Fun times with the family & Stinkin' varmints!

We had a fun and busy week last week. For a couple of weeks now Morgan has gone bike-riding crazy! We barely took her training wheels off her bike, because she hasn't really been using them and because it was about time. So about 5 minutes after Brad took her training wheels off, she has rode her bike everyday - everywhere. She has even convinced me and Brad to get our bikes dusted off and tires aired up to go on bike rides with her. This has been such a fun family time. We (all of us) went on bike rides almost every evening last week. The weather has been nice and it has been fun to be able to all ride together. Morgan has found a new hobby that she absolutely loves and as for me ... except for the sore hiney from my lovely bike seat, I have loved it too! We LOVE when Friday rolls around and Kolten and Morgan are always thrilled about not having homework on Fridays. Last Friday we went on a nice walk and then came home and jumped on the four-wheeler to take a ride to the river (dry, of course!). We really like to go on four-wheeler rides in the river. Kolten & Morgan like it especially to look for golf balls. (There is a golf course above the river bed, and some unfortunate people lose a lot of golf balls down there!) We only found 5 that night, but there have been other times that we have found 15 or 20 and more! Another favorite thing about the four-wheeler rides (and our family walks in the boonies)is looking for or happening upon wildlife. On our ride Friday, we saw 3 deer eating in the field. We were only about a hundred yards from them, if that, so it was fun to see them and watch them. We see deer quite a bit around on our walks and rides. On our rides in the river, we have seen an owl (close up), a bobcat, several deer and javelina, and even a beaver! Kolten & Morgan have had so much fun spotting animals and looking for tracks. This time of year the river bed is full of tracks - we saw many deer, javelina, bobcat and even snake tracks when we were there.
Saturday morning we went on a family bike ride that Kolten planned out for us. (He was working on a Bear cub scout requirement.)Then we came home and got busy! We had a good day working together in the yard and planting a garden. We got a little bit of a late start on our garden but hopefully everything will still be okay. Kolten did a pretty good job of sticking with us, working beside us for most of the day. Morgan had a lot of fun playing in the dirt, playing in the shop, playing with the chicks, and then helping us plant the garden. She and Kolten got flower seeds so they were pretty excited about planting those. By Saturday night, we were dirty and tired but excited about the work we had got done, and really excited about our garden. Then Monday afternoon sometime a stinkin' varmint ate 3 of our tomato plants and part of a chile plant. I was a little upset and am taking it a little personal! How dare they come in and desecrate our beautiful garden and all our hard work!! Last year we didn't have any trouble with animals - we have a fence around it, but squirrels and rabbits can still get in and apparently they have! Yesterday as I was watering the garden, I stayed around for a little while making sure everything was okay, which it was. I of course can't keep guard all day and night at the garden so sometime after I left our last tomato plant was eaten! Completely gone- not even a trace or shred of a leaf left!! I'm sorry if I sound like I don't like those stinkin' varmints, but ... I really don't right now!!!