Our new grade school...

One thing we did pretty consistently over the summer is check out the progress on our new elementary school. It is scheduled to be completed by next year and ready for kids on the first day of school, August 2014!

When we moved here I was excited thinking that some of my children would go to the same schools I went to when I was growing up here. In a small town things don't often change much.

But the old school had lots of maintenance issues and it was so costly to keep fixing things that the district decided to replace it with a brand spanking new one! It's being built on the same property but its set back off the road further so it's actually being built behind the old school. The kids and community can watch the building of it every day. We are excited to have a new, modern school with all the bells and whistles.

Good things:

B Fridays, no one has to be to school early...

Watching my kids participate in their respective sports...

Mission farewells for my nephews and nieces...

Jordan and Lindsey Visit!

We have been looking forward to having Jordan and Lindsey come visit since they got married in April. This is the first time Lindsey has been to our home and it's the first time Jordan has been back to Monticello since Grandpa Barton's funeral. Too long between visits!!

They had time off between semesters so they took a week and came to spend some time with us. They came on Wed, Aug 21 and came to the ward party with us so they could partake of Dutch Oven potatoes. Traditional summer ward party fare.

On Thursday, they, James, Charles and I went to Bluff to see Grandma and the Fort. Grandma treated us to lunch at the Twin Rocks Cafe and then we wandered through the Bluff Fort Visitor Center and through the Fort itself, checking out the cabins. I forgot to take any photos of this event.

On Friday, they went to Canyonlands by way of the mountain. It was a stormy day and Jordan got some cool pictures of the storm rolling in.

On Saturday, we did yard work and other projects and then in the afternoon, we went up to the shooting range. It's so close to home, it's silly that we don't utilize it more often. I like that all my kids enjoy learning to shoot and are becoming quite good shots. I'm glad that Curtis has all the equipment to allow them to learn and that he also teaches them safe gun use and is very vigilant about it.

Getting things set up....

Some stylish safety eyewear...(Sadie, 12)

Same stylish eyewear and some happening ear protection, as well. (Hannah, 14)

Sighting in the gun in preparation to shoot...(Sadie)

Hannah's turn to shoot the single shot 22.

The little guys patiently waiting their turn, but trying out the eyewear...(Charles and James)

Dad getting his sights lined up...

Soren's turn to try to hit a can...

The girls knocking them down! (Sadie hit a target at 100 yards) (Hannah hit a penny at 50 ft)

James kept himself busy picking up shells...

Taking a break to go set up more targets or hunt for coins that were shot...

Lindsey(in her cool pink ear protection) is a good shot!

Jordan showing us his stuff!!

Not sure what he's being timid about...not wanting us to see him in glasses, maybe??

The gun range is fairly new and was a young man's Eagle Scout Project. It has a big berm on the west side and has target areas set up at 50 ft, 50 yards, 75 yards and 100 yards. It is close to our home and will provide us with another option for a family activity during the summer.

On Sunday we were going to drive over the mountain to Blanding, but when we woke up the mountain was invisible and stayed that way all day as the sky drizzled on us the entire day. We were in the path of the remnants of Tropical Storm Ivo. No flooding, just a soft, steady drizzle. It lasted into Monday as well.

On Monday, Jordan and Lindsey headed to Moab to Arches, Dead Horse Point and the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands. They are surely making good use of their yearly pass that gets them into all the National Parks and Monuments.

Tuesday we said goodbye as they headed down to the Grand Canyon, where they had been given a night's stay by a friend. Guess what they saw when they got there??

Not much, it was cloudy and drizzly. Thankfully it did clear up enough for them to see the Canyon. They headed back to Idaho on Wednesday, back to life and school. Hopefully we will see them here again in less than 1 1/2 years!!

Rock skipping

One thing we like to do occasionally is to head up to Loyd's Lake to throw and skip rocks. There is just something about rocks and a body of water that compels little boys to put the rocks into the water as hard as they can!

L-R:Soren, Charles, Cambria, James

This year, the water level at Loyd's is as low as I've ever seen it, due to the drought. It's crazy how little water is left in the reservoir. One benefit, I guess you could call it, is that there are a lot more rocks exposed to pick from for throwing and skipping. On this particular trip we found a deposit of shale that was perfect for skipping, since it comes apart in thin layers.

Cambria demonstrating her technique

Cambria and Soren were getting some pretty good skips going. And the next thing we knew Charles was getting some almost as good as theirs. And he has his own technique for doing it. He throws it like a frisbee. And it works!! James even managed to get a couple to skip once.

