Sup

Well, it has been awhile. I'm glad to be back, if you’re reading this, thanks for checking back on us after a long hiatus.
I've recently recovered from a bout with the worst sickness I've had in years. When I started getting sick I decided that I wasn't going to let is slow me down. I kept going thinking I could push right through it. My body responded by shutting me down for over 5 days. It was the worst. Usually, when you get sick, it's nice the first day or two to lay around having someone bring you Sprite and Sour Cream and Onion Lays. But, after the first day your bed just isn't so comfortable and you've already watched every movie you feel like seeing. So four more days of this was torture. I almost missed the annual Lakeland Hills garage sale where our entire hill has a garage sale on the same day. I couldn't walk it so I drove around while Camille would walk the block. We found a sweet bike for Camille and a kid carrier for my bike. Now we can all go biking together. When we got back from shopping Linsey put up a table and sold cookies, kool aid and waters. She made over $25 in less than 2 hours.

The next big event was our Memorial Day camping trip. We rented a cabin at Camp Zarahemla just over Chinook Pass toward Yakima. It's on a nice lake called Silver Lake. Most of our ward was there too. We had a talent show, potluck dutch oven dinner, Sunday program and fished in the lake. The kids played them selves silly. I've never seen them more tired and dirty. It was great.
The only down side happened when Hunter tripped on a rock and put his hand in the fire. He suffered 3rd degree burns on his hand and wrist. It was an emotional event for our family to see our little Hunter man in such pain and anguish. We got cold water on it, cleaned it and dressed it up. Then the men there gathered around and we gave him a Priesthood blessing. I remember very distinctly when I gave Hunter his baby blessing that I said he would heal quickly from injury. He has done remarkably well since it happened. Partly because all of the nerves were cut so he doesn't feel much. He has been healing well and the doctor (Camille's brother) said he should heal up just fine. He has been really tough through it all which is unusual for Hunter. We were certainly grateful for all of our friends who helped us through all of that chaos. Especially Tracy Biddulph who moved with reflexes bordering on premonition, scooping Hunter up when he fell.
On a lighter note, here are some fun pictures from the trip.

Hunter has a little crush on a girl named Lydia. It's a love hate relationship but this weekend it was all love. I heard that she asked her mom how to spell "I love Hunter". Already a ladies man just like...uh never mind.

Mill Pond harvest

Mill Pond
There is a little pond at the bottom of our hill that they stock with trout in preparation for an annual "kids fishing day". The event is this Saturday but the stock the pond about a week in advance. We always hit the pond during this time because the fishing is awesome and there is no one there. We fished for about 2 hours and had a blast. We got soaked by a downpour that came through but, true to their McInelly blood, the kids didn't want to stop fishing.

Hunter reeled this one in all by himself. He was so excited that he shouted "look at that fish, I caught that fish!" As you can see, I am really proud of him.

Linsey got in on the action too. They each caught two trout.

We had such a great time and Camille took such great pictures too!

The Last 3 Weeks

Sometimes I wish someone would do this to me.

Man, it's been harder than I thought it would be to update this blog on a regular basis. People are growing restless and I've been getting some complaint letters so I guess it's time to give you the goods. This will be a picture post since most of what's happened over the past few weeks has been captured in 1's and 0's. I love digital cameras. Just like smart phones, I don't know how we ever lived without them.
Here we go...

The other night Matt, my brother, called me up and said he had free tickets to a Seattle Mariners game that night. So on a whim we packed up the kids and headed off for Safeco Field on a school night. I'm not much of a baseball fan but they have these garlic fries that are unbelievable. We actually had a really good time. The game wasn't crowded and the kids had fun roaming the seats around us. At one point I bought them a bucket of cotton candy. Hunter and Linsey ate the whole thing in about ten minutes. I've never seen a sugar rush quite like the one that hit them. I watched Linsey red faced from laughing so hard, fall over the seats onto the row below and lay on the ground laughing some more. Such an event would have normally been followed by screaming, crying and demands for a band aid. However, with a blood sugar level twice the legal limit, she wasn't even phased.
We did have a quite car ride home though. What goes up, must come down.

We had the missionaries over for dinner on Monday. We had soup bowls with chili inside. At one point the elders pointed out that we might want to talk to Hunter about his eating style. Instead we took a picture.

We spend the last weekend soaking up some serious sun at the Camille's parents house in Kennewick. It was truly energizing to play outside in 75 degree weather with no clouds in site.
We went there to celebrate Emma's 2nd Birthday and to meet Doug's soon to be wife, Desiree.
The kids played non stop with their cousins for 2 days. It was great.

Emma likes her present.

Wheelbarrow rides. Better than Disney Land and free!

Hunter collected Rolly Pollies for hours. He really wanted to bring them home but I convinced him to let them go and make more Rolly Pollies for next time we visit.

Doug and Desiree. They are getting married in San Diego on August 10th. She is a really neat girl and great for Doug.

I'm not sure where the fascination with Dandelions comes from. Perhaps it's because it's the only flower that kids can pick without someone getting mad at them. We are still finding dandelions in various pockets of things we took on this trip.

Side walk chalk art. I couldn't resist drawing a fish.

Emma and Gavin. They were born about a month apart. I've decided that they must have done rock, paper, scissors to see who got to come down to which family. They look more like twins than Gavins older brother and sister who actually are twins.

On Saturday at the Butlers we went to a park and Chris set off a whole bunch of cool rockets. They fly up hundreds of feet, let out a parachute and then float down slowly. The kids had fun watching them go up and then chasing them as they came down. It was great entertainment on a beautiful day.

Lift off.

Hunter got to launch one but he would only do it if I would cover his ears. The rockets were very noisy and he is sensitive to loud noises.

He wasn't the only one scared of all the noise.

The boys reaction to a failed parachute.

When we got home Hunter showed me what Braydon taught him. Pretty cool talent for a 4 year old!