Oklahoma Trip Part 1

We went to Oklahoma for the Barrett Family Reunion. Here are some pictures from our trip.

We loved playing in the pool, it was a great way to cool down in the 100+  degree heat!

We celebrated Hannah's second birthday with some cake!

Hannah enjoyed riding her tricycle and she was great at it!

Thats Emily with Jack, Andrea's newborn baby.

Emily, Uncle David, and I made some hilarious photos with his Apple laptop.

We went to Soda Steve's every day! The rootbeer floats are soo good! 

Rebekah and I giving Abby a bath after she had jumped in the lake!

                                                                      ~Ashley~

Bat Trip

Last week we were able to have an interesting experience of learning more about bats at the Yolo County Water Basin.  The trip started with a one hour talk about bats (I know it sounds creepy and not fun).  We were very impressed with the quality of the presentation and we learned a lot from it.  After the talk we followed the instructor out into the rice fields (20 minute drive by van) of Yolo County just before dark, so we could view the mass exodus of the bats.  The bats live under the freeway that you can see in the below pictures, and every night they predictably come out at the same place.  

We let the girls each bring a friend.   Behind the girls are rice fields.

Ashley and her friend Haven, the bats nest under the bridge behind them.

Emily and her friend Brielle

Those aren't black clouds, they are clouds of bats.

Tahoe Trip

We recently went to Squaw Valley (near Lake Tahoe) for a few days. We had a great time! Here are a few pictures from our trip.

The view from our hotel room was very pretty!

We went up in a gondola VERY high.

The gondola took us to the summit which was 8200 feet. The Winter Olympics were held here in 1960. If you look closely, in the background, you can see Lake Tahoe.

There was an roller skating rink on the top of the mountain. Emily and I (ashley)  tried it out  but we did not have a good experience because we are used to inline skates and there was only roller skates! I fell down on the first step onto the rink and I bruised my tailbone :)

Icing my tailbone, OUCH! It hurt for a couple of days!

Emily sliding down the water slide. It was sooo much fun!!!

I am in the pool in the hotel surrounded by beautiful scenery. If you were wondering, the pools WERE  kinda heated but there was a spa so we went in there if we were cold.

We went on a pretty hike with mountains, forests and waterfalls!

Our Out of the Ordinary Hailstorm!

Today after we came home from church it started hailing! Hailstorms are very uncommon here so it was a big deal! It hailed so hard and so much it looked liked snow!

The hail on our neighbor's car. It looked liked all the cars we drove past came from Lake Tahoe! (or St. Joe) :)

Big chunks of hail we picked up!

Watching the show from the trunk of the van!

The hail on the trampoline

~Ashley~

Chick Video

The Eggs have hatched!!

The eggs have hatched into cute little chicks!!! The first three hatched VERY early Saturday morning, and two more hatched late Saturday night. So all together we have five chicks. We don't think anymore are going to hatch. Four chicks are yellow and one is brown.~Ashley~

The first egg is getting ready to hatch

The two chicks are sleeping. So cute!

The chicks look like they are kissing!

This is the brooder box. It has a light to keep the chicks warm, a water and food bowl, and some of dads old shirts.

We dipped the chick's beak into the water so he would know how to drink.

Sammy is VERY interested in the chicks. He just sits there  and watches them all day.

Chicks!!!!

About two weeks ago we picked up a dozen fertilized eggs(there are REAL chicks in there)!! We also rented an  incubator so the little chicks can grow!! It takes about 21 days after you put them in the incubator for them to hatch. So that means they will hatch around friday! Then I will post another blog about the hatched chicks!! I can't wait!! ~ Ashley

We are learning about how to take care of the eggs.

Getting ready to put the chicks in the incubator

Putting the 12 chicks in their "nest.''