Vacation #1

Okay, so I may be a really bad blogger, but I will try to redeem myself and get enough posts in here that I might actually tell people I have a blog. I do have an excuse at least for the last month.I have either been preparing for, or on vacation. Not a bad way to spend a month (well, at least the 'on vacation' part).

On July 16th we left for our annual Hansen Family camp out. This year it was at beautiful Joe's Valley Reservoir campground, in the mountain range between Castledale and Ephraim, Utah. We got a surprise welcome by a local moose in the canyon on the way up. There was a steep mountain on one side of the road, and a steep drop-off on the other side, so it had nowhere to go but up the middle of the road.
It was raining and it kept slipping on the road, so we drove along very slowly and took photos for about 1/2 mile until a truck coming the other direction scared it into this little turnout you can see in the photo, then we finally passed it. I have to say, it may have saved us a lot of problems, because just around this corner were many boulders that had washed off the hillside in the rain. Fortunately we were still going slow and were able to easily avoid them. Unfortunately, my S-I-L hit one a few minutes after us, but I don't think there was any major damage.
Grandma had dinner prepared for everyone that night with, of course, her famous cookies for dessert.
The next day Grandpa and Grandma rented five 4-wheelers for the family to enjoy riding for the day. Some relatives had their own, and David brought his motorcycle, and we all had a fun time riding some of the many nearby trails.
This is the view David, Logan, Evan and Grandpa got on one trail. It overlooks Castledale. I was so glad to see that David made Logan hang on to Evan's hand the entire time they were up there.
This is the view of Mary's Lake that Stauney, Noah, David and I got on another trail. It was really beautiful up there and the drive up was amazing, with pretty woods, ponds, and fields of wildflowers of every color.
I was driving a 4-wheeler with Noah in the middle and Stauney on the back. David followed along behind us on his motorcycle. Stauney begged me to let her drive for a while, so on a nice flat spot I relented. She drove fine for about 50 ft. and at the first corner ran off the road. I drove again until we got to the bottom of the trail on a nice straight, dirt road where she got another turn that lasted longer. She'll have to work on that upper body strength.
That night we enjoyed the next round of Grandma's cookies, and the grandchildren all had to perform a talent for a treat from Grandma. Logan played his trumpet, Stauney sang and danced with a few of her cousins, then played Hot Cross Buns on her recorder for Noah and Evan to sing to. It's interesting to see what some of the teenagers now consider a talent. It ended with my niece Brooke having everyone join her for the final chorus of Humuhumunukunukuapuaha from High School Musical 2. Grandma was shocked that even the adults knew it.

The next day Grandpa and Grandma spoiled us again by renting 4 jet skis to ride on the reservoir. We had a blast on the water and off. We found a little cove to hang out at for the day with a little beach and some fun rocks for the little kids to jump off of. The bigger kids, and the even bigger ones (their Dads) did some cliff jumping up the road a little. The kids also had fun being towed around in a tube pulled behind a jet-ski. I should not be allowed to pull anyone on the tube ever again. Just ask my B-I-L Gregg (or the rental guy who now has no flag).
Here David is letting Logan practice his driving skills on one of the two coveted "red ones". They were really fast, so everyone wanted them. We had so much fun and headed back to the campground exhausted, but luckily not too sunburned. This is how tired Evan was.

He was out for the rest of the night. It gave me a good excuse to go to bed early though. Evan was sad the next day that he didn't get to eat his hot dog. He just saw this photo and asked if we still had that hot dog so he could finish it.
The kids waiting for breakfast under the trailer canopy. I precooked and sliced everything before we left so all we had to do was heat it up. I'm not a fan of slaving over the stove while on vacation. We had lots of yummy food. Stauney made three different kids of muffins before we left also and we really enjoyed those. For our last breakfast we made omelette's in a bag, and the kids thought that was pretty cool. Everything tastes better when you're camping though, right?
Our Beagle Chloe relaxing under a shady pine. She was happy to come on vacation with us and get to play with Mo and her little sister Skye.One final shot of David, the kids and Chloe at the summit on our drive home. We had a great time and enjoyed our time together with the Hansen family and each other. We enjoyed yummy over-the-top shakes in Ephraim and then stopped in Payson to drop the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's (and all their dirty laundry - sorry Grandma) and then David and I drove home to get ready to leave on vacation #2. That, I'll post next.

New Babies

On Monday we received news that my daughter's new baby had been delivered to our neighbor's house and was awaiting pick-up after a long trip from Heber. Her previous dairy goat 'Clover' decided to grow two extra teats last year and was disqualified at the State Fair, so this is her new adorable replacement goat. She came with the name 'Penelope', which was an instant hit, and nicknamed 'Penny'. In this photo she had just finished her dinner so she has a milk mustache.

