Who's afraid of warts?

These are some fun pictures our cute babysitter and her mom took of the kids out at their house. The kids always have a blast out there as well as having a new experience with nature. Mady found a horny toad near the house and maybe even some new warts to go along with it. Mom can't compete with the Bentley Bunch, from Pony rides, to kittens and rats, I'm sure our house seems pretty dull! I think Cade is torn though, he thinks mom is the coolest even if I don't have fun stuff at the house. He even enjoys me going to the bathroom, walking on the treadmill and anything else that I might be doing that is boring. Cheer up Cade, one of these days you'll probably be excited when you don't see Mom as much!

Let Summer Begin

Mady and Cade started swim lessons and soon they were over. We had 8 days of swimming which was a total blast. The kids loved every second of it. If you were to ask Mady about them, she'd say, "I never even took any breaks, like all the other kids." Which is spoken in true Darais fashion. We all know that Darais' get their money's worth. Just remember the family trips to Golden Corral. If your pockets weren't stuffed with Jelly Beans while leaving, something was wrong! Ha Ha! Well, maybe it's true for the Darais men. Cade was pleasant most of the days. He did have a few moments. His favorite part of the class was jumping off of the edge to mom or dad. My arms were burning by the end of the lessons from catching him and putting him back up on the edge. He's no lightweight, just look at the pictures of the "Silverback Gorilla" as we like to call him. If you ask Cade about swimming this is what he'll tell you, "I like hot wimen, and I like big wimen." Let me translate for you he likes the Hot Swimming (the hot tub) and the big swimming pool. All his teacher's got a kick out of his comment that he liked hot, big women! We had so much fun swimming over the two weeks we ended up buying a season pass. Too bad we have to drive 20 minutes there and back everyday. It eats up the gas!

Lizards, and Tink, and Snakes, Oh MY!

Well we had a very emotional day. We were signing a contract on our house when Papa called and told us that Tinkerbell was bitten by a rattlesnake. Luckily we weren't home, because the snake had made itself comfortable on the front patio. Tink loves chasing lizards and any type of wildlife. She thinks she is a great hunter, but the snake got the best of her. Gene rushed her to the vet and she was in intensive care for about 36 hours. Pretty sad considering how small she is. She had to have I.V.'s and anti-venom running throughout her veins. I told Brice that her veins better be pumping with gold after we walked out of the vet's office $1200.00 poorer! Like they said, if Mady wasn't involved poor Tink probably wouldn't have survived. After, I went and showed the kids the snake. They enjoyed hitting it with sticks. Tink hasn't learned her lesson though. Every chance she gets she is off in the wild looking for another great adventure.

Catch That Train!

Well we were really excited for our train ride, just not prepared! Last year the train ride was about 4 1/2 hours. We missed the short train ride by a couple of days and once we boarded we found out that it would be an all day train ride to Silvert0n. We boarded at 9:00a.m. and returned to Durango at 5:30p.m. Needless to say the kids were worn ragged! It was still a lot of fun, just a lot of work and a lot of rocking back and forth (very nauseating)! We did stop and have lunch halfway in Silverton which was great. Brice packed the lunch while I was at my dentist's appointment the night before. Rule of thumb: Moms pack better lunches than Dads! Anyways I had to give Brice a hard time, especially after having him calling me "Greta" (from Fox News) all night after being numbed up for my root canal. I know I looked and talked pretty funny, but the lunch he packed was even funnier.

Cloned Replicas of Mom & Dad

The kids wore themselves out at the hotel swimming and playing outside. They (or Cade I should say) finally decided to crash together in bed after some forceful convincing from dad. Mady is a clone of her mother sleeping peacefully and Cade just couldn't quite get comfortable. I think Sissy had a rough night though, when I checked on them in the morning, Cade had his feet on the top of her head.

Landmark Day

I guess you could say today is a landmark day, considering the fact that I am actually going to post a message. I'm excited to get going on our family blog and would love help and/or inspiration to continue!! Our family is taking a small vacation up to Durango and Silverton, CO to ride the historic Steam Railroad (right after my root canal). I can't wait to take some fun family pictures and start to record our family activities. Who knows maybe you'll see a chipmunk (or me, resembling one) for our fun train ride. Wish me luck!?!