A few weeks ago, we had a beecroft family reunion in California. Here are some pictures of it plus a link to all the photos that I took.

I believe I heard Gage yell for his Mommy on this ride. Couldn’t quite make it out though over the shrilly girl scream.

Here is the link to all the photos:

The kids and I had so much fun at the Heritage Park village we didn’t even have enough time to see everything. It was like going back into pioneer time all the employees were dressed in pioneer clothes. The kids got to see what some children’s chores were back then. They each took a turn ironing, washing clothes, hanging out to dry and beating a rug. That big house the kids are in front of was one of Brigham Young’s homes. They had an old icecream parlor we ate at. We learned a lot of neat history and a train took us around the village which made getting around the little town much faster. they had crops and animals and horses to ride. The kids went into an original school house sat at the old desks and had a teacher and played school, It was a really cool place.

Ummm, my sincerest apologies to those I lied to about posting quickly on our latest canoe trip to Silver Lake Flat. It will never happen again.

So last weekend, we invited a bunch of friends to go up to the lake with us and hang out for the day. We couldn’t have picked a better day to go.

Rather than bore you with a bunch of words, I will post the pictures for the day and then comment on them.

I headed up early in the morning with Tony Benjamin and his son so that we could get the spot we wanted. Normally we load the canoe on the Durango but this time I figured out a way to load it on the Jeep so that we could have it until the girls came up. Doesn’t it look natural up there?

See the Jeep is just an all around great vehicle. Trees not spaced apart just right for the hammock? No problem! Just use your jeep!

Yes Joslin, we are.

Action shot.

Another action shot.

The family out in the boat. Oh wait. Did we forget someone?

Silver Lake Flat is not that big but it sure is beautiful! We took a jeep ride up the mountain and had some spectacular views. It was quite the ride too.

Besides having our canoe, the Blakes brought up a little sailboat. I would like to say it was fun but I was too chicken to get in.

Here is Joslin doin’ some ‘fishing’. Did anyone bring hand sanitizer?

Alas, all good things must come to an end. A storm started to come in as we were getting ready to leave. It chased us out of there real good. It was a great day though and I think everyone had a good time.

Welcome to the family Madden Rae!

As we ramp up yet again for all the political campaigns for various offices locally and nationally, it seems that more and more people are becoming politically and socially motivated to affect change. Hopeful presidential nominees are campaigning up and down this great nation of ours kissin’ babies and shakin hands. It’s admirable that anyone would subject themselves to such public scrutiny. Most don’t have the intestinal fortitude for public service in this day and age.

So, it’s with great humility that I throw my hat into the ring. Yes, I am running for a public office. I don’t have the fancy tour bus or billion dollar campaign donation generation machine but I do have one thing. My family. They will support me and verify that I am totally qualified for office.

What office you might ask? President of the United States of America?

HECK NO!

Congressman?

HECK NO!

Something in state / local government?

HECK NO!

Without further adieu, I announce my candidacy for Father of the Year. This prestigious office and designation only goes to the best fathers. I feel like I fit in that category. To help influence the vote this year, I submit exhibit A for your review:

“I’m sorry for being a bad kid Love Noah”

Last night, I got mad at Noah because he got out of bed for the umpteenth time and I lost it. I said a few words, he said a few words and we both stormed off in different directions. Unbeknownst to me, he left the house with his bike and a sleeping bag. He was ‘running away’. Of course he didn’t get far, I think he made it to the other side of the neighbors fence and laid out his sleeping bag. He was determined to stay there until he realized no one really knew he was gone and finally packed up and snuck back into the house.

I was completely unaware and this morning I saw the above sticky note on our bedroom door. I was heartbroken. For some reason, I was blessed with a tender hearted kid who tries to always do the right thing and when he strays just a bit, I get upset with him.

Father of Year candidate? I’ll let you decide…

I got word late last night that my Grandpa Curtis peacefully passed away. Rather than fill this post with words that couldn’t even begin to describe how much I will miss him, I decided to post what pictures I have of him.

He ‘hated’ those dogs of his

And last but not least my favorites:

For the past few years and without fail, I have become seriously ill each Mother’s Day. And by ill, I mean a really severe man-flu/cold that prevented me from doing my Mother’s Day duties. Last year, Juli noticed that I was sick each Mother’s Day and so this year I decided to cool it.

