Fun in the Sun *

One thing about Las Vegas in the summer is pools are very very nice. The kids have had the opportunity to hang out with some cousins. This is great for them, since we live so far in Alabama. They have been able to do some fun stuff. This time, they got to swim at their Uncle Kerry and Aunt Marni's house. Megan loves her cousin Athena, so this was a treat. We are so grateful that they let us come over and hang with them for the afternoon. I thought I would just post a few pictures of the fun that they had. Up above is Emilee with her cousin Lexi, and down below is Megan, Emilee, Hunter, and their cousin Kristi.

Better Late then Never........

So, when it comes to teaching my children to know their letters and sounds, counting, reading, adding, subtracting, and all that other educational stuff, I am pretty good. When it comes to teaching my children how to ride a bike, not so good. Jeremy and I have definitely been slackers at teaching them this skill. Though, I will attribute some of it to the place where we live. Our neighborhoods have not always been the best place to teach them. For example, our neighborhood now is very hilly. Well, I took the kids to visit some family in Las Vegas and my dad has been working with them. They are almost experts now in the riding the bike skill. Their Aunt Margaret has even been taking them out in the mornings and helping them practice. What is that saying, "It takes a village to raise them" Well, I guess that is the case here. At least they know now, right? Look at them ride, just like they have been riding their bikes for years. We will just have to help them keep it up when we get home. Hopefully we will be better with Hunter, since now he is wanting to learn.

Megan's birthday present (Lexington, KY)

Jeremy makes trips up to Lexington, KY every so often for work. He was due for another trip the first week of June, so for Megan's birthday present, Megan and I tagged along. Some of you might not know this, but Megan loves horses. She is always asking for one ( though I tell her, what little girl doesn't want her very own horse) and enjoys anything that has a horse on it. Lexington, KY is known as the horse capital of the world, so what a perfect place to take a little girl who loves horses. She was very excited. The day after we got there, we took her to the Kentucky Horse Park. I don't think I have seen so many horses in one place, ever. We saw miniature horses, artisan Egyptian horses, carriage rides, ponies, racing horses, and even a horse cemetery. (Now did you know that when they bury a horse, they bury its head, heart, and hooves only. This is suppose to be the essence of the horse. The rest they cremate and throw its ashes around the park and track for good luck) This is just an example of some of the things that we learned. The highlight of the day was horseback riding. This is what Megan was looking forward the very most.
Here is Megan on her horse named Riddick. My horse's name was Kamikaze. Megan was a little nervous when she was on the horse at first. It kept moving around the area, which was OK. I kept telling Megan that when we were on the trail, the horse would do quite well. The trail leaders assured Megan that Riddick was their most gentle horse and knew the trail very well. When we got started, Megan relaxed and both her and Riddick did great. When we were done, Megan wanted another time slot. I said not today, let's just enjoy the rest of the horses. Doesn't she look great on that horse?

Here she is again on Riddick. Megan is a little nervous here as Riddick goes down to get a drink of water. It was more then just Megan and I going on the trail, so we had to wait in this area, until everybody was saddled up. I haven't been on a horse for about 18 years so I was a little nervous myself, but we all did great. They were really well trained horses.

This little miniature horse is named Soapy. They call him Soapy because it looks like he has soap suds all on his back. Megan just loved this miniature horse. She was determined to convince Jeremy that we needed to get one of our very own. She even tried to say that a miniature horse would make a great lawn mower, eating all the grass all of the time. As you can guess, Jeremy did not see the light in her logic. Go figure.

At the horse park, they had a section of these exotic champion show horses. This is some Egyptian horse that was there. Megan really liked this one, because they shared the same birthday. I have to tell you, I have never felt such a smooth and soft horse. Even her nose ( yes most these show horses were fillies), was very soft. They were very beautiful horses.

In Lexington, they also had a children's museum that was not to far from the hotel. Since we have a pass ( which can get us into most children's museums around the country), we decided to take Megan there. This is a moon exhibit. Almost looks like Megan is living on the moon. Megan says often that she is going to be the first woman to step on the moon. That is one thing about living in Huntsville, NASA is located here so Megan learns a lot about space and rockets.

As Megan and I drove back to Alabama, we stopped at some caves in Kentucky. This area is called "Cave City", because of the many different caves there are. The cave we chose to tour was called, Diamond Cave. It is called this because the guy that discovered it thought he hit jackpot by finding all these diamonds that were through out the cave. He was mistaken. They weren't diamonds at all, but they were colorful calcite that was all over the cave. We learned many things going through it and loved looking at all the stalactites and stalagmites.

We had a good time. It was a great trip. We were hoping to go to a couple of the horse farms around Lexington, but after our awesome day at the horse park, it rained the rest of the time we were there. It is a good thing we decided to do the park first.

