A Mouse in the House?

Nope, not in the house but in the grill! I opened up the grill to start cooking a quick dinner before Taylor's softball game and just as I was about to fire it up I looked down and saw this!

Yes, that is a nest of baby mice, curled up in a nice little nest at the bottom of our grill. What is crazy is that I just used the grill on Sunday for Father's Day so that little Momma' Mouse did not waste any time building a nest and having the babies.


There were six little, pink, ugly babies in the nest. Though, if you would ask our children they were really cute. Mama was sitting right there in the nest with them as the babies were all whimpering with their mouths open. So, I grabbed a shoe box with intents on capturing both the babies and Mom and moving them out to the field behind us.

That is actually a picture of Mom coming up to my phone (used as camera) as I tried to take a picture. When I went in for the rescue Mom took off and I couldn't find her. I put the nest and babies in a box and set them on the deck while I grilled. Every time I went in the house and came back out to check on the meat there was one baby missing. Mom would hope up the deck stairs and crawl over to box, grabbing one baby at a time in her mouth and moving them to their next "home". The kids and Amy made it home in time to actually watch the Mom make one of her extractions.

It was just another pretty cool "National Geographic" moment at the Boelk house.

Forever Friends

This past Sunday our family took a trip to Davenport for a visit with a group of close high school friends. Amazing as it is, we have continued to stay in touch for the past 17 years since high school graduation.......yes I said 17 years! What a great group of individuals and friends, and we always have a wonderful time when we are able to organize our various schedules and get together. Making that even more difficult is the fact that we are now spread all over the country in Seattle, Appleton, Pleasant Hill, West Branch, and Rock Island. Unfortunately we were unable to get everyone all together at one time, but at some point during the weekend everyone was present.

This recent gathering was the first in quite some time when we were able to get whole families together and kids were able to play together as well. We enjoyed a picnic outing to Vander Veer Park on a warm but beautiful day.

Our kids had a blast climbing and playing on the cool evergreen trees.

At the end of the festivities, a couple of our families enjoyed cooling off in the beautiful fountain.

Here is our friend's daughter soaking up the rays while enjoying the water.

Of course, my boys were mostly interesting in splashing, jumping, and climbing.

My daugher, in her soaking state, prior to getting back in the car to head home (without towels). Little did we know that you aren't actually supposed to be wading, swimming, or playing in the fountain. Nor did the other 20+ kids and families. We later found out when the police officer politely asked us to get out, in which we then noticed the large sign stating such rules.

It was a great afternoon and we cherish those times together with friends.

The Sky's the Limit

On the way home from the Quad Cities a few weeks ago we travelled through a severe thunderstorm that produced hail, heavy rain, and some very cool cloud lines in the sky.

Once we arrived home and were putting the kids into bed we looked out of Taylor's window and saw this!

As I went downstairs and out to the deck to get a better look at the rainbow we witnessed the brightest piece of rainbow we had ever seen. The picture below doesn't even do it justice. The kids thought for sure we were close enough to get the pot of gold at the end!

Roller Derby

Last Friday we took all the kids to the Roller Skating Rink in Wellman, Iowa, a small town west of Kalona. Our church rented out the facility for the night for some family fun and we had a blast. It was the first time the boys had been rollerskating, second time for Tay, and an awful long time since either Amy or I had gone.

Needless to say, there was a lot of falling by the kids but they were real troopers. Not much complaining at all. They would get right back up and try again. By the end of the night all three were doing really well and getting around with no assistance.


Of course, what is a night at the skating rink without a visit to the concession stand.

BTW, everything there was $1. $1 for entry and $1 for all concessions (pizza, drinks, candy, etc.). Two hours of entertainment for the whole family..................$14. We love small town Iowa!

Added note, Amy and I skated together during the Couples Skate......with Amy skating backwards and us holding each other's hands. Ooohhhhh, how sweet!

Hittin' Claire's

Catching up on blogs of the past, I realized that I never did share pictures or the experience of Taylor getting her ears pierced for her 7th birthday. She was very excited to say the least, and counting down the days to her birthday for this event to take place. Now of course she is counting down the days left until she can take the original's out and starting where all the earrings she got for her birthday and has purchased since. Only one week left!

She was definitely a trooper through the whole thing. They shot both ears and she just sat there with a stone look on her face. We then asked her if she was okay and that results in breaking down into tears and some crying. I personally don't know how she lasted that long, it hurt me just watching.

Of course, while Tay was getting her ears pierced the rest of the family had to have some fun in Claire's!

For The Cause

Amy and I have been very fortunate and grateful that our kids understand that littering and pollution is bad. We try to preach the importance of the environment and God's creations. Of course both of our jobs help assist and reinforce with that as well. As a result, we often find our children wanting to pick up garbage, clean up creeks/ponds, etc.

A couple of weekends ago they decided to all put on their hard hats and head back to "their little creek". Please understand this "creek" is really the outlet and drainageway from our neighborhood retention pond that crosses over in the very back of our property. Either way, they love it and call it their own.

They spent quite a bit of time out there and weather conditions were certainly not the best. The results are shown below in the wagon, in which they brought back up garbage and debris along with their tools of choice.

We hope they never forget this important concept and wish others would take after them!

Soul Music

A week ago Friday Amy and I were able to watch Winter Jam 2010 at the iWireless Center in Moline. We both had been waiting for this show since the day it was announced and it did not disappoint!


As a surprise birthday present to Amy, I got us VIP Passes for the show which got us in 1 hour before doors open, the choice of any seats, a chance to buy merchandise before others, etc. Below is a picture of the stage from our seats, row 5 center stage.


We happily found out a couple of weeks prior to the show that our good friends and neighbors were going to the show as well and also ended up buying VIP passes.


Another pleasant surprise was the fact that during the pre-show events they invited all Youth Leaders/Pastors to come to the back of the arena, in which Amy and I are both through our Wildfire group at the Vineyard. This led to going in a room with all other youth leaders where we had the opportunity to meet all the different bands at the concert, here them speak about youth leadership, and received a big gift bag of free cd's, iTunes downloads, camp/concert tickets for other events, etc. It was an amazing experience which closed with prayer by Tony Nolan at the end for our continued leadership of the youth in our community.

Here are pictures of some of the artists sharing with the group of leaders.

The following are pictures from the show.

Revive lead singer

Fireflight

NewSong

Newsboys

Third Day

Third Day

Third Day

Third Day

It was an amazing show with fabulous entertainers and speakers. More importantly it was truly moving to the heart and soul as we celebrated Jesus with music and 10,000+ other Christians of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. It rocked!