D - 1st Days Pics

We had a couple of big first days for both kiddos last week. Noah started kindergarten (as you all know), and Katie started gymnastics. Here are pics of both events. Notice one scared boy and one VERY excited girl. Make that TWO very excited girls. Katie is taking her class with her good friend Olivia. They have matching leotards and matching enthusiasm. Kelly and I had a great time watching them. It should be fun.

D - Governor Henry would be proud!

I was at 7-11 yesterday with Noah and they were doing a campaign for Muscular Dystrophy. With every purchase they would ask if you would like to donate to the cause. I made a small donation, and while Noah was proudly writing his name on the dollar bill that they would tape to their window, I overheard the following:

A woman holding a few bills in her hand checks out and the clerk asks if she'd like to make a donation. She quickly replies "No," and then asks if 7-11 sells lottery tickets. Ahhhhhhhh. Beautiful. The new spirit of our rapidly gambling state? I hope not!

D - I'm going to kill him!

So I worried about Noah all afternoon after watching his struggle with being dropped off at kindergarten. I prayed that he was having a good day and wasn't too scared. When time came to pick him up, I anxiously awaited seeing his beautiful face and hearing how he did.

Then reality set in. The teacher brought Noah to the van during pickup and said something like "He did.......okay?" (while gesturing the so-so motion with her hand). I immediately assume that he stayed nervous most of the day and that he was too timid to do all of the activities. I was WRONG! It turns out Mr. Noah didn't listen to the teacher and couldn't sit still with his legs crossed. I'm going to kill him! Who gets in trouble on the first day of kindergarten????

His defense? It was the first day, and he didn't know the rules. Oh, please, please, please don't let me have the bad kid! That's something this goody-goody mommy wouldn't know how to handle.

D - Jumping Bean

We went to McAlester over the weekend so the boys could go to the prison rodeo and we could visit my grandparents. While the boys were rodeoing, I entertained Katie by filling a child's inflatable swimming pool with pillows and letting her jump off the couch into it. As you can see, she caught a lot of air! Something tells me she's really going to like the gymnastics class she's starting on Friday.

D - The Locust

We had a big adventure around the Bosley house yesterday. I've been telling Noah for a while now about how, when I was a kid, my grandpa showed us to tie a string to a locust and watch it fly around while holding on to it. So yesterday was our day!

They had a really good time playing with the poor little thing. And, mercifully, it lived long enough for us to untie him and set him free. Somehow I don't think he'll come back to our house anytime soon.

I really hope no one from PETA ever takes a look at this blog!

D - Well that was hard....

Mike and I just dropped Noah off at school for his first day of kindergarten. He was great all morning long and never seemed to give it much thought at all unless I mentioned it, and even then he was just excited.

When we got there, though, he got very nervous. I've never seen him like that. Even at pre-K last year he didn't have this hard of a time. He was clinging to Mike and I, and when we left, he just laid his head down on the rug. When he sat back up I saw him wipe away a tear. This child NEVER cries, and certainly not because he's scared. Needless to say, I was having a VERY hard time keeping my own tears in check. I peeked back in the room after the parents were all out and saw him smiling as they started singing a song. I know he'll be fine, but it's so hard to watch your baby be scared!

M - Stealthy serpent slithers slowly

There's nothing like wallowing around in semi-murky water when you know there is a snake sharing the same watering-hole. As noted before, we have been rescuing baby bass primarily as the water levels drop in this heat. In the process, we've caught a few crawdads, lots of perch, and a few very large shiner minnows.

Back to the snake...we had seen this guest before. We knew he wasn't more than about 2ft long and I could tell he was just a harmless diamond-back water snake. Nonetheless, it is a snake and a bit disconcerting to have in our presence. We've seen larger snakes for certain. Several times a year we see at least one large female diamond-back water snake that's pushing five feet long. It's a big one but still pretty much harmless to us (according to Aaron over at www.oksnakes.org).

It took a couple of attempts to catch the little booger so we could remove him safely. Nonetheless we got 'em and released him back up in the pond and I'm sure by now he's right back down where we didn't want him in the first place!