Follow-through

We sure enjoy having a lake close to home where we can go on a moment's whim to play. With three little boys in the house I suppose we will have many more days of rock skipping and throwing in our future!

Good Things:

A day with nothing scheduled...

That Sheila didn't bite Lindsey worse than she did.....

Spending time with Jordan and Lindsey!

Sunset and rain clouds

This night the sunset was particularly amazing. We had just had a good rain storm, there was still lots of moisture in the air and the colors just didn't stop. They went all across the sky from horizon to horizon. I was a little leery of trying to capture the colors with my phone camera, but decided to give it a try. I cannot believe how well the colors show up. With no fancy filters or anything, just my iPhone.

I wanted it to stay forever. I was in Type 2 chroma heaven this night. All the colors in the sky were on my style guide, with the exception of the bright yellows and oranges. :)

Sometimes, I have had the feeling that I'm looking more through my spiritual eyes than my physical eyes and when I experience that, I see things more vividly, especially the colors. This night I didn't have that feeling, but the colors surely could have made me think I was. God is a master creator!!

The trees at the west edge of our driveway look like they are on fire!

Incredible colors-captured with my little iPhone. 

I wish the sky was always this color. 

The most interesting rainbow I've seen. My house was at the end of it!!

Garden-summer 2013

Last year we started our garden by cutting down two trees and building the boxes for the raised beds. This year we wanted to get them going, but it was soooo hard to find compost or decent dirt that we could afford. We ended up spending more than we wanted and not getting quite what we wanted and by the time we got it the season for planting was pretty well past. We decided to just plant anyway to see how things would grow. We have been happily surprised to find that things grew well and that we were able to grow lots of things that we wanted to. We plan to build more boxes and someday the entire back yard will be a garden that will supply us with lots of our food. We have purchased a 'bender' for electrical conduit which you use to make hoops. The hoops and ag-fabric are used to make mini greenhouses or hoop--houses. This allows us to extend the growing season on both ends, being able to plant earlier and harvest longer. We will work on hoops during the winter and hopefully will have them available to use early next spring. When you live at 7000 ft you need some way to extend the growing season, it's pretty short. We also planted four trees this year, two apple-one Golden Delicious, and one Honeycrisp, one pear, and one plum. The plum tree did not survive, but the other three are doing well. We are excited to some day eat an apple off our own tree.

Good Things:
Harvesting all the greens today...
Evening thunderstorm...
Jordan and Lindsey are coming to visit next week!!

Our current garden beds-L to R
Strawberries/Green beans, Onions/Pumpkin, nothing, Lettuce/Spinach/Tomatoes/GreenPeppers/Chard, Raspberries

I LOVE strawberries. In all my married life, I've never grown any. I've planted them a couple of time but never gotten them to grow. We planted 10 plants this year, lost one, and finally we have lovely sweet red-all-the-way-through berries!!

Green peppers are quite prolific this year. We counted 14 peppers on one plant today. 

Lots of green tomatoes. All the rain is making it hard to stress the plants so that the tomatoes will turn red.

We feel very blessed to have been able to get this much to grow this year and are excited to think about the possibilities of the future. There is something so satisfying about growing some of your own food!

First Day of School 2013-14

So I wasn't really with it on this morning, and had to take 1st day of school pictures after they got home from school. But hey, it was still the 1st day, right? Summer seemed to go really fast this year and the beginning of school kindof snuck up on us, I think. This year we have three girls at the high school and only one boy at the grade school. Seems very different.

 CAMBRIA-age 16, Junior at MHS

height: 5 ft, 6 1/2 in

favorite food: waffles with Nutella

favorite song: Any song by Ed Sheeran

favorite movie/show: Little Mermaid 

favorite school subject/class: Choir/band/strings

Extracurricular Activities: Cross country, Track, working at our local pharmacy

Classes taking this year: Math III, choir, orchestra, band, Financial Literacy, 

Seminary, US history II, Language Arts

Best friends: Malia Tupuola, Kyler LaRose, Dakota Aitken, Amy Rogers, and Hannah

HANNAH-age 14, freshman at MHS

height: 5 ft, 1/2 in!

favorite food: all of it

favorite song: OneRepublic-Counting Stars

favorite movie/show: Courageous

favorite school subject/class: choir, Seminary

Extracurricular Activities: Cheer and Drill Team

Classes taking this year: dance(cheer/drill class starting at 7 am), choir, 

PE(1st semester)/Geography(2nd semester), band, Language Arts, 

Seminary(!!), Math 1, and Earth Systems

Best friends: Amy Rogers, Cambria, Addison Hatch, and Quincey Ryan. 

