Housing Progress 3: The Foundation

(Pete sent us a few pictures to keep us in the loop while we are gone.)

Picture Log Continued: Show Low, Arizona

At Grandma's House

Hiking Through Torreon

 

Fishing with Grandpa

Grandma's Firepit

Torreon Pool and Clubhouse

Picture Log Continued: Colorado Springs

 Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs

Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs

Hoskins Road Trip Picture Log: Mount Rushmore

Petrified Wood Park Lemmon, South Dakota

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

 Fourth of July Parade in Custer, South Dakota

Hanging at the Jones' campsite in Keystone, South Dakota

Watching the Fourth of July Fireworks in Custer, South Dakota

Housing Progress 2: Footings

We snapped this shot right before we drove out of town.  Wonder what it will look like in four weeks when we return......

The Birthday Boy

The birthdays just seem to keep on coming at our house, and this time it was my dear little Spencer's turn to turn a year older.  It's hard to believe that he is seven this year, but then, I feel that way about all of the kids birthdays.  Nonetheless, they just keep on coming.

The day was a fairly typical Hoskins Birthday.  It started out with the traditional birthday serenade and breakfast in bed,

 followed up with the opening of a few presents. 

After we all ate, and Spencer played his fill of his new XBox game, then we all put on our swimming suits and took a family outing to the Elks Swimming Pool. The kids and Daddy laughed and played, and I laid beside the pool trying to keep my recent bout with vertigo under control.  (The day before it had hit me from out of no where and I thought was going to die! It improved a bit for Spencer's birthday--a sheer blessing bestowed after pleading prayer--but the improvement was not much.  Not enough that I could handle looking at the fluid surface of the water!)

 That night, we had the Anderson family over--thank heaven they are here now and willing to play the part of family on special occasions--and we all enjoyed the Dairy Queen Oreo Ice Cream Cake Spencer requested, me most of all since I didn't have to make it!  

Afterwards, Spencer opened the rest of his presents and then spent the rest of the night organizing his new Lord of the Rings Legos, trying to decide which set to build first.

The next day he set his plan into motion working on one set after another.  He did take a short break for his special birthday outing though.  And what was his choice of venue this year?  Well, none other than Bismarck's own Space Aliens.  (Space Aliens is the North Dakota Version of Chuck E Cheese.  I know, I know...we're out there!)  Of course Spencer invited his best friend Josh to his birthday outing; however, at that last minute he got our approval to take one extra buddy on his outing too.   Just as he and Daddy were loading into the car to leave, Spencer noticed that Mason was standing at the door watching.  He was so sad because he hadn't been the buddy Spencer picked for his birthday outing.  In his typical sensitive style, Spencer poked his head out of the window and asked me if Mason could come on his birthday outing this year too.  I was so pleased, and Mason beamed from ear to ear!

While there, they had pizza and root beer, 

played games,

and Spencer was served the traditional Space Aliens birthday treat: Alien Ears!  Yum!

It was a pretty good birthday this year, and made better by the fact that for the first time in two years we weren't traveling on his special day.  We did leave out of town two days later to head out on a four week road trip, but he was home on his day fair and square!  Happy Birthday Spencer!