Hello Termites, Goodbye TV Stand

Well, it's a sad day at the Eilers household. We had this great piece of furniture that we had gotten at a shop on main in Fredericksburg. I LOVED IT! It was huge, stained and antique looking. It was what we used upstairs for our storage and "entertainment center". Most of you know the piece I am talking about. It was probably my favorite piece in my house! Well, little did we know that 4 years ago when we bought it at the store, it had TERMITES!! We had never seen any sign of termites and the piece just looked "antique". This year the termites decided to make their appearance. A couple of months ago I was by myself one night and Brent was at a work dinner. I noticed a bug thing crawling around by the window. I called Brent right away because I just knew they were termites. Well, THEY WERE! Praise God they were just wood termites and they had plenty of wood to eat with that one piece of furniture. That night started our endless days of fumigation and wrapping the piece up to try and kill off the termites. We even tried to call a "termite expert" but there was only ONE guy in town that dealt with this big of furniture and he never called us back! So, after months of trying to fumigate it on our own, we had to call it quits. Brent tore it apart this evening and it is no longer a great piece of furniture in our house! There is a bright side to the story. My husband is a very skillful and talented man. He kept all the doors to the furniture and the pieces of wood that were termite free. He is going to recreate the piece for us! I trust that he can do it!! So, as teary eyed as I was to say goodbye, I am hopeful for a new and improved beautiful piece of furniture!

can you see the termite trails!?! GROSS!

Ezra turned 3!

Three fingers are a little harder than 2!

My sweet Ezra is three! I still cannot believe it! We have had such a great three years. He seems like such a big boy with the way he acts and talks, that I often have to remind myself, he is still a little boy. He is smart, funny, active, athletic, sweet, inquisitive and big into the "why" questions. Sometimes, we will go round and round with "why" that I will finally say, "why do you think?" and he will repeat everything I told him. I often have to remind myself that he is learning and wanting to know more and that is WHY everything is "why?"!
For his birthday we had a Toy Story party at The Little Gym. It was a lot of fun. Before his actual birthday, for about a week, when we would be talking about his birthday and where we were having it, he got so upset that it was at a  "little gym" because he wanted a BIG PARTY at his house. My good Allison suggested calling it The BIG gym to see if that would help. I think that he remembered having Emersyn's birthday at our house with all the cousins and how much fun it was and wanted the same thing. So, at first, I was feeling bad we were having the party at The Little Gym, but it was GREAT! All the kids had so much fun and the staff of Little Gym did a great job. Ezra loved every minute of it. Now we have Toy Story figurines, I don't know what to do with myself. He is in Toy Story Heaven. I just can't believe he is three! I am excited for this year. He starts pre-school at Oakhills Church in September going 2 or 3 days a week. He is very ready for it. It is such a great program and I am excited about helping in his class and watching him grow. Makes me a little teary, but very excited for the next stage!
Here are some pictures from the party.

What he woke up to

Emersyn in the trampoline he got from my dad and Joanne

party room at The Little Gym

Getting started with names and ages

he was pretty good at the balance beam

Parachute 

balls and bubbles

Emersyn loved the bubbles

this was a big hit

Emersyn even tried it

Happy Birthday Ezra!

blew out all three candles!

PRESENTS! 

Slinky dog!

4th of July

After our trip back from Colorado, the next day, Sunday, we got BACK IN the car and headed to Fredericksburg. We were invited to a cook-out and fireworks show by my good friend Jamie Bryant and her family. It was good times, good food and good fellowship. The kids had a lot of fun. Jamie's dad is a Vet and he mainly sees horses, so we got to see all of the horses at his clinic and even saddled a horse for the kids to ride! Ezra was a little timid at first, but, after seeing his friends ride, he was ready. He did such a good job. Emersyn sat on the horse, cried, then got off and laughing as she pet the horse. She kept walking over to the horses and bending down to see them. She was kind of saying "neigh" with a growl added to it. Watching the fireworks was fun. You could see the fireworks show from the clinic that the LBJ park puts on. Ezra and Emersyn liked them at first, then it was time to move on. Ezra even did his first Sparkler! It was fun evening. Thank you Kings and Bryants!!

sitting on the rail like little country kids

Ezra sizing up the horse, Rosey

Brynlee in her fourth of July outfit!

