JUNE! Where the heck have you been?!

June, June, June, published in August - what's the deal with that?  I'll tell you the deal is that we were gone for the whole month of July (Which was AWESOME, look for that July post.  It'll come, someday.) THEN after July came August and back to school hustled in.  With school comes all that crazy run-around stuff.  In fact I STILL have crazy run around stuff to do!  Ashton has his Preschool assessment tomorrow, which is great because he's asking me daily if he can PLEASE go to school.

Buy, I'm getting way ahead of myself, back to the month at hand.  June.

The very first day of June we were graciously invited to head up to Jessica Orchard's family cabin in Kolob.  The drive is incredible!  The views, and mountains, and fields and landscapes are devine!  The temperature was cool and refreshing and smelled all piney!  It was a great day escape!

The big kids went out to fly the drone and capture some sky-view images.  We had a lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit.  Then we went to the reservoir.  

At the reservoir everyone kayaked and paddle boarded, including one year old Drake, though he stayed in the shallows.  Nathan took right off as though he'd been kayaking his whole life.  He and Easton had a great time and spent hours and hours, trading off with Mia and each other in the water.  The paddle board was a bit intimidating to me at first, but I got onto it!  It was fun!  I loved the outdoors and exercise and adventure of it all!

There we saw a wolf dog and a young horse with a family.  The horse was like on of the dogs, just laying on the beach watching the family.  And Shane and I spotted the wolf dog right off, making us miss our Corbet.  We visited with the family for a few minutes.  They were a nice crew. Back to the cabin for video games, playing with the dog, and grilling up some tasty dinner!!  We had a great time and were sorry to leave when the time called for it.

A few days later we hitched up with team Harris for a sewing project!  Holly had obtained these cute fabrics and some thick weaved straps.  Each boy chose which fabrics they wanted and Holly was amazing at teaching the big boys to sew a line!  They each sewed there own little back-pack type bag!  Holly always amazing me with her "Let's DO This!" attitude!  The boys were great little learners and all did their very own sewing under Holly's watchful eye.  I pretty much hovered over the tasty snacks she'd made and played with Baby Dallin.  I do so love to squeeze that baby!

Side note:  Nathan has pretty much decided that he wants to live in long sleeves and jeans.  I'm not sure where this came from, I think it may have something to do with his arm hairs, but I can't be certain.  So YES, it is HOT in St. George, but Nathan insists that he loves the hot and wants to wear long sleeves and pants forever.  So PLEASE be impressed when you see him in short sleeves, there was usually some sort of bargain for that shirt for the day from his mother.

NQ has started doing some cooking with me.  He is a great hamburger browner and has helped me clean out the fridge to bare nothingness and we've wiped and sanitized it thoroughly a time or two.

And strawberries are Ashton's favorite fruit.  It's about all the fruit he'll eat beside the fruit leathers from Costco.  Anyhow, we often have strawberries on hand, and one in a while we dress them up.

 On day at the Tuacahn Saturday Farmer's Market they forest service was having a special little fair of their own.  It was fun!  We made trilobite impressions, looked at animal tracks, saw Smokey Bear, started fires with sticks and enjoyed an inflatable dark room with a constellation presentation inside.  The boys are looking at some desert tortoises.  The little one is eight years old and the bigger one is in its sixties!  The boys could've watched them all day.    

However, later that day, I had decided that we would hit the Jurassic Adventure at the Dixie Center.  It's a traveling animated dinosaur display/show.  We spent over three hours there.  Which was good considering it was $60.  At first you wander through a path filled with life sized dinosaurs that move and roar.  Then there's an area with dinosaur themed bounce houses (we spent MUCH time here), a craft area (the boys were NOT interested in doing paper plate dinosaur crafts), a place to RIDE dinosaurs (A HUGE HIT) and a small movie theater area showing documentary style dinosaurs shows.  (We spent a large amount of time watching these as well.)

Over all I'd say it was a huge success of a day.  Though once we've done the dinosaur thing, I don't know that I'd spend the money to do it again.  Probably a one time experience...we'll see.

After the fun day, Ashton came home and PROMPTLY fell asleep like this, for about two hours.

Nathan has been communing with the creatures this summer.  Here are a few examples of his animal endeavors.  He's now caught his own lizard, by himself.  And one day saw a toad trapped in the 'work out room' egress window well.  We rescued it, played with it for a few hours and then took it over by the walking path to release it back into the wild.

That sort of wraps up June.  June tends to be continually warmer and drives us indoors.  We have done several swims in the Wong's pool and at the Jeppson's house.  We love have neighbors with pools.  We love that they share theirs pool and friendship with us!  At then end of June we started packing up and getting excited about our travels north to Lander!

May I introduce...MAY!

MAY - again, I have been the huge slacker face with regards to my Blog.  Again, I feel shamefaced.  BUT, then I look at all the awesome stuff we've been doing, and I feel better about it!

