Hail Hath No Fury.....

I tend to have a lull in blogging this time of year. It must have to do with the transition from summer to school. Life around Casa de Evans is good.

Our baby girl Hailey has left the nest, moved into an apartment close to school. It should have been a big adjustment but I think we have actually had more quality time with her the past few weeks than we have had in quite a while. We still miss her though, but think this will be a great learning and growing experience for her.

Athena is thriving in 4th grade. She is in an accelerated math class, and I no longer can easily help her with homework. Thank you internet!! How did our parents help us with homework without it? She has also picked up a love of Harry Potter, which her sister and I are very excited about. She is over half way through with the 5th book and is really trying to finish all 7 before the movie comes out in November. And next week she is dancing at the State Fair. We made it 9 1/2 years without her knowing a fair existed, guess it's out of the bag now.

Not sure if we made the news in your town but we had some pretty amazing weather last week. Tornadoes touched down up north, and here is a video of the biggest hail I have ever seen, right in our backyard.


Thankfully we did not lose any windows like most of the houses on our street. The insurance guy is coming tomorrow though to look at our damage. Shawn thinks the roof is toast :(

Hopefully there will not be so much time between posts again. I should have things to blog about for a while now. Athena dancing at the fair, pictures of Halloween, Thanksgiving, then before we know it Christmas will be here! I'm thinking we will be doing something new for Christmas this year, it feels like time for a change.

Belated Birthday

Shawn finally got his birthday present from me. It was a little late but he had to search to find just the right one. So we went out camping this weekend to try it out. He is now the proud owner of Chompy the canoe! It was a very nice weekend, wonderful weather, and no runaway dogs this time. We are all looking forward to many more trips, and hopefully someday someone will actually catch a fish.

Here is a little video of them heading out in the canoe. Right after I stopped filming and headed back to camp though the wind pushed them backwards and that was it for canoeing that day.

Life's a Beach

This year for vacation all I wanted was to see the ocean, and not wait in any lines. So as soon as the desert heat kicked up to 110 degrees we loaded up and headed for Oceanside California. We were going on the cheap so I didn't expect much from the hotel, other than a place to sleep and a working shower, but we ended up with a partial view of the ocean and were walking distance away. (although we had too much crap to haul with us to actually walk to the ocean, a nice stroll down to dinner in the harbor each night was nice.)

I guess Athena doesn't remember what it was like to not have a swimming pool in her backyard. As we drove around to the back of our motel there were kids in the pool and she says "why in the world would you swim in a pool when the ocean is right there?" She has developed such a sense of humor these days. And she is wickedly good at Slug Bug, Hailey has the bruises to prove it!

We spent hours just sitting on the beach, or swimming in the ocean. Many strolls around the harbor. Sandcastles were built, kids were buried in the sand and we saw some cool fish at the Birch Aquarium. It was much too short, but I loved every minute of it. Here are a few photos to enjoy.
Sunglasses switcharoo
Building a sandcastle
Buried!
The tide pools at the Birch Aquarium
Oh dear, my children have been eaten by a shark.

Out on the Oceanside Pier

Just before vacation Shawn bought me one of those nifty pocket camcorders that are all the rage at the moment so here is a little montage of some of the video I took. Be kind I'm still learning how to use the thing. (And yes Hailey is wearing a jacket and/or scarf most of the time)



(sorry to those of you that RSS my blog but the only way to tell if it works for sure is to publish and check it out)

The Dude has Left the Building

I missed my good morning greeting today. Orion passed away yesterday, he was 14 years old. I'm sorry but I don't have much else to say other than a bit of advice. Don't get 3 pets withing a few years of each other because if they all make it to old age they all do it at the same time.

Hellcation

We set off for a weekend camping trip at Knoll Lake to celebrate Shawn's birthday. We were all excited to spend a few days in the cooler temps enjoying nature. Especially Bubbles, she panted all the way there!

The first few hours were very enjoyable, we had a whole loop of the campground to ourselves. Athena and I took Bubbles exploring around the forest, we all caught up on some reading. Hailey took a nap and we had a great game of UNO!