D - A Real Problem

Katie woke up this morning slightly congested. While this would be a very minor nuisance for most of us, this is a serious problem to a thumb sucker. She was crying and begging for medicine when she told me, "Mommy, my nose is sniffing me!" Poor thing!

M - Fish Breath

On Saturday morning, Noah likes for me to wake him up early so that we can go fishing together. Unlike his mother and sister, and much more like his father, he's a morning guy. He almost always wakes up bright-eyed and raring to go...especially when fishing is involved.

This Saturday was no exception except that we didn't really get an early start. I fell back asleep on the couch after getting up to cook breakfast and Noah woke me up at 0715. So THEN I cooked breakfast for both of us and we ate out on the deck. Afterwards, I was brushing my teeth before heading out to the water and Noah, with his shoulders shrugged and palms turned upward, sheepishly said "I don't need to brush my teeth since we're going fishing cause my breath will just smell like fish anyway." Who can argue with logic like that. Thus, we quickly gathered our gear, loaded up the boat, and headed out for a morning of excitement and adventure.

It was a great morning of fishing. Noah has recently converted to plastic worm fishing with me instead of only using earthworms. For those out there that are considering taking your kid fishing, it is SO easy. Go to Walmart, get a dozen worms for about $2, get a $6 Scooby Doo pole, find a puddle, cast. Perch seem to spontaneously generate in Oklahoma puddles. They are SO easy to catch and provide great entertainment for the kids. There are many public fishing ponds in Oklahoma City and Edmond. Take your kid fishing!!

Noah is a VERY competitive little dude. Not that he keeps track or anything but we weigh every fish, including the 8oz perch, and he finished the morning ahead of me by one ounce. He is quite a good little fisherman and can cast in places many grown men can't. More importantly, we love to spend time together on our little boat just hanging out, even if the fish aren't biting. I'm pretty sure Katie will be right there with us some day when she gets a little older. If not, I'll be just as happy trading my fishing pole for a tea cup and the occasional princess tea party. Whatever it takes, ya' know.

I'll wrap up with some other pictures of our weekend.

Here is the beaver dam that rests on the side of our creek. We actually saw a BIG fat one swimming around the entrance on this particular occasion. I keep telling Noah that at whatever point the beavers start finding the good trees they are going to have to 'go away'. In Oklahoma you have to have a beaver license to help them 'go away' so I'll have to cross that bridge when time comes.




Sunday afternoon was either to be used for mowing or crawdad fishing so guess which idea won out? You can't be afraid of a little moss to hang with this young man. He can slodge right through just about any terrain you can throw at him without a second thought (i.e. he'll follow me anywhere). There is a much greater spiritual example to be drawn from that statement, of course! Actually, crawdad fishing and creek forging are not bad options when it's 100+ degrees outside. It's not a bad way to keep cool...except for the really shallow moss water that feels like a hot bath. MommaBoz is likely really grossed out about this point in the blog.

Since the crawdads don't appear to have fared too well in the spring and summer rains, we turned our attention to rescuing baby bass that are living in a rather large and refreshingly cool pool of water in a shaded part of the creek. If we'd brought our cast net we would have been much more successful in our endeavors. Even so, we had an absolute blast catching them with a little minnow net we had laying around the house. We put our catch in a bucket we brought and took them back to the pond where hopefully they'll grow up to be big bass and bite our hooks later in life. We are planning to go back to this spot later in the week and get as many of the rest that we can before the puddle dries up and they all die. At this point I think we are just in competition with the snakes and raccoons who are also likely eyeing the little fishes.

Well, that's the Bosley men weekend report. As far as I know, there were no frog mutilations reported by the women of the house.

D - My Girl???

I just want to get it out in the open right now that I think Katie may someday be a serial killer. After cleaning out the fort under her bed tonight and removing all of the cars and trucks she had been playing with today, I went outside to find her tearing the legs off of a frog. She did feel remorse though, so I guess that's a good sign. She told me (after a stern talk about how God made frogs for us), "I'm WEALLY sawy, Mommy."

