October

We had an unusually eventful month. The best part happened on the LAST day of the month, because Paxton chose to be baptized a member of our church. He has always been excited about this day, and it actually was more special for him because he loves Halloween. I was so pleased to see so many family members come to support Paxton and our family.

Since so many family members were coming for the baptism, we had a little birthday celebration afterward for Paxton turning 8.

Paxton has wanted a pocket knife for a while now. We've always told him when he turned 8 he could have one and we kept our word. The first thing he wanted to make was a spotted stick and some beads like Grandpa does when we camp.


Jared took this great shot of our boys with our neighbor's boy who has become a good friend. They are dressed up for a pack meeting carnival. It will be really fun for Paxton to be a cub scout.

Between school, preschool, church, and family parties, both boys have had the chance to dress up several times this week, and they loved it. Star Wars is popular with our boys and they both had the chance to be Luke Skywalker and Obi -Wan Kenobi. They also dressed up as a cowboy, stormtrooper, and transformer.

Jared does not like answering the door on Halloween so this year we put up a sign at the front of our sidewalk with an arrow pointing to the neighbor's house. They had invited us to sit on their driveway around a propane fire. Jared joined them (with our bowl of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters) while I took Paxton and Bennett around the neighborhood.




This hayride was part of my aunt's family party which she invited us to. The boys played games and were spoiled with treats and toys. Thanks Carol!

Our nephew Jack was hanging out with my Mom so he got to come to the party too. He loved it, even though he didn't know most of the kids there, he wasn't ready to go home when it was over. He just had his 2nd birthday and we enjoyed his party with his mom and dad and extended family.

For fall break from school, we took the boys to California to visit amusement parks and the beach. On the way we had the added bonus of seeing Jaylene, who graciously let us stay overnight to break up the drive.  We had fun with her and their two girls - Ellie is next to Bennett and Cami is next to Paxton. They are sweet, and Bennett got Cami laughing with his chicken dance. We love you J!

Here we are in the first line of the day! We went to Disneyland first hoping to avoid the worst of the weekend crowds. That worked for the first hour or so...but by the end of the day we could hardly walk down the sidewalks and streets in the park. The boys loved Tomorrowland and we got onto rides easily there. That's where we made the mistake of taking Paxton on Space Mountain. Jared rode with him and apparently he didn't like it at all. So Paxton thought EVERY ride would be like that and it was hard to convince him to try others. But he did some, and by the end of the trip didn't hate ALL rides. His fear surprised me because Bennett has had some car sickness and yet the rides didn't bother him a bit. His fear was more age appropriate; he didn't want to try the adult rides like big coasters but most others were fun for him. Paxton did enjoy Star Tours a lot with the 3D glasses.

The part that I enjoyed most about the trip was that our family shared it with Doug, Marin, Zoe, Jack, and my Mom. I doubt we would have gone by ourselves and my mom helped a great deal with juggling kids of different ages. I highly recommend taking a grandma (or grandpa, or both) if you go to an amusement park!

We liked Knotts Berry Farm and California Adventure parks just as much, if not more, than Disneyland. They weren't as crowded and the variety of rides was great too. Bumper cars were fun for the boys - I didn't hate them as much as I did as a kid.

My favorite family type of ride was the Cars Racers in California Adventure. The set, the story, and especially the race part of the ride was impressive and very well done.

Here's Bennett purposely pulling another face for the camera (both above and to the right). Lately he is into posing is silly ways for pictures.

We couldn't drive that far and not see the ocean so we spent a few hours there before heading home. Parking wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be and the beach wasn't too crowded. The weather was good the whole trip with low 80s.

This guy let Paxton try out his surfboard and Paxton showed good balance. Both boys liked the beach but Paxton loved the water and sand the most.

September

Bennett had his first day of pre-school this month. He TOTALLY loves it. He has a knack for learning names and he knows who is or is not there each time. Bennett is learning how to read and write and still loves to color.







Because I wanted our dining table back, we took this quirky little table that came from my great grandpa and made it Bennett's art table. The first day he didn't leave it for 3 hours.

We were able to attend a reunion on Jared's mother's side which was held in a favorite camping area above Fairview. The boys found this hut and had fun with their cousins. I enjoyed myself too.

A few years ago we took a Fall camping trip with Jared's parents. We enjoyed the cool weather and changing leaves so much that we decided to do it again - even in the same camp site. Although we camped several times this summer, this was the first time that hot chocolate or a fire sounded really good. It didn't freeze at night but we had a little frost and some cool fog on the nearby reservoir.