No seriously, I had been sick in the past and did my best but Juli never really got her due Mother’s Day break from responsibilities. This year was going to be different!

We started the weekend by going on a date to the movies. (Despite what I write next, you must know that Juli did in fact pick the movie.) We saw the movie Thor. It was awesome. Very clean and a good message.

Saturday morning, I took the kids to the store and told them they could get Mom anything they wanted. Hailey picked out a little flower shaped pillow. I think she wanted it because the cart was hurting her head when she laid down.

Noah got her a snow cone maker with grape and cherry syrup. He also got her a bag of kit kats because that is her favorite candy. Smart kid.

Jos got her some popsicle makers that you put liquid in and freeze.

As you can see, we have some really unselfish kids. Always thinking of mom.

Sunday morning, I woke up early, go the kids ready and we got Juli her ‘presents’. I then worked by myself to get the kids ready for church. So what if we were 15 minutes late.

After church, I made lunch for the kids and whipped up some delicious tuna sandwiches with Kalamata olives, roasted peppers, spicy ranch dressing, and red onion served on ciabatta bread with lettuce and cheese. After lunch, we put the kids down for naps and Juli actually got a nap longer than 5 minutes.

For dinner I cleaned up the grill and we BBQ’d some chicken, Italian sausage with zucchini and squash, and some roasted corn on the cob. It was delicious if I may say so.

All in all it was a great day.

Why am I writing this then a day late? Well, I didn’t want to vomit….

This was Joslin’s statement when asked about her nightmare last night! Funny now, not so funny when it happens to you…

Just Sayin’

In the distant future, when I decide what I want to be when I grow up, I will have a pretty good idea of what I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be a plumber, a carpet/tile/wood floor installer, a playground builder, a drywall person, an HVAC person, an electrician, a landscaper, a gardener, a roofer, a window installer, a carpenter (sorry Jesus!) or a dentist. How do I know this you might ask? Well, I know it because I have taken on every single one of these rolls in the past 2+ years we have lived in a fixer upper (with exception of Dentist. I don’t have to touch people’s bleeding gums to know I don’t want to do that). My apologies if you are currently employed in one of these professions. Honest work is noble work no matter what you do. And don’t get me wrong, we have been blessed with this house and the experiences we have had but if I am going to build a house, then it better be brand new.

Today I added one more thing to the list of occupations that I will not be taking on when I grow up. Whole House Humidifier Installer Guy. Not going to happen. I took out the broken humidifier today and worked to replace it with a new system. What a mess!

(The old system half way torn out)

I mean who ever came up with the idea of combining HVAC, plumbing, and electrical into one project should be shot! After ’bout 6 hours of jerry-rigging the system with baling wire, duck-tape and cardboard, I am proud to say we have humidity in our house again.

All I know is, Juli had better pipe down on the whole hair split ends thing!

Life is super busy right now. We have a lot of irons in the fire so to speak and we keep adding more now that spring and soon summer is upon us. The kids have been loving the outdoors lately. Today, I caught them outside digging up my weeds. Now if they would do the whole back yard!

One of the projects we have going is Juli and I have come up with several ideas for iPhone/iPad applications that will help parents with autistic kids. The first one we are attempting is called Picture Me Calm.

In the office we have a picture schedule board that we load up with pictures of tasks for the kids to do. For Hailey it is a great way to communicate what we want her to do. She has a hard time processing auditory commands especially when you string 2 or more together. The picture board allows her to see a task, do it and then move onto the next one. We got to talking and thought, this would make a great iPad app. Then you could take it with you wherever you went. It could be used for everything from going to the dentist office to going to church to cleaning up the house.

The app will have a standard library of picture activities (brushing teeth, making a bed, going to school) that can be arranged and saved. The idea is to select a schedule and hand the device to the child (or help them with it if needed) and let them go to work. The nice thing about it is that it not only works for Hailey but for Noah and Joslin too.

I am racing to design the app and will have to find someone to program it. I could do the programming but it would take me 3x as long. I would rather get it out for Hailey’s sake and to see if we can make some extra income off of it. There aren’t hardly any apps out that do this and the ones that do are either in Japanese or horribly designed and overpriced.

Wish us luck!

In other news, I was going through my image library and remembered this image from when Noah and I went down to Arizona. One of the days, Bommy took us to the zoo and paid for Noah and Delly to ride a camel. Both of them got right up there and had the time of their life. They were real camel jockeys.