Summer School

I decided that we would focus on music this summer. Cody will do guitar lessons and Travis will go back to the piano. They will both show Meleah how to do both and by putting her desire off a little, hopefully that will increase her willingness in the future.
Cody wanted to continue in both but unfortunately money doesn't grow well here, only weeds and elm trees. He has had two lessons so far and is just very thrilled. He has always loved to fiddle around with anything so I am sure he will continue to do well. He is helping out with our little kids choir(I am not sure that you could call it that. We have a lot of shyness to overcome.) We are practicing a hymn for Reunion with all the kids, after about 10 minutes of practicing he had the right hand figured out enough to help us with the song. He did have the realization, "If I play the piano, I don't have to sing." I am not sure that is a good thing but we shall see.
Travis started his piano lessons yesterday. I had called numerous teachers and agreed to a few but for some reason didn't feel right about either one and cancelled on them. A homeschool mom I met told me that her mom does lessons but she may not have room for more students. I called and left a message. I did pray through this process because I didn't know any of these people and I want the kids to want to continue. Well, this dear lady called me back.  She is wonderful, she said that her whole goal is to have the students enjoy piano. She just seemed an answer to pray and that it felt right.
We pulled up to the church, they live next door to their church and she does lessons at the church, Travis tells me he is NOT GOING IN! (Remember track practice, this is his first response to everything. Hopefully, this is something we can overcome as he gets older.) I told him we are going to just try it out and see how he likes it. She describes herself as a "nut". Which, for Travis who likes anything that makes him giggle, is perfect. She seems to have a pleasant teaching style. He has forgotten a bunch since last year but he should pick it up quickly.
I plan to have him "teach" Meleah and I so that she can pick up a few things, myself as well, plus I am hoping that it will be "his" thing.
I laugh when people ask if we are done with school because the answer is always, "Yes and no."

Young Eagle Flight

The boys had an opportunity to fly for free through a program designed to get kids flying. All over the nation they have had over a million kids fly with the program. One of the volunteers told me they have a great safety record, only one crash that killed about three people. I am sure that was to comfort me but I didn't find it so while my boys were up in the air.

Travis has always loved airplanes. He had the best time. He got off and told me he wants to be a pilot. They flew about 20-30 minutes. They flew over our house and were able to see all kinds of things.

Cody flew as well but was kind in letting the other kid sit in front. Next time he would like to sit in the front seat. They will offer it again in October so we will try it out again.

Meleah wasn't old enough. But this guy reminded all of the kids of their Papa. He teased them and chatted with each of them. I asked him if he could tell us some corny jokes. The funny thing is that they owned 10 acres in Bemidji, MN. He has sisters in Park Rapids, close to my parents. Now they live near Grand Junction. Meleah wanted to have his picture, so we went and asked him and he loved it.

That was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

Tree Fort

 Cody had plans for modifying his original tree fort. For his birthday they spent the day in a tree cutting, screwing and having a great time.

He is well pleased with the progress.

It wore out Lady.

Here are the monkeys in the tree.

It couldn't have been a better spot.

Cody told me the other night that his next project will be a work bench. He has plans, material list, and cutting directions as well as estimated cost. He said, "Mom, we could count it as school, for wood shop or something." As I was asking him about it, his reasoning was that he has built Legos from the instructions for years. It is just the same thing.

Our Little Lady

We are enjoying her. She follows the kids around really well, I think that is the breed. She doesn't go running off. She doesn't like being away from us though. We rigged up a temporary livestock fence, it had smaller openings on the bottom but they got larger as you go up the fence. She knows she just has to climb and she can fit out of the bigger holes. So much for the temporary fence, it was really temporary.

She loves Travis, probably because he does the most running and that is how he loves to play with her. He can't stand to hear her whine. I tried out the leash with her, she was pulling against it and whining. It reminded of Brian McIndoo saying that he took his dogs for a "drag", he had to drag them. Travis was sure that I was hurting her.

Notice the black eye, not much of a lady yet but hopefully she will grow into her name.