father's day was grand, and exciting!!!

it started out just nice and slow....quiet and peaceful.....sleeping in, doing some nice little quiet chores....hung up some smoke detectors in the bedrooms...read, played on the computer....started the best oven ribs in the world.....then...

there was a snake in the backyard.  right near the door to come into the house.  the kids were thrilled!  the dogs were even more excited....the snake was scared.  we got it to go out of the inner fenced yard. whew!   sigh of relief.

phone rings....daniel's car has died on his way here.  shea goes to get him...she comes back and says our old house is on fire.....we of course have to go pile over there to watch!

wow, i picked a crappy picture to share....anyway, we live in the desert, that house was on 5 acres and the fire only went from the office at the back of the house out towards the barn.  burning alot of weeds along the way....the house is fine and dandy.  it was the first day that the new people lived there LOL and there were 5 fire trucks that came.  exciting for our little town!

home again....oh my gosh!!!  the snake is back by the door again....the dogs are maniacs now, and the poor snake is scared and ready to strike.....even though it is just a garter snake, it could bite and hurt one of the little dogs....so, now it finds a spot to get into the house....it comes out into the kitchen where i thought it would and went straight under the frige.   it pokes it head out finally, then a bit more, then a bit more....then, all the way out, it strikes...we all scream!  shea has the flat end shovel and starts whacking at it....i told her to quit it, she was gonna wreck my floor!!!  to just get it near the head and pin it and then apply pressure....we decided that we should kill it because of the kids and the dogs since it came back again.....

shea--so proud of her heroic actions!

trophy!

so, we sat around and talked, and laughed, and ate the yummiest oven ribs ever.....and my grandma's vinegar onions and cucumbers....

and drank a bit of beer, and had a toast of jamison's to kevin's father.

all in all, it was a really pleasant day....kevin even said it was one of his favorite days--spent with family and food in peace and harmony and fun!