It's Monday Again!

Good morning! How was your weekend?

Here on the Bowes farm, Ted and the kids finished our doggy enclosure! Hip hip hooray! It is so nice to have all four (actually, five right now) dogs contained. No more worries!

Saturday night, we took a much needed break from our hard work and treated ourselves to Plaza Jalisco with the blessing of Meemom's company. Unfortunately, Papa Bob caught a cold, so he was feeling under the weather. On the way home, we realized our van is overheating terribly, so it is out of commission for now.

Yesterday we took two vehicles to church to get us all there . . . thanks to Meemom and Papa Bob letting us borrow their truck:) Ted, Kyle and Valerie left from church to Seattle for the week, and the rest of us returned home in their truck.

Then around 12:30, Lydia, Meemom and I headed out to Costco for a much needed shopping trip. We stopped at Home Depot on the way, and we're excited about our end-of-the-season flower finds. We hope to be planting them soon in our new flower bed. We also stocked up on party foods for Timothy's birthday party this Saturday. I can't believe it is getting so close!

This morning I will be calling Dave, our mechanic, early to see if I can drop the van off for his services. Then, we will take Lydia over to her friend's house to help celebrate Grace's birthday today.

Meemom and Papa Bob were planning to take the boat out today with Victoria and Caroline, as it is forecasted to be 89 degrees! But Papa Bob had another little landscaping accident yesterday, and hurt his ribs again, so not sure yet if he will be up for the outing:(

So, better get myself showered and ready to meet the day!

What We've Been Up To Lately

Since deciding to stay put in our house and take it off the market, we have been really busy . . . doing the things we have always wanted to do these past FOUR years, but have held off, thinking we might sell the house any day!

The girls have always wanted to plant flower bulbs. But, we have always said "no, not this year" . . . until now. The kids gathered a whole bunch of rocks and I put them together to form this rock flower bed (in the background of the photo). Then, of course, we had to get two pick-up truck beds full of dirt to fill it:( We will be planting our bulbs in there soon!

Mr. Nixon came over yesterday and moved two big rocks that had been oddly placed in our front lawn. The big one was moved up to the front of the driveway, and makes a nice backdrop for our address sign. The other one we had him drop in the flower bed as an artistic centerpiece:)

We have also planted four maple trees . . . . which we're watering good everyday.

Last weekend, we rented a post hole auger to dig our fence holes for us. It took two days, since the ground was found to be very rocky:( The kids were a huge help with digging some of the rocks out.

Papa Bob even got in on the action. He and Kyle helped build our two side gates. Today, Kyle and Ted are finishing up the gates and are hoping to get them installed soon. Good thing they have a "supervisor" on duty:)

Here, Timothy is practicing his army crawl.

A few days ago, our coiled up hose out front was "squeaking". When Timothy went to check it out, he found this little guy. . . And we've also been checking on our surprise pumpkin plants that have popped up in our manure pile from some pumpkin seeds in our pumpkins from last year!

We've also been picking lots of blackberries, too!

And in between all of these activities, we've been trying to get back to our school routine, enjoy some visits with Meemom and Papa Bob, plan Timothy's birthday party, "kennel" Sophie for Dr. Polley here at our house (she's the one that doens't get along with our female dogs:(, and Lydia has been sitting with Mrs. Jerke a couple days this week to help her after her knee replacement.

O Boy, O Boy!

As Grandpa would say . . . . "O Boy, O Boy" . . . .

it was our day to ride rides at the fair!

Since Lydia had planned to attend a Christian concert at the fair

with some friends in the evening,

we decided to go once again as a family and take advantage of their "dizzy pass",

which is only offered on certain days,

and lets you ride all the rides you want to all day long!

Ted actually took the day off, during his busiest time of the year, to enjoy the day with all of us!

And what fun we had!

Fair Time!

Our "free admission day" at the Puyallup Fair started with a "cattle drive" and a parade down Meridian St. near the fairgrounds.

Then we went to a real rodeo!

These are pictures of a drill team that performed some pretty neat feats before, during and after the rodeo!

Then it was time for our little cowboy's big ride. On the way to the fair, we decided he needed a good 'ole cowboy sounding "stage" name . . .so we came up with "Buck" . . . . "Buck Bowes"!!

And here he is . . . lookin' tough before the big competition.

Here's "Buck" in the starting gate.

And there he goes for his second of glory!

Ahh, nothin' like cotton candy at the fair!

Happy September!

I really can't believe that it is September already!

Summer has flown by!

Now I'm happily ushering in my favorite time of year!

We had such a fun weekend with Aunt Kelley, Uncle Chuck, McKenna, Cassidy, Meemom and Papa Bob! They all arrived around 4pm on Friday afternoon. And we had a delightful visit with them through Sunday afternoon. Thank you guys!

Saturday the girls and Ted:) loaded up in to the van and hit the road garage saleing. Since it was Labor Day weekend, there were lots of sales to be found! We found some good ones, and some not-so-good ones!

Then Sunday we went to church and out to Plaza Jalisco for lunch. Yumm! That afternoon, as Chuck, Kelley, McKenna and Cassidy headed back to Hillsboro, the rest of us girls did some more garage saleing.

On Monday, Labor Day, we headed out as a family to run some errands. We were on a mission to find another carport canopy for a winter shelter for the animals. As it turned out, Costco was closed for Labor Day:( so we weren't able to see if they had one.

On Tuesday morning, I called all the Costco's in the area . . . and they were all sold out! So after piano lessons, we drove all the way to Tacoma to get one!

Wednesday we tried to get back into the swing of our normal school schedule.

And now, with our long-awaited decision to stay here in this house, we are anxious to begin some projects we have been wanting to do for four years, but put off, thinking we may not be staying here. On the immediate horizon is erecting a fence for a dog run to keep the dogs safe and from visiting our neighbors all the time, planting a few trees and bulbs, and putting up of the canopy for the farm animals. We may even start clearing a space for a garden:)

Tomorrow we head out early to gather a few of these supplies from Home Depot before spending the day at the Puyallup fair. That way, come early Saturday morning, we'll be able to tackle these projects and hopefully make some good headway!