Painting and Painting AGAIN!

Well, I have been wanting to paint my house and I just could not choose a color. My mom was over one day and we talked and I talked myself into a color, let's just say that is outside my box. I went to the store, bought the primer and paint, and back home to scrape and get started. After I had put the primer on, I promised my 2 wonderful helpers they could help paint. So we did....









And this is the color we had! Wow, it's really blue :)....

We left it this color for 2 days. Ryan and I couldn't get use to it, it drew too much attention to the house and it was just too bright for us. So, I went to the lumber yard and picked out a shade of my first choice and started painting . . . AGAIN!






So the end result.....a green house, which was my first choice and is sooo me :)






We are planning on painting everything that is white and the garage door this color, but for now that is all that I have accomplished, but I LOVE the color :)

What a Weekend...

Sunday, after a long week, we decided to go eat lunch at The Overlook on Canton Lake and take the girls swimming. Abbey has gotten so brave since her swimming lessons. I love watching her be more active when we are swimming. Of course there is Rylee who is like a little fish and could live in the water. They had a blast. They made "new friends" at the lake. They play with anyone they meet, which is a wonderful quality and I am so thankful that both my girls have acquired it. Ryan and I swam with them for about 30 minutes and then we were through, but the girls swam for about 2 hours. It was hot that day, only 108 I think. Needless to say, even with sunscreen we all had a pinkish/red hue to us.












After swimming at the lake we went for a drive West of Fairview to see the damage left behind by the fires that had been going since Friday. It has been said that someone saw a suspicious person lighting the fire; but I do not know how it started. It sarted in Chester and by Sunday was in Cheyenne Valley, a few miles West of Fairview. It was unbelievable seeing how the fire had jumped from one farm to another, leaving a farm in between untouched. I am so grateful that noone lost their homes or lives. There were some cattle lost and equipment, but thankfully that can be replaced.

Table Rock Lake

I love family vacations, and inviting our friends that are just like family. This was our 2nd annual Wahl/Coopers/Nazworth & Reihm Table Rock Vacation. We had a good time and enjoyed the weather, even though it was cloudy and rainy 2 of the 4 days. The kiddos all had fun fishing, slip & sliding, jumping from cliffs, fireworks, eating & eating, and just swimming from the dock.















This year we did something new and made a trip 30 minutes away to Roaring River National Park. It is a river that comes out of a mountain. They have a trout hatchery there. It was so neat to see the trout from all different sizes. It was raining when we walked around, so I didn't take any pics. We did trout fish for a few hours, even in the rain at times. It was amazing to see the trout right in the river and watch them go after someone's bait. I actually caught 2. The first one I had on shore and a little helper thought it needed cleaned more and away it went. The second one fell off the hook right at the shore line, and the same thing happened to Misty also. Dallas was the only one that actually found it's way to a stringer and went to the cabin with us. It was an exciting day, we will definetly go back next time.

Later that evening we did fireworks and sat on the dock and watched hundreds of them going off all around the lake shore. It was so pretty to watch. The kiddos did sparklers and enjoyed the show.








We always try to rent a boat for a day while we are there. This is year was no different. We enjoyed exploring new areas of the lake and found some cliffs for the boys to jump off. We found a pebble beach for the little ones to play and swim off. Abbey found more seashells to add to her collection. The adults enjoyed the ride and jumped in to cool off!








The last day at the lake, the boys finally caught a fish on their trot line...a 4 lb flat-head cafish. Of course with it being our last day, we set the fish free but not before we took a pic of it.

Before we could leave, we always have to visit the cliffs and the rope hanging from the bridge. Ryan, Denton, and Austin all enjoyed jumping off the cliffs and falling from the rope for about 2 hours. While we were there, there were 6 young (around 15 years of age) kids jump off the bridge itself. That is just crazy to me!