four...then FIVE...then four again..

Eric gave me the BEST day-after-our-anniversary gift EVER! He called and said that he had half of a day on Thursday and they gave him Friday off, so he was coming HOME before he headed off to Missouri. Hooray! That even topped the day-after-our-anniversary flowers! :) He surprised us again when he showed up at 2:00p when we were expecting him at dinner time. It was so great to have him home! As soon as he got here, he engaged in an hour long wrestling match with Carter. "Finally!" - Carter says - "Someone to wrestle with!" Am I neglectful or what? Isaac was equally excited to see dad when he got home from school. We decided to take the kids to the park to feed the ducks and as we were about to head out, we grabbed the fishing poles. If we were going to a pond, we might as well fish! The duck feeding was a big success. A whole army of ducks met us a hundred yards from the pond. They came running as soon as we pulled up. Eric, Isaac and Ashlyn had fun feeding them out of their hands. I tried once, and that was enough for me, and Carter wasn't going to have anything to do with it!

We took hotdogs for bait, but the only things we attracted were a turtle, a rag, plenty of sticks, and Ashlyn. She, herself, cut our bait supply in half!

Born fisherwoman!

We thought Carter had caught a fish, but instead he reeled in a big ol' turtle. It's kind of hard to see him, but he was pretty big. Look for the brown spot in the water!


Friday we played with the kids more and then when Isaac got home from school, we took them to a babysitter and Eric and I went shotgun shooting. I felt kind of guilty stealing the kids' time with their dad, but I got over it quick. I need him, too! We failed to assemble our clay pigeon launcher before we left, so that took half of our time and the other half was spent trying to figure out why it was breaking our clay pigeons before they got in the air. We finally got it fixed and got off a few shots. Nothing would stand a chance against us! We made it up to the kids by finishing the night with some pizza and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoons.

Saturday was the lamest day of all. Eric woke up with serious issues that kept him tethered to the bathroom all day. I, of course, was the sympathetic wife and pouted all day. We had had plans! This was our last day! At least he got to be sick at home in his own bed. I think he felt worse about it than I did. Fortunately, he felt better this morning, so we sent him packing to Missouri. We're down to four of us again, but we're halfway there. One more month and then Eric SWEARS life will be great. I can't wait!