Slate Run Historical Farm

Some church friends invited us to go to Slate Run Farm with them for the morning. It's a Historical Farm. We were able to get right next to many of the animals and pet or feed them. We saw horses, cows, sheep, chickens, roosters, turkeys, pigs (unbelievably stinky!!), and another bird that I've never seen before.
I didn't realize how much a sheep's "Baaa" sounds like a human yell.
This historical farm has several games for the kids to play just like the games kids played in the 1880s. Many of the activities are like those at Nauvoo and Plymouth Plantation.

They got the shave the kernels off of corn cobs and make them into corn meal. The corn meal was so soft the kids liked spreading on their bodies just like lotion (the moms...not so much).
I think the boys actually liked the chickens the best. They fed them grass and they got quite a rush from trying to feed them but still keep their fingers safe.

Not good...

...definitely not good.

La liberté éclairant le monde

aka...the Statue of Liberty...well at least in our house.

Tonight I went to a church meeting where Lady Liberty was mentioned. I heard the speaker say that she stands in our country as a symbol of refuge to the oppressed people of other lands. The speaker drew the comparison between the statue, as a refuge to the politically oppressed, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, as a refuge to the spiritually oppressed. I do find hope and motivation in studying Jesus Christ's words and life. His gospel does make me feel free and safe.

Yesterday I asked Isaac to take down the statue that he and Theron constructed last week with the intent that I would honor such a masterpiece on our blog. How fitting that I learned a bit of the history of the statue tonight.

GOLF 101

The stance

The caddy

The loot

The hush
The attempt
The amateurThe finish

Dilly bars...

...lapped 'em.

There are no pictures or words appropriate to describe post call. Travis can only try to sleep it off.

Some words to describe our day.

laundry-did it
syrup-ate it
weeds-pulled 'em
post call-slept off
toilet-cleaned it
baseballs-hit 'em
spider-smoooooshed it
freezer jam-made it
Dilly bars-lapped 'em
temper tantrums-laughed at
dirty boys-bathed 'em

Huh??

We drove past a huge construction site off of the freeway. There were all kinds of big machines out there doing their thing. There were a couple of cranes lifting building materials to the top of a big new building. Isaac piped up, "Hey! That crane looks like a cantilever!"

"Huh?" I thought to myself as I sat there looking straight ahead. What in the world is a cantilever? After digging deep into my brain reserve and coming up with nothing I asked Travis under my breath, "What is a cantilever?" He explained and sure enough...it looked just like one.

Curious?--Cantilever

Let's Go Fly a Kite

The boys have been waiting since Christmas to fly these kites.

Isaac's kite was a dragon. "Not like the Comodo dragon we saw at the zoo today."

Theron's kite was a cyclops. There wasn't one of those at the zoo.

We had a great time. Isaac was a kite flying maniac. He only stopped flying because we said it was time to leave.

Charlie just ate mulch.

The Ants Go Marching One by One

Five years ago we lived in Boston. We subleased an apartment from a family for the summer who didn't want to take any of their stuff while they were gone. This included food. They gave us the liberty to consume anything perishable.

Every morning as I was eating breakfast I would see an ant or two on the table. Only a short time went by before we discovered an ant trail at the base of one of the kitchen walls. This grossed me out. I quickly began to detest ants even more than the crickets that seemed to swarm our apartment grounds back in Arizona. I hated this even more than the commuter train only two car widths away from our abode.

I don't know how long the attempts to rid our apartment of ants went on before we discovered their home. They had eaten through the bottoms of more than a handful of cereal boxes and were living the high life. (Thus the few stray ants of the table top each morning.)

Each night I dreamt of ants crawling in our bed. I even convinced Travis a few times to turn on the lights in the middle of the night to help me find them.

Last week Travis came upstairs to tell me some bad news. I swallowed and braced myself for the worst. "There are ants at the bottom of the stairs." I am confident that only a small handful of others out there despise ants as much as I do. This wasn't the type of news I was prepared for but I think I took it pretty well. Ant huts work just like they say. Twenty-four hours (to the minute) after putting them in place the ants are magically gone. I must confess I don't feel sad at all. When the boys ask about it I just tell them, "They weren't invited."

Rainy Day Sob Story

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.
So, we sat in the house all this cold, cold wet day.

I sat there with my boys. We sat there our crew.
And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!"

Too wet to fly kites and too cold to play ball.
So we sat in our house we did nothing at all.

And then we decided to make us some food.
We settled on pizza. We knew it'd be good.

With aprons on torsos and olives on hand.
We knew that the outcome would be something grand.

And when we had eaten we still felt so sad.
Then we decided we really just all missed our dad.

Lego Maniac

Isaac has become quite the Lego guru. A few days ago he bought this Star Wars Lego ship and every morning since then he has awakened at seven o'clock and snuck into my room to tell me that he is going downstairs to work on his ship.

The finished product is complete with R2D2 and Luke Skywalker with his light saber and scratched up hero face.

His Blood

If only I REALLY had that easy button. I have been trying to scan in this picture for about five days. It's not that hard. I do it all the time. Put the picture in, hit the SCAN button. The flashing orange light on the scanner indicated that it was not so easy...until today. I came in for one last try, pushed the SCAN button and...

This is Trav's family a few of years ago. We like to remind ourselves how fortunate we are that we don't ever get to complain about our in-laws. We laugh at all the in-law jokes we hear all the while thinking, "heh, I don't get it." We think our families are somethin' special.

That Was Easy

I took Isaac with me to Staples. He saw this Easy Button and, of course, wanted to know all about it. With a smirk on my face (I could see where this was going), I explained. I told him that it was a button that makes everything easy just by pushing it. MAGIC to a five year old. He kept asking over and over if we could please get one. Finally I asked him why. "I just want to make all of your jobs easier." What a guy! If only I believed that for just $5.99 all of my jobs would be easier.

My blood

I was thinking of my family today and how I never get to see them. We haven't all been together for quite a while. This picture was taken a little over a year ago in Heber, UT. We rented a cabin up on the mountain and ate food, played games, and soaked in the hot tub. It was good to be together but we suffered for it. We were all sporting painful red spots on our bodies (sometimes referred to as 'hot tub folliculitis') for several months afterwards.

Wiped Out

Charlie zonked at lunch time. I feel like this most nights by the end of dinner. Somehow I don't think I would be quite as cute if I fell asleep in the middle of my meal.

April Fool's Day

Isaac came home from school on Monday March 31st all pumped up for "Joke day" the next day. He rambled off big plans. His ideas seemed a little off. I didn't think much about it and just assumed that his preschool teacher had taught him about it and told them they could do jokes the next day.
When I picked Isaac up from school on April Fool's day he came out of the building strutting his stuff with his pirate hat on his head and his light saber in his hand (two items I recognized from home). I was surprised to see them and just figured he had taken them in his backpack. He got into the car and I asked him how his day was. He said in a matter of fact voice, "Joke day wasn't quite like I thought it would be."
Later I discovered the rest of his joke day loot in his backpack. A HUMAN BODY book, a fisherman's hat, and a bunch of magnetic letters and numbers. I am left wondering what in the world he was expecting joke day to be like and what he was planning to do with all of his stuff.
I also have felt a little guilty for not making it a fun holiday for my kids. I'd love to hear your fun April Fool's day traditions or pranks. I've got to start early for next year. I just don't think I can stand to see another disappointed Isaac on April 1st.