Visit from the Cox Family: It was great having Wendy and her family in town for almost a whole 2 weeks! We worked on the farm, camped in Payson, played at Em's and got to spend some good quality time with her and her cute kiddos!.
Farmy news: Timmy got to stay with us for 2 days while they were here and he was such a big help. All the kids played really well together, he helped move wheel lines and milk Bella, and made it up the warped wall like it was nothing!
Our baby chicks hatched (SO CUTE!!!) one of the days Timmy and Benji had been helping me move wheel lines. The mamma is really protective and the chicks are already getting some feathers! Having a mamma hen hatch and raise her own chicks was one of the things I wanted most from our farm and we finally were able to have it happen!!
TImmy was pretty nervous out in the pasture but milked like a champ once she was locked up and her feet tied. We've been getting a big range in milk volume (1/2 to 2 gallons) so I'm not sure what that's all about but I've been trying to grain her more to improve her body condition (she's looking a little bony). I just made cream cheese from a gallon of cream which is so yummy!
Kiddos showing off their yummy freshly picked raspberries. I have since picked 3 ripe blackberries and there are tons more getting close to ripening too!
All the farm chores get a little overwhelming with Nate being out of commission but when I see all the farmy goodness (chicks, cream cheese, delicious home grown food) it makes it all worth it!
snacking before a dinner of hotdogs - I was so proud of us sisters taking 10 (and a half :)) kids camping all by ourselves. It was exhausting but so much fun to be all together! I have built up some serious muscle doing all the heavy lifting chores around the house and carrying the camp griddle to and from the car really put my strength to the test. I had no idea how heavy it was before but it really took a lot to lug that thing the 30 odd feet to the camp tables! So worth it though because we had farm fresh eggs and home raised sausage for breakfast the next morning!!
Zeyta did a pretty good job overall despite the dirt and losing her binky in the tent for about 10 minutes at night (she was NOT happy and let everyone hear it, lol). She liked picking up handfuls of dirt and putting it in the open tent door so I had to watch her closely whenever she was crawling around or we would have a huge dirt pile in the tent!
Avenlea actually ate her s'more this time!
This fire was HOT and poor wendy faced the flames to roast all the hot dogs. After dinner Chloe and TImmy both braved the heat and roasted their own marshmallows, I don't know how becasue I had to prop my roaster with a rock and come back in intervals to cook mine!
After breaking camp in the morning (in shifts while one of us baby tended) we headed down to Payson lake for a couple hours of swimming and mud fun! Chloe did so good swimming with no floaties to me in the Lake, and Blain and Benji played in some stinky mud the whole time ;) Just missing Dylan and Matilda in this pic and then we'd have the whole gang!
Out to dinner with Em and Wend at Golden Corral! Chloe ate 2 full plates of food and 3 desserts! I love going to golden corral because there is always something the kids will eat, but we ended up going on a special night or something because everyone's meals were a lot more expensive :/ Overall probably not worth the extra money because the kiddos didn't eat the expensive meats offered, but the salmon and prime rib were delicious!
I stayed with the little girls (and Gabe) while Wendy and Theron took the older kids to Scera pool.
Pioneer Day Celebration: We went to Em's ward's pioneer day breakfast again this year and it was just as good as ever, maybe better becasue they had hash browns this year and a yummy cranberry drink! Mom got all the girls matching dresses for pioneer day and they looked so cute! I know I said I was going to make pioneer clothes but it didn't happen because of my broken sewing machine. Chloe really wanted to wear a bonnet so I'm thinking I'll get it fixed before October and maybe she can be a pioneer for Halloween :)
Cutie girls sharing a wagon ride
Zeyta loving the little pink car pushed by Kiya
Paraders! Timmy and Benji took turns on a scooter and Marie did really good on her little bike!
Chloe keeping the parade going even after it had officially ended
Blain giving Ruby a turn on the trike!
Zeyta all geared up for a day in the sun and water!
Avenlea loving Darius! While we were getting Avenlea out of the car Avenlea got all shy and said "Darius loves me". What a little sweety and Darius is so nice to her. He was in a little Avenlea and Marie Sandwhich at lunch because both those girls were sitting almost right on top of him!
Me and Nate in our shady spot by the tree
Blain and Damian after a ride down the purple slide
Chloe and Kiya after riding Cave in!
Avenlea and Marie eating their lunch - Darius had made his great escape by then :)
And here are some good Blain pics I've gotten recently
Chloe has been sleeping in Blain's bed almost everynight - this is a rare sight of them actually asleep! They are up so late laughing and playing in their beds but are too cute to make them stop, and we only had a couple weeks left of summer so I figure we can let it slide for a while longer
Wendy found some overalls for Blain at the big garage sale and he loves them!
Blain coming up with his own science experiment (will water destroy goo?) in his new lab coat from summer school. Not sure if I've shared this story but Nate and I were asking Blain what sport he would want to do and named off a bunch (wrestling, soccer, baseball, basketball, gymnastics...) His reply was, "I dunno, maybe like a science class?" What a cute little brainiac :)
Aww Katy I love your blog! I love hearing about all you guys do. I wish I was there when Wendy was there, u guys had a lot of fun!
ReplyDelete