Dance Recital

 It was Annie's dance recital last week.  She smiled big as could be and loved it.  She really likes watching the other dancers too. 

 Annie loves doing the splits and is really good at them - much better than anyone else in the family.  Not that any of us are much competition these days.

 We celebrated with ice cream afterwards.  Good job, Anneroo.

Go Padres!

 We played a little baseball this summer.  By we, I mean Cole played and mom dragged the kids to 11 games and entertained them whilst a bunch of 7-year-olds played.  He was on the Padres team this year and had two of his best friends on his team.  He had a pretty good time and hit the ball every time he was at bat.  Granted, sometimes they will pitch like 15 times before they call a kid out, but he never needed more than about 5. 

 

Batter up!  He had a hard time remembering to keep his elbow up at the start of the season, but after I told him I would give him a nickel for every time he swung with his elbow up, it suddenly got a lot easier to remember.  Luckily, he didn't clue into the fact that if he kept his elbow up and just never hit it, he could get rich.  Phew!

  

Whack!  Got it.

 

Here he is on 2nd base absolutely towering over the  2nd baseman.  All the kids are going into 2nd grade - it amazes me there is that much size difference.  On a side note, the field he played at was tucked in the foothills with a gorgeous view.  One time, a deer went bounding through the outfield.  Cole was the first to yell "Hey!  A deer!"  If only he were always that aware of where the ball was...

 Running for home.  He totally hated getting tagged out...

The season's over now.  They never really kept score or anything, but he got better, so I'll call it a success.

Ragnar

 I ran Ragnar last weekend and I guess I decided that since it is my third time, there's no need for pictures.  I'm sure my team won't feel too bad about that.  I was runner #11 this year, which meant I ran 7.2 miles uphill to Snowbasin, 5.5 miles around Rockport Reservoir, and 7.5 miles downhill from the top of Guardsman Pass to Deer Valley.  Snowbasin was hard but gorgeous. Rockport was beautiful and I ran it just as the sun was coming up.  It is my favorite Ragnar leg yet of the nine legs I have run.  Downhill to Park City sucked.  I hate running downhill and would 10x rather run uphill.  

The only pictures I have are from the top of my Snowbasin run when I thought I might die.

Floyd and the kids were there waiting and Ben Shlumpy gave me a big hug. 

 Turns out he's not much for sweaty kisses though.

Best news of the year - since everyone on our team was over 30 this year, we got bumped to a new division (the old ladies division - although there is an old-old ladies division too, so I tried not to take it too hard).  In our new division, our team took 3rd place.  Not bad.  

Not much of a writeup, but Floyd's been gone all week and I'm still sleep deprived, so that's a wrap.

High Creek

Floyd's sister, Andrea, moved to Iowa last year.  She came home for a visit last weekend and brought her boyfriend, Kevin, with her.  So of course we spent a few days celebrating.  We went to Temple Square and Hogle Zoo on Thursday, but the only pictures I took there were ones of snakes and lizards and other creatures that Cole insisted on.  They didn't really turn out too well (odd - you'd think that thick zoo glass would really be great for picture-taking).  We also strolled through the new City Creek Center with them.

On Friday evening, we took Kevin to the mountains since he's an Iowa city boy.  High Creek was really rolling, so while the kids spent their time tossing rocks in the water, I sat right beside them lest any of them (**cough**Ben**cough**) move an inch too close.  They tried to clear the area of rocks and I spent a while trying to figure out the best camera settings for capturing the pretty water.  I think they were more successful than me, but I got a few nice shots in.

Note to self - slow shutter speeds work nicely for capturing moving water, but notsomuch for capturing two-year-olds.

Since someone forgot the bacon for the Dutch Oven potatoes, we got to throw rocks and take pictures for quite a while. 

 

 But finally, dinner was eaten and then it was on to marshmallow roasting.  Kevin promptly lit his on fire (maybe he wasn't a Boy Scout) but Andrea was generous and gave him one of her perfectly roasted ones for his S'more. 

 And then we all went home smelling like a campfire.  Yum.  'Cept Ben who couldn't hold still long enough for the smoke to catch him.

The Ranch

 More Memorial Day fun.  After our little afternoon fishing trip, we stopped in at Grandpa's Ranch for a cookout - always a hit with the whole family.  The kids run wild and we just let them.  There was a teensy bit of sadness on Ben's part when the big boys climbed the tree without him.  And even when Daddy lifted him up in there, he just wanted to go higher.  Sometimes he forgets he's just two.

 

 

No trip to the ranch would be complete without a hike to the old Pioneer cabin.  It doesn't have many more years left before it will just be a big pile of old wood.  When I was a kid, it was totally intact and housed all kinds of treasures and I even climbed up to the second floor and walked along the rafters.  As you can see, that's not too advisable these days.  It's seen a few too many Clarkston winters.

  

While visiting the cabin, the kids made use of the old combine and turned it into a jungle gym.  Landon does not love heights, but he desperately wanted to climb to the top with the other kids.  Every few steps up, he'd turn around and grimace and ask me to take his picture.  It broke my heart how bad he wanted to get up there and how hard it was for him.  

 

The others, however, had not fear at all and climbed all over that thing.  Including little Ben who at one point just climbed right over the top of Landon to get up to the big boys. 

  

After the hike, we headed back to the firepit and roasted some s'mores.  A great way to kick off summer break.  

 

 

 Some people actually had to get back and do a little work on the farm, however, so we had to roast before the sun set.  It was a little strange to roast marshmallows in the daylight. 

 They were still delicious though.  And gooey.

 Here's to many more summer evenings at the ranch!  They really are the best.

Wildflowers

On Memorial Day, we went fishing with some of our cousins at Deep Creek Reservoir.  Problem is, our boat only holds about 6 people, so the kids had to take turns.  While the boys were waiting, they spent their time trying to impale fish with sticks, throw the biggest rocks in the lake, collecting slimy objects, and interrupting anyone fishing from the shore.  Then the girls came off the boat and spent their time collecting wildflower bouquets.  You'll be shocked to know that I didn't find the antics of the boys cute enough to take pictures of, but here are some of my favorite shots of the girls and their bouquets. 

The flowers were on the side of a kind steep little hill, but there were no casualties, so no worries.

I love how Claire's arms are thrown open waiting to receive this bouquet from Annie.  

Annie gifted me with this lovely arrangement.  So sweet.  Minus the allergic reaction it triggered.

 

 Just lovely.  Thanks, girls.

Graduation

One week into summer and I'm already behind.  Should be a wild one.  

Annie graduated from preschool a few weeks ago.  She has loved it, especially this year because there were 8 girls in her class and just two boys.  She loved playing with the girls and flirting with the boys.  She loved doing art projects and started reading this year.  We have loved Ms. Jackie - she is an excellent teacher.  Here are some shots of her big day...

All dressed up and ready to go.

 

She was super excited about the graduation party that included a trip to McDonald's (her choice) and her first love, cupcakes.

 Annie's part was saying the days of the week in Spanish (her teacher is bilingual and they learn Spanish in the 4-year-old class) - she rocked it. 

Child-sized caps and gowns?  So cute.  I loved it.

Here's our little graduate.  She was so excited.

Great job, Petunia!  We are all so excited for you.