Mason Calton at His Best

This is Molly's (our dog) best friend, Mason. He is also my mother and father-in-laws dog. I was so impressed by his driving skills that I had to take a picture. Mason is such a show off. Always trying to impress Molly with his manly skills. He thinks he's so cool. I guess that's because he is. :)

Are You A Good Girl?

Watch for Molly's nodding head. Yeah - She knows she's a good girl.

David David Bo Bavid Banana Fanana Fo Favid Me My Mo Mavid...David

My brother, David, came to town not too long ago. He got leave from the Marines to come visit us. He is in the middle of his military training. I think he's going to be a helicopter mechanic. Somethng like that. The military has been good for him. He looks good and seems happy. We are very proud of his decision to join the military. He may have to go to Afganastan in December, which would be no fun. But, in about a year he will be stationed in Hawaii. Now that would be nice!

This is David with Katie and Kelsey.

Addition to the Family

At the beginning of the summer, Tyler decided he might want to get a Texas Longhorn. I can't remember what got him thinking about them. Anyway, they are neat looking cows, supposed to be friendly, and they can become hamburger if necessary -- something we always like to have on hand :)

So, we bought a very handsome Longhorn that we named Buford. He is so friendly. Almost too friendly. I don't dare go out into the field because he would want to run over and "play" with me, which likely would end in my untimely death. However, from the other side of the fence, he will let us pet him and rub his neck all over and feed him. He really has quite the personality. Isn't he cute?!

Apparently, Longhorns really like company, so we decided to buy Buford a wife. Her name is Beulah. She is a month or so younger than him. Not quite so attractive. The big warts on her face are a turnoff for me, but Buford does not appear to mind them at all. They quickly bonded and Buford is definitely protective of her. Weird. We had our beef cow out in the field with the two of them and Buford would really muscle him around at first trying to keep him and Beulah apart. If the beef cow tried to squeeze his head into Buford's grain bucket, Buford would shove, push and poke him out of the way. If Beulah sticks her warty head in the grain bucket with Buford, he let's her! He shares it with her. Again, weird. Aren't they a cute couple? We think so!

We are really enjoying them and their fun personalities. They seem smarter than all the dumb beef cows we have raised in the past.

Anyway, we are hoping that we will have a little baby Longhorn in around 9 months. That would be so fun. We'll keep you all posted on that.

Trampoline, Kids, Camera, ACTION

I just love having a trampoline. When your kids have nothing to do they can always go outside and jump out all their energy. Totally worth the cost. So, one day the girls were expending their energy on the tramp and I got some pretty good action shots. The last picture is my favorite.

We Found Out Who's Brave and Who's Not

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from our fabulous trip to Lagoon. But, it was so fun I thought I would blog a minute about it anyway.
I haven't taken the kids to Lagoon since Katie was about 7 and Kelsey was about 3. This experience was totally different from back then -- of course.
Anyway, Katie invited a friend and her cousin, Samantha and Samantha's friend came. Kesley invited her cousin, Madison and Aunt Tiffany came. Sooo, The teenagers went off and did their own thing while me and Tiff followed Kelsey and Madison around the park letting them do their thing.
Kelsey had told me before we even left that she was going to ride everything. I thought, "you say that now..." But I really thought when she saw some of the roller coaster rides she would be rethinking that statement.
No. She did not rethink. She got on everything she possibly could. On a few rides I asked her if she was afraid and she would say, "Yes, but I'm going to ride it anyway." I was so impressed with her bravery! I rode on a few with her but I chickened out on some she road. For instance, the ride called Wicked. I did not go but she jumped right in line and went.
She went on a ride called The Spider and came off looking a little green in the gills so we took a break, had some water, and walked around a minute so she didn't lose her lunch. After a bit, she felt better and got right back to it.
The big sister, on the other hand, was too afraid to ride on a bunch of stuff. Katie said she realized she was afraid of heights after her Lagoon trip. She still had a really good time and went on plenty of rides but wasn't nearly as fearless as her little sister.
We'll definitely have to do that again next year, it was so much fun!

These are pictures of the ride "Wicked" :

That's One Big Oryx! Really!

Tyler got fortunate enough to go on a really great Oryx hunt. He went to New Mexico which is the only free-roaming place you can find Oryx's besides Africa and I think you can find some behind fences in Texas. Anyway, he was lucky to come across this very big one. There were a lot of others he could have shot that were smaller. He really didn't know what he had but the guys that were with him told him it was outstanding. We think it will make top 10. He's very proud of it.
They are really interesting looking animals. They have a tail that looks like a horses. They are really big up front and as you can see they have spears for horns.

These are the guys that went with Tyler. Him, Tony and Tony and his brother, Matt.

One last picture. Oh, and also the meat is very, very good. Even better than elk.