June - gone too soon

We had a Beehives only girls camp this year at Bryce Canyon and it was great. With only 15 girls I was glad to try something different. There were close to 50 yw the previous two years so this was somewhat easier. Not to mention that their age is so cute, sweet, and generally happy to do whatever! For privacy, I'm not posting their beautiful faces here but I couldn't resist putting in a scenic shot from our Queens Garden hike.

I FINALLY hiked to the "G" with our boys for the first time in our lives. It was fairly steep but not very long. That's it behind the boys. They enjoyed it but need some more hiking experience because they were getting jelly legs on the way down.

To help ME prepare for hiking at girls camp, I did several hikes near us - this one with a group which was fun to learn a new route so if I were to go by myself I wouldn't get lost ; ) The view goes all the way down to the windmills in Spanish Fork.

 I took this pic while on a garden tour (kind of like a Parade of Gardens) with some friends. We've made it an annual event to spend a day and a half every June to see different private gardens across the Wasatch front. These "flowers" are made from re-bar and plates. The owner says she buys the plates from thrift stores. The purple cluster is a group of little glass mugs.

Me and the boys went to the rodeo - front row seats this year. Truth be told, the boys were fidgety and paying almost no attention to the arena by 9:30 so we saw most of the bull riding but left early to avoid ugly traffic. But the strawberries and cream were divine. Hint - use ice cream base over your berries and you'll be hooked.

We have seen more progress on the new home. The trusses were delivered and set in one morning and nearly all the sheeting completed the second day. Now the plumber has been in putting in drain pipes. This has caused us to realize we need to have final selections for tubs, showers, sink height etc ready asap. You'd think we'd recalled that from the first time but no, it crept up on us. 

Hopefully the HVAC guys are coming soon, a bit more plumbing, and electrical. After they're done we can have a 4 way inspection (includes framing) then things can start to be closed up. Windows are on their way but we need to finalize the door choices.

This is the view from near the south west corner of our lot - the horse panels have since been moved. You can better see now how the deck will work and that the back is truly a walk-out.

We were about to fix up an old bike for Bennett to learn on, but after looking at the cost of all the parts we decided to ask Bennett if he wanted to split the cost with us on a new bike using his birthday money. He agreed (crying came later) and is finally learning to ride, with training wheels for now. It has been a good step to take to help him gain strength in his leg muscles.

This is not a chicken massacre, nor are they sleeping - just taking a big ole dust bath. This helps them smother tiny critters that can become a problem in their feathers. Any loose dirt will do, and in the heat they love it if it's a bit moist.