The Graduate!!

Last Thursday my nephew Travis Arnold Rader GRADUATED!!!

But before he walked the walk.....he posed with a few of his friends!

Here he is with his mommy(my sissy Nancy) and his brother(Michael)....I told ya to smile!!!! :)

Got this picture of my mommy, and sissy...I think it is really good....well till you notice someone is giving Nanc devil horns!!! Yes, my sissy Janet was there but, would have a MAJOR meltdown if I posted her face on here!!! :)

The long walk begins!


He and Sammi

I have NO idea who these 2 are, just thought it was funny. The tallest and the shortest in the class.......he kept pointing down at her as they walked...:)

They were going to enjoy every moment of this....that or they noticed that there were a HUGE number of cameras constantly pointed at them!!!! :)

Hey, there is a NO GUM rule here!!

The BIG moment...and with honors!!!

Darn I missed the toss of the hats!!! Just got the tail end of it!!

Travis and his VERY PROUD granma!!

The fam celebrates!!

Then some NUTTY women came around and pushed us all aside so she could act like THIS!!!

OK, so maybe that was his very proud Aunt Lisa!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! TRAVIS we are all so PROUD of all your accomplishment!!!

A day in my life.....Lukas style!!

Howdy!!

Gma says she has a lot of pictures and some stories to share, but before she gets on here and takes FOREVER I thought I would sneak on here first!! hehe Gma and Gpa were camping this week and mommy, daddy, and I went down to spend the weekend. Here we are Sunday morning playing puppies!! Come on guys lets get going it is a warm sunny day!!!

First thing after breakfast I had a little work to help Gpa with outside. My work just never seems to be done around here!

Not too long after that mommy and I spied someone out on the water sailing, and headed down to the shoreline to have a look!!

Since it looked like so much fun mommy and I decided to head down to the beach for a ride!!

If you think this is sort of a weird way of boarding and riding on a boat, you are RIGHT!!! For some reason mommy and baby sisser didn't do a very good job of looking smooofff!!

Eventually she got it right and we were off!!

We had tons of fun.......and yes we got WET!!! :)

Mommy and I hung out near the waters edge until Gma came to join us!

I think the whole sun protection thing may have been a little out of hand here!! No, really it was a little chilly when we headed out. Anyways I wanted to show mommy something I found the day before. Some kids had dug a huge hole and I wanted to see if it was still there!!

It WAS!!!!

At first I though it would be fun to just stomp around in the mud for a bit!!

And since nobody said anything about it I stomped a little harder!!

I figured, what the heck, since they didn't seem to care about the mud!!!! I crawled in it!!

I sort of liked it when the mud splashed on my face!

The more I crawled......the more I liked it!!

My shoes were full of mud so I decided to take them off!

I emptied out the sand and water!

Then decided why not just go barefooted so I let them float!!!

I have heard talk of a mud facial...........I am not sure I am a fan!!

Gma said something about it NOT supposed to being put in my eye!! OH, maybe that was the problem!!

WHAT????????????

OH, I am NOT supposed to eat it....NOW ya tell me!!

HAPPY FACE!!!

It was right around this point that I decided that all those clothes were just getting in the way...so off they came!!

Mommy attempting some more sunburn protection.... good LUCK with that!!!

It was sometime around here that I wanted to help so I held out my finger.....I have always been curious and so before mommy and Gma could get to me I decided to give it a taste!!!! UMMM let's just say I won't be trying that AGAIN!!!

GMA WHAT did you put this in here for?!?!?!?!?

I kept jumping in from the sides and got a little too energetic with my jumps and hit my mouth with my knee!!! OUCH!!!

Mommy checked it out...wiped off the blood....and I went back to playing....I am a BRAVE BOY ya know!! :)

I went FLYING on the swing!

Then back to the water hole for a little more splashing before.............

A wash down at the camper.....Let me tell you that is some sticky sand!!! It's a good thing Gpa's trailer has an outdoor shower!!

After some lunch and a little more work around the trailer......

I CRASHED!!!!

