NFR Exceptional Rodeo 2010

I was privileged to be able to take my class to the NFR Exceptional Rodeo today. This is a chance for some of the special education population to attend an event that allows them to try the different activities the rodeo performers do during the NFR (at a much smaller scale of course) as well as meet some of the professionals. Each student got a cowboy/cowgirl hat, t-shirt, roping rope (if they asked for one and you know Justin wouldn't pass that opportunity up!!), and a trophy. Ginny and Justin were asked if they wanted to go along as "typical peers" and experience the same things. Everyone had a great time and the kids got pictures with some of the professional rodeo performers. Here are a few pictures of our day...

Ginny riding on a horse in the Thomas and Mack Arena.

Ginny practicing her roping skills with one of the professional ropers.

Justin taking his turn riding the horse.

Justin getting his picture taken with Miss Rodeo America 2010.

I'm trying to edit some of the pictures with the professional rodeo performers so I can post those without my students faces...privacy issues and all!

Critters in Logandale

There are many critters out here and I'm not getting used to them. Here are some of the ones we've encountered around our house:


This was a beetle crawling on the porch. He was found a few days later dead so we didn't have to dispose of this one...he died on his own.


I found this beauty outside in our garage...luckily it wasn't inside the house!! I wouldn't have gone back in the house! I'm still not sure what kind of spider that was but I'm glad it is no more!!!!


Just another angle of the same spider...it looks bigger in this shot!


This guy was found by Justin on Ginny's bedroom floor!! She almost stepped on it and Justin happened to see it and tell her not to step there. At first I thought it was dead but then when I tried to scoop him up he moved...not very fast so I knew he was almost dead but he still moved, which freaked me out! Jeff wasn't home either so we were all sitting up high on my bed until he got home!


I finally got him into a plastic cup where he lived in my freezer for a couple of months (I wanted to make sure he was dead before we discarded his body). I finally threw him away a few weeks ago.

Sleeping Like A Baby!!

Oh how funny it is to walk into Justin's room and find him in ANOTHER weird position when he sleeps! Here are just some of the many positions I find him in...


He got this Indiana Jones hat for his birthday and he had to try it out to sleep in...just like Indy does!! =)


Stink-bug sleeping position...I've never thought this was comfortable but apparently it was to him.


He wanted to read so he could fall asleep...well it worked! He is asleep holding his book up to his face.


He was just resting his eyes...;-)


Not sure what is around his head...


Ginny's new bed is much more appealing to Justin than his own bed...I find him asleep here almost every night!

4th of July Celebrations

This year was our first year in Logandale for the 4th of July festivities. Up here they have an all day celebration, starting with breakfast provided for the entire town, a candy drop for the kids, water fun with firetrucks, dinner and fireworks at the end of the day. We partook in a few of the festivities Saturday the 3rd of July and then celebrated the 4th of July at some friends house with food, fireworks, and pool fun! Here are some pictures displaying our great weekend:



This is Justin's friend Fox double fisting the watermelon and dripping it all down the front of him. =)



This is a full screen shot of the firetrucks shooting the water on all of the kids, and the adults that were brave enough!



You can see Ginny in the pink shirt, Cannon in the American Flag shorts, and Justin walking in the background. They had so much fun in the water.



The boys after getting soaked from the firetrucks.



Ginny and a couple of her friends after getting all wet.



This is in the driveway of our friends house with all of us watching the fireworks. We had a lot of fun!



Yes...that's a toad in the swimming pool. They come out at night and swim in our friends pool. The kids LOVED playing with them.



This is Justin's friend Fox who caught FIVE toads. I'm surprised these little guys survived but they all hopped away after he let them down...or dropped them. All the toads that the kids were playing with were dropped so many times! =)



Justin had to put them on his head like his friend was doing but they had so much fun with the toads!



Justin was following this toad all over the pool. Justin's friend was showing one of the adults a toad and it jumped out into the person's lap so all night I was cowering away from the kids with the toads! Don't ask me why, I just did not want to touch them.

Pool Fiasco

We love getting our above ground inflatable pool every summer! We've never had problems with them...until this year! The inflatable ring at the top helps hold the water inside the pool. Our pool's inflatable ring started to deflate each day and we didn't realize this until the kids were getting in it one day and they touched the inflatable ring. Once they touched the ring, the water started gushing over the side! We had to quickly inflate the ring to avoid a flood!

BUT...we couldn't avoid the flood totally! We called the store we bought it at to make sure they would return it before we emptied it. Once we got the "okay" we decided to empty the pool and take it back to the store for an exchange/refund.

The following short video is the start of the "flood". This is Jeff starting to empty the pool:



The following pictures are just shots of the water flowing through out backyard! The last picture is looking out one of the rooms in the house at the "river" of water flowing to the side of the yard.







The following video is just an overview of the "flood".



Luckily the flood only when throughout the backyard and not into the house! =)

Logandale, NV

SO...we made the move to Logandale and so far we love it. Here are some pictures of our house...



Ginny's pink/purple room...she loves the color!




Justin's "army" themed room and his closet. Almost all of the rooms have built in shelves in the closets...LOVE THAT!



Kid's bathroom...the only rooms without colored paint are the bathrooms.




The front room...to the right of the book shelves is the short hallway to the kids rooms and bathroom; to the left of the book shelves is our room; through the arch is the rest of the house.



Our bedroom...our bed is so big there's very little room to walk around it. =)




Our bathroom.




After walking through the arch in the front room, turning to the right is the "dining room" and to the left is the kitchen.



This is the other side of the kitchen...notice the dark maroon paint. The ceiling is a pink and the pink doors to the right of this picture is the laundry closet. What you can't see is the dishwasher...oh wait, THERE ISN'T ONE!!!! That's right, they didn't install a dishwasher when they built this house and we didn't realize there wasn't one until the week we were moving in! The owner said that she doesn't think they clean very well so she didn't want to spend the money on one to install in the house...OKAY?!?!





This is the living room with the french doors going to the backyard. I love the saying on the wall...does anyone know where I can get more of these?




People are saying this is our "dungeon" room. I think they had a pool table in this room. The last picture is in the kitchen looking through the "window" to the "dungeon" room. As you can see we are still unpacking!



This is the "play" room or I like to call it the "blue" room. (I love that each room has their own color!) This is where our playstation, Wii, board games, and card games are.



This is the office, or the "yellow" room. AGAIN...we are still unpacking and this is gonna be the last room I attempt. =)



The storage/pantry room. I LOVE this room! Look at all those shelves to fill up...=)







This is our backyard...the first picture is looking to the right and each picture after that is spanning across our backyard to the left. The last picture is the side of our house where we can store our 5th wheel...someday!! =)

We are not yet unpacked all the way but it's starting to feel like a home. Come visit us!