Monday, September 16, 2013

Star Academy Teen Picnic

 Right before classes started back with Star Academy, we had a teen picnic for all the teens. This is a great group of kids. I love them all. They all love to just be together and play games. We made it easy on ourselves with school quickly approaching and ordered pizzas. Man, these kids can pack away pizza!
It took some time to get them serious so we could take a group shot. I had to practically bribe them to get them serious. Victoria was in the thick of it. One of the benefits of being a leaders daughter. She gets to hang out and do extra activities that younger kids aren't invited to.  Kirk was there too. We had an awesome time. We left after dark which was well after 9pm at the time. No one really wanted to go home. Even some of the mom's hung around a little and visited. It was a wonderful evening and a great start to a fabulous school year.

New Shoes

Victoria wants her Aunt Carol to know that she has bright shoes too!
Her favorite color!
Turquoise!
 Here are Aunt Carol's bright orange shoes that were Aunt Kathy's shoes....funny story. She bought them the night that she freaked me out at my front door after dark when Kirk was out of town.

Cricket

I has been several weeks since our last day volunteering at American West Heritage Center. We made so many new friends and enjoyed being outside all day long...even in the heat. Well, we have heard that it was called "heat". To us it was a mild, warm winter day in Arizona. It gave the kids plenty of excuses to stand in the sprinklers and get cooled off.
Kaleb came out of the pioneer cabin with this cricket bat and proceeded to teach Victoria how to hit this homemade leather softball. She did pretty good. They both did. It was fun to watch. It was easy to lose my thoughts in modern life and experience what life would have been long ago in Cache Valley.

Alex has friends

It is so good to have Alex home with us.  He almost died of a broken heart when we left him in Arizona at Nana's. Once he woke up from hibernation and found he was alone....his buddy Ben, the rabbit, met his demise with a coyote! It still brings a gut wrenching feeling in my heart and tears to my eyes when I think about that. We have loved all our pets and Ben was special. Anyway,  Alex traveled all the way here in a box, in the cab of the truck, alongside my parents and was released into our lush, grassy yard. He instantly perked up. His life was new. He is a new man. I think he missed us as much as we missed him. I know...you're thinking....he's a tortoise! We have had him since he hatched from an egg 27 years ago. So he isn't just an ordinary tortoise. This is Alex who we are talking about. The one who manages to get in the house and roams around the living room if you aren't watching. He comes out to visit every time someone is in the yard. He chases the dogs from their patch of sunshine. And now, Alex has friends.
 These little guys came for a visit. Our wonderful neighbor has a friend who adopted these cute little guys. They didn't know another person who had a tortoise as a pet. Until now. I was so excited for the kids to see how small these guys were. Though Alex was much smaller than these little friends, and flatter when he was a baby. He was as flat as a pancake. It was fun to share their size so our kids could see just how small Alex started out as.
I'm kind of glad that he didn't really notice them on his back. Alex, being a male, can be very territorial when in close contact with another tortoise. Then he is back to his sweet demeanor and docile self. We love Alexander.