Ezra rode the horse a couple of times and loved it

Emersyn sat on the horse and DIDN'T like it

She preferred petting the horse. Maybe she didn't want to mess up her hair while riding in the wind ;)

Colorado!

Well, it was that time of year again, where we load up the car with camping gear, ice chests, bags of clothes, kids and a dog and head to Westcliffe, Colorado for a week. Brent's family built a log cabin (on their own) in Westcliffe that is about 20+ years old. The cabin has two rooms, one bathroom (where you have to pour water into the toilet to flush it), part kitchen and living space. It has a half wrap around back porch with an AMAZING view of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. The cabin is pretty rustic with no electricity or running water. So, basically, you go to bed when the sun goes down and get up when the sun comes up. The neighbor down the road kindly lets us use their cabin too. Their cabin has two rooms downstairs, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and loft/bedroom upstairs. We use that cabin to shower. We stayed at that cabin with Brent's brother's family. They have 3 kids.

View from the cabin

There were about 7 deer that came up the the cabin

Brent and his family have been going to this cabin for a long time. We have been going as a family for 4 or 5 years. We go every year at the same time. When we all go, which we all went this year, there are about 20 of us all together! It is so fun. We have such a good time with Brent's family. All the cousins (9 in all) are close in age and play really well together.

We left for Colorado Friday afternoon, and arrived Saturday afternoon. We stopped and stayed the night in Herferd, to break up the trip. When we arrived at the cabin, Michelle (brent's sister) and her crew were there, along with Melanie (brent's younger sister) and Kevin. Oma, Opa, and Uncle Fr. Brian didn't arrive until late sunday night.

While in Colorado, we went hiking up by Horn Creek Trail to a stream and the kids got in the FREEZING cold water. They thought it was great. I made Ezra get out of the water for a little bit because his legs were so red and felt frozen. The adults could barely put their hands in the water, let alone, their feet, while the kids didn't want to get out of it! After hiking, we headed into town for some much needed ice cream. Ezra slept through the whole ice cream goodness, so I took him to town a different day to get some more ice cream! One day we went to the small town, picked up some sandwiches and went the the soccer field and play ground to have a hang out day. The weather was so nice. It was mid to low 70's during the day and 40's at night! One day was a "work" day, for the boys. Opa rented a backhoe/front end loader to dig a hole for a cellar. This cellar will hold two water tanks and be storage. Uncle Kevin and Uncle Danielle placed pipes under the house the kitchen and bathroom, so one day, we will have running water! Wednesday, everyone (except bradley, caleb and zachary who were sick) hicked up music pass. It was about a mile and 1/4 hike up the mountain. We hiked up the "pass" where you could see the spot that the boys and melanie camp and fish. It was neat to actually somewhat see where brent goes camping every year. Part of the mountain where we stopped to have lunch had SNOW. The kids were so excited. They made snowballs and had a snowball fight. After eating lunch, and hanging out on the top for a while, the crew, who were heading on to camp out over night, continued to hike, while the girls and kids headed back down the mountain. Ezra did such a great job hiking up and down the mountain!! I carried Emersyn on a backpack all the way up and back down. That was a workout!!

Horn Creek Trail

Emersyn and I resting

Ezra playing in the Freezing water

Getting ready for our hike up Music Pass

Susanna, Grace, Me, Emersyn and Ezra

Fr. Brian, Maria Victoria, Juan Paublo, Grace and Susanna

Ezra hiking

The crew eating lunch at the Pass

Emersyn had a hard hike!

View of the pass

Family photo. Yes, ezra has a pot on his head.

Snow that we found

The camp ground where they stayed the night

The lake

They caught 40 fish!

Soccer field

Emersyn and Solonas watching

There was a HUGE dirt pile these two loved playing in!

He loved it here

She loved the 4-wheeler

One night we had a camp fire and made DELICIOUS S'mores

The rest of the time we just hung out. It was so nice to just not do anything!! We headed back to Texas the following Saturday and drove straight through. It took about 15 hours. We stopped to have breakfast and a late lunch with Michelle, Danielle, their 4 kids, Melanie and Kevin.

A random stop in Dalhart at a convenient store!

We had such a great time, but it was so nice to be home and in our own beds!