Time for Presents!

Sam was very careful with the wrapping paper, not wanting to rip it. He received extraordinary books from Nona, Grammy, Jack, Eli and Maia. I'll show those later.

Eli finally gets the sandbox alone!

The anatomy book. Sam LOVES this book. A lot of it is far beyond comprehension, but he is already naming all his bones, pointing to where his lungs, liver, heart are. He even can point out which areas of his brain are responsible for what!

Intestines! This is his favorite organ because it moves the poop out!

Trike Extraordinaire

Nona gave Sam a fantastic birthday present - a German tricycle! It is his new transportation for school in September. We have already trekked all over the neighborhood with it and it is hard to even get him off it, even in 105 degree heat!

At the party, it was very strange, but all the kids disrobed except Sam!

Parting Shot

This was the last shot we took before we left the ranch. Is this funny to you?

Sam's New Fishing Pole

Aunt Elisa gave Sam his first fishing pole! We didn't catch a fish in the lake, but Sam did learn how to cast.

Cousin Emily and her friends take the canoe out for a spin.

Katie Takes Her Horse Swimming

A little ranch gardening with Aunt Pam

More remote control boating

At the ranch

It was nice and cool for most of the time at the ranch. In the evenings it was sweater weather.

Here are the fresh blue needles of a blue spruce

Sam crosses the creek on his own now.

Sam whole body has become a "motor" and he runs around with "brrrrrr" sound spitting everywhere, shifting gears in his pockets.

Sam with the remote control boat.

The Feeding Trough

New Stuff

Keith explains how a firecracker works.

Sam discovers the remote control boat.

July 4

We spent a spectacular weekend at the ranch with a varying group of people, but consistently around 25 of us. The Wards, the Goulds (missed Nat though), Alburys (Kathy, Carl, Elisa, us), three families who are friends of the Wards, Shauna and daughter Hannah, and who I am forgetting? - Friends of teenagers! It was crazy! It was fun to see Emily and her little buds riding around on the mini-ATV (three girls at a time), bocci ball, badminton, horseshoes, swimming, canoeing, fireworks and eating, eating, eating. I forgot to take pictures of the food - Good God!

Here is Sam in the Suburban that had to be used to carry our stuff across the creek to Aspen House. Sam was thrilled for 50 yard ride with no car seat.

Fireworks blowing in the lake to not scare the dogs. There were a total of seven (that I can remember) dogs there, not including TJ 2-4 dogs (I have no idea how many he has).

Donita's Quarter Project

Our friend Donita, from Sarasota, challenged her friends to find the following state quarters: Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. After printing out what all the pictures were on the quarters, we went through our entire jar of change and we didn't find one!!

Sam's First Movie

Most of you know that Sam does not watch television and has seen only a couple of videos in very special circumstances. I finally decided for reasons too long to write, that I would show Sam a movie. We chose Charlotte's Web - the version with Dakota Fanning and real animals. He sat on the edge of his seat and asked a million questions. With all the pausing, we only got half-way through the movie before he was bored with it.

We're reading the book next. And I don't know when we'll try a movie again.

Morning at the Park

We don't go to playgrounds a lot here because we are usually in the mountains. Also, there aren't many playgrounds in the shade. We went early one morning and Sam found the one shady spot - the playground kitchen! It's amazing what you do with a little mulch.