Big investments...

Ten years ago, F invested his hard earned money into a truck. This said truck has served us well. It has driven countless miles (not really countless, at least 106,000), taken trips from Lake Powell to Yellowstone, hauled many moving boxes (mostly others), pulled boats and atvs - and occasionally other cars. Sadly, it gave up as it was driving up the canyon pulling our little boat as F and his brother were headed to go fishing. The next Monday, F received the bad news that the engine was done for. Our options were to replace the engine, or call it quits. We chose the latter. F was (and still might be) in mourning for his first love. Our truck was lovingly named "Mater" by the kids. When we had it towed back to our house it was definitely Tow-Mater. We were down to one car that fits our family. Our plan when we had the baby had initially been to buy a vehicle to replace the truck later this year. Well, that plan was out the door and we began our search. After looking online in the classifieds, visiting a few of the local dealerships, all we could find were used cars that were top of the line and more money than we wanted to spend. We really did not need the bells and whistles of leather seating, dvd players, and all the extras - not to mention most of them had high mileage. Finally we ended up at a dealership in the next county over and found just what we were looking for. We test drove it and loved it. After price negotiations, we got the price down to where we wanted it and drove home with a new big rig for the family. So without further ado, introducing "Prime" named after Optimus Prime because of the color and size. We couldn't be happier! Except we are sad to see have to sell Mater.

For FREEEE?!

Last night, soccer was cancelled for K due to the large amount of rain that had fallen from the sky that day, but the Family Night that was put on by the city parks & rec and the fire dept. was still on. The had it at the park K plays soccer and has a skate park. We loaded up and snuggled up for the cooler weather. We knew that at this particular event there would be bike helmets for purchase ($5!), and they would also be raffling off a number of helmets. The first thing we did was got 3 tickets for the kids and entered the raffle. We were going to walk to the pavilion to purchase some helmets, when we noticed the raffle was about to begin. They read off a number of numbers. Low and behold, we had not one, but two of our tickets called. After the raffle, we headed over to the pavilion, sized the older two and myself for bike helmets. In L's words, he has a "cool red helmet." Up until this point, he had not had a helmet of his own. I also got a "cool red helmet" and K got a purple helmet - all for only $5. We spent some time learning about fire trucks from the firemen and L was excited to see all of the tools they have, he even (with help) held the fireman's axe. To our advantage, the rain had discouraged a number of people from attending, but there was still a good crowd. After the second raffle, and our third number not called, we headed home. We are now ready for summer riding!