I have my very own cot and we set it out under the trees. Grey Puppy(he was my daddy's when he was little), Brown and Blue puppy all joined me for a much needed nap. I had such a great time camping and can't wait to do this again!!!!!!!!!!

Lukas at the lake!

Last Friday G-pa was going to take his new boat out for an inaugural sail, and I got to go along!! We took the boat to Yankee Springs and I worked really hard to help him get it all set up!

I will admit that I may have taken a few play breaks in between all the hard work! I had a lot of digging to do in order to get this beach in shape!

Being that last summer I was just a youngster I had forgotten how nice it is to just hang out in short sleeves and shorts. This spring has left a lot to be desired when it comes to nice weather, so I was really glad to be able to take advantage of this day!!
And...yes I like tractors....Do you like tractors?

I brought T-rex along to watch over the campsite....he was there to scare away any interlopers!!

It was up to me to take him around and show him the surroundings! It was his first time at the beach and he was a little hesitant about some of the new things he was seeing!!


G-pa and I spent a lot of time building these really neat sandcastles....and that darn T-rex went right over and stomped on them....G-ma said it was OK that she would help me re-build them with me later!

While we were walking on the beach he kept picking up all sorts of things in the sand.. I had to keep telling him that he can NOT be putting things in his mouth with out asking if it was safe first....Now I know what everyone went through with me when I was at that stage so long ago!!! Man this parenting thing is TOUGH!!!

T-rex was finally a little tired so he headed back to the camper for a little snooze and I continued on with my exploration!
I noticed some things laying on the shore and headed over! Gma said they were dead fish...I have seen my fair share of dead fish and I was not all that convinced!!! I asked Gma if I could touch them to make sure....... I'm inquisitive like that!!
Anyways, she suggested that I use a stick to touch them! I used a long one first, just to be sure!!

Then I moved to a smaller one!

Eventually I just braved it and used my finger...and guess what.....YUP they were DEAD!!! :) :)

Then Gma spotted this moving in and for some reason she would NOT let me touch it, even with a stick..Darn it, it looked really interesting!!

Then the snake, yup I kid you not that is what it is...decided to head to dry land. I guess I am supposed to watch out for this thing and stay away from it!!!

I guess T-rex sensed that I may be in trouble and headed down to check it out...he left a lot of footprints in the sand!

Gpa was working really hard on his boat and I was very helpful! It was especially fun to hang out under this huge trampoline on his boat......I had to keep reminding them that it was not just a boat....but a CATAMARAN!!! Gesh!!!

It was a lot of work getting under this thing!

Why in the world Gma decided it was necessary to post this pic I will never know.....why she is so intrigued with a wet, sandy backside is beyond me, I can't wait till I figure out how to load my own pics so I don't have to work around her choices!!

After I was done with all those distractions I was back to helping Gpa with his boat, I can't wait to get a ride on this thing! It is so big when you see it next to my daddy's boat!

Right after they got out of work dad and aunt Ya headed down to hang out for a bit! I was sooooooo excited to show her all the stuff I had found earlier!! She, being the AWESOME aunt she is, was more than happy to tag along!

We spent the night in GandG's trailer and when we woke up it was a little cold and rainy. Dad and Gpa were determined to get in some sailing NO MATTER WHAT!!!

I got bundled up.....I will say I so liked the weather yesterday better.....anyways, I headed out to the beach and found some neat puddles to stomp in!!!

Not to worry, I had extra dry shoes back at the trailer!

Aunt Ya was along and we were writing in the sand with sticks. I asked her to draw me a combine......COME ON....that is NO combine, it's a tractor, and then I had to point out that she didn't have a mower attachment either. So much for remedial drawing skills, but she tries!!!;)

I noticed that the wheels looked a little loose so I fixed them!!!

Dad and Gpa got a little sailing in and we had some lunch before Dad and I headed home to see Mommy.....I really missed her!

I'm thinking I may have to give Gpa hat wearing lessons sometime soon. I mean seriously if I am going to be spending time with him I can't have him looking like that!!!

Well that's it for this blog...stay tuned it looks to be a busy summer with a lot of fun this to tell you all about!! Bye for now!