Poppies

From the first time we were in Idaho in June, I saw these beautiful poppies 

and was struck by their brilliant color!

 It took three tries to get them going but we now have success!

 They are so beautiful!

I LOVE these flowers.

I love the fern like leaves and the glossy papery looking petals.

I have planted them in several parts of the yard.

The Evil Elf

Goats have a way of sounding like they are laughing....

at times they sound like a small child .....

or a crazed teenager.....

Goats are crazy agile,

springy

mischievous

and sometimes plain EVIL!!!!

 Don't let this cute little thing fool you!

Have you noticed the double layer of wire?

Probably because the little squirt is still small enough to fit through

the cattle panels....

 He looks innocent huh?

Don't let it fool you,

this guy is only about 18 inches high, yet can jump over a 5 foot fence from a stand...

No running jumps needed here!

We have attached chicken wire on all the corners of the pen, on top of the hay feeder roof.....

Kirk even put a broken branch to keep him away from the fence,

Oh.....and every night so we can rest without worry, we have nailed wire in the opening of his house so we can lock him in at night knowing he will be safe and secure. 

Goats are smart!

You can't turn your back on them.....EVER!

Which is why Victoria earned the "Goat Mama" award.

It takes a good shepherd to help keep track of what a goat is up to.

And this is only one little guy....I haven't even mentioned the other two that we have

Kaleb's Grasshopper

As part of Kaleb's welding class at Bridgerland Technology College, they got to weld their own creation. He made the face out of the electrical circuit that we took out of their bedroom, wings out of miter saw blades, legs out of horse shoes...

I love it!

End of the Year Awards

At the end of every school year we try to do fun awards as well as grade completion.

Victoria received the Goat Mama award for the many hours that she has put into nurturing and raising our goats. It takes lots of hard work and devotion to not want to give in and continue to tolerate them.

Anyone who has goats would understand exactly what I mean.

 Kaleb received the "Right Way" award for his systematic life of organization and 

precise way of accomplishing things.

 Every year the kids fill out their grade and pack away school papers that they want to keep.

 Kaleb's book is quite full. It isn't even in good shape anymore with a few tears here and there.

 I love looking back at previous years.

 As I was browsing through Kaleb's book I came across this years entry. 11th grade. Kaleb's favorite author is the Apostle Paul...but the one that really got me was his favorite school play....Victoria's Daily Drama. He makes me laugh.

The two of them together can be quite comical. 

Jumping Friends

Not only was the goat on the trampoline with Victoria but Thunder wanted up there too.

A New Sink

I came home to Jared installing a new sink for Mother's Day!

We decided to wait another year to redo the kitchen. BUT...in the meantime we wanted to replace the sink since that is the one thing I cannot stand is our ugly stainless steel sink from the 60's with the faucet that doesn't work right! 

I love our new sink...well, new to us. A friend of ours had it sitting on his garage floor waiting for a new home! I'm so glad it is in our home. 

It will help to prevent me to taking a sledge hammer to the existing kitchen.

I love having a handy son!

With an awesome smile!

SNOW??!!

 We woke up to this!

It was a beautiful white contrast to the Spring green!

 Many trees broke from the weight of the snow. With the trees flowing with sap it just makes it too heavy causing branches to crack.

At about 4 in the morning we heard a huge crack that continues for the next hour. This poor beautiful tree behind the barn cracked and fell to the ground. So sad.

 I was attempting to walk under the tree to inspect the tree that broke but decided not to. It was pouring rain under the tree from all the snow melting very quickly.

 It sounded fantastic!

 Sven was all puffed up to keep warm.

His first experience with snow. 

 Our tomato plants stayed all nice and toasty warm in their wall of waters. 

They are like little mini greenhouses. The lettuce, being cold hardy is 

completely covered by snow and wasn't harmed in anyway.

The tomatoes did well but who knows if the fruit trees will have any fruit this year. 

The cherry tree had blossoms until the snow. 

Nap Time

Sven escaped and found his way into Victoria's lap for a nap.

Bee Brothers

The boys have invested in a Bee adventure.

I love that these two find such pleasure in doing things together.

 It was somewhat chilly out which kind of helped with the mass of bees, plus Kaleb sprayed them with sugar water which preoccupied them with eating.

 It was so cool to see them working together, which they do easily.

The bees got transferred into the hive without any stings.

I made sure we had Benadryl on hand....just in case.

 They didn't want to wear beekeepers suits. Of course Jared is wearing holy jeans so he taped them over with packing tape and Kaleb is wearing his gaitors so bees didn't go up his pant legs.

These two crack me up.

I love to see them smile!

Broadway on Ice

 The Cache Valley Figure Skating Club put on an amazing show in April.

They have awesome coaches and a huge amount of talent...young and old.

 Victoria and Brooklyn had the opening number to Broadway Here I Come.

 These two were right on que with each other.

 They practiced long and hard and could do the number in their sleep.

 I love to watch Victoria skate. It is so crazy how she can do all these things on ice like she was just dancing on regular ground.

Kirk painted the backdrops for the show. They turned out great!

Everyone was excited to have them.

The other number that Victoria was in was Masquerade from Phantom of the Opera.

I love their costumes!

Victoria had her over the boot tights unattached...Anything to keep them from 

getting holes until the moment that she is on.

 Daphne's Utah State University Ice Skating Class skated a number

 from Wicked called One Short Day.

 One sister trying to make the other sister laugh!

 I happened to look down at the little girls sitting on the ice watching their coaches skate and saw little Ava doing the splits on the ice. 

 The Ice Skating Club is blessed with this husband and wife team as coaches. 

Hiroe and Januzs are incredible skaters who spent 12 years traveling the world skating 

for Disney on Ice. They are so much fun and are well loved by all the skaters.

And they are hard, and tough and really challenge the skaters to push themselves

 to be the best they can be. They are quite the inspiration.

 A rare moment to see these two sitting together....and smiling!

 The USU Figure Skating class acting goofy like all college students.

Daphne has had such fun with this group. 

Sven

 This little guy is so cute....but boy is he a handful as all goats can be!

 Sven, being a bottle baby, will follow Victoria to the ends of the earth!

Especially for his bottle!

She is such a good Goat Mama helping raise him from the time we picked him up

 when he was only 3 hours old. 

 It is so easy to lose time once you set foot in the yard...

especially to visit with Beau a minute or two.

Goat Games

This is probably not the wisest game to play with a buckling....but.....

Jared just can't resist this little guy.

Jared has the charisma that attracts animals to playing all over him, especially when he gets home from work and sits down. Sven sees Jared's legs as an opportunity to climb and jump.

It's pretty cute!

Jared's Moose Friend

Jared was busy at work in this million dollar cabin that he and his boss have been building in Bear Lake since summer when he glanced out the window and saw this huge Moose.

He had that eerie feeling that something was watching him.

 I'm glad he caught a picture of him. He doesn't always do that. He always shares 

these really neat things with me but never thinks to snap a picture for his mother.

This time he did. He said that this Moose stood there for quite some time 

even after he went back to work. I told Jared that where else can he go to work 

and see a Moose just hanging out.

I love it here!