Easter birthday

Gavin turned 15 on Easter Sunday. I am in denial. No, he will NOT be driving this year. In my mind he is still my baby boy. Little orange haired toddler playing WITH his cars, not driving them.

He has really taken a liking to Chuck. I am thrilled about it. When I finally got him to go check Chuck out he wanted to ride him and now he asks to go see "his" horse daily. Gavin and I spent one hour de-lousing Chuck. Yes, he had lice, ewwwwwww. He has already planned weekend excursions on horseback with his new Ruger 1022. He's pretty darn cute.

Camp Cedar Springs

Last week Drew and I went to her 5th grade camp--Camp Cedar Springs. It poured rain one day and the sun came out the next day. We had fun. I was her counselor along with another mom. There were 12 girls in our group and 12 boys in our "family" group. We did fun things like learn how to build a shelter in the woods, build fires, chop wood, etc.... After 3 days of camp food I was very ready to go home.

Chuck

We have a new horse. His name is Chuck. It was a surprise for the girls and it was very hard for me to keep it quiet. I found him on Tuesday and got him delivered to Carousel ranch on Friday. Darren told them that they would be taking riding lessons somewhere new, closer to home. When he brought them down I was riding around the arena and Drew came running up and asked where Image was (her lesson horse). I told her that Image is Ann's horse and Chuck is ours. Smiles from ear to ear, Gilli jumping up and down, and Drew finally said "I can't believe I'm not screaming and peeing my pants right now!". She pretty much just lived my childhood fantasy, even my grown-up fantasy. I'm sure that everyone who knows me thought that I might outgrow my horse craze someday. I figured that since now I'm a responsible adult with two horse crazy girls I'd better act on it. Chuck is 12 years old and very mellow--suitable for the whole family. Gavin hasn't shown much of an interest and hasn't even been over to see him. George went crazy over a fresh steamy pile of horse poop that Chuck dropped (I scooped it up before he could eat it all), and Holly got kicked in the head for getting to close (she's ok, dumb dog!).

Spring break

Seems like my kids have very frequent days off school. It began April 1st (no foolin') and will finally end tomorrow. Gillian has not once complained of an upset stomach, but I'm sure that will begin tonight at bedtime. She has an extreme dislike for school as of late. One day she brought her "mama and baby" whales in to me and said "this is how it's supposed to be, mama's and their kids should always be together like these whales, but you make me go to school."

This past week has been pretty mellow. Drew had another riding lesson, Gavin and I went to Dr. Gross, and I took the girls swimming at the gym. Mostly the kids hung out with cousins. We went skiing on Friday--with cousins. I'm so glad that they live close and that they all get along. Last weekend during the break between General Conference we put together our 72 hour kits. Gavin insists that we call them "bug out bags" because it is less nerdy. He's had his put together for over a year. His is very very detailed. It is his specialty. I'll always want him with me in case of disaster.