May 19 - Trip to Colorado Part 4 - Coming Home

After saying goodbye to Grandpa, Grandmother, and mom's youngest sister, Allison, we hit the road. We had only two pups with us on the way home. We passed through some beautiful country on the way home.

In the little town of Abique there is a little general store that our family loves to go to. It is just like an old fashioned general store, although it sells some modern things. It has a section dedicated to books, manuals, and history of the place. It has a small restaurant, a fishing and game department, and some groceries. The people that work there are very friendly, and they love to have little kids in there. Every time we are in there, someone will take Gabe or Garrett and give them something for free or for very little just to let them spend that little bit of change that is burning a hole in their pockets.

I absolutely loved this. They are selling Pinto Beans, Potatoes, Onions, Bananas, and Cabbage out of basket.

If you ever go through Abique, New Mexico I highly recommend stopping at this store.

May 18 - Our Trip to Colorado Part 3

We had a wonderful time with the family today! Michael and Melanie had to go home this morning. It was so nice to see them again, and we didn't have nearly enough time together! 

One of the traditions of our family that we like to do (in the summer) is play baseball. Unfortunately for the last several years we haven't seen all the family at the same time in the summer. This time, though, we all were able to do it. We played a game last night with Michael and Melanie and had a blast. But something like that, especially when you have that many ages, gets into your blood and you want to do it again. And that is just what we did. 

The entire league of the Lambert Baseball Season with the exception of Boone, who was taking the picture. 

We had a wonderful weekend, and hope that we will get to do it again soon!!

May 17 - Trip to Colorado Part 2 - The Ice Cream Social

The day of the Ice Cream Social finally had come. Our whole family has been looking forward to this weekend so we can support Grandpa and be together with our whole family again. Mom's oldest sister couldn't come, but her two kids, Michael and Melanie made it. And well they did. Both Michael and Melanie had worked in an ice cream parlor, of sorts, so they knew just how much to serve everyone. Mom's younger sister and all of her family were there. They are a family Blue Grass band, so they provided the entertainment for the Social. And they did a fantastic job. Mom's youngest sister lives very close to Grandmother and Grandpa, so she has played a huge part in this whole campaign. Organizing events, honoring his name, and doing whatever she can do to help.

All the sisters brought cookies for the Social. We had over 10 dozen homemade cookies. And about 6 gallons of Ice Cream. By the time we were done, we had only about 3 dozen cookies and close to two and a half gallons of ice cream left over.

Bessie White, a longtime member of their county, and a friend of the Lambert family since before Grandmother even came into the picture. Stood up and gave the best recommendation that she could have, and somehow it seemed like the best that anyone could have made "He's a good guy." 

 After it was all over, the whole family pitched in to clean up. Now when you have 13 kids from the ages of 19-3 who haven't seen one another in a long time, there tends to be some competition and goofiness when they finally get some slack. Boone and Zach had the "fun" job of vacuuming the community center. So what else did they do, but race. It took almost everyone to "manage" the race and to "make sure that they were doing it right."

 Now that the serious part of our trip is all over we can get to the fun(er) part of the trip.

May 16 - Trip to Colorado Part 1

Mom's dad, James Lambert is running for County Commissioner in Colorado, so all of his daughters and their families came to support him in an ice cream social. Early in the morning of the 16th we packed up the van and left for Colorado. Dad couldn't get off so he didn't get to come with us. We still have four pups, so Kacy put them on Craigslist in New Mexico and in Colorado to try to get them sold. So we loaded them up as well.

Last romp between the boys before heading out.

This was the first time they had spent a lot of time caged up so it took them a while to adjust to it, but they did really good. No sick ones and the high-pitched barking only lasted for about 10 minutes once we started going. 

This is what they did most of the way to Colorado.

 We stopped once we made it into mountain country and let the pups and kids out to stretch their legs. The scenery was so beautiful that we couldn't resist taking some pictures.

