worth 1000 words

They say a picture's worth 1,000 words and I'm hoping that's true because I am out of time to blog tonight.  At least I got the pictures loaded :)  I'll add the details later (my bed is calling my name and it's been a long day so I'm not going to ignore it.) Check back soon, and if you're lucky I'll have our fourth of July pictures up too :)

What childhood is complete without playing train with all of the dining chairs?  This is the kids' favorite thing to do when I move the chairs away from the table to vacuum.  

We live far enough away from any major metropolitan areas that when we have to venture into the city to pick up supplies for the month, it ends up being an all day process and we're all worn out by the end.

My nephews got this car for Christmas and Lane immediately took to driving it last time we were down there.  It was hard to pull him away from it.

I've been trying to exercise more regularly, even if it's just going on a walk with the kids. Usually I get a friend to join me and the kids walk with us.  It's fun to watch Maggie with her friends.

I received my first saddle repair job. My visiting teacher called me one day and asked me if I could do a few minor repairs on a saddle for her so they could use it for a pack trip in the Uintahs.  It made me laugh when I asked her to describe what needed to be done and our definitions of "minor" didn't match up. It needs new shearling, new stirrup leathers, new saddle strings...in short I'm replacing most of it.  It was dilapidated and needed some TLC.  I wasn't able to get it done in time for their pack trip (which was fine with them since it was short notice) but I should be able to finish it soon.  It already looks a lot better.  It was my visiting teacher's husband's saddle that he used to break a lot of colts when they were a young couple.  They're going to give it to their son now so he can ride it.  Coincidentally, the girl that I visit teach is his wife. Are you confused yet? That's what happens in small towns; most everyone has a connection through marriage or blood to someone else :)

I finished Heather's fenders as well.

Our stake primary leaders made contact with the stake primary president in the tornado torn area of Oklahoma and asked if there was anything our primary kids could do for their primary kids.  She said that a lot of the kids have lost everything and they could really use a stuffed animal for comfort during this difficult time.  So all of the primary kids in our stake brought one of their stuffed animals to church and wrote letters to the kids in Oklahoma during their primary. Maggie wasn't so keen on the idea of giving a stuffed animal away at first.  It's hard to explain a tornado to a four year old who has never seen one, and it's even harder to explain what it would be like to suddenly have nothing. I didn't want to force the issue too much because I didn't want to turn her first real experience with charity into a negative experience and have her turned off to doing good deeds, but I also didn't want her to be the only kid that showed up without a contribution. I'm really proud that she ended up making the decision to give one of her animals away and in the end it was a good experience for everyone.  

On our way back to my car after visiting teaching a few weeks ago, my companion and I saw this tiny bird on the ground. Typically I would have left it there and let nature take its course, but in that split second we saw our visiting-teachee's dog running up to the baby bird to gobble it up, and instantaneously my motherly instincts took over and I swooped it up before the dog could get it. Great,  now what? I wondered. The little bird rode home with me, chirping "feed me, feed me!" all the way home.  When I got home, my next mistake was to let Maggie and Lane see it (they had stayed home with Jonathan). I did a little internet research and found out the little bird would need to eat a paste of cat food among other things every hour, including through the night.  I am not a mother bird I thought. So, ultimately I decided to bring it back outside and let nature take it's course.  It probably would have suffered less if I would have just let the dog get it, but at the time I couldn't stand to see something so defenseless killed by a dog.  So I had to explain to Maggie and Lane what happened when they asked about the baby bird.  The next day I found out there's a nature center near us that takes abandoned baby birds, but it was too late. I guess some lessons have to be taught the hard way.   

I happened to be in Riverdale when something went terribly wrong in one of the city's pump houses resulting in a 50 foot geyser, shooting through the roof of the building and flooding water all over the street.  It was almost painful to watch this much water get wasted...I know Jonathan would have been able to find a place for it if it would have been possible.  The picture's not great, but it should give you the idea.

I helped my friend make and sell snow-cones at the Widowmaker Hill Climb.  It was HOT!  So hot that some of our syrup bottles started to warp and melt.  I told my friend that I hope her plastic bottles were BPA free or else we'd be serving cancer-cones instead of snow-cones.  We both ended up being heat sick by the end it all, but on the plus side, the heat made it so that business was good and we made a pretty good profit the 2 1/2 days we were selling them.

I've moved hand line before; call me crazy but I actually kind of enjoy it. (Probably because I haven't done enough of it that it became work) With that being said, every time I saw them watering the championship hill, which is much taller and steeper than it seems in this picture, I thanked my lucky stars that I wasn't the one setting up the pipe :)

We took Maggie's training wheels off and she did pretty good with our help, but she's been asking for us to put them back on so she can go outside and ride her bike.  Maybe she's not quite ready.

My two nephews that live in Minnesota came and visited us, and their other aunts and uncles out this way.  They spent their first night with us. I hope they didn't get bored...I am not used to entertaining a 12 and 14 year old.  They seemed to enjoy chasing the chickens and petting the horses though.

In case you ever wondered how a boy plays with a stroller...

I taught my nephew's how to do some leatherwork.  Haden ended up making a key chain and seemed to enjoy using the different stamping tools.

We went on a picnic on the ranch, which is usually what we do when people come to visit.  It is one of my favorite places to kick back and eat some good food :)

We spent an afternoon at temple square for young men/young women. We went on a picture scavenger hunt for different buildings, statues, monuments, etc. on temple square. I had fun taking pictures while the youth were trying to mark everything off of their sheet.  

I am in love with these flowers and want a whole yard full of them right away!

The gardening-geek came out of me while we were walking around and I was patting myself on the back (silently) for knowing so many of the names of the flowers on temple square. I do not have a green thumb when it comes to flowers.  I think I've mentioned that.  Some day I want a beautifully manicured yard of flowers.    

A storm rolled in right as we were walking back to our cars and it made for a beautiful last shot of the temple.  I love how Angel Moroni almost looks like he is glowing :)

The 4-h program here does a "summer in the park" program.  For the first one we made sock monsters. (socks stuffed with soil and grass seed.) They were cute bald, but they're really cute now that they've sprouted hair.  I'll include a picture next time I blog.

I thought this was a cute picture of Lane playing with his friend Joe at the park after everyone finished making their sock monsters.

Maggie loves finding caterpillars.

Duke loves playing frisbee.

When Maggie's training wheels were still on, she figured out how to pop a wheelie :)

I love being on top of the range and looking out across all of the other peaks, especially near sunset when the light turns it all into a painting.

I finally made it to Chinatown.  I am not sure why it's called this, but it is the most bizarre landscape I have ever seen.  And scary. I am not normally scared of heights, but it was a bit scary to peek over the edge! The normal sagebrush-dotted landscape suddenly ends in a vertical drop off, and at the bottom is something that looks like it get transplanted there from southern Utah.  A 2D picture does not do justice to the steepness and sudden contrast in terrain. Chinatown is at the very corner of one of the borders on the ranch. Don and Heather were here visiting, so they got to experience the wonder of it as well :)