We hiked a lot this trip, and the boys more than they ever have. Because we were in sheep country we ran into some protective dogs that firmly pushed us back up one trail. Thanks to Jared's elk bugling (and Gma's fruit snack break) we saw this large elk above us.

My camping photos wouldn't be complete without a canoe shot.




















On one of our hikes we found several massive fallen tress that boys played on. Paxton does not appear to have any fear of heights and he can have fun climbing even the smaller trees near  camp.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't seen Clyde catch a fish in a long time, so it was fun for me to see him pull this one out of the water for a photo op.








We saw plenty of deer nearby, and even a moose. There were also beavers that had worked extensively on the stream below our camp spot.

I loved the trip. In fact I aim to make it an annual event.

My friend recently told me that I'm very domestic. I'll take it as a compliment, and I can't really argue since I have a cold storage full of self-bottled tomatoes, applesauce, peaches, and now around 32 pints of home made syrup. We spotted these elderberries on our camp trip and decided to try the 'ole fashioned elderberry syrup. It turned out well; I personally like it the best of the several types we made. The others were blackberry-raspberry and blackberry-raspberry-peach. Some turned out more like jelly and others were a bit too thin. But they're ALL sweet.

My favourite type of cantaloupe, 'Athena' grew in a range of sizes in our garden this year. But they are reliably tasty.

Here's a recent pic of our 8 chickens. They are a pretty flock, and very friendly. The smallest one now routinely jumps up onto my arm or shoulder if I'm close to the ground. I don't know who's weirder - the hen for doing it or me for allowing it.

And, if you animal lovers haven't had enough, here's our two cats. Destructo on the left and Invisible on the right. They are brother and sister but other than color they aren't too much alike.

August

We took a "stay-cation" this month. The boys are finally both big enough to hike to Timpanogos Cave. Bennett did hike most of the way with just a little time riding piggyback from dad on the way up and one from mom on the way down. Paxton did a great job hiking the whole way. We might turn him into a hiker yet. This day was rainy which actually added to the beauty. It did make for a colder visit inside the cave since we were a bit wet, but it was fun to see the canyon in such misty conditions. There were a few portions of the trail that had small rock slides. We witness one and noticed rocks on the trail, maybe they were sliding more due to the rain.

Another day of Jared's week off, we visited This Is The Place Park. Even though the entire concept is about pioneers, to the boys liked this pirate ship the best. They also enjoyed watching the Native American dancers and loved making an arrowhead necklace.

This camping trip started out with us and Gma and Gpa, and ended with a whole lot of cousins, which was really fun. Jared's sisters and brother brought their kids up and they got along great. We believe we got the best campsite on the mountain due to arriving mid-week. It was grassy, open and had lots of room. In fact some strangers pulled up Friday night and asked if they could park in one end of it because they couldn't find any place to stay. We told them we had a vicious dog but they came anyway, which was fine.

Jen and Grandma were kind to let us leave all the young kids with them while the rest of the adults hiked. Of course we got off the trail and made it a longer hike than necessary. But we ended up in the right place. Me and Jared hiked it from the bottom up that evening and found where we went wrong. So maybe next year we'll get it right.

Our neighbor had this dump truck full of sand dropped into his horse corral so we let the boys play in it before my dad spread it out with a tractor.

I grew some Indian corn in the garden and these are the first ears. I'm trying to figure out ways to use it in addition to decorating. Some websites suggest popping it, making hominy, or grinding it.

This lump of clay weighs 25 lbs. Jared made it into a bird bath for a friend whose old one had cracked. This was his second attempt, the first was almost complete when he threw the rim out of shape by spinning the wheel too much. Oops.

You can see why we moved the wheel outside to do it. I don't have a finished picture of it but you can see where it's going in this one. Below are photos of Jared's most recent pieces, the first one with holes - you'd say won't hold water - isn't supposed to. It's a berry bowl for me to use like a colander. I love it.

Our new family photo. Take #8.

Aaahhh Summer

I'll get to the more important things in a moment, but first an update on gardening and chickens. To the right is one of my new favorite flowers called Mondarda or "Bee Balm". They are usually pink, purple or red and grow quite tall, like 3-4 feet. They are said to require low water (ours just get lawn sprinkler overspray).


