Multi-tasking

So after a busy week, we stayed home to get some cleaning & other things taken care of. My child thought the job of wiping down the fridge looked so fun, so I let her have it. When I turned around she was in there with the stool working away.

 

Grandma called and she just went right on working away while she chatted.

 

Amusement Park

We spent the day at an amusement park earlier this week.
While we got rained out, we still had a great time!

Too short - this little gal was too short for many of the rides - here she is waiting for the others on a ride:

 

Here's the ride that our little one went on all on her own:

 

Here they are helping each other off from the ride:

 

Rodeo

We had the chance last week to head to a rodeo with the girls. While we really enjoy the bull riding, this was a different type of rodeo. They called it a working ranch rodeo. As such, they had calf branding, cattle sorting, cow tying events. Our favorite of all the events was the wild cow milking. They had to catch(?)the cow, and get her to hold still enough that they could milk her into a narrow necked bottle, and then get it to a certain destination before two minutes were up. Quite diverting actually.
Here's the family:

 

Here's the branding competition (with chalk of course):

 

Parade

The parade always starts out with a helicopter flyby which is always fun. The breeze is also generally appreciated.

 

One of my favorite entries in the parade is the garage band which plays on big tubs and trash can lids etc. They do a great job on their formations and are quite fun to watch.

 

My favorite part of the parade is always the end. They always open up the fire truck and hose everyone down. I stayed to guard the rose bush this year, but my family definitely took advantage and cooled off.

 

 

I ended up spraining my ankle as we walked back to the car after the parade. I've definitely been reminded of my mortality and it hasn't been fun. Luckily, Camille has been able to doctor me up and we've really appreciated her knowledge and expertise. We've decided that we'll be taking it just a bit more slowly this week and keeping it easy as I heal over the next two.

Weekend 5 K

This weekend we went to a neighborhood town for their annual celebration.
My husband and our friend Camille both ran in the annual 5K. He took first place in his age category, and was thrilled to to finish under 20 minutes. This was especially notable since he had been sick all week and was just starting to feel better.

 

 

 

Afterwards, we had breakfast made and served by the firemen, and hung out for the prizes after the race. While Camille won a 12 pack, she was able to trade it for a concert blanket, and we won a rather nice rose bus which we are excited to get into the ground. We followed the race and breakfast with a parade.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Water is a magnet for our girls. Here are a few last photos of them enjoying the fountain at the Oquirrh Mountain temple

 

 

 

 

Family reunion #4

Somehow we didn't really get any photos of reunion #3.
This was with my father's parents, siblings and all of their kids. We left that reunion shortly after breakfast and rushed to our last reunion which was a celebration of my husband's grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary. Here's a picture with them

 

The next couple of days got a little fuzzy. I got sick, and the next day my husband was sick - he's still fighting off whatever it was/is.
We got up early Monday morning and took our family to the LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. There we met my sister and her family and our mom. In the Mormon faith, temples are special, sacred buildings. Prior to the buildings' dedication, they are open to the public to visit. Temples are the Lord's house and there sacred covenants are made. Additionally, there, through priesthood power, families can be sealed together for FOREVER - not just until death do us part. It was exiting for our kids to be able to visit this temple with us and be able to see the inside of the temple as well as they prepare to make covenants within a temple one day.

 

My sister and her family

 

 

Family Talent show #2

baby blue eyes

 

Princess dancing

 

My youngest guitar playing brother's original creation

 

Grandpa's famous handbone

 

Family talent show (reunion #2)

Synchronized swimming

 

My kid's great head stands

 

 

My youngest sister and her impersonation of our brother who whistles as he wheezes from the back of his throat

 

Family Reunion #2

Thursday morning we woke up and all joined up together for a photo scavenger hunt (hopefully the pictures are still forthcoming).
Later that evening, we headed up the canyon and spent the evening roasting hotdogs and mallows, enjoying grandma's rhubarb pie, biscuits on a stick w/honey butter, and smores. We really enjoyed the river flowing past our site as well. Here's my husband after he climbed around that tree to check out the fishing in that area of the river

 

Our youngest

 

Our oldest and her sticks treasure

 

My amazing self portrait

 

Family Reunion #1

The first family reunion we headed out to was for my mother's side.
The kids had a great time at the park while we visited

 

 

Here's one of my cousins I haven't seen for ages. She can still make me just giggle...

 

In the last couple of years, we've tried to begin having a siblings reunion - at least once a year so we can all see each other and our kids can get to know their cousins. While we've done it several times with my husband's family, we've been a little slower getting it to work with my siblings (possibly because I have double the number of siblings and we are all spread out?)

Well, we spent two days this last week with my siblings and their families (missing only 7 people). While we really missed those who weren't able to make it, we definitely enjoyed getting to spend some time with my brother who recently returned from his mission, and my brother-in-law who recently returned from serving in the military in Afghanistan. Most of us didn't really know him, so it was great to spend some time together.

While our camera was somehow out of commission, my sister promised to send me a file of pictures. In the interim, I stole this picture from her blog... :)

We had a pretty fun photo scavenger hunt activity (which I used to do on dates back in the day). We divided up into teams, and went around town trying to find what was asked for. It was a blast. We spent some time in the mountains with a river and a fire (what more could one want?) We even saw a bat that was sleeping near the eating area - yum. We spent the next day at a local dam and I surprised myself. I don't think I like swimming, but it seems that once I'm in the water, I just can't get back out. Of course, my shoulders are completely burned and still hurt, but I did better than I have in the past. After we all got cleaned up, we all headed out to dinner. We ended with the traditional talent show, and then convinced my brothers-in-law to play settlers with us. Unfortunately, the game would never end. Finally around 1:00 we called it a truce and were able to head to bed.

I just hit my wall however, and am going to have to finish the play by play another time as I'm going to bed.

Eulogy of a lizard

Here is our tribute to our 'little guy'.
Maybe I should just call it his eulogy. We traveled last week to attend not 1, not 2, but 4 family reunions. (Yes - we are unstable.)

Actually it was great to see EVERYONE - and there were a lot of them. It was great to catch up with siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents,and friends.

Several weeks ago I posed a question on FB wondering if anyone wanted to adopt our little leopard gecko lizard. My brother in law immediately responded and so we saved it for him. The lizard has been through a lot. Our cat constantly menaced him by sitting on top of his cage and swiping at the glass for hours. Then he got moved to a much smaller home. He finally sort of adapted, and then we took him on a VERY long car ride. But he made it. He even got to listen to Island of the Blue Dolphins on the trip. Lucky guy. He hung out at my parents house for several days, freezing due to central air. Finally, he was on the last leg of his journey. We were stopping to visit an open house for my husband's grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary. Due to the previous family reunion that morning, we were arriving at this one late. We rushed out of the car and into the air conditioned building. In our haste, he was forgotten.

When we came out, he had departed. We had lots and lots of tears, and prayers. We poured water down his throat and we poured it all over him hoping to get his temperature down. To no avail - he'd gone.

We'll have the funeral tomorrow night here since the girls refused to bury it in grandma's garden because they want to visit him often.

He was a good lizard. The girls loved to catch bugs for him to eat and all the little boys that came to visit loved to see him.
He will definitely be missed, but not forgotten.