First Ride Of The Summer.

Of course when I'm in Tremonton, I won't pass up a chance to get on a horse.  In fact, we all had a chance, even TY.

We rode a horse Phil had been training for 3 weeks.  She was great, even with the kids.  He does a good job.  Crazy to think a few weeks ago she was unbroken.

We got her in a lope out in the round coral just so I could get a feel for it.  When I say we, I mean mainly Phil of course.  It was completely exhilarating........and exhausting.  Every muscle was sore the next day.  I think this means I am doing it wrong.  Still, it is progress.  One step closer to really riding.  I know I am slow, but I am determined to get there.

Memorial Service At Kaysville City Cemetery

We attended a Memorial Service at the cemetery in the morning after a very delicious and enjoyable breakfast with our friends, the Williams.  (We tried out our sausage and bacon from Biden, the pig.  Yummy.  She made multigrain pancakes and waffles with delicious buttermilk syrup and strawberry sauce.  Divine.  I am getting sidetracked.  I often get sidetracked by food.  This is nothing new.)  The service was the first we have attended of this kind.  We enjoyed the remarks of General Oaks, a 4 star general.  I thought it'd be good for the kids to get a sense of the sacrifices made by men and women in all arms of the military on our behalf.  After listening to and being amazed by some of the stories he shared, Gman said he had a book of war stories.  We read some that night for Family Night.

Decorating The Graves

Grandma Dean's grave.

Grandpa Campbell's grave.

Loving care.

TY being a poser in front of Grandpa's grave.  Nice one babe!

At Grandma's parents' grave, the Stenquists.

I loved watching how my mom and grandma took such care of these graves.  They stepped out of the car with loads of flowers, some from their own gardens.  It was a beautiful day to remember loved ones.

Preschool Graduation

Congratulations LittleC who is not so little anymore.  He is growing right up.  We have loved his teacher, Mrs. Young at Forever Young Preschool.  He has made friends, learned letters, shapes, numbers and lots and lots of songs.  We got to hear a few at Graduation.  They are super cute!  Our favorite was Wonky Donky!  LittleC is the one in the dark blue shirt kind of in the middle.  If you follow the line of the edge of the gray building down, it will "land" on his head.  Yep, that's him.

A blurry super zoomed in shot of LittleC so you can see where he is.

LittleC and Mrs. Young.  We love you Mrs. Young!

Congratulations grad!  On to a fun summer and then...Kindergarten!

Imu Cooking.

As part of a recent Scout camp-out, the boys were going to learn the traditional Hawaiian process of Imu Cooking.  Now when they announced this in Primary I'm pretty sure they told us they were cooking emu.  I thought we were going to eat emu for our scout and family dinner.  Ha ha ha.  No, we were going to have kalua pig cooked in an imu oven which is a pit in the earth that uses steam to cook. It was soooooo fantastic!  Here are pictures of Gman and his fellow troop members learning this skill from his Hawaiian Scout leader.  So cool!

It Takes Two To Tango.

TY and I have been picking up a few moves at Davis County Ballroom.  We just completed our third night of TANGO, Foxtrot.  We are rockin' it!!  Just kidding, maybe not rockin' it but having a lot of fun.  Honestly, truly, TY has loved it too.  It's not just me.  Such a great way to mix things up, get moving, dance close (TY's favorite part) and have something new to add to our relationship.  Speaking of dancing close, Tango is spicy.  TY likes spicy.  Some of the other couples needed constant reminding to dance closer so the lady could feel the gentleman leading her.  Not us.  Never.  We got that part down.  We will definitely be signing up for the next session.  Who knows?  Waltz, ChaCha, Salsa?  You may be seeing us on Dancing With The Stars........I mean The Next Door Neighbors.  Hee.

Wasatch Thunder

Gman is playing in his last soccer tournament.  He is throwing in the towel for this sport.  I am supportive of this decision.  He doesn't love it anymore.  It is a very time consuming and very expensive sport to not love it.  It will give him more time to explore other sports he is interested in and more time for homework going into Jr High.  I can't help but be kind of sentimental about it however, because he has spent 8 years playing soccer.  8 years!!  Sigh!!  Tonight's game was miserably cold and windy and kind of an ugly loss.  That's probably good, because we were thrilled when the final whistle blew so we could get in the car and go get some dinner.  Friday though, if it is their last game, I may shed a tear or two.  These are good boys and I will miss seeing them.  There are many other teammates he has played with through the years we have really liked and enjoyed  cheering on.  I appreciate our coach and all the time he has invested in these boys.  And a few other coaches that were influential along the way.  Pretty good stuff.

A Creative Report

MissC did her Utah famous person report on Philo T Farmsworth, so we thought it would be fun to use a TV for presenting her county report.  That and we saw a little one Grandma had made for a cousin which seemed like a great idea.  She came up with fake news stories relating to all the interesting places in San Juan County.  She also created advertisements.  Two for great lunch spots and one for her grandpa's shop.  It turned out really cute, and she learned a lot about her county.  It also took a great deal of creativity to figure out how to share all the information she wanted to share while sneaking that information into current events, breaking news, weather and sports.  Great job MissC!