Next, our chickens are all producing eggs. The eggs are mostly shades of brown but two of our hens are Americaunas which can produce pale blue or green eggs. We also have one white hen. And yes, we have all hens, what luck! The two that died (one a tiny chick and one juvenile) must have been roosters : ) They run up to us like pets and they do have different personalities. I find them both more amusing and endearing than I'd expected. The boys love checking the nesting boxes for eggs.

My aunt held a family party this year with an inflatable water slide and delicious food and a treasure hunt for the kids. It was basically a reunion on my side of the family. Bennett was "traumatized" when a pile of kids landed on him as they were all trying to get up the ladder to the slide. He didn't want to go down the slide after that.

This putting green was part of my aunts' party. Paxton was under par for the day. His favorite colors are red, white, and blue so we bought this suit for him for swimming lessons. He has always loved the water, even getting it in his face or dumped over his head so he went on the water slide many times.

Bennett really enjoys drawing and coloring. The sidewalk chalk people are his creations. He also loves Gatorade, Hi-Chews, and RAW green beans. Our neighbor asked us to pick and use some their beans since they'd be out of town and he says they are yummy. There's no predicting this kid. He LOVED his swimming lessons though so we will plan on that for the next few years to help him gain skills in the water. He is super excited to start preschool at the beginning of next month.

We took the boys to the Days of '47 Parade this year. Here's Paxton pretending to be shy and Bennett cheesing it up. We didn't have previous seats saved but it worked out fine, and since they don't throw out candy we didn't need to be on the front row. The floats were all well done pioneer themes, and we didn't see any commercial ad floats or even political campaigners...just a few currently in office. President Eyring rode in a jeep with cowboy attire and that was fun to see.

Jared took some time off of work so we went on a little camping trip just past Daniel's Summit. It didn't start well. We were about a mile from our destination when our truck died on Hwy 40. It simply stopped working. We were on the side of the road for a few minutes before a guy stopped and towed us to our original turnoff where there was a large parking lot. Fortunately for us, our next door neighbor was camping only a couple miles away (we'd talked about it before leaving) and we called him up. He then towed our trailer first, then our truck, to where he and his wife were camping. Long story short, we got the truck home eventually thanks to a trip from my parents bringing their truck, another tow by the neighbor, and Jared's co-worker with a flatbed. Sadly, Jared had JUST replaced the fuel pump in the truck a couple days before we left and there hadn't been any signs of trouble. We are grateful for amazing neighbors and friends. To add to the bad luck, my mom came up for a visit on our second day (we figured we'd stay since the truck had to sit at the mechanic's overnight) and her car overheated. It sat for a couple hours and cooled off before she headed home but then it had the same problem again and she didn't even make it to Heber before SHE had to pull off the road.
Cars. You can't live with them and you can't live without them.

But, we got to know our neighbors better and we discovered a new area to camp. Here's Paxton collecting some fallen trees for firewood. He and Bennett still had a great time. When your vehicle breaks down it's really convenient to have a trailer with you for food and a place to sleep!

These last pictures are from a youth conference that I was fortunate to attend this month. It was in Vernon, Utah at a church beef ranch. It was amazing. Apparently there are about 1,000 cattle plus their calves, so around 2,000 head. There are 600 MILES of fence so that's primarily what we went to do, fix fence. The man in charge told us they rely heavily on volunteers to keep things going and he is one of only two paid employees. The entire purpose of the ranch is to feed the poor. None of the beef is sold on the open market, it is all donated to those who need it, whether in a bishop's storehouse or in a shipment that the church sends to a disaster area.

Sadly, I didn't take my camera up to the mountaintop that my group was on where we put up new fence. But here's a pic of me that one of the other leaders sent me. It looks like I'm the only one working, but in fact that little group of people further down the hill were hefting a 70+lb roll of barbed wire UP to the top of the hill. The whole trip was a great opportunity for the kids, and meeting the humble man who runs it all was a priviledge. This rancher is very straightforward in explaining why mending fence matters and his comments held a lot of weight with the youth to help them understand why they were there.

This is also at youth conference, the evening before the work started. We did games - this one is called the human rubber band - and the tents were put up in a big shady grass patch that is just for the volunteers to camp at.

We had a testimony meeting at the end of the day in the hayloft. The kids did pretty well overall, some of them did have to endure some heat and strenuous work, but for most of them it was walking along fencelines looking for weak areas to fix. The farm will take church, school, or any other group who wants to help as volunteers. It would be a wonderful way to spend a family reunion when kids are old enough to help.