Coming from a family of 3 girls, this is crazy to me. All you younger sisters of brothers, please offer me hope for my daughter!

M - Drivin', Goflin' and Fishin'

Yesterday morning I headed out at 0600 for a quick trip to Tulsa to meet a gentleman from the Dept of Commerce. He had been trying to find a time for us to meet so he figured the PGA tournament in Tulsa would be as good a place as any. Not being a big golfer myself, it seemed like a little too much trouble but it turned out to be pretty cool (in a very HOT sort of way) thing to see. The PGA tournament is quite obviously a very massive undertaking. I'm sure they have long-learned process for pulling something off of this scale and magnitude. I was very impressed! I left around 11am in order to get back to the office.

I was absolutely worn out for some reason yesterday evening after I got home. Nonetheless, one young man named Noah was dead set on fishing and there was no changing his mind. Mom offered that perhaps we could fish from shore to avoid hauling the boat to the water and back. I agreed if Noah could write the word 'shore' by us giving him the letters and he writing it out (he didn't hear mom say 'shore' the first time around). He struggled around with it and finally got it right so off we went with little sister and her Barbie pole in tow. The breeze was pretty nice coming off the water and that helped alot. Katie was very impressive on the cast except that she preferred to sit while doing it. I pulled in a decent little bass on a spinnerbait and we headed to the house shortly after to start the clean-up process.

M - Happiness is in the rearview mirror

Mac Davis once pined "I thought happiness was Lubbock Texas in the rear view mirror". With regards to my rear view mirror, I'm watching my kids grow up in it. And the whole process is speeding up I'm afraid. Nonetheless, there's something about a family road trip that makes me feel like a dad. Once I figure that one out I'll be sure and blog it. ;-)

M - Salina KS Round 2

Here I sit in the lobby of the Fairfield Inn Salina, waiting again for the fam to awake. This morning after another tasty breakfast at Russells 24hr Cafe and all-around greasy spoon, I explored. I made it through unincorporated little Bavaria, KS as well as Brookville (pop. 395). The most I could find on Bavaria is that its population in 1910 was 110. Today, I'm thinking it is 2, possibly 6 if you count the turkeys I saw milling around in a field next to the 2-lane I was cruising (click the pic to see the turks).

I spent the rest of the morning up until now as I blog, taking pictures and trying to take advantage of the early light. I had a GREAT time in case you didn't know that already. And, the gnats!! Oh my the gnats! These pictures are inadequate to convey to you the gnats!! They were heavily congregated on every downwind side of every tree, bush, and clump of weeds. It was incredible. Who among us hasn't at one point in our life ridden our bike through a cloud of gnats and and gotten a faceful of the annoying little flying pests? HERE is a video in QT format. It is 11mb but for the geekier among us, it's really cool!



Here are some of my favorite pics from this morning. If these don't say "Kansas", I don't know what does!

M - Lunch at 7800ft

Well, this may be the last post from me for a while but thanks to the bride for keeping things going over the past few days.

Dana mentioned our hiking trip on Mt. Falcon and I must add that it was incredible. Except for Noah only wanting to go back to the hotel and ride his scooter (I know God can attest that we adults are just as frequently short-sighted on much more important issues), it was one of our best days.

We left a hot Denver and ended up on top of Mt. Falcon where we had a 70-degree breeze, beautiful view, and quite a tasty lunch! The drive to the trailhead and picnic area was a bit confusing at times and there is nothing like a fork in the road with an arrow right in the middle pointing exactly halfway between both routes. We rolled the dice (not that we normally carry dice) and fortunately patiently picked the proper path (that's alliteration for you grammar challenged readers).

It was impossible to look in a direction where there wasn't a view worth viewing. The smell of fresh, live pine filled the air. There wasn't a sound to be heard except the wind in the trees and our own footsteps. I would definitely hanglide here...if, you know, I had a hang glider, and if I knew how, and if I wasn't WAY too scared. We saw some wildlife but nothing to knock your socks off.

The whole situation left Dana and I wishing we could go back in the afternoon, sans kids, and take some longer hikes.


