.

I didn't snap a picture of the finished product....

swimming

Missy dropped the boys off a few weeks ago while she took Josie to camp.  It was a sunny day, so we spent some time in the pool, of course.

 Megan and Jonathan waited on the front steps for the boys to be dropped off.

 Jack, Eric, Megan

 Sam needed to rest for a bit.  Some of the swimming got a little rough for him.  He said he just wanted to swim like he does in Makoti :-).  We got him back in the pool.

Birding at Game and Fish

Jonathan has been excited to go birding again at the Game and Fish place in town.  He went with his class for an end of year field trip, as one of his teachers is a bird fanatic.
We learned that Wednesdays and Saturdays are also "Take a Kid Fishing Day".  So, we went fishing.  They have a bunch of poles and worms, and trained Game and Fish people to take the fish off the hook for you.  It's 'catch and release' fishing.  The little fishing pond is stocked with smaller fish.

 This was the first non-robin spotted bird.  Jonathan said it was a purple something.  

 This is neither a bird or a fish, but a gigantic, vicious, most likely deadly poisonous snake.  The kids kept insisting it was just a garden snake.  

 It slithered into a little hole under the sidewalk.  I wonder if there were more snakes under there???

 The man helping Megan is the former head of Parks and Rec in ND.  

 Eric caught the first fish.  It was a large mouth bass.  

 Eric also caught the 2nd fish, a blue gill sunny.

 The kids decided they had done enough fishing, so we continued on our bird walk.  We spotted several red winged black birds.  A lot of the path was pretty mushy from all the rain we've had the past few days, so we didn't venture out too far.

inch worm

We have a whole lotta inchworms in our backyard.  Megan wants to keep everyone of them as a pet.

JE dishwashing

 Our dishwasher has been on a slow boat to China for sometime.  We bought a new one, but it was on back order for a few weeks.  Turns out we have an excellent brand of dishwasher already.

 Believe it or not, both boys claim they like washing the dishes.