Lake Weekend

Dave and I joined Cindy, Charlotte, Mary, Janet, Eric, Christina, Eden and Tirzah at the lake last weekend.  We had a great time!  On the way down on Friday afternoon, we stopped to see Cindy at Camp Cumcito.  She was working so hard.  We were so proud of her. 

The weekend weather was hot but where else would you want to be but at the lake when the temps hover around 100?  This is where Dave was on Friday eve at dusk.

And he caught is first fish of the weekend that night.  He caught three total, all catfish and each one was bigger than the last. He tossed them all back in the lake.

 Chalk drawings with Eden

We had fun having water gun fights.  No one minded getting wet because . . . it was hot and you're at the lake, for crying out loud!  Tirzah, Mary & Eric enjoying a water gun!

 

Cindy let Eden drive the tractor.

On Saturday, all of a sudden there was talk about taking the boat out. People jumped up, and started moving and problem solving about the flat tire on the boat trailer and everyone worked together as a team and got it in the water.  The boat worked long enough to take a pretty nice trip out of the cove and back.  The next day, it started but quit.  We ended up pulling it out and parking it up the hill.  It was an adventure!  Janet, who used to own a boat, was our resident expert!

Tirzah is wearing a cute cotton shirt that was Christina's when she was a year old. That is so special! 

Yep, Cindy got in the water - while getting the boat out of the water.

Guess I never got a photo of Charlotte over the weekend. She was there too!

New faucet

As  Brad said, it was way overdue, and we agree.  Our new hall bath faucet.  It's so nice. Come see it.

Birthday party at Don Chilito's

Family got together tonight to celebrate the birthdays of Jacob (17 yrs), Eden (4 yrs) and Susie (60 yrs). This is where the party began!  Kathryn and Brad led the way in line at Don Chilito's.

This is the crowd at the party.  Elsy got to sit at the head of the table.  Laura, with the help of Mary, Janet, Kay and Charlotte, did a great job on the decorations.  Seems like we enjoyed being together so much that we didn't leave until over 2.5 hours later!  Marty and Susie had a lot of great pictures and stories to tell about their Alaskan cruise.

Birthday boys Eden and Jacob

Birthday girl, Susie.  Christina brought two cakes!

 Norma and Tirzah hang out with Cory.  Tirzah is so cute!!

STUD!!

Susie was given a book about grandmas and Eden recorded the narrative. Kathryn read it to Elsy.

Look what Eden got for his birthday!  Perfect!

Happy birthday, Susie!

The party's over!

What a great way to end the evening.  Books with Grandpa.

Johnson county fair 2014

Charlotte & I were watching Elsy and decided to take her to the fair. Charlotte always goes with her sister and great nieces & nephews to do the rides.

Our first stop was food, Elsy loved the corn dog and Charlotte's limeade. Sophie loved pushing her and playing on the playground.

We went to see all the animals and she loved them all.

There was a children farm play area, playing in the corn kernels was a big hit.

Charlotte's sister always takes her grand kids to the carnival rides, cheap me was trying to avoid them. I guess this was Elsy's first ride. She liked it and wanted to go again!! I was able to divert her attention with a cup of ice. 

We all had a great time!

Haskell County Fair

This week is the Haskell County Fair - one of my favorite weeks of the summer! I just love being out in the community and seeing the community come together for all the fun activities. 

Last night Cole and I went to watch the little kids "mutton bustin". We got up real close to the arena and Cole got a first hand look at the sheep. He was mesmerized and a little scared when they got close. But the whole way home he kept saying "baa, baa, baa". Funny!

(I guess these sheep were really tall/big for mutton bustin. It was the talk of all who knew better.)

I entered an apple pie in the $100 contest and about 6-7 flower entries. I love having things to enter, even though it's nerve wracking. 

My flowers all got 1st place blue ribbons but no grand prizes. And, my pie didn't win. Shucks. There's always next year...

This afternoon I went to the high school to help roll over 1000 burritos for nitelites. We sell them at the rodeo. It's one of my favorite things we do. It's a time to talk and work on a project together to complete a task. Today I got to ask advice from a real estate mogul about rentals and learned that one of the ladies had a miscarriage between her 2 children and that she had expected a lot bigger family...among other things. 

And then, to top off the day, marc stayed with Cole tonight and I got to go to the rodeo! Love it!

Full and fun two days!

