Day Out for The Boys........ And a New Addition

Yesterday Sam, Dad, Taylor and Garth went out for an afternoon of shooting skeet.

I think Sam was the best one of all! He was definately in his prime! He was up there with each shot (with his fake shotgun) blasting every one of those clay pigeons apart.


They had a great time. Sam is set now on buying a gun with bullets. He has seen a toy one at the store that he was asking Gary for. Gary told him to ask Santa for it, but Sam thought that would be too long to wait, so he came home and went straight for his piggy bank. He wants to spend his own money and buy one instead of waiting for Santa to get here with one.
A boy can also have a lot of fun with a pair of binoculars!

So I'm sure you're all wondering what the new addition is. No, I am not pregnant! When Gary was getting ready to graduate with his Master's Degree, I kept asking him what he wanted for a graduation present. He had many answers (all too expensive), but one that he really wanted was a new truck (see what I mean about expensive)! I told him graduating wasn't enough to get a new truck, he needed to find a job first so he could pay for his own present. Well, that was 1 1/2 years ago.
We started looking for trucks last year about this time, and had some picked out that we liked. We decided to wait until after the first of the year (2008) and see what kind of deals they had. We had our 19 week ultrasound scheduled for Jan. 2, 2008 with Alex and decided that we would get the truck later that day or the next. Well, as all of you know, our world was turned upside down that day. We were hit with the news about Alex. Since so much was unknown, we decided to put the truck on hold and planned on our money going to medical bills instead of a truck. This year has been a busy one, and things with Alex are going wonderfully. We are hopeful that they will continue to go that way!
We decided on Friday to head out and see what was available since Ford was offering employee pricing, plus $6000 in discounts. We went to 3 dealerships and not much was available, until the 4th one. It didn't take much convincing for Gary (or me either) to go ahead with it, so what the heck-- we gave in!

I couldn't tell who was more excited when we decided to go ahead with it, Gary or Sam , since they were both giddy like school girls! (although Sam doesn't look very excited in this picture)

We are really excited! As many of you know, we love camping and outdoor stuff. Well, it was tight in the car with one kid to get everything in, and impossible with two. We couldn't really get out camping this last summer anyway, but as long as things keep going well with Alex, we hope to do a lot of camping this next summer!
After we bought it, we got thinking--- Will it fit in the garage?


WHEW!! With about a foot to spare. Not much, but it fits! We didn't want to have to park it outside!
We have been without a car payment for about 2 years, and so taking on a car payment again stinks! We are really excited though. We still have both of our cars. The truck will be for camping and such. We know that for the first little while we will be driving it A LOT, but eventually we will go back to driving the cars around. Gary will still drive the car to work. This truck isn't meant to be a commuting vehicle. It's nice that gas prices have come down, so it won't be so painful to fill it up for a while.
Don't laugh at us as we try to get used to pulling it in the garage, parking it, backing it up, etc. We will learn quickly.