Then around 3:00 in the afternoon the cloud cover started to darken. Shawn and I decided we better put the tarp up over the tent. As we were doing this the thunder started and freaked Bubbles out. Just as I was coming around the tent to tell Hailey to put her in the tent I see Hailey running off into the woods. Bubbles had pulled right out of her harness and took off. Now it is pouring rain, Shawn heads out after Hailey and Bubbles while Athena and I finish getting everything out of the rain. Shortly after Hailey returns in tears, she had lost Bubbles over a ridge. I head out to tell Shawn she is ok. He was getting disoriented in the trees and was worried Hailey would be lost too. We head back to camp and the rain stops as fast it started so we load into the car to search for Bubbles. A guy thought he saw her 15 minutes before we drove by so we head in the direction he saw her going. We drive around yelling her name until it's dark, then decide it's hopeless until morning to keep looking. So we head back to camp, walk around to let everyone in the campground know we are looking for a dog. A wonderful group of guys even let us borrow this huge spotlight. After trying to eat a very late dinner we head to bed, none of us really slept at all.

The next morning we try and eat breakfast, make some lost dog signs and head back out. We have a few moments of hope when people mention they might have seen her. Another guy tells us he lost his dog once and someone found it. So we search, and search, and search. The girls yelling her name out the window constantly. We decide to look down by the lake then go out to get more gas so we can continue searching. On our way to the lake road our campground host flags us down and tells us some guys on ATV's saw her on the side of a road so we follow him down to talk to them. We are sure it is her they saw, one kid even stopped and got off his ATV and walked towards her, unfortunately he still had his helmet on so she was spooked and took off into the trees again. So they head one way and we head down another road. We get out and see there are paw prints on the road, with no human prints with them. We follow it for a while until it dead ends. I am still convinced they were hers! Still no luck and it's getting close to check out time & we only paid for the first night just in case. So we head back for snacks, bathroom breaks, and to pay for the next night so we can keep searching.

After we eat we check in with the camp host to pay, he tells us not to worry we can catch up later if we need to. He also mentions that about 6 more people have stopped to say they spotted Bubbles on the same road as the ATV gang. we decide to just drive back and forth on that road for a while. We are bound to cross paths were her right? So out on that road a few miles from our camp Hailey spots her on the side of the road!! We all jump out and call her over. She looked at us like she was saying "it's about time you caught up to me" She looked so tired. We all cried, went back to camp to load up and go home!

If only she would have had a camera strapped to her head. What an adventure she had. I still can not believe we found her. And I never want to have that feeling of helplessness again!

She slept all the way home, and pretty much the whole next day too!

My Life

Summer is here. School is out, dance recital is over, time to have some lazy days by the pool. My life the past few months has been overtaken with school and dance. So many costumes to stud and rhinestone. So many hours of painting and gluing backdrops. The recital was wonderful and worth every second! So now I get to share with you all a few pictures and videos of it all!

The Set:

I can't even count the hours we spent working on these! While the girls danced in one room the parents were painting and gluing in the other! It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun.

BFF's

Athena with her best friends Annie & Emily. I'm so glad she has these two!

Miss. Tiff

With Tiffany, one of her teachers. We love her so much!

5 Years


Athena has been dancing at Stagedoor for 5 years now. I can't believe it has been that long, seems like she just started yesterday.

Just for fun

We had the girls do a Charlies Angels pose just for fun & it turned out to be one of my favorites! So Hailey turned it into Jan's Angels.

Her tap dance. My favorite this year! I love her expressive little face so much!


Her Jazz dance.


and closing! There were more but that's all I have the patience for today. I do know I need a new camera! Maybe by the next year these will be in HD!!

Marshmallow

Athena made breakfast this morning. It was Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, and Shawn helped a little, but it was pretty much all her. She is getting so grown up, even her teacher commented last week that she is like a little woman. And then in the same day I have this conversation with her:

Athena: (giggling) you are eating a marshmallow?
Me: yes.
Athena: (still giggling) why?
Me: because I have a sweet tooth and we don't have anything else sweet in the house.
Athena: (worried look on her face, glancing at the calendar) oh no! Did you go to the dentist?

So thankfully I am reminded once again that she is still a kid!