Katie is pretty unstable on FLAT land so we have to watch her very closely when climbing on the rocks. She is way more confident than is warranted given her inadequate athletic prowess at this stage of her short little life.

I also have to show off how impressive was the bride to 'backpack' a heavy load out of the forest. Lest you think it was not very chivalrous of me to allow such a feat, you must know that the boys found themselves engaged in a battle of grand proportions. It was posed that 'boys rule and girls drool'. You may have heard this wise maxim in earlier years of your life. Whether you have or haven't, it is true. In order to prove it beyond doubt, it became necessary for the boys to beat the girls back to the car. Unfortunately, the bride was teamed up with a poorly trained, poorly conditioned (unless of course Dora-watching is the contest) little girl named Katie. Noah faded hard near the end but the boys won by a length and reigned victorious on Mt. Falcon.

D - Children's Museum

Today was the first of 2 days where I am alone with the kiddos while Mike goes to his conference. I wasn't quite brave enough to revisit Waterworld (though I did briefly consider it), so I took them to the Denver Children's Museum instead. Once again, there is no pictorial evidence of this event because I am not our family photographer. Actually, I was just sick within the first 15 minutes of being there that I had forgotten mine.

I would HIGHLY recommend the museum to anyone traveling this way with kids under 8 years old. They have several different "playscapes" set up with different grown-up themes where kids can play and use those little imaginations. My kids really loved the mini grocery store where they had their own shopping carts, and Noah acted as cashier for a good half hour while Katie shopped and used a little mop and broom to clean up the store. Katie liked a little cabin that had a kitchen set up as well as bunk beds for her to make and a washing machine where she did her laundry. Noah's favorite thing was the Assembly Plant (this will be NO surprise to anyone who knows him at all). Here they have tools such as saws, screwdrivers, hole punches, safety goggles and all kinds of crafts supplies as well as instructions for building various projects. Noah opted to build a boat. I'm sure it would have looked better if Mike had helped him instead of me, but he's proud of it anyhow.

Once we caught up with Mike he asked the kids what their favorite part of the museum had been. Noah gave several different options, but then settled on the Assembly Plant. Katie thought for a whole 2 seconds before shouting "the Gift Shop!" Gotta love girls!

D - Waterworld & Hiking

Okay, I'm going to try my hand at a trip report. I don't have the camera, so it won't be as interesting to view as Mike's posts.

Yesterday, for Noah's birthday, we spent the day at Waterworld - the "biggest water park in the USA." We got there a couple of hours later than we intended, so we stayed until the park closed to try to make up for it. It was a looooooonnnnnggggg day!

The park was really nice, but very busy. There are a lot of multi-person rides (as opposed to Whitewater's 1), so that made it nice to go as a family. Unfortunately, Katie was really scared on the slides, so she and I only went down twice. Because it was so busy, we had to wait in line at least 20 minutes for each ride. I guess we've been spoiled by Whitewater because we really weren't used to that.

Noah and Mike did several other things while Katie and I took a nap. One of those things included Noah falling backwards off of a rope fence (that he shouldn't have been on in the first place) onto pavement. He had the biggest knot you've ever seen in your life for the rest of the night! He was okay, though, after an ice pack and some Motrin.

We finished off his birthday by taking a horse-drawn carriage through DT Denver. It was really neat, and the kids couldn't understand why we wouldn't do it again tonight!

Today we tried to take it a little easier because we're just plain wearing ourselves out here. We drove into the mountains and hiked at Mount Falcon Park. We packed a lunch and ate while we were there, so we had a great time. I'm sure Mike will post pictures of that later. He can't resist showing off his photography!

If you've read this far, then thanks for your patience! You're either family or REALLY good friends (in need of a vacation of your own).

D - Katieism

I often tell Mike that I don't think Katie knows her real name because I call her by so many different nicknames. Now I have proof of this.

As I was trying to brush her teeth tonight, Katie was putting up her usual fight. In frustration I called her Katie Elisabeth Bosley. I guess she didn't even recognize it because she looked at me funny and said, "I'm not a little body!"