The plums on the front tree have finally ripened!!! The downside…there were only two that survived the wind.
But I have to admit that’s still better than zero!
Category: Our Family
Relief Society Retreat
Our ward’s relief society planned it’s second annual retreat for this weekend and I for sure wasn’t going to miss it! This year was a lot colder than last year. Last year it didn’t really get COLD until after dark. This year it was cold and rainy when we got there early in the afternoon.
After unloading the trailer we hung around the fire trying to stay warm. Some of the ladies tried roasting startbursts instead of marshmallows, and thought that was the best thing ever. Just hold them in the fire until they just barely start to bubble and then eat it before it falls off your stick!
We spent the afternoon just sitting around and talking while a few priesthood members made dinner for us. Dinner was good. I think dessert was rather too sweet for me.
The Stake relief society presidency spoke to us some encouraging words. We had a testimony meeting that went late into the night, but since last year’s testimony meeting went until 1:30am or so they decided to make an end time before we even started this year. 🙂
I decided to sleep in the cabin for people who wanted to sleep. The other cabin was for the party animals. I think a LOT of people just came up for the afternoon and dinner and program and then went home. There weren’t very many people left in the morning.
I ended up waking up around 2am feeling like I needed to use the bathroom, so I got up and went on my way, about halfway there I ended up blessing the bushes with some vomit. 🙁 I guess that stomach bug that has been bouncing around from kid to kid finally caught up with me dang it! I was really hoping I wouldn’t get it. I ended up finishing my journey to the bathroom and hung out in there for a bit before heading back to bed.
In the morning I didn’t eat breakfast, I just laid in bed and when the first carload of people were ready to head back home I got in too.
I had a good time despite the nasty stomach bug, and I really enjoyed spending time relaxing with so many amazing ladies the night before I got sick. 🙂
Ethan Gets His Wolf
Ethan had a pack meeting tonight and we knew they were going to be presenting him with a whole bunch of stuff. He had actually finished his Wolf at the end of July, but they forgot about giving it to him at the August pack meeting, and we have been doing scout stuff through the summer months like crazy. So the cub master called him up and presented him with all the progress towards ranks beads, and his wolf, and he had Ethan pin me (which I was prepared for this time 😛 ).
He also explained arrow points and presented Ethan with one gold and four silver arrow points. Then, since Ethan had also earned several belt loops, the cub master started telling the boys about belt loops. Then as he presented each one to Ethan he read off what they were for and all the kids sounded so excited about the different subjects: archery, bb gun shooting, video games (at this all the boys got REALLY excited and seemed to jump out of their chairs), photography, and wildlife conservation.
I think people were rather impressed with how many things Ethan had earned and I don’t think they realized that he has been working on all these things since he started in January. He just hadn’t been awarded anything before this because at one pack meeting he had several of the wolf requirements started, but none finished, so they couldn’t give him any of the beads. Then there was July where there was no pack meeting because the boys went to a day camp instead, and he had finished ALL of the wolf trail by the end of July. Then in August they forgot to give him his beads and wolf….So he’s been working on all of this stuff for a really long time and it was just time to get all caught up on giving him the stuff he had earned. 🙂
Dinah turns 4
Dinah was SO excited for her 4th birthday this year. She was sick yesterday, and I’m so glad it was yesterday and not today. That would just be so lousy to be sick ON your birthday. I feel like I wasn’t quite on top of things like I should have been. I went to make her cake and found that I didn’t have enough cocoa powder! I borrowed some from a neighbor so I could finish the cake, then I realized that I didn’t have any cream cheese to make frosting with. So I still had to wait for Kyle to pick some up on his way home from work.
As soon as Kyle came home from work we needed to leave in order to get to Ethan’s pack meeting on time. At the meeting she was telling EVERYONE that it was her birthday, then they would look at us and ask if today was actually her birthday. That was pretty funny. When we came home we sang to her and let her have her own personal cake (pre-frosting because I still hadn’t had time to make it yet) then she got to open her presents.
Thank you Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy for the cute outfit. She really likes it:
Utah State Fair
I had been hearing commercials for the Utah State Fair, and thought that it would be fun to go, but looking at the calendar our Saturday’s were quite full and was thinking maybe to just drop the idea, and plan ahead for it next year. But then I found out that there are Scout things to pass of by going to the fair, so I decided we just HAD to work it into the schedule for this year. 🙂 We decided to go today because Monday is early out day for the kids at school, and so we could leave early in the afternoon and meet Kyle at work to go up to the fair to spend the late afternoon/evening there, and because the fair was having a special where ALL kids get in free and adults get in for the kids price! Score! $14 for the whole family to get in!
