The Start of Summer Swimming

The kids were SO excited for our first trip to a swimming pool a couple of weeks ago. (And it's been the only time we've been so far, although the kids start swim lessons on Monday.) Some friends invited us to go to the indoor pool at West Texas A&M University down in Canyon. I didn't even know they had a pool down there that the community could use, and it was a great one!

It had a lazy river (with a whirlpool "off-shoot"), a spiral slide, a kiddie pool with fun sprinklers and buckets and a larger pool for those swimming laps (which, of course, we didn't).

I didn't have my camera with me, but my friend sent me copies of some of her pictures, and my sister-in-law Jana let me use her camera to take a few shots too. (This is Jana with her two kids -- we are excited to have them staying here for the summer!)

Here are McKay and Hayley coming out of the whirlpool:

Hannah in her new swimming suit and goggles (she thinks she can't swim if she doesn't have goggles).

Courtney trying out the slide!

It was a fun afternoon and we were all worn out when we got home!

Critters

Just a few recent shots of some of the critters around here -- notice a common denominator in most of them?

This is a bird's nest the girls found in the unfinished addition to our house (the windows were open and not boarded for a while).

Yes, our fearless Courtney. And yes, since the recent incident with our dog and a snake, we have had several talks about chasing and picking up critters without knowing what they are first.

Goodbye

We had a sad morning today as we had to say goodbye to our dog, Molly. Molly apparently encountered a snake (probably a rattlesnake) on Friday evening and got bit on her nose. We weren't sure what had happened at first, but her face/snout started swelling and just kept getting worse through the weekend. This morning I took her to the vet and we faced a difficult decision. The vet said treating her would be quite expensive and only gave her a 50% chance of pulling through. So we decided to have the vet put her to sleep.

I had the girls with me at the vet's office (Brian and McKay spent the day at Cub Scout day camp) and we all cried as I explained to them what was happening. Hannah was especially sad and worried about who would take care of Molly in heaven until one of us made it there.

We only had Molly for a short 9 months and although she wasn't necessarily a well-trained dog, she was a good dog and we loved her. Molly was our first dog and came to us through a need of her previous owner, but she fit our family well. She enjoyed being outside and chasing the rabbits and the trying to get the turtles from the girls.

She loved belly rubs from the girls and jumping up for treats (and the kids were always happy to give her more than her share!)

We will miss you Molly.

It's Up!

The windmill tower has officially been lifted!

I actually missed seeing it happen as I was at Relief Society Enrichment night at the time. I hope to get it on video the next time it's lowered/raised.

Those are some pretty heavy-duty bolts at the base:

And 75 feet is a long way up!

We were able to spot the tower from quite a ways away today as we were driving back home. Now it just needs a wind turbine attached to the top of it (easy for me to say!).

Our brother-in-law Brandon took some pictures yesterday evening (he was here for the excitement) and I thought I'd share a couple of his too:

Like all things, it's turned into a much bigger, more time-consuming project than we ever anticipated. But hopefully it will be worth all the effort!

Clap Your Hands

Courtney and Hayley have been having a lot of fun playing together since school got out. (Most of the time, that is -- they still have their "my-sister-is-really-annoying-me" moments!)

The other day I heard them singing in the bedroom. I went in to find that Courtney had taught Hayley this simple "BINGO" hand clap game.

Now I know that hand games can get a lot more complicated than this, but Hayley was so proud of herself for learning it. Cute girls!

One Year

This past weekend marked our first anniversary of living here in Amarillo. Has it really been a whole year? (You can read our first blog post from Amarillo here.)

It's been a year full of changes for our family, but it's been a great year. We miss our friends in The Woodlands but one of the great things about moving is that you get to make lots of new friends! We love the open space we have here and the views of the Texas prairie and the freedom to work on projects like huge windmills.

Here's a little photo month-by-month recap of our first year. (Some months were hard to pick -- so many choices!)

June 08:

July 08:

August 08:

September 08:

October 08:

November 08:

December 08:

January 09:

February 09:

March 09:

April 09:

May 09:

Here's to another great year!

Lifting the Tower

Yesterday evening Brian and his dad were finally ready to test lifting the windmill tower. They put a lot of thinking, engineering, and especially time into this project (and it's not finished yet!).

A couple of days ago they first had to lift the tower up and attach it at the pivot point, then get all the hydraulics hooked up. They rented an extending fork lift to get it into place.

They were putting the finishing touches up before the test when the dark storm clouds started to move in (and our weather radio starting to go off with severe thunderstorm warnings).

Brian's sister Jana and her family are here for the summer, plus his other sister Julie has also been here for the weekend. We made a tailgate party out of it!

Here our two little blondies -- Hayley with her cutie-pie cousin Olivia (who will be turning 2 in a couple of weeks).

Part of lifting the tower involves first raising / sliding the top section of the base where the pivot point is. This allows the base to be lifted over the bolts at the bottom and then lowered back down. They used two jacks at the bottom to slide it up -- you can see how far it slid by the unpainted portion.

On the first attempt to lift it, they only went up a couple of feet so they could reposition the blocks and finish jacking it up all the way.

Then, they tried again. This time they got it up quite a ways further before they realized one of the hyrdraulic hoses was too short and so they had to stop and lower it back down.

Here is a video clip of the lifting in action!

There is still work to do (and wind turbine isn't even attached yet), but we are making progress. Exciting times!

Moth Invasion

People tell us it's what happens in Amarillo this time of year -- the moth invasion. We have been inundated with these ugly little moths flying all around our windows and lights (and later lying dead all over the house). Yuck. At least they're not as bad as the little flying ants we had last summer (and I really hope those don't come back this year).

We've wondered if we have a higher-than-normal occurrence of moths because of our upstairs addition having open windows for quite a while. (We did finally get windows put in -- hooray!) And the moths seems to be especially prevelant in the upstairs, unfinished area.

Brian went up there the other night and found them just swarming around an attic light that had been left on. He sprayed a bunch of bug spray in there and I took a picture the next day:

The kids took some friends upstairs to show them the place and they got sidetracked by all the moths in the windows.

Here is Hayley trying to catch one:

Got it!

Personally, I prefer to swat and smush them rather than catch them. My girls, however, have no qualms snatching them up in their little fists. And Brian and I got so desperate one evening we pulled out the vacuum cleaner and tried sucking them up out of the air from around the lights and windows. Needless to say, this proved a more difficult task than you might imagine (but we did get quite a few!).

I'm noticing tonight that they seem a little less prevelant (although I can see about 6 dead ones on the floor from where I sit and I vacuumed this morning). So I'm hoping that this little moth "phase" is about over with!