Sadie-7th grade, Hannah-9th grade

SADIE-age 12, 7th grader at MHS

height: 4 ft, 11 1/2 in

favorite food: Swiss steak/baked potatoes

favorite song: 

favorite movie/show: Studio C

favorite school subject/class: band

Extracurricular Activities: 

Classes taking this year: Utah Studies, Language Arts, Math, band, PE, science 

and CTE(Ag, computers,woods)

Best buds: Journey, Annsheri

Soren-2nd grade

SOREN-age 7, 2nd grader at MES

height: 4 ft, 2 in

favorite food: pizza

favorite song: Owl City

favorite movie/show: Ninjago

favorite school subject/class: reading

Teacher: Mrs. Bunker

Best friends: Ryan, Kaden

Convoy!

 Ford had AT(annual training-for those of us who don't know what all the Army's blasted initials stand for) for the first 2 weeks in May. One night Ford let us know that the next morning a convoy of National Guard vehicles would be traveling through town on their way from Blanding to Camp Williams.

So on that Friday morning we took some snacks and drinks and drove down to Main Street to watch them. 

They took longer to come through than I thought they would and we wondered if we had missed them and almost drove home. Thankfully we decided to wait just a few more minutes and they started coming through. 

We were watching for Ford but it was hard to tell who any of the men were because they all had their helmets and goggles on. He says he was in one of the last vehicles. 

The little boys enjoyed watching all the different types of vehicles and wondering what they were used for and how fast they'd go...

Ford is in supply and requisition so he doesn't get to do any of the 'fun stuff' he thinks. He is just a form filler-outer and pencil pusher. As his mom, I'm glad he's not one who will be on the front lines should they be deployed.... A small comfort for a soldier's mother's heart!

Good Things:

Lots of limes juiced and juice for limeade frozen...

Last lazy day of summer.....

Strawberries turning red in my garden...

James, his trusty bottle and a large National Guard vehicle in the background.

James watching the big machines roll by....

Charles watching them come up the hill into town...

County fair

Another county fair has come and gone. Whew! We really enjoy and look forward to fair week but it is sooooo time consuming and it just about wears us all out by the time it's done!

All four pigs made weight this year so we had pigs in both Mini Jr. Livestock and regular Jr. Livestock. We did opt not to do showmanship this year so we had a few less events to participate in, and more importantly, to sit through! 

All the pigs/kids did well. 

Soren's pig, Jane, took 4th place in her section. He got a large blue ribbon. She sold for $2.25 a lb.

Sadie's pig, Nelly, earned a red ribbon. This didn't surprise us because she was thinner and lighter than the other pigs. She sold for $2.25 a lb as well.

Hannah's pig, Bessie, took 3rd place in her section. She was thisclose to being in the Star Class(championship round). She sold for $2.75 a lb.

Cambria's pig, Maximus, took 2nd place in his section and went on to Star Class. A first for us. He sold for $2.50 a lb. She ended up with a large purple ribbon.

The little boys had a blast jumping and sliding and jousting in the bouncy houses and standing in line for hours to get a balloon animal or sword or gun, and looking at the chickens, rabbits, and ducks.

Hannah and I spent quite a bit of time helping with Cheer/drill fundraising, selling concessions. Curtis did concessions and monitored the bouncy houses as fundraisers for football and track. Cambria sold concessions to help raise money for track/XC.

Then there were movie nights, game nights, and rodeos and concerts. It was a full, busy 9 days!! Good thing we have a year to rest up before the next one!

Good things:

Cooler weather for the fair...

Sadie getting a blue ribbon for her crocheted bear purse...

Not having to go feed pigs 2x a day anymore....

Sadie(looking good in her white shirt and 4H patch!) and Tilly

Zoe C., Ane, and Cambria 

Cambria and Maximus (black pig in the center)

Trying to get Maximus to move around the arena

What a nice looking pig!

Hannah and Bessie

Notice she has her left hand behind her back? She was the only one who tried to look serious about this...

Sadie and Nelly, the spotted Wonder!

Sadie didn't too badly for her first time in the arena.

Use that candy cane pig stick!

Keep the pig moving!!

Sadie jousting with a friend while Charles did laps

My cute littlest boy! James, age 2 1/2

Sadie and Soren going at it. This was the biggest hit with the kids.

Way to go Charles! You got her!

Sort of a mismatch....

Taking out those brotherly quarrels the fun way! 

Utah vs. BYU?

Charles, age 4 1/2

Soren, age 7 1/2

James, age 2 1/2 & Hannah 14

Charles getting brave on the BIG slide.

Soren showing off his blue ribbon. Somehow I failed to get a picture of him with his pig.  :(