New Moon Full Trailer

I know that some of you have probobly seen this, but some might not have known that the new trailer for New Moon was being shown for the first time on the MTV awards this evening. I thought I would share it with you guys just in case you Twilight fans have not seen it yet. I think it looks good. I am excited for the movie to come out. Have fun watching.


THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer

Happy Birthday Emilee!

The last birthday of the month. Emilee Rae Lamps turned 7 today and she had a birthday party this year. She gets birthday parties on her odd ages, Megan even ages, Hunter will get one next year when he is six. Emilee had a Tinkerbell/Pirate (Captain Hook) birthday party. Some of the activities included, guess how many gold pieces in Captain Hook's treasure jar, decorating stars for pin the star on Tink's wand ( which they also played), mixing magic pixie (fairy) dust, playing freeze tag by using the pixie dust to unfreeze someone, break the pinata, pass the present around the circle, and of course opening presents and cake and ice cream. What a day. It seemed like all the kids had fun. They were all so good. Emilee had a great time with her friends, she was excited all week long and especially today.

Can you believe my little Emilee is 7 years old and going into the second grade? She has always been our little Velosa Raptor Dinosaur. She still is, always screeching at the top of her lungs. She is a crazy little girl, but we love her so much. She is a great friend to others and is very sensitive to other's feelings. She laughs a ton and loves to tease us all. This past year she has also found a love of reading. Her favorite seems to be Junie B. Jones.

Emilee had a great day! I am so proud of her and so glad to be her Mom. What a wonderful girl that she is. Happy Birthday Emilee!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

Can you believe it? Five years ago, I was getting ready for preschool graduation. I ran into a friend, whose child I was teaching that year. She asked if the graduation was still on. (she must have had some premonition or something) I told her of course and that I had just set up the chairs the night before and I had just bought some of the refreshments. We were on. Little did I know. As I was getting ready to go to the doctor before graduation, little Hunter had other plans. My water broke. He was ready to come. Too bad his head was in the wrong direction. They had to do a C-section. It was the fastest birth that I ever had. Too bad I was on the drugs when he was born. Some of it is a little fuzzy. I didn't have that preschool graduation after all. Well, today Hunter is five years old. When each of my children turn five, I take them to Build-A-Bear and some where nice for lunch where they can sing Happy Birthday to them. Today was Hunter's turn and let me tell you, he has been looking forward to it for weeks. He could hardly wait until the store was opened. He wanted a puppy with a Buzz Lightyear outfit on. Well, they no longer had Buzz, but Hunter was very happy to find Batman instead. He picked the Puppy, the voice, stuffed it, gave it a bath, and dressed him. Afterwards, we went to Applebees, where the staff surprised him by singing very loudly to him and giving him ice cream. I think Hunter was a little scared of that and didn't know what to do. He sure did enjoy his ice cream though.
Up above is Hunter giving his new puppy a bath. He scrubbed him, blow-dried him, checked his heart, gave him his shots, and made sure he was in perfect condition. Down below is his puppy all dressed and happy to have a new home with Hunter. Hunter is glad to give it to him. He named his dog, "Bat Dog". That is what we wrote on the birth certificate, so I guess the name is here to stay, though Hunter says if he gets a Spiderman suit, his name will be Spider Dog. Go figure. Bat Dog also has his own MP3 player to listen to. Believe me Hunter has made sure of that all day. The only problem is that Bat Dog isn't the only one who hears it all day. The ear plugs must have speakers on the outside instead of the inside. Now we all hear the music all day long.

Well, my sweet Hunter is now five years old and what a blessing he is in our lives. He definitely makes us laugh all day long. He has everyone wrapped around his fingers (especially Grandma). He is very stubborn and conversation is never at a stand still with him. He talks all day long ( hardly without taking a breath). He is very picky about what he likes and doesn't and of course he is very lovable. He gives me kisses and hugs all through out the day. What a wonderful boy he is. We love you Hunter! Happy Birthday!

Memorial Day

Our ward had a picnic at this lake on Memorial Day. They have it there every year. We went last year and the kids had a great time. This year, I did not want to go. Mostly because of the whole lake thing. I was not in the mood to deal with the lake and the kids and I definitely did not want to go swimming. Jeremy on the other hand wanted to go, which is actually really odd, because usually he is not so much up on the social thing and I usually am. Jeremy just remembers how much fun the kids had last year and wanted that to happen for them this year. I told Jeremy that he was in charge of the kids down at the lake and I would stay up at the picnic area and relax and chat. He was good with that. Well, I chatted for awhile, then I found myself down at the lake watching the kids. They had a great time. It was a good day after all. We had good conversations, ate well, and the kids had tons of fun in the water. I guess my husband can be wise about things at times.