Memorial Day

We have CEMENT! We had this part done by the pros and it looks great! You might be able to tell that it looks shiny. That's because they put two coats of sealant on and it looks like it is wet but it isn't. Todd is busy putting the walls up now.



Here is a shot of the wheat growing on the rest of our property. Well some of it at least. It looks pretty right now. And the price is right too!

Dallin enjoys helping his Dad out there. He went out there at six this morning and stayed there all day. Todd usually drags Garrett out there too but he is at the Sasquatch Music Festival at the gorge all day today.


The rest of the kids and I brought a picnic lunch and the little ones bikes to test out the new cement.

Here is the sun bathing beauty.

This is the scary part. He assures me he is holding on. I don't feel any better. The little ones didn't want to go home with me so they stayed to "help" Dad. Eli was so tired when he got home he only took a few bites of his sandwich (which he was too busy to eat out there) and went right to sleep on his chair.

District Band Festival

This is my favorite concert every year. We have been attending this concert every year for the last nine years since Samantha was in 6th grade. The band on the left is the combined sixth grades and on the right is the combined 7th and 8th grades. Dallin plays the alto sax in this band. And the one in the back is the high school. Garrett plays the tenor sax and Bridget plays the flute in this band. Each of the bands play some songs on their own and then they will pay one or two together. Often it will start with the sixth grade and then the 7th and 8th join them and then the high school until they are all playing together. I love to hear the progress they make through the years. There is a big jump from sixth to 7th and 8th and then the High School sounds downright professional after that. The Band director had the seniors stand up and talked about how great they are and how close he is feeling to them. He hasn't been here that long and this is one of the first graduating classes he has had the whole four years where he was feeling really comfortable the whole time. At the very end the high school band always plays the fight song. I feel a little sad when I know I have a senior out there playing that for the last time.

Here are the two coolest cats in the band. This is Garrett with one of his closest friends, Michael. They have been friends for a long time and have played the tenor sax together since 6th grade. Garrett has really enjoyed being band and likes the director. He likes the variety of music he chooses and always has some really out there interesting stuff.

Here is the band director congratulating Garrett on his solo. He told him if you wanted a solo all you had to do was ask. Oops that wasn't Garrett, that was Michael and it was a surprise solo when he came in way to early on one part. Garrett was wondering why he was getting ready to play.

Here are the saxophone playing brothers. Dallin already put his away. Bridget had already run off to the band room. We always try to get down there to take their picture together after this concert and we never quite make it.

I made Bridget pose for a picture when she got home since she ran off so fast. This is also Bridget's last year in band. Yes we caved. We swore we never would but we couldn't take the pressure anymore. She hasn't enjoyed band the way the other kids have and she wants to take the student government class. She wants to be the school historian and she can't fit it all in her schedule. It will be weird to not have anyone in band next year at the high school. I have enjoyed going to the concerts. But she has no regrets.

Go Blue!

Well Bridget tried out for cheerleader and as you can see she made it! She and her friend Shaylee tried out together and luckily they both made it. There were a lot of girls who tried out and their tryout time was not until 8:30 pm. At 9:00 pm they went back and found out who was on the team when they put up this banner. It was very exciting to see their names but sad for the girls around them who didn't make it. You may think it was easy because we live in a small town - must be a small school. But that is not true. This high school is one of the larger ones in the state with almost 2000 students. So they are feeling pretty good about this accomplishment. After they found out, they went to Dairy Queen and since it was about to close they came here with Shaylee's mom and aunt and we all reveled in their success. When they left we noticed this sign outside the door. The cheerleaders from this year brought a sign to each of their houses to congratulate them. Unfortunately when Shaylee got home she found a sign with the wrong name! Bummer. Today at school the cheerleaders gave each new cheerleader a bunch of goodies including blue and white hair ribbons with sparkly writing and candy and a big blue star helium balloon some other stuff that I can't remember and a crown for them to wear all day. (Bridget ditched that right away.) I can't say I don't have some reservations about this whole thing, but Bridget has been dreaming of doing this most of her life. She worked really hard for try outs and so I am happy she gets to try it out and see how it feels. Lydia has been making Congratulations posters for Bridget all day. CONGRATULATIONS BRIDGET! --One sad thing is that she can't play soccer, which she loves, this year for the first time since she was six years old. She was so excited this year when she was moved up to the varsity team. Oh well, I guess that will be the first of many sacrifices next year.

