Welding

Kaleb has had the privilege of tapping into his Grandfathers expertise in welding!

He has been riding his bike , even in the snow sometimes, 

to learn how to weld from my Dad every week.

I am so glad that my Dad is being able to pass down some

 of the knowledge that he has in so many things.

 They also welded extensions and stabilized the red sand blasting booth too.

I also like that they are two peas in a pod when it comes to

 protecting themselves from being burned.

Snow Camping

While the girls and I were snug in our nice warm beds, 

our guys were out in Logan Canyon sleeping in the snow....snug in their bags!

 This is the highlight of Kaleb's world....snow camping.

He even taught the other scouts at one of their meetings about the 

proper gear for winter camping in extreme weather. We call him our Extremist. 

 Some of the scouts shoveled a quincy to sleep in.

Every year, Kaleb thinks up a different shelter to build.

 This year he made a hobo tent out of ski poles and a tarp.

 He said it was actually quite cozy in there.

Better him than me.

 Jared was tired from school all week so he shoveled a trench for his tent to sink down into.

Kirk and Jared were both tired from the long week, they both had said they couldn't believe they were going to go snow camping as they headed into the canyon for the night.

Kirk made a wood ceiling a couple years ago for his shelter that he uses every year now.

He says it is much roomier and less chance of it caving in on him.

It was a toasty 44 degrees inside.

He said it smelled quite nice with the sage brush.

 Kaleb helped the other leader flip flapjacks for breakfast.

I love that my boys don't back down from helping out.

The other adults have  a tendency to rely on both the boys because they are so responsible.

 I'm proud of my two Eagle Scouts!

and my hubby for hanging in there along the way!

Snowshoeing Franklin Basin

This was the most amazing day,

It was warm!

When we left the house it was 37 degrees!

Woo Hoo, t-shirt weather!

 For our Friday outing for Science/Field Trip/PE.... you gotta love Homeschooling,

we snowshoed Franklin Basin.

We kind of wanted to see what it looked like in the daylight. 

We had been here in the moonlight previously.

It was absolutely beautiful

 Part of the snow was crusted over and other parts were light and fluffy.

Either way it was fun looking for animal tracks...

winter colors and trees winterized.

Who knew that there would be this beautiful yellow...

Or the red of the Red Twig Dogwood...

 We still can't believe how warm it was.

 We had a mini winter picnic throwing snow balls into the pond.

Funny thing, obviously they float and didn't melt.

Kaleb told Victoria that she throws like a girl!

 Everything was so fresh and clean,

it was awesome and great to be outside.

 Kaleb being a Tree Hugger.

Have you kissed a tree today?

Sewing Class

 Victoria cross stitched this adorable little dog and sewed the cutest drawstring back pack I have ever seen. Of course it is her favorite shade of blue.

It only took us three trips to Joanns to buy new cording three times! Yes, three times! She lost the first strand, the second was too short and three times a charm!

The Great Cornelius!

Lizard Man....aka Kaleb,

has a new lizard.

We gave him an awesome aquarium for his birthday for the long awaited
Chameleon!

 He can be quite the distraction during school when we watch him s...l...o....w...l...y.... crawl along his vines and do acrobats as he hangs upside down from the screened ceiling.

 Veiled Chameleons are an advanced pet to care for. Since Kaleb successfully brought his anole Odlief back from a very serious illness, we figured that he could handle a chameleon.

 So after many years of waiting and planning.....

and three weeks deciding on the most perfect name...

 We have Cornelius!

Pure Jealousy

 I know....your jealous!

You have the green envy monster when you look at these walls.

You wish you had them.

Go ahead, admit it!

Kids in the tub

I came across this picture of Daphne, Jared and Kyle (my nephew) in the summer of 2000 playing around the pool at Nana and Poppa's house.

 I have no idea what they were doing with all these little pools next to the diving pool!

Nana probably had something to do with it.

Moonlight Snowshoe Hike

Kirk, Jared, Kaleb and I met up with the Cache Hikers for the first time to Snowshoe hike in Franklin Basin in the moonlight! It was awesome!

 There were about 16 of us on snowshoes and 3 on cross country skis.

We started out about 7pm and followed the river north without any flashlights. We didn't need them. The moon was so bright it was like walking in day light.

We stopped at about 8:15 to have a fire that a couple of the others had brought up wood and buried it in bags the day before. We passed around moon cookies and chocolate covered pretzels around the fire. Round trip was about 4 miles. I had never gone that far on snowshoes before. It was wonderful. One of the times I had stepped off the trail for a minute to rest and my pole collapsed. My foot sunk up to my knee in a hole and I couldn't get up. I started to laugh but knew that I wouldn't have any strength if I did that. So I had to get my foot out and then stand up. We made it back into Logan around 10:30. 

 This is actually Kirk and I walking on the far left. At one point we were alone which is highly unusual for us. It was wonderful! I can't wait to do this again.

Frog Dissection

I have had my days of literally making the kids dissect a frog for Biology class.

Not this year. 

We did paper and watched videos on Youtube!

It was a quick clean up, no formaldehyde smell and we could work on it just minutes of leaving for art class. Plus they got in some colored pencil skills with shading and such.

Still a job well done!

Insect Study at USU

Kaleb, Victoria and I are studying Insects this month. 

We are constantly discovering new things. This past week we fell upon a website that classified insects by a certain feature, like leather wings, or half wings. It totally made perfect sense and made understanding easier. Daphne told us about this display in the library at USU so we picked her up one day and she showed this to us.

I think this is one of the better displays that we have seen. 

The iridescence in the wings is absolutely amazing.

God must have had fun the day he thought up that one.

Heat Wave!

You know it's hot in Cache Valley when your snowman loses his FACE!

It warmed up to 37 and boy was it wonderful....

Though our little greeter didn't think so.

AWWWW! I lost my face!

Pure Bliss!

 I think about growing up in Southern California and

 then the 17 years we lived in Arizona.

Do I miss the warmth of the sun,

the Arizona heat?

Not when I can experience the crisp, clean season of Winter.

Winter is so beautiful.

I love to watch the snow pile up and seek the

 different shades of blue that are encased in snow.

I love to watch the goats sink into snow deeper than their legs.

They look at trudging through the snow like a game.

 I love to watch  the snow swirl through the air.

To think that each tiny snowflake piles on top of 

one another to create inches and inches of snow.

 It amazes me that two of God's creatures that are only 5 months old can grow 

such a thick coat of fur that they stay warm all winter and never complain....

 Somewhere in there is the spring board.

 Peek-a-boo

 I love how their eyes are the color of winter snow 

or the sky on a warm summers day.

There is a driveway under here somewhere. 

 Many hands make light work.

Our friendly greeter

 Victoria wanted to know what it would feel

 like to just throw herself into the snowbank....

so we did it for her.

 Neighborly help....actually, I think Dave was having too much fun 

plowing his driveway so he came and finished plowing ours.

 It was a relief since we had been working on ours for over an hour.

We have great neighbors all around us.

 Sunny the Snowman

always happy,

always has a smile....