We decided to head over to the wildlife building first (I forget what it’s actually called), since cub scouts are supposed to be able to fish in a pond out back and that fulfills some of the scouting electives. We walked around inside and looked at the various kinds of fish, and the kids got to try to pick up some antlers, and touch some animal furs. It was very nice that it was a very hands on building, considering most places like that are very ‘look but don’t touch’ and that just doesn’t work well for small kids.
After walking all around the building checking everything else, we discovered that the fishing pond was out back and we couldn’t just walk out the back door to get there, we had to walk all the way around the building. So we went out to the fishing pond and the sign said that the last fishing session of the night started in just a few minutes. Kyle went to talk to one of the guys behind the fence that seemed to work there and they said that they had already passed out cards to the people that would be participating in the next (and last) session of the day. We were rather bummed that we missed that but figured it was better to find out then than to stand in line forever before finding out. So we decided to go do something else.
We walked through the 4H building and we got to see all kinds of things that had been made by kids. Ethan and Jeremy were instantly drawn to the lego creations that were on display. My personal favorite was this candy dispenser:
Kyle has talked about making that type of candy dispenser before and Ethan has been wanting Kyle to help him make one. This one I think is just plain cool and creative. And you twist the nose and a candy slides out of the mouth.
We headed to the livestock barns, and got to check out a whole bunch of goats first. The kids really liked that the goats were nice enough to let them pet them:
After the goats we went to the poultry barn and saw a whole bunch of chickens. I think my favorites are the ones with the poofy heads:
Someday when I have lots of land with my orchard and garden and horses, I’m going to have some chickens with poofy head feathers. 😛
We also saw all the bunnies on display, many of them were for sale as well. I miss having a rabbit. Someday we’ll get another one. And there was also the building with bees and all kinds of produce on display. There were even a few giant pumpkins, which EVERYBODY was trying to get a picture of their kids on or I think I would have got a picture of my kids on them. Also in that building there were some houses made of sticks that looked like slightly larger popsicle sticks. But they were really cool houses, not just a simple frame, cube shaped house. And then there were other things made of horseshoes. It was pretty cool.
Next we went and saw some dairy cows and decided we had better head over to the little hands on activity that they had there for little kids. “Little hands on the farm” they called it. The kids got to pretend they were farmers and they got to pretend to plant and harvest and take things to the ‘farmers market’. Here’s Dinah scooping her corn:
And then driving a little pink tractor:
Here’s Chloe with her basket of goodies:
The kids got to pick a fruit off a tree in the “orchard” and they got to milk a fake cow and put a milk carton in their basket. They got to plant a seed, and then harvest a vegetable from the garden, and they got to collect an egg from the chicken coop, and they got to brush a fake sheep and collect some wool. Mind you all of this was fake but the kids really liked it. I just wish it wasn’t so crowded. EVERYBODY was just shoved through the course and everybody was in everybody else’s way. I just wish that people would have gone through it more like they were in line, instead of everybody running us over and separating me from the rest of my family…..At the end the kids got to turn in all their plastic produce and were paid with some pretend money, then they got to turn in their money for a treat at the very end. Chloe picked an apple. The rest of my munchkins picked a container of frosted flakes. :/ But they really liked it.
As we came out of the last barn the kids saw a giant slide and begged to slide down it, so we bought some tickets and Kyle took them up to the top and slid down with them while I stayed at the bottom with Lydia:
After the slide we walked around and looked at the other rides and games. By this time it was starting to be rather late, so we started to work our way back to the entrance. We kept our eyes open trying to find the deep fried snickers, but we never found them. We passed the building where they have home arts displayed and I really wanted to go check that out. There were some beautiful quilts on display that made me wish I knew how to actually sew, and there were lots of home canned goods that had been judged. Maybe next year I can enter some of my own canned goods. 🙂 Just maybe. It was a really late night, and we had a really good time. We finished the night off with getting a big bag of kettle corn to share and then we headed over to McDonalds to get the kids some nuggets for dinner, so they wouldn’t be going to bed only having had popcorn for dinner.