A fishing trip, a drive home, and a couple of cows.

I've been neglecting our blog lately (oops!) but it hasn't been for a lack of "happenings".  Lack of time, inspiration and a bad internet connection....those are my excuses. ;)

Guess we need to backtrack for the past month.  Let's start off with some "trailer life" reality/humor, shall we?

We found this little guy coming down the chute when we were emptying our sewer tank. Apparently Baby J had been up to some mischief in the bathroom.
 ;)

(So that's where Thomas the Train went!)

Mother's Day

While Josh and Daniel were awake at 4am getting on a fishing boat, us ladies (Karla & I) got to sleep in and enjoy a candlelit Mother's Day pancake breakfast prepared by the GIT girls. They also blessed us with gift bags filled with homemade soaps, an apron (handmade), and a pretty infinity scarf, and babysat for us (well, just for me...Karla's kids are grown) while we went out to lunch at Lapa Lapa's Mexican Restaurant.

The guys had gone deep sea fishing for Sammy's bachelor party and, as a consolation prize for it being on Mom's Day had promised to come back with truckloads of fish to BBQ.  Well, wouldn't ya know it, they came home later that evening, disappointed.  Deep sea fishing had been cancelled due to the weather.  Poor guys.  On top of that, the groom and a few other guys got horribly sea sick.

The guys got to hike, at least, and enjoy riding the fishing boat
for a little while. Here is D w/ Sammy (the groom). What a great guy
to let a 10 year old come to his bachelor party! How many kids
do you know who have gone to bachelor parties?!

A drive home (the weekend after Mother's Day)

We took a mini-vacation to Santa Rosa to see family and take care of financial things.

D & J taking a nap on the road, :)

Mom & Dad Brady's house/property. We stayed in
their nice RV while the kiddos stayed in the house.
Felt like a vacation for our ears. :)
The kids didn't want to leave.
We all had such a wonderful time.

Z with "Nana".  Sorry Nana, but I had to capture
the moment! ;)

S & E being silly with their favorite Auntie (my sister).

sister time.

My mama

The kiddos with their best SR friends. We had a short but sweet
visit.

a mini-tornado we noticed swirling in our direction while driving through Fresno on the way home. 

We also visited our friends in Manteca on the way home but forgot to take pictures. It was great to spend time with our good friends and catch up. 

A couple of cows
Also not pictured, (for very good reason) is the Bull Slaughtering that we viewed a few weeks ago on the farm. Yeah. It wasn't pretty...but now we know how it's done!  D & E decided to watch the whole process with us. I wasn't sure how they would do, but they did fine. They actually giggled a bit when the bull's tongue was hanging out and they started acting silly, much to my dismay.  I guess I feel that we should be more reverent when witnessing death.  The butcher was very nonchalant about it all and cracked some jokes while he was cutting off it's parts.  I guess with as many cows as he's butchered it makes sense that it wouldn't be a big deal.  Yet it felt like such a solemn moment for me and many of the others who were seeing that kind of thing done for the first time. I know that the Native Americans thank the animals that they kill for their life.  I can definitely understand that custom now.  The meat was going to be for the wedding, so it gave all of us a great appreciation of what actually goes into a "meal".

Fruit picking
We also visited the Leppke farm a couple weeks ago and helped pick 60 baskets of nectarines!

There was a lot of perfectly good fruit on the ground that hadn't been picked up. I made it my mission to gather it all- to "rescue it" from becoming mush in the sun!..and of course I got one of my epiphanies while doing that. :) Here it is.....ready?.....People are like fruit. They have talents and abilities that are often lying on the ground, unused, and if they don't pick them up and use them, they as people can "rot" and go to waste. The fruit pickers of life come along and pick out the best looking ones on the tree...and sometimes don't bend down to pick up ones that have fallen. I see God as the fruit picker who sees the good fruit "hiding" under the tree and gathers it to be used. :) Call me strange...but there are so many metaphors in nature!

And lastly, we have a 10 year old!

May 28th

D at Brewbaker's Bar & Grill in Visalia
enjoying a HUGE root beer float.

Another update coming soon. Sammy & Emily's wedding took place last night, and it was truly beautiful. I hope to talk about it in the next post.

'Til then. May you have a blessed week.

~The Brady Bunch