Monday, November 19, 2012

Swimming Farm Style

My mom called and said her neighbors were flood irrigating and asked if I wanted to expose my city kids to a bit of "country life swimming".

And there off! A little bit of water is a WHOLE lot of fun for kiddos.

Ahhhh!  This is the life.  Doing the backstroke in the ditch.


Oh the mud!
It's good for the skin right?!
Mud is just the best time ever!

Not to worry. A little dip in the ditch and they came out good as new.
Ahhhh....the country life. I miss that sometimes.

AUGUST

Camera fun and picnic down by the river on a hot August afternoon.



I seriously have some cute kids.  I'm just saying...

Yes, I know this is blurry.  One of the kids took it from up in the tree.  But I like that it captures us enjoying each other.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Alyssa Starts English Lessons

 Alyssa has been begging and begging and begging to take riding lessons.  I kind of thought it was something that would go away eventually, but it just didn't.  Finally she walked up to me with cash in hand and said, "I'm paying for my first lesson on my own. Now will you please set something up?"
So, I guess she was serious about it.
 We checked out a couple of different arenas and teachers, and Alyssa watched a few lessons before we decided to go with Mallory for our instructor.  Alyssa was in love the very second she got on a horse. She is quite a natural at it and I love to watch her.  Although, it kills me at times because I want to hop right on too.
I love that she not only enjoys it, but also gets a great work out from it too.  Mallory makes her do all sorts of crazy exercises, i.e sit ups by laying her head all the way down on the horse's rump and back up again, bicycle legs around the horse's neck, posting trot without stirrups, etc. She also has to do some work at the stable.  She has to groom the horses and clean up after them. It's a great thing all around.

JULY


We always look forward to celebrating the Ward's July birthdays at Ross Park. So fun to go swimming with cousins.  And the weather this year was perfect!  Not too hot, and not to cold, just gorgeous. My skin appreciates its annual dose of Vitamin D every July.

Other June Happenings

A few of the other note worthy things that happened in June were:

Carter's BYU soccer camp.  He and Jarom spent a week in Provo together while Carter attended soccer camp daily.  He LOVED it.
They visited the Murdochs one night and hiked up the mountain to the Y.  That's quite the hike, but these boys did it like champs.

A visit to my Dad's coworkers home, to meet Vice the mini horse. What a funny little guy he is. He thinks he's a stallion and has an attitude, but my kids LOVED him. The best part of the night was Kate taking him for a walk, and Vice deciding he wanted to go his own way. Boy, he didn't know who he was taking on. Kate might be tiny, but she is sassy. She dug in her heels and hung on to the rope with all her might. He pulled as hard as he could and she practically went skiing across the field, but there was no way she was going to give in to Mr. Vice. My kids have been begging to go back and visit ever since this day.
Aunt Mimi and Bryon made a quick visit from Washington. They surprised us all with their new baby Hank. Since they had to unexpectedly put their beloved Trigger down a short while ago, they decided to fill the gap with little Hank. We all fell in love with him. Puppies are seriously the cutest!

And last but not least...we painted some bedrooms. Kate's room is so fun with the Robbin Egg Blue color on the wall. When asked if she likes her room she says, "Better than better!" Alyssa's room also got new paint. We tried a greenish color and it was HORRID. The basement lighting really plays on colors, so we had to repaint it and went with an aqua blue. Much better! I still have Halle's and Carter's rooms to go...but the repainting of Alyssa's wore me right out. I'm gonna need a while.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Melt Down

Somehow I missed these pictures from May, but seeing as it happened at the very end of May, I figure I can throw them in now while I'm only in June...or October. It's all the same, right?

Jarom and his brother Justin have decided they want to open a little mobile grilled cheese sandwich shack. So they've been busy building logos, thinking of names, and refurbishing this old 1950's Airline Streamer trailer. They want to go with a very retro look and feel. They have decided on the name "Melt Down", which I love, but I think I will forever endearingly refer to this little trailer as "The Cheese Wagon".
 
Taking a break from ripping out the entire insides.

Scraping layers and layers of paint. They want the inside tinny like the outside. 
 
Looking better, but the paint removal wasn't going very fast at all.  And they realized that they were dealing with OLD paint which was probably lead based.  So they stopped the process until they can come up with an environmentally and physically safe way to remove the paint.

Meanwhile, the kids had a heyday having free reign of Grampy's farm.

Nothing quite like playing "orphans" in a pile of barrels.

These two sillies made a baby from a hunk of perfectly curved wood.  It was hilarious.  They put a diaper on it and jammies and thought they were so funny with their wooden baby.

Fun's over for the day kids.  Time to head to the dump. 

So....you might wonder where they are at in the process now.  Exactly where they left off in May. HA!  But they do have big plans for the very near future which includes the use of a "soda blaster", hazmat suits, and masks. I can't wait to take those pictures! (And by the way, if you're thinking about stealing this million dollar money maker idea, forget about it. We'll send zombies to eat your brains and flying monkeys to lock you in a tower cell!)

4H Photo Camp

The girls took a photography class for a week through 4H. Here are a few of my favorites from each of them.

It was an argument, but Alyssa won the right to use my nicer camera. Now if only she would teach me how to use it.

She got some really cool "bug's eye view" and nature shots.

She seemed to really like this day, as there were MANY good photos to choose from.

Here's some from the "self portrait" and "subject" days. It was so fun for me to go through the pictures each day when the girls came home.  I loved seeing through their eyes the things they found photo worthy.
Halle had to use my little point and shoot camera, so the quality of her photos isn't nearly as good as Alyssa's, but she still managed to get some really neat shots.

"Bug's eye view" and "Nature" day.

"Self Portrait" Day. Halle is a regular old pro when it comes to self portraits as I am regularly finding them on every camera we own.  She cracks me up.

"Subject" day.  She even managed to figure out some fun functions the camera has.  I LOVE the skate/bike park shot.  So cool.
 
And I just had to throw this last shot on here because it cracked me up. They were learning how to "pan". I love how you can see all the kids with cameras behind the car. I can only imagine what the drivers were thinking as they drove by.

I think they both learned quite a bit from this week. Now I think I need to find an adult photo camp. Seems like so much fun to me.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Girls Camp 2012

Who's ready for a week of tent living, latrines, dirt, and fun at Girls Camp? The Rose Park Young Women are, that's who!
 
 
Time for the 7 mile UPHILL hike! Alyssa had been so excited/nervous about this part of camp and had been preparing herself by walking and biking.
 

Alyssa ended up with a group of girls who weren't able to make it all the way to the top.  Everything from heat stroke, dehydration, being out of shape, and plain old grumpiness played a part in this. She was admittedly frustrated, but chose to stay with them and encourage them to do their best. They ended up having to turn around at about the half way point. She has been told by several people that her attitude was MUCH needed in this group to get them as far as they did.  She knows she did the right thing, but still has the need for closure to finish this hike.  Guess I better get myself in shape so I can take her back and FINISH this thing.

Nights are chilly in the mountains.
 


Seriously, WHY does food taste SO much better when you're camping?



The best part about girl's camp, is not the hikes, the food, or even the fun, it is the appreciation the girls gain for their Creator.  Girl's Camp builds testimonies like nothing else.  I'm so glad Alyssa had a fun week and gained an even stronger testimony of God and the Saviour.