Last night was the 5th grade Western Musical. It was all about the settling of the west, and the different ways that people traveled to get there. It was a great performance, and we were very proud of Aiden. Afterwards he confessed that he wasn't feeling very well. He was a trooper doing his part regardless of how he was feeling.
Aiden helped design and draw the scenery. Unfortunately, we weren't seated in the best place to take a picture of the backdrop.

Steven's Wedding

Lance's brother Steven was married in the Washington DC Temple on May 17th. My mother was kind enough to come and stay with the kids so that we could be there for the wedding. It was so fun to meet Lucy, his bride, and to spend time with family. The ceremony and reception were simple, sweet, and perfect.
Steve and Lucy seem perfectly matched for each other. Unfortunately, I didn't get the camera out until the end of the reception, but I did get a couple of decent photos.

Daisy

We have added a new member to our family. We've been planning this for some time now, and have been watching for just the right dog for us to come through the Austin Boxer Rescue. On Saturday we met "Zee". She met all of our qualifications, give or take a few, so she came home with us. The kids are excited, and the cats are not impressed. They feel like prisoners in their own home. Neither one has been downstairs for two days. They finally got brave enough to go down and investigate after the dog was put in her crate for the night. It didn't take long for them to hightail it back upstairs.

She's only about 9 months old, and perfectly heathy other than the unfortunate fact that she has heartworms. She begins treatment for that in a couple of days, and should be completely cured in no time.
The person that we got her from has four dogs herself, and came home one day to find this little dog tied to her fence. Apparently someone knew that she was a dog lover, and left her where they thought that she might be safe. She made contact with Austin Boxer Rescue, and agreed to take care of her until a home was found. They called her Zee, but we've decided that Daisy should be her name. She has responded well to the extra love and attention that she's been getting here. She's been perfectly well behaved other than chewing up a pen, and several potty accidents. We didnt' want a puppy for that very reason, but it looks like we got one anyway. We're hopeful that she'll improve in that area quickly.

Turtle

This time it wasn't the kids, it was the mom that brought home the baby animal/reptile. We had box turtles in our yard when we lived in West Texas, and we loved them, so when I saw this cute little baby while out jogging, I just couldn't resist. I brought him home only to discover, after doing a bit of research, that he's a red eared slider. (We really don't know if it's a he or a she, but we generally refer to it as a boy.) This means that he's an aquatic turtle, and needs to be in the water half the time.


A friend let us borrow their aquarium, so we figured that we'd keep him for a month and watch him grow. Then, we'll release him into a nearby pond. He sure is cute, but I really don't think that he wants to spend his life in an aquarium in some one's home. Besides that, I'm already tired of making everyone wash their hands really well after handling him.
We went to the pet store and bought some turtle food for him. He seems to really like it. We don't have a filter on the tank, so it's necessary to wash it out every day.


He really likes to hide under his rock most of the day.As expected, he's a pretty good swimmer.

Too Bad

As expected, the baby bird died in the night. We managed to keep him alive for two days, but either he really didn't like cat food, or perhaps he just couldn't survive without his mom. The kids seemed okay with it, and I'm sure that the experience didn't deter them from bringing home another needy orphan.

Baby Bird

I'm always complaining that my kids don't play outside as much as I'd like them to (my fault, I know, I should kick them out and lock the doors). Maybe it's a good thing, because when they do play outside, they bring homes things such as this recently hatched baby bird. They really wanted to try feeding it, so we soaked a piece of dry cat food in some water, and fed it with a dropper. At one point I though we had killed it for sure. It's throat was swollen to the size of a small grape with the food we had given it. Within an hour it had managed to swallow it, and was asking for more.
Amazingly enough, it lived through the night. I can't stand to let it starve to death, and I'm not going to intentionally kill it, so what can I do besides keep feeding it?

It's really quite an ugly little critter. One of those, "it's so ugly it's cute" things.
It doesn't have it's eyes open yet, and is mostly bald. I'm guessing that it's one of those little brown birds that are everywhere around here.
The cry for food!

Flight Simulators

We had such a great Spring Break! We spent a long weekend with Lance's brothers Wade and Matt, and their families. The kids never lacked for entertainment. On Friday morning we went to the Air Force Base in San Antonio where we were privledged enough to spend an hour on the flight training simulators. We each took a turn leaning the basics of flying, and in most cases crashing. Some were more skilled than others. Our camera battery died shortly after taking this picture of Sophie.
Wade had a flight suit made for Rachel when she was little. Josh wore it the whole time we were together. Perhaps we have another furture pilot in the family.