Our little girl becomes a bigger little girl.

I'm going to upload pictures then I'm going to have Jamie tell you all about HADLEY!!! Sorry they are so out of order!

Once we had a little tiny girl.

But then she decided to grow up.

Just a little each year.

She wouldn't stop growing.
This past week she turned 7. We wept.
But then, she went bowling.










We played a little. Gave her some toys to try and slow down the growing process. And then took her to Chuck E Cheese's, because that mechanical stage creeps her dad out. We love you Hadley.

Gabe Crawling

Lots of pictures

The start of our new Family Tradition. Every year the first weekend after school starts we will take the kids to dinner and a movie. This year it was Denny's (The kids ate for free!!!) and the Drive-In "G-Force" and "Harry Potter"

The boy LOVES to eat wipes.
Yes He Is!!
He gets mad at me if I change him and he doesn't get to chew on a wipe!! Funny Boy
Check out that body.
Hadley drew Mr. Crabs at Joe's Crab Shack!!
Hadley and her drawing
Jamie's first trip to Joe's Crab Shack. He loved it, I even tried crab and realized it wasn't too bad. We made all the girls try it too. They got Ice Cream when we got home for trying it and eating all their dinner.
Lauren HAD to show her drawing off too
Avery eating her chicken
Gabe did pretty well entertaining himself
Look at that cute face
He did this all on his own. He's only 7 months old. I'm so not ready for this yet.
He may even skip crawling, he always wants to be up on his feet.
Avery's new hair do!
Back view
Another back view! It did NOT look like this when I picked her up from school today
Hadley's back view
We probably cut more than 6 inches off. Her bangs look odd cause I cut them and she has this CRAZY cowlick, thanks to her Dad and her Grama Allen.

So there you have our recent pictures. The girls are LOVING school. Lulu misses them so much everyday. Gabe doesn't notice, he only has eyes for momma. Jamie's first week back went well. I can't wait for the weather too cool down so he can ride his bike again. Now I'm gonna try to upload some videos on the next post, maybe Gabe's at it again and mauling me to death so you may have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned after that for Hadley's birthday post. She will be 7 on the 13th! Man time sure has flown.

How to get rid of the older children . . .

Send them to school. Duh. The two oldest girls started school this past week.

Hadley is now in first grade: too old for baby food, too young to work heavy machinery.

And (Rachel sobs) Avery started Kindergarten. As Rachel took her through the classroom door, Avery said, "Bye, Mom," and didn't look back.

As a new tradition (Seriously, why do the Welkers need so many traditions?) for starting the school year, we went to the drive-in to watch G-Force. It was okay for the first hour. Then Rachel and I regretted not bringing leashes and muzzles. And tranquilizers. And a fire hose.

Jamie never left school, really. He's been working his first Ph.D. project with young steers over the summer. These are the same ones he had to bottle feed over the winter. And after all his troubles, he still won't get to eat any of them. Just like having children.

Oh, and Jamie still wants to know if Aaron drew any of his tags. Southern Arizona's too "unique" to do much hunting (cacti hurt, snakes and scorpions make me nervous, illegal immigrants are sneaky), so I have to hunt vicariously through other people. There are birds and coyotes at the feedlot, but that's different.

Pictures of our latest happenings.

We put the girls to work right away



Gabe bathing in Grama's sink and lovin' it

This is how Jamie watches the babies
Dew
Lulu at Bear Lake
Ave at Bear Lake
Gavin, Gwen, Avery, & Lauren
Matchin'
This boy loved his Glow Stick
Getting ready to leave the fireworks

If this is heaven , why did I get the room next to the noisy ice machine?

Hello again. Thus far on our vacation (i.e. getting away from the AZ heat and rain for as long as our commitments allow us) no one has died, no one has visited the emergency room, and no one has been left behind. Although, one or more of us has wished one of these three upon another member of the family at one point or another.
Oh crap, I can't remember what we did last week . . . After a few moments of contemplation, I have come up with a few things. Rachel shopped. The kids played. I did a little fishing with the old man. You know how they say it's not about catching or shooting anything but rather just being in the outdoors? That's how it went. Anyway, Grandma Allen had a little party (my sister's family and mine) on Saturday. I care not to know how old she is so don't ask.
This week was also filled with adventure. But this time I remember. Monday afternoon I went looking for non game species with an old childhood buddy. Thank goodness for highly-proliferate ground squirrels. Then the whole family played at his family's house.
Tuesday we traveled to Soda Springs to spend a couple days with the Robbins, our old college friends. We played frisbee golf at the local park and were devoured by the "problematic" mosquito population. The next day the old men departed from their family to do a little fishing and rock chuck hunting. The fishing could have been better, but the chuck hunting was spectacular. Who knew Daniel could drop a five-pound animal at 100 paces with open sights on a .22 Marlin? Who knew Jamie could slither like a jaguar to get in close for the shot? Oh, the camaraderie. Oh, the carnage. Oh, the fun. And what's best is that the farmhand working the wheat field came over to thank us for protecting the crops. While the guys exploited rodent stupidity, the ladies and kiddies spent the day at Bear Lake. They played, enjoyed the water, and got a little sunburned. Turns out you can get burned on a cloudy day. That night we were entreated with a local production of "Hello Dolly" in which most of the Robbins played a part. It was great, except for the singing and having to watch Daniel dance. That was weird. Either way, it's nice to have friends that can tolerate us.
Today we took it easy. . . Yeah, we took it easy. Tomorrow we might just take it easy, too. We can't be on all the time, people. Even marathoners have to stop every 26 miles or so.

Believe me, I'm sexier with most of my clothes on

I just woke up, and Rachel has barked the order for me write up our next blog. So much for Father's day. If this sounds like rambling, it's because my brain hasn't quite caught up to my typing fingers, and they have dirty minds.
To begin with, I would like to say that we weren't planning on vacationing. We just got sick of the sun and wanted to go somewhere the sun wasn't. Idaho Falls appeared to be having that rainy issue. Seriously, though, we planned the vacation so we could hang out with my Virginian brother and his family. But then his work told him no. I know. Ironic. I begged for an extra week off just for Darren and the guy changes plans willy-nilly.
Anyway, on my birthday (June 16th; thank you friends for noticing), I took a plane ride to Denver and then a bus to Ft. Collins for an animal scientist conference. I got to see old colleagues, met new colleagues, and basically sat through three days of presentations.
Meanwhile, Papa and Grandma showed up in Tucson and the rest of the family caravaned to Idaho Falls. Most of the luggage made it. Gabe's bag is still sitting on our bed in Tucson. Knowing this, Gabe puked a lot the whole way up on his only pair of pajamas.
Meanwhile, my conference ends and I fly to SLC and hitch a ride on the Hammon-mobile. Thanks Kevin.
And now we are here in IF. Soaking in the . . . rain. One good thing about it is that Rachel finally felt cold for the first time in 8 months. But then she was hot again. And then cold. She's so messed up. Last night she had the air conditioning on in the car while it was 60 degrees outside. The kids complained; she slapped my hand as I tried to turn it off.
And now the clock begins ticking. I leave in 2 weeks for dirt lawns, poky trees (home sweet Tucson home), and genetically stupid calves, and Rachel stays until her sister's wedding in August. I'm done.