Dirt Boy

Jared has always enjoyed getting dirty.

He was the only child I knew who could go to bed clean and wake up 

with a dirty face.

I don't know how he did it. He loved to watch dust float through the air which meant that if there was dirt to kick, then he would be the one doing it. He even got us kicked out of a Mommy and Me group because the other mothers didn't like that he would kick the dirt and scuff his feet on outings. They said he was a setting a bad example for the other kids. 

That was the last time we met with those snobby mommies. 

Now that he is a carpenter, he loves coming home filthy dirty. He is working with a contractor friend so sometimes he is framing, other times he is doing concrete or installing a deck.

One particular hard working day he came home like this....

I think the filthier he gets in a day, the happier he is. 

Not much different than when he was little.

 He has always been my little construction worker. He had a great day when he helped Poppa move dirt. He went to bed that night clean and very happy. If you look closely you can see his dimple.

Funny, the day I took the top picture, he was wearing the same kind of boots for concrete work.

Who knew that his love for dirt would carry over into adult hood.

Odleif

Kaleb's little lizard Odleif almost died. She caught a respiratory infection and was gasping for air.

With a trip to the vet and being put on nebulizer treatments for a month she is all better....hopefully for good. It was horrible watching her gasp for air and not have any energy.  Kaleb is hoping some day to have a veiled chameleon so he has been taking good care of his little lizards.

I love the way Odleif is holding on to Kaleb's finger with her back feet.

P.S. Odleif is Norse for friend

Tony's Grove

 The kids and I took Nana to Tony's Grove to see the wildflowers. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect!

The flowers were a buzz with bumble bees and dragon flies and damselflies.

It was a beautiful afternoon,

Our Garden

 We planted our garden at Nana and Poppa's house.

I am so relieved to not be using the same place that we did for the past three summers. There are less weeds here and the deer haven't found it yet,

I love having home grown vegetables.

And I can't wait until next year when we have our garden planted in our very own yard.

Camping

In the midst of summer busy-ness, we went camping.

Played games

 Had Sammy clean the grill for us

 Took naps

 Relaxed

 Relaxed some more

 Made Pizza in the dutch oven

Everything was perfect

Alexander's Enclosure

 We moved rock, pulled out bushes, removed trees, trimmed up trees, cut out sod, pulled up two layers of weed stop and newspapers......and built a fence.

All for Alexander.

4th of July

 We spent the 4th celebrating in Malad, Idaho with family and had a wonderful time.

 Troy and Kathy filled the water trough. It was very refreshing.

 Kathy brought out water balloons and helped Victoria fill them up, We made up several games from throwing them at Victoria and bouncing them off of her to throwing them into a floating bin,

Kathy always thinks up something fun for Victoria to do to keep her busy.

I love, love, love Kathy's flowers!

We had a blast!

Heat Wave

Well, we discovered what it is like to survive a heat wave without air conditioning.

It wasn't just hard on us, it was hard on our chickens too.

We enlarged their yard so that they got more shade. It was so hot one of the days that we refreshed their water and let them out of the coop so that we could give them cool water to drink in the shade.

The hens have really grown but still aren't old enough to lay eggs. Any week now.....

 This is Henrietta who is now the smallest one even though she was the largest as a chick.

She still likes to be the boss.

 This is Augustine. She likes to keep everyone in check. She will storm the others and fluff up her neck feathers. It is kind of funny to watch.

 This is Martha who has black legs and white toe nails and Hortense who will do everything possible to avoid being touched by you.

 This is Magdelena. She is really shy,

 This is Gertrude. She is the hostess with the mostess, She is blurry because she keeps running up to me every time I crouch down to take their picture. She always wants to check your hands just in case we brought something special out for them. They absolutely love watermelon.

Here is Rosie.....so you think she looks like a ROOSTER?

Yep, she's a HE.

We tried to call him ROX but he remained tense until we started to call him Rosie, then he relaxed and settled down. So Rosie is a He.

 Bottoms Up

So far Rosie is nice. We know how mean a rooster can get so we are hoping that all that time that Victoria spent holding him since he was a chick has helped.

Great Horned Owl

Sorry for the blurry picture but this is the Great Horned Owl that hangs out in our trees.

Fishy

Kaleb and I cut out sod in Alexanders new enclosure and started filling in under the apple tree. We didn't know until later when we looked out the upstairs window that we had made a fish shape.

Home Made Waterslide

Victoria made her own waterslide with plastic that she found in the shed.

It looked pretty fun.

Though we found out the hard way that the sun burned the grass.

It grew back.

It was worth the fun though.

Happy Father's Day

 We spent Father's day celebrating the fathers in our family. We are so blessed to have Fathers who are devoted to our family and put up with all our quirks. I am thankful that our kids have strong examples of what it means to be a Dad. All the good parts.

Through thick and thin, they will always be there.

Jared

Girl Scout Camp

 My friend Amber and I took 6 girls to Girl Scout Camp in June to Trefoil Camp and had a blast!

We spent three days packed into a field. It was literally wall to wall tents. Our tent is right in the middle against the forest line.

Everyone chose a camp name. Victoria's was Pegasus and mine was Surf from all those years spending summers at the beach.

Thanks to Amber's expertise in dutch oven cooking we entered a dutch oven cookoff.

Dutch (this guys camp name who ran the cook off) was so nice to us. Our 7 layer brownie wasn't baking as fast as it was supposed to so he managed to ward off the judges to give us some more time.

It ended up baking with the extra time and tasted delicious. We didn't win but the girls sure did an awesome job working as a team to bake these brownies.

 There were many times that the girls got totally out of control giggling. It was very catchy.

Though I do have to admit that them singing....YOU CAN"T RIDE IN MY LITTLE RED WAGON....go to be a little much. But they were enjoying themselves and wasn't hurting anyone so we let them sing all they wanted. I don't think some of the other leaders liked to hear them on the trail but I didn't see any harm in it. They were having fun singing while we hiked the mile between our tent and all the activities. We must have hike 5 miles a day! It was unbelievable!

 The leaders of the troops participating in the Dutch Oven Cookoff

The master chefs.

We had a blast.

Morning Hike

 Kaleb and I went for a morning hike in Green Canyon.

This boy loves to hike ...and fast too.

It was absolutely beautiful

Peaceful,

 Serene...

It was nice spending time together in the cool morning with chirping birds, experiencing the great outdoors and all it has to offer.

I love it here!

Doggie Olympics

Victoria has been participating in a 4H group that does dog obedience and agility training. Henry is perfect for agility. He can jump over anything and loves the tunnel the best. He also loves all the treats he gets in training. Victoria has been awesome with him and he is really listening to her.

Victoria participated in the Doggie Olympics at the fair grounds. Henry loved all of it including the fashion show. He didn't seem to care that he was wearing a tutu and a feather boa.

As long as he got treats he was good to go!