Gulf Shores vacation

Hi Burrichter family! I'm excited to post on the family blog :)

 So I thought I would share with y'all what the "other" Ellis family has been up to this summer. We got to go on vacation to Gulf Shores with my extended family a couple of weeks ago and we had so much fun! It was really fun to have my whole immediate family together for a whole week, which is rare these days.

the Hanson, Spiegel and Ellis families

   Each couple was responsible for a dinner one night of the week. Brad and I got assigned to the very first night! On the menu was hamburgers. So, Brad's first night of vacation with the in-laws, he was in charge of grilling 40 hamburgers for dinner! And he did a great job :)
    Brad and I (more Brad than me really) were also in charge of the "fun" at night. My mom has decided that since Brad was programs at K-Kountry and we have both worked at kamp, we should be in charge of fun activities.
    Brad did an awesome job leading the whole group in a bunco night, which was a huge success and was complete with monogram plastic spoons, a trip to the snow cone place and a "I participated in the Great Bunco War of 2014 and all I got was this lousy koozi" koozi as some of the prizes.

 

 Everyday on the beach we had 4 pop up tents, a ton of beach chairs, 2 sets of corn hole boards and a volleyball net. Needless to say, we settled in for a long, relaxing week on the beach! One day, a storm came in so quickly and the wind was so strong that it ruined 2 of our pop up tents before we could get them down!

    Another tragedy that happened that week is Brad lost his wedding ring! He had put it in the pocket of a pair of his shorts, I didn't know that and I hung them up on the railing outside of our room. When Brad went to get the shorts off the railing, the ring fell out of the pocket and went through the deck and fell into the sand beneath. After quite a few of the family members all jumped in to help us look, we still hadn't found it and it was getting dark. We decided we would try again in the morning. However, when Brad woke up the next morning and went into the kitchen, my younger cousin had already been up and searching for the ring himself and he found it! Brad and I were so thankful!!

 All and all, it was a great trip!! Brad and I had so much fun with my family and it was a wonderful, relaxing vacation!

Morning Jog

Cole and I have been jogging some mornings lately. He doesn't seem to mind.

He assumes the position, with feet crossed and head off to the side, and settles in for the ride.

I keep his shoes in the basket underneath the stroller, otherwise you'd never know where they'd end up getting dropped. We pull them out when we get to the park at the end of our jog. 

With the days being so hot, it's good to get out early in the morning to beat the heat. 

A Ride in the New Truck

It's a scorcher this week. Marc got out to work early and came home early to beat the heat yesterday. Cole and I were grateful for the afternoon visitor. We decided to go to the Voth's to watch some shows we had them dvr for us. 

Cole got a first class ride in daddy's new truck on the way over. 

Metcalf's Visit!

Derek and Katie came out last weekend with their three kids - Isaac (6), Ann (4), and Liam (2.5).  They were on their way to meet the Reid Kapple family in Colorado. It was so great to have them here. 

I set up mattresses on the floor downstairs in the office alcove for the kids, and they did awesome. It was so nice to have the bathroom available downstairs. They took the inaugural bath in the tub! Fun memory. 

We took them to the crop sprayer hangar  Saturday morning and got to see two planes land right in front of us! The kids thought that was so cool - and so did the rest of us!

We went out to the farm and rode the tractor with Marc while he "worked some ground". Ann was the brave one who took the first ride. 

Derek rode a few rounds with Marc and then Marc got out and let him take over. Derek thought he could get used to that type of farming - methodical, solitary, peaceful. 

We had steak and jalapeno poppers for dinner (after all the tuckered out kids *and adults* took a long nap - but not the chatty mamas) and then off to Papa's Place for ice cream. Katie and I walked and pushed Liam and Cole and the rest met us there. 

It meant so much to me/us that they took the time to come visit. We loved every minute of it. I can't believe I didn't get more pictures or a picture with Katie. I guess they'll just have to come back!

Where are you?

This is a pretty common sight these days..

...peeking around the corner into Cole's room to find him reaching through the bars of his crib for his pacifier (which he willingly drops in there when we get him up). Usually, if it's quiet and we aren't sure exactly where he is, this is a pretty good bet. And then he comes parading out to us so proud of his accomplishment. Oh my!

A New Truck

Marc got a new truck today! It was time. We chose white - one, because we think it looks sharp and two, because I didn't want him to get a blue one like mine. :)

He sent us this picture this morning at the first field he checked saying that the truck would never again be this clean. 

I'm still not used to it. I like it a lot, but I kept thinking that a service truck was parked outside our house. Tonight he said that it needed to get dirty to fit his job. I'm sure it won't take long with all the mud from this past week's rains (we've been getting rain!). 

Good job dealing, Marc. 

Where is it?

Can you tell what this is a picture of?

Yep, it's all Cole's shoes in the trash can in his room. He loves to empty his shoe bin and put the shoes "away". I have found shoes in the trash, laundry basket, and all over the house. I've even put a few through the wash a time or two. 

It's fun to watch him figure stuff out and make sense of things, but we are beginning to be afraid of what we may be throwing out with the trash! Ha!

We Have a (2nd) Functional Bathroom!

The downstairs bathroom is functional -toilet, sink, and tub!!!

I couldn't believe the difference it made this past weekend when the Metcalf family of 5 came to visit! It was awesome!

If you needed a reason to visit - here's one!