Man it's hot out here

After a cold spring it suddenly turned HOT! It's been in the 90's the past few days so the kids have been enjoying some fun in the sun. Here they are lining up for the sprint through the sprinkler to the kiddie pool. These little guys love it when Dallin plays in the back yard with them. Even when Elijah is really upset when Todd and I are going somewhere and are trying to leave the house, as soon as he hears that Dallin is going to play outside with him he just says. "Okay, Bye!" Dallin is our best babysitter and he gets lots of practice. Don't know what we would do without him.
Here is Lydia jumping over the hose that has a bunch of little squiggly arms that spray water every which way. You may notice the little guys got their hair cut. I took about 7 inches off Lydia's hair. And Elijah's hair is so hard for me to cut because first of all I don't know what I am doing and second he has more hair than any of the other kids. Not to mention he doesn't like sitting still to get it cut. So it is an event.
Garrett and Landin bought this little pool to sit in to cool off after school one day. We made them move it to the cement pad so it wouldn't ruin the lawn. So when the kids run and jump in the pool they are landing on cement. Doesn't sound like so much fun to me but they were loving it.

Fathers and Sons Campout

Here they are off to the fathers and sons camp out. Garrett couldn't go because had to work early in the morning. He was doing some work out at a friends farm and it isn't consistent so when he has work he has to be there. It was kinda sad because this was the last year they would all be together.






Elijah was beside himself with joy at getting to go camping with Dallin and Dad. Lydia on the other hand was devastated. Little did she know how much fun NOT going on the camp out can be. A friend who will remain nameless to protect the innocent (you know who you are) called me late that night and asked if the Bishop could pull any strings with the stake to get one of these every month.
These guys idea of camping is lots of candy and sleeping in the back of the excursion. Todd has taken Elijah every year since he was a year old. The first year was very rough and had it not been for a large bag of skittles they would have been heading home in the middle of the night. This year he was super excited because he got his own sleeping bag! On the way down the trail from the bathroom to the campsite Elijah asked Dad, "Dad, this is fun. Is this shopping?"
"No, this is camping"
"Oh yeah, camping! Camping is fun!"
Off topic - Elijah's new favorite thing to say while putting op his fists is, "Wanna go fancy pants?"
Dallin's favorite part was the marshmallow game. They had pvc pipes with marshmallows and they were spitting them at cups but that quickly turned into a war.

Balloon Stampede

Every year our town has a Hot Air Balloon Stampede. This year Lydia's preschool teacher got her very excited about going with all the talk about her sons bringing their balloons to the stampede. Well the launch is at 6:30 in the morning. We went a few times when we first moved here but then the kids started to not enjoy it enough to drag them out of bed at that hour on a Saturday. So we quit going. So we bit the bullet and joined the 2000 others folks who got up to see 36 balloons take flight. It was actually very fun. Especially since Lydia was so excited about every one of them and Elijah loved them too. As you can see we couldn't get Garrett and Bridget out of bed to join us. They were committed the night before but not when it came time to get out of bed.
It is fun to see how they fill them up and slowly they stand upright and they keep filling until suddenly they start lifting off the ground. Here is a bunch lifting off. They take off really close to our house so all weekend long we have balloons floating by our house.
Lydia loved to go outside and watch them. The kids love all the bright colors. This is actually my visiting teaching comp. We ran into them there. I didn't even know she was in this picture. And from the looks of it neither did she.
On Saturday night they have Nite Glow. The balloons stay on the ground and when they hit the gas the balloons glow. So they do it in sync and then there are fireworks. We were gong to go to that but we had to go to a reception and they started early because of an impending storm so we only had time to watch from home. The kids and I had a perfect view of the fireworks from our upstairs window. Todd and Dallin could see all the balloons and everything because they climbed up on top of the roof to watch. Like clock work it started to rain just as it ended.

Sunny Day Work Day

Well it has been a long and cold winter. This spring has been very cold too. Every once in a while we get a tease and there is a day or two of warm, sunny skies. Well the kids had Friday off of school and it just happened to coincide with one of those sunny days. So we spent Friday and Saturday getting some things done. Lydia loves to help the big kids. Here she is helping Bridget wash the car.
Here are some of the flowers that Bridget and Lydia planted.
Dallin and Garrett got to rake out the garden while Todd rototilled. They also did the mowing and weeding and got the yard in tip top shape. And just in time, although it has been back to cold the last few days it looks like the rest of this week will be warm! Spring may finally be here for good. ( Too bad Dad isn't here to listen to my weather report. I always think of Dad when I talk about the weather.)



On Friday night we went to see the High school play, Seussical the Musical. It was just Todd and I and Dallin and Lydia and Elijah. The kids loved it! Eli wanted to know where The Grinch went everytime he wasn't on stage. It was fun for everyone.