My son also got to pick a male from our neighbor's crop of new babies. Their two Oberhasli milkers had successfully delivered 5 males between them. Not good luck when you are trying to re-stock your dairy herd. But he now has a nice chunky little guy to raise as a whether for the county fair. Sadly, this means he will become meat. But that cute white patch of hair on his forehead dooms him to no other fate. He came with the name 'Hos' because he nearly killed his mother from coming out so big. His twin brother was 'Little Joe'. My son shot that name down pretty quick and decided on 'Copper' for his color. Then we realized we had 'Copper' and 'Penny'. Oh well, it works. Each time my kids get new goats their names seem to relate in some way.

So I now am in charge of filling and warming bottles full of goat milk 3 times a day. I can't say that I mind though, they are so cute and so much fun to play with, and I don't have to do diapers. My kids will now go outside during the day just to play with or watch them. Our biggest problem is that our dog Chloe is jealous and whines constantly whenever the babies are getting the slightest bit of attention. Chloe doesn't mind their bottle feedings though. She has taken it upon herself to clean up the goats as they eat by licking any milk slobber or drool off their faces as they eat.
If you are in the neighborhood you will have to come by and see them while they are still little and cute.

Bless Us!

Our family is hoping to return to normal life this week sometime. It seems as if we have had a crazier than normal schedule this month with illness and much missing of school and work. Over the past 2 weeks we have had 11 such days missed between all 6 family members.
We have had sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, phlegm, phlegm, more phlegm, vomiting, asthma, nebulizer treatments, 3 sinus infections, 3 antibiotics, 4 hour Dr. visit waits, 5 bottles of cold/cough/asthma medicine, 6 boxes of tissues (with lotion please)...I could make this into a sick version of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'!
Anyway, you get the picture of what our March has been like. And just as everyone is nearing recovery, we can welcome spring and ALLERGY SEASON! I seem to always forget about that when I'm in the snow and looking forward to warmer weather.
Alas, each season has its good and bad points. I do welcome spring and its pollen, because it also brings with it (hopefully) an end to the cold and flu season. Sorry, I lied That season has no good points.

I love this place

We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful place so close to home. On Saturday morning we drove 10 min. to the north end of Farmington Bay to the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. It has become a favorite place for us to take a nice stroll on the mile-long boardwalk and observe nature along the way. Close to the shore we didn't see many birds, and the frogs are most likely still hibernating, but we could hear lots of birds further out and couldn't wait to get to the observation tower to see what was making such a ruckus.
The view from the top was amazing as we could see the lake, the mountains and thousands of birds. There were many little black birds that never flew up so we couldn't tell what they were, but also hundreds of Canadian and pure white geese. The geese would occasionally fly overhead so we got some great views of them. We also watched a hawk circling around hunting. (The photo below shows just one section of birds.)
Right now the reeds are smashed down from the snow, but we agreed as a family that we should try to go there every month to see the changes and the different birds as the pass through on their migratory route. Although after attempting a walk one summer evening there, we might skip that time. We got half-way around the loop and the brine flies got so thick we could hardly breath in, so we had to pull our shirts over our noses and make a run for it. Maybe summer mornings aren't as bad.
We decided we need a bird book to be able to identify what we see, and more pairs of binoculars.
If you are ever in the area I highly recommend a visit.

Creative daughter

I know everyone says she's just like me, and she is, but times 10! I don't think I got that creative, that early in life. She's way ahead of me in a lot of things.
Take for instance, her book report. I don't remember what this style was called, but she was supposed to draw pictures on the 4 triangles, hook them together, and write the report on the flat part (see photo). That was too easy for my daughter. She had to make the pictures 3D. I didn't mind that, and I thought it was really cute, but she spent nearly 10 hours (maybe more) doing this and barely finished the project in time. She did her report on 'Book of a Thousand Days' by Shannon Hale.
It turned out awesome, but wow, that's a lot of time to spend on a book report. She was surprised that only 1 other classmate had anything 3D on their report - I wasn't. But, that's my daughter, she wouldn't have been happy with it any other way.

Here I go

Okay, so I created this blog a couple of months ago but haven't posted anything yet. I have seen some really great blogs, and kept wondering how I could possibly write anything to compete with them. I finally realized I don't have to. My blog is really for me, so it should show me and not a copy of someone else. So I won't try to compete, I won't try to start with some amazing post, I'll just be myself and put what I feel like on here and start with this post. If nobody wants to read it, that's okay with me. At least I finally got it started.
I'm sure my blog will improve over time because I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out. But I know what I want it to be, so you may want to visit occasionally. It might just turn out good. So if anyone is reading this, here I go- GERONIMO!