I loved this picture of the red flower among the grey dirt and the beer bottle.

May 13 - Jocy, Cami, and Kasandra Join our Day

Due to natural causes, Mrs. Maria had to go to the doctor today, and guess what that means? That's right, we get to have Jocy, Cami, and Kasandra!!! It was rather cold that day and Kacy wasn't feeling very well, but we had a lot of fun. 

 While it was really cold in the morning all the kids came and piled on Kacy's bed (which never happens :) and had a human body lesson. Kacy is teaching Gabe's science until he gets to smart from her...which won't be very long. Jocy was in Gabe's human body class in GRACE last semester. And the older boys thought that we were studying something of interest, so they brought Cami in and helped give an illisration of how blood carries oxygen through the body...by running through the rooms just as fast as they could and blowing like mad. I'm not sure how much was learned, but the lesson was filled with lots of laughs.

It was still really cold outside by the time we finished the lesson so the younger kids played dress-up with some square dance petticoats that we have and a camo hat, snow-pants and coat. Gabe loves to have someone his age to play with. And here he usually gets two people to play with.

Later in the afternoon, it finally warmed up enough to go outside. The thing that Jocy wanted to do was to ride the pony. Big surprise right? 

Jocy loves the pony!!! (I love this picture)

Zach is working hard to find our septic tank, so that we can empty it.

Cami isn't as entranced with the pony as Jocy is, but she was fascinated with our "tickins". She spent quite a while with them....  

....and with the pup, which by the way have been dubbed "dogs" by the little girl that is two feet tall. It was really funny to watch her play with Reacher and not be scared, but she was very nervous around the pups. 

Shea did an excellent job of teaching Jocy how to ride.. after the pony ran away with her. 

 As usual, we had a wonderful day with these precious little girls!

May 9 - Big Family Economics and Botany Class

Hi there,

No, I wasn't kidnapped and yes I'm still alive. We have had an adventurous month of May. 

Sometime in August our family is going to go to a family camp with the GRACE homeschool group. So to raise enough money to do that 5 families (including ours) held a yard sale in Lubbock this weekend. The Pogues brought Kacy's English Shepherd pups in hopes that someone would like some. Because they aren't a well known breed...and because Kacy didn't have them advertised by the time they were born, they have rather difficult to sell. I am so glad that we had a hard time selling them, because when we did finally get them all sold, it was very obvious that God had planned the perfect homes for each one of them. For today it was so fun, and it took some of the stress of the kids...and boredom of some of the kids...not mentioning any names (ahem) to have the pups there. 

Ryan is posing for a picture in the John Deere toy box that was up for sale, with the only female.

We had the pups in a fold out pen in the front yard. They did excellent, but we did find out that they have a problem with how the lawn was fertilized, so now and again one would get out and help it along. 

They are so much bigger now. Molly is having a hard time even lifting them, whereas, at one point, she carried them around everywhere.

Settin' up the sale. The moms and older kids did a great job helping the younger kids know how to organize the sale. Everyone was such a big help, we had a wonderful day with everyone. Although we were exhausted by the end of the day. 

In the middle of the day, one of Mrs. Lacey's friend came by. And wonderful Mrs. Lacey told him what she liked about the puppies with her girls. He decided that he wanted one for his little girl. Then later he came back with his girlfriend and her daughter, and surprised the little girl with a puppy. It was so fun to watch the little girl's excitement. The ones that they wanted were the calmest, and most cuddly that we had, perfect for little girls growing up. God's hand really showed in this instance. 

Every week in Lubbock Mrs. Lacey teaches some of the kids Botany. Since we really can't afford to go into Lubbock for that, we are doing the same things at home and just keeping up with them. Today was their class. So our boys joined right in, and later Mrs. Lacey took whoever wanted on a field trip to a plant nursery. Janessa got many beautiful picture of the field trip.  

What a wonderful day to see God's hand in our actions and in his creation!