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I am loving this weather.  I am overjoyed to be out in my yard and garden.  It is good for the soul.  Well, it is good for my soul anyway.  Check out this gorgeous rainbow!  This was one of the brightest rainbows we have ever seen.  It was a double and went all the way over.  I wish it showed up better in my photo.  Even still, doesn't it seem like there is something Celestial happening over the top of the rainbow?

Seaweed Never Looked So Good!

MissC finally got her costume for recital.  She was sooooooo excited!  It is beautiful!  She is beautiful!  She is seaweed.  I don't remember seaweed looking this beautiful.  She is still wearing her leotard underneath.  We can't wait for recital.  MissC is also going to be a chaperone for the little ballerinas this year.  She is over the moon about it.  I'm not so sure.  Sound like a lot of work to me.  She is not afraid though, she is living her dreams!

Champ Camp Champ.

After a lifetime of waiting (over 4 years), LittleC finally gets his chance to have his own activity.  Champ Camp is for preschoolers and introduces basketball, soccer and T-ball.  On the first day they introduced basketball and worked on dribbling skills and shooting.  TY was participating with LittleC and was shocked at how good he was.  His son was the best in the group!  (according to him of course- and dads are never biased).  He was so proud!!!  He never double dribbled, he always maintained control of the ball and he made almost every shot!  Of course C was pretty tickled to receive so much praise from his dad - however he is very nonchalant about it.  Ty decided since he had such a basketball star, we would go to the school and shoot hoops for family night and all get in on the action.  

Kevin and Caroline Move On

It is the end of a peacock era.  As you can see here, Kevin has been trying oh so hard to woo his beloved, Caroline.  It is mating season for peacocks apparently.  Only, funny thing is she just ignores him even though he dances and struts and corners her.  I thought my kids were going to get a lesson in the birds and the bees, I mean peacocks, but to his dismay they did not.  TY was feeling for the poor guy.  Typical, woman!  Too distracted to be bothered by him and definitely not interested.

Anyhow, through all this wooing, he can get awfully loud and the neighbors have been getting annoyed by it.  So one day I see animal control in my back yard hauling off Kevin.  Caroline flew over the fence and got away.  I made the dreaded phone call to my neighbor wintering in St George and knew he'd be devastated.  They called animal control and made arrangements to have him back and send him to a grandson's farm.  Later that day Caroline was caught a few streets away.  Now they are both going to enjoy life on the farm and maybe if she gives him a look, they could start a peacock family....and live happily ever after.

Meet Baby "I"

MissL meets BabyI for the first time on Mother's Day.  We all did actually.  Our family went through a round of the flu so we were a little delayed in meeting the brand new family member.  She is sweet and belongs to my younger brother.  MissL loves the babies!

Daisy Dawson

MissL gives her first oral book report to her 1st grade class on "Daisy Dawson".  She made all the puppets completely by herself with no help from mom.  She likes to take initiative.  Proud of you sweetie!

6th Grade Rocket Launch

Post launch.  It did great and we were lucky it was a couple feet away from landing on the roof of the school.  If I could ever upload a video I would show you how fun it was.

MissC's Choir Concert

MissC did a wonderful job at her choir concert.  Actually the choir was really great.  I was impressed with how well they did.  Apparently the choir director had a song she had been holding onto for 12 years, waiting for a group good enough to do it, and they did it!  Great job!  MissC is second from the left in the middle row.  MissC's cousin "A" is on the right of the top row with the cute long red hair.  That works out nice for Grandparents.  Kill two birds with one concert.

Oh, the best part (sorry MissC and A) was one of the boys on the front row that had so much of the music and passion in him, he couldn't restrain himself from letting it come out.  He tried too.  He'd fold those arms and try to hang onto them, but at every crescendo it was just too much.  He really felt it, and the music moved him.  I wish I had a little more of that in me.  It was great!

Monster Concert

One of the said special concerts was this very large, "monster" concert in which Gman was playing bass with about 300 other strings.  It was super cool.  It made my heart swell!  I was so happy to see him out there, standing in the back of course with the other basses, being a rockstar.  Well, in my mind anyway.

See, you wouldn't have missed this either!  So cool!  

BYU Women's Conference 2013

I have mentioned these cute little owls I have been working on for Women's Conference.  Well, the time finally came for the conference.  Of course it was wonderful.  I was spiritually fed and really loved working with this service group which included 2 sister-in-laws and my mom.  It was a lot of fun to be involved in this way.  Thanks to Mandi for asking me to be on this committee.  I am thrilled to have had the opportunity!

Unfortunately when my children were telling me all of their big concerts and programs coming up, they all seemed to be landing on the day I was going to be gone.  Erggh!  Really?  So it was more stressful than it might have been, but I really wonder if it is a good idea for a mom to try and leave the house.  It was so much work and required a lot of help from a lot of people.  I ended up burning back up here in between days to attend concerts.  I am glad I did though, those are the important moments that mean more to me than "filling my cup" so to speak.  Just to be clear, I do think it is important for a mom to fill her cup.  But I'm not sure how.  This particular time was pretty tough.  It will get easier right?  Maybe only after it gets harder first though.  These kids have crazy schedules.  A very big THANK YOU to my dad, my hubby, Sis Lether and my brother for helping out.  Thank you thank you!

I am not sure how many we completed in the end.  I am guessing over 200 though.  They turned out so sweet.  Each has it's own personality.  I know they will help some special children feel loved.  Who wouldn't want one of these little friends right?