time for some changes

For those who have been to my parents house this is a typical picture of their pool. It's been in the family for 24 years and we've had plenty of fun in it. The spa has had it's fair share of dish soap bubbles, friends, and grand kids over the years. Here are a few "before" shots...

Times a changin' and it's time for a pool face lift!!!
Brad wanted nothing more than to get this thing empty so he could skate it.
Nathan doing his part :) Check out how steep those stairs are - they sure don't seem like they are that steep when they are covered with water.
Nathan "accidentally" fell in. The water looks sick but it's really ok water - it was clean until they started this project and dirt and rocks from the sides fell in.

Brad emptying the spa.
No naked carrots in this spa! Whoa - blast from the past Riley/Harris spa humor!
Airboard drop in.

Still wishing the pool was empty and in skateable condition...
Dad demonstrating his swimming technique!

I told Mom and Dad that they should use this picture as their Christmas card picture this year. I doubt they will go for it. ;)
This pool is ENORMOUS!

Cheap labor. Mom made really nice little piles for the workers - I'm sure they appreciated it! Dad couldn't understand why mom wanted to sweep the pool out. She said it was "fun!" Hey Mom why don't you come over and have some "fun" at my house?

This is Nathan doing what we like to call "The Matt". I was trying to take a picture of Brad and at the last second Nathan jumped up in front of the camera to steal the scene aka "The Matt".
I'm pretty sure Mom has never been this deep in the pool (especially with a broom).
Almost completely empty! Of course it was way to late in the night to actually skate it. So sorry Brad... Brad was in charge of the pump and making sure it was working properly. My Mom was having flashbacks to the days right after my heart surgery, when Brad would make sure that my chest tube and all of the other tubes coming out of me were working properly. Fun times!

More pictures as the ShopKo* continues... (mom will get that now)

*ShopKo - A long time ago my Dad and I were at my Grandma Riley's house in Bountiful, Utah. We were standing in the kitchen going through the newspaper and no doubt eating chips and licorice and there was a Grand Opening spread for ShopKo. Dad looked at it and said "Whoa! Progress!" Grandma looked up at him and said "No, I think it's called ShopKo." Dad and I just looked at each other and then Dad said "oh yeah, you're right." HA! Gotta love G-ma Riley.

Mom and Nathan day

The last awards assembly for the school year was last Friday. Nathan and his best friend Clayton both received awards for Responsibility for Learning. Here they are with their principal Mr. Hausner. They were so excited that they both got the same award. These kids are like two peas in a pod. If you see one you will see the other - they are practically joined at the hip.

Since Brad was out of town fishing we had Nathan and Mom night on Friday night. We had lots of fun taking funny face pics and watching movies. Since I wake up at the crack of jack now - I'm usually really tired by the time Friday night comes around. But Nathan didn't seem to care since I let him stay up as late as he wanted! :)

So the other day I went into Nathan's room to clean it. PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES...start early and make your kids clean their own room or do other chores around the house - I didn't and now I'm paying for it! Anyway, I went into his room and I see this envelope on the ground. I pick it up and it says... "Do not open until Mother's Day 2018 Nathan". I took it over to Nathan and asked what it was. He said it was part of my Mother's Day gift for the year 2018. I said "2018???" and he said "Yep! In 10 years." Apparently I can't open this up for another 10 years - I have it on my refrigerator we'll see if it makes it until 2018!

This is our cat Sid aka Fat Sid - too bad she doesn't have a good life.

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my...

This last week Brad went up to June Lake area on a fishing trip with his dad and a few of his long time fishing buddies. They have gone 2 times a year for about 30 years (give or take just a few) ;) This time they stayed in a cabin and when they got there they were told to make sure and not leave any food in their car because there is a bear that has been hanging around. A bear? Holy cow. They got up there on Wednesday morning and when Brad called me later that day he told me this. On Friday night Brad called and said that they had gone out to eat. When they got into the cabin they could tell that someone had been there. Brad looked at his stuff and it hadn't been touched - phew! They walked back to one of the bedrooms and realized it hadn't been a person it was an animal! The screen on the window was all torn and the curtians were shreaded. There were M&M's all over the ground and some HoneyCombs cereal. Brad went outside and walked around the corner and came face to face with the intruder - the bear! He said it was a smaller one only about 300 pounds! When Brad looked at the bear it got this guilty look on it's face and kinda crouched down - just like Rosie (our dog) does when she's done something wrong. Then it ran around and hid under the porch. The other guys came out to see what was up and they watched it try to climb a few trees, try to hide behind a bush and then finally walk around out of sight. So get this - the window must have been just barely open - enough for the bear to get part of his claw in and then it just barreled it's way in - they think that he was even still in the place when they got back from eating. They must have startled it and it tried to grab what he could and get the heck out of there. Needless to say they got home safely yesterday afternoon - I was so glad to have Brad back home in one piece. Seriously though, I could have gone another night without knowing "the bear" story :)

there's a wolf in our house...

Tonight was the final Scouts Pack meeting until after summer. We had a BBQ at the park. Nathan has worked really hard and finally finished up his Wolf requirements so it's official. He's a wolf. PHEW!!!!!

Nathan receiving his patch and my pin :) and he even pinned it on me without drawing blood!

Isn't this just the cutest kid. He's going to make a great husband someday. :) And who will be the lucky one to get me as a MOTHER-IN-LAW??? wow all of the sudden I feel really old. (Especially looking at all of my wrinkles in the picture below, why am I losing weight if fat fills in the wrinkles???)

So proud to be his mom. How did I get so lucky??

Seriously...where did May go?