Hellbusch Happenings

Nathan and Hyrum love to go to the skate park and nature park with Bret and Erika.  During the spring, before the ponds were all full, they could walk out onto the sandbar and find turtles.  At one point they counted fourteen turtles on the sand or peeking their heads out of the water.  The boys were so excited to bring a turtle and a crawdad home for the afternoon.

Ah, the turtle looks like he is about to give Erika Jo a kiss.
Or, maybe he is telepathically begging her to take him back to the nature park.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erika worked for Opinionology until January when they closed.  While job hunting, she enjoyed a couple of months playing house, making meals, helping Bret with homework and doing name extraction for church records.  In April she was hired at Melalueca in Rexburg.  She really loves it as well as the monthly product bonus that she gets for soaps, lotions, and other products.  They also have an incentive program that lets them purchase products from a catalog using points earned based on performance.  She and Bret looked through the items and decided to get an iPod Classic since neither one of them have iPods.  They figured it would take a few months but she earned it much sooner than they expected (which is evidence of how much she enjoys her job and how good she is at it).  However, she didn't tell Bret.  She just ordered it without him knowing and surprised him.

Put that boy in front of a camera and he gets a little crazy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bret, Erika, Derek and Justin went camping at the Fullmer Family homestead for the Memorial Holiday.  Uncle Dean was willing to let them camp on one condition: Erika had to wear shoes.  Of course, he was kidding.  He knows better.  The only real rule is that they can't catch or eat any of the fish out of Uncle Dean's stock pond, only out of the river.  There is no rule against hunting down your own flying dinner.  Derek, along with his friends Chris, Jordan and Cameron, have studied and practiced how to hunt, clean, and cook a bird so he used and taught his skills while they were camping.

Erika hunted her own dinner. Derek was so proud of her.  It's good to know my kids won't starve if lost in the woods with a pellet gun, knife and matches.  Bird flu might get to them but they won't starve.