The first roses I've ever grown!

Last game of the season. Nathan has improved his game!  The team went undefeated!

A visit to Pine Valley with the Harris Family! The Bridge ribbon cutting day!

Ashton qoutes, "I saved my sticks, but I didn't save myself!" after a fall on the trail.  Both of his hands were occupied with stick treasures.

Later, "Ben was trying to kill me, but I didn't let him!" The adults complemented him on learning this important life skill early in life.  When someone tried to kill, it's best if you don't let them.  :)

It was cool enough that Holly and I found a bench and wrapped a blanket around us to stay warm.  After about an hour, all was warm and sunny and the blanket and snuggling were no longer necessary.

Mother's Day!  What a luck lady I am!

From My darling Nathan

The Bingham Family Visit!  SOO much fun!

We did Jumpin' Jacks, the children's museum the firehouse park and had many a visit.  The boys on the last day were able to do some shooting.  We found out about Jimmy John's "Un-whiches" which are sandwiches in a lettuce wrap.  Good for a dieter or bread allergy person.

Ashton and Brynlee having breakfast

Shane and Kyrie having a playtime.

1st Day of Summer vacation w/ the Harris family!!

Team Petty and Team Harris plus 1 celebrated the first day of summer vacation at Sand Hollow (before the terrible swimmers itch outbreak.)  It was windy and we had a few drops of rain, but the boys persevered and played in the sand and water making the journey a joy!

My bougainvillaea is thriving - so far - this year! 

A fishing trip to Pine Valley on a Shane's Day off.  Nathan caught two fish!  One completely on his own.

 Ashton was a good sport, even though his cars light up fishing pole broke and was thrown in the trash before the day was out.  (Shane couldn't look at it any longer. He was frustrated from the failed attempts at fixing it.) 

A visit from Robert!

 Team Harris and Team Petty journeyed back to Pine Valley once more, this time with Robert with us!  He'd never been to Pine Valley!  So we took the chapel tour, walked the trails, enjoyed a picnic and the beautiful view and cool weather of the mountain. On the way down, we stopped at Veyo pies.  Robert loved the red old fashioned billboard for the pie business.  Holly and I ventured out of our comfort zone and purchased a lemon sour cream pie.  And the venture was a success!  It was a fantastic choice!

On the last Saturday of the month we set up a "Kid's Garage Sale"  The boys picked out toys, book, and other assorted items they had outgrown or no longer wanted.  Holly was brilliant and brought Capri Sun, cookies and Popsicles to sell also.  Joe was kind enough to bring the little Harris boys to join us and some Taco's for lunch.  The sale yielded each big kid about $6.  No complaining, they visited, used customer service skills and held out for several hours in the warm weather.  What a fun little activity for the little people!

April highlights

April came in fast and furious as well!  How the time has been zooming. 

The boys and our super fun egg decorating tradition.  The weather accommodated outside works this year.

I was going to make rainbow Jello for St. Patrick's day.  But woke up that morning (a Monday) totally oblivious to the date, and forgot.  Therefore I made it a few weeks later.  And it was SO PRETTY!

Nathan wanted to participate in the science fair this year.  He worked on it for weeks. He took white flower and put them in colored water to see what would happen.  He must have interviewed very well as he took 3rd place in his age group!!  We were proud of the kiddo.  He and I had a bit of nerves when we saw just HOW many 'colored flowers' made their way into the gym to be set up.

Ashton helps me with the garden by smashing up egg shells. We scatter them between the furrows to deter bugs and to add calcium to the soil.

Nathan and Ashton both took soccer this year.  Nathan improved GREATLY this season, making several goals and being a great defensive player.  Ashton first year was a learning one.  He mostly picked grass and flitted about the field, very rarely paying attention to what was happening in the game.  We'll see if he plays next year... 2 practices and 2 games to coordinate every week was a new challenge.

We hit the snow cone place near Albertson's.  You are seeing the small size snow cone. It was huge, and we all suffered sugar belly aches after eating them.  Next time we will all share one and have PLENTY of treat.

Easter Morning.  Dad and Lenore were staying with us, which was so nice!  The boys got cute treats from the bunny and enjoyed an egg hunt in the back yard.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has been a favorite gift from the Easter Bunny.  The boys sing it so spunkily!  NQ was singing it the other day while he scrubbed down the bathrooms.

One Sunday Morning I woke up to this cute snugly crew.

I was able to create this beautiful cake for the Bishop's daughter's wedding.  I was glad to be a small contributor to the gorgeous affair.

Easter dinner was at the Shepherd's House!!  SO FUN!  They had cute lamb shaped butters, ham, cheesy happy anytime potatoes, salads, chocolate covered strawberries, cute peep kabobs for the boys and another egg hunt. I brought rolls and eclairs.  YUM!  I LOVE this family! :D