Ikea Light & Water Play

 When we moved into this house a couple months ago, we converted the single car garage into a family room which includes a library, game room, dining room, and media center :)  We LOVE this room, and use it more than anywhere else for our family space.  The main living & dining room space has been converted to daycare space.  The problem we had was that there wasn't enough light.  I wanted to get a hanging light to go over the center of the table.

 I've always loved the shape of this Ikea light.  When I looked it up on Amazon, I was pleasantly surprised by the price - I paid around $30 for it :)

It came in a very small box and I had to completely assemble it, but it was very easy to do.  No we can see what we're eating :)

 We have an irrigation ditch running in the back of our yard which we use to water our lawn.  Our boys have figured out it's a fun place to play.

The four year old also decided it was a fun thing to throw dirt on the head of his soggy almost-2-year-old brother.

I think this picture says all you need to know about how little brother felt about that.  ;)

Father's Day Fun

  

 It's been a good Father's Day.  It started a little slow after my husband went to work at 9 am Saturday and didn't get home until 6 am today.  So he started the day with a four-hour nap.  Then he got up and the boys and I took him to lunch.  We ate at a great local cafe with outdoor seating.

 The food was excellent and it was nice and relaxing.  We haven't seen a lot of him since he started his new job, so this was a real treat.

 After lunch we went shopping to get something for his dad for Father's Day.  The Cowboy Shop has all sorts of fun western stuff, and we found a hat that came close to fitting our youngest.  It was too small, but he had fun with it.

 Most of my pictures turned out blurry because I only had my phone and he was moving too much. :)

 The most fun came when we took him over to the three-way mirror. :) There was lots of hand holding...

 Visiting these new children :)

Whispered conversation...

Checkin' out the cute cowboy...

Finger pointing...

High fives...

 Hugs :)

And kisses :)

 Then he  rode the horse with his brother.  This is a genuine antique horse which operates on quarters.

 Then we went to Papa and Bugga's to take Papa his gift.  The first thing the four year old said was, "Bugga, get the Rhino out!"  So she took them for a ride.

 As soon as the ride was over, he asked her for bug juice.  He's got this Bugga thing figured out. ;)

 The one year old found a fun four wheeler toy to drive around.

And ride on...

 And I think Papa had a nice Father's Day too :)

After we came home this afternoon, my husband took another nap, then we grilled some steaks, and I made twice baked potatoes to go with it.  It was a nice quiet evening.  Well, as quiet as an evening can be with three young boys :)  This is the first Father's Day in forever that my husband and his dad didn't attend the local Father's Day Fishing Tournament.  But with not getting any rest he just wasn't up to taking the boat out.  It was kind of nice to have him around for the day for a change ... though we never complain about having fish for dinner ;)

Hello Neighbor

We had a very tall neighbor over last night.  He had dinner at the neighbor's across the street.

He prefers leafy greens ;)

This moose was right across the street.  In the first picture you can see part of our boat motor, which is parked in front of our house.  He's really tall.  I'd guess the neighbor's fence is close to 6 feet tall, and this moose is a young one.  We live near a stream surrounded by woods, and we have our own deer herd and three moose.  This is the first time since we've moved in that we've seen them so close ... though I suspect we had them in our front yard the other night when all the buds from my oriental poppies mysteriously disappeared.  I was told that the deer will leave them alone.  Didn't think to ask at the nursery about the moose lol.  We had evidence of them in the back yard before we moved in, but the fencing we did should have cured that problem... though the deer have no trouble making their way in.

Boulder Big Draw Archery Competition

 This was a fun day.  Our nine year old competed in a local archery competition.  This is a huge competition - sponsored by Shell.  It's a memorial tournament hosted by the Fremont Butte Ranch ... which I have to say is an incredibly beautiful ranch.

 They rotated through 40 different stations, shooting 3-D targets and then hunting for the arrows that missed :)

He did fairly well - a score of 161 (out of 400, which doesn't sound all that great, but is pretty good given this is his first year to use a bow).

He had one perfect shot - on a skunk.  Seems to be the best thing to have a perfect shot on if you ask me lol.  No fooling around there.  :)

They also had a catered barbecue feast.  Brisket, ribs and chicken smoked to perfection, creamed corn - which was more like corn in a sour cream or cream cheese sauce, baked beans and coleslaw.

They had cookies and caramel brownies, and they were making snow cones for the kids :)  All this for a free-will donation.  The entry fee for the archery shoot was $10, and he got a t-shirt.

Of course our youngest was allergic to everything on the plate above.  I checked the syrup bottles for the snow cones but corn syrup is the first ingredient on all of them, so that was out too.  Then it occurred to me to get him just the ice and pour a little of our powerade on it so he could have some "dessert" too :)  It was a great hit!

The 3-D targets were scattered all along the ranch, so you had to hike around to each station to work your way through the course.  That was nice.  It made it so you could shoot at your own pace and not have to wait for a bunch of people to shoot ahead of you.

This is the main ranch house.  There are other cabins around the property for guests.

And this fenced one appears to be for the dogs.  They had at least 5-6 cute little dogs in this enclosure. The little boys especially liked those.

 It was fun just to wander around and enjoy being outdoors.

This is the view down from the house.  The lunch was served in and around the brown garage on the left.  They had several other fun things too - like pop-up 3D targets, an inflated air rifle range, and the opportunity to throw spears at targets including a huge wooly mammoth that I somehow failed to get a picture of.

 They have this amazing elk sculpture on top of the butte next to their house.

 Here are some of the kids getting ready to throw their spears.  My nine year old is at the far end, waiting for a turn.  He said it is much more difficult than it looks. :)

See the elk?  These were two of the targets they had to shoot.  They shot these from on the bridge over the river that runs through the ranch.

 I'm exhausted now, but it was a fun day.  And I didn't even stay out there all day.  I left him to do his shooting because it wasn't practical to drag the other two boys along and keep them out of the pond, river, or line of fire of other shooters.  Next year I'm going to plan on staying the whole time.  They had several drawings, and the nine year old won two Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation hats that are just alike.  Since his dad had to work today and hasn't seen them, he wrapped one and will give it to him for Father's Day tomorrow :)