Black Island Farms Fun

This is Emily enjoying the big slide.
And Tate doing the same...
Hayden waiting for the hydraulic corn gun man.
I wasn't even trying to capture this, but as I was taking it, they announced the pig races, and he was pretty excited...
"Get back in the maze so I can get a picture!" "smile. stop touching each other. scoot in"
The hay ride was missing the hay.....but it was still fun. Tate is not an adventurous soul. He kept telling the driver to slow down and be more careful. It was funny and embarrassing at the same time.
Mike and Emily picking out pumpkins.
Tate waiting for the Great Pumpkin, or the guy with the utility knife to cut his pumpkin. Either one.


We went out to Syracuse to Black Island Farms. It was a great time. Next time I'll post videos of the corn guns, the pig races and what the kids liked best. The slides were pretty cool and the pigs were pretty cute. It was a good day.
Conference was great too, wasn't it? It's good to know what exactly to work on for the next bit, even if self-improvement isn't super fun. It's more fun to improve someone else, isn't it???? Just kidding. Mostly.

Did we really have a summer? Really?

These are not exactly stellar photos. However, you can probably guess that my children were not in the mood to stand still for a photo. "I'M GOING TO BE LATE!!!", they shout.
We try to take the first day seriously, we try to leave lots of extra time, we try to make it special, but I have not gotten the hang of it. I guess I have five more tries with Hayden. YIKES. That's not long at all. Sigh. Is it better to commemorate and think too much in the process, or to slide through life and not have sad thoughts? I haven't decided. I guess I have done some of both.
Anyway, the kids are growing. Maybe on Tuesday morning, I'll pretend it's the first day and take better pics..........

Ode to our late van.

This is the side that got smashed while we were spinning around. The door no longer closes.


This is the side the at-fault driver hit. (I'm so p.c.) That is the back bumper on top of the van, and there is no glass in the sliding door window. The pictures don't do it justice. They don't show the smell of gas (still!) nor all the wasps that moved in while it sat here. THAT was fun.


so now to the ode. Oh van, we loved your eight seats, your power sliding door, your cupholders, and your huge gas tank. We loved your great gas mileage (hey, everything beats the Explorer), your trip odometer, your mileage and compass and temperature display. We loved your clean carpet and brakes. Ah, we will miss you.

A select few photos from WA

So I decided to come back to the funeral pictures later. I think we took about 500 pictures on our trip to Washington to see my family. I'm not exaggerating. It took a while to upload from our camera. So these are just a few of the delights. In a few days I'll post the before and after pics of our late, departed van.

A sad reason for a fun reunion.

On Monday, we went to Orem and Provo for the funeral of Mike's grandma, Rosalind Bandley. It was a very nice, very moving service. My favorite part was that all of Mike's siblings were together for the first time in four years. I enjoy watching them enjoy each other's company and watching cousins chase around. Outside the church, of course. Chasing inside isn't reverent. :) I have more, but that will have to wait until next time. Lots of pics to share.

The Zoo and Hayden leaves the house!

This was an accident, but it looks like Hayden has long Mike Meyers hair! (It's really Emily)

the baby giraffe we all wanted to see

Tate wanted a lot of pictures taken of himself

this is the after picture. Tate's only annoyed because this is the fourth try for a picture.

The sprinklers were on at the park.
Hayden happened to be upstairs at the moment and was persuaded to leave the house and go get wet with Tate. It was a lovely spontaneous moment. When I say "happened to be upstairs", it's because he's been in the basement, on the computer, playing some game I don't care about for so many days now. A power outage might be just the thing......

We did the Zoo very quickly on Saturday (sorry no time for visits) because the weather was so cool and pleasant. Sadly the weather will not stay that way....

I'm not so clever.

So many of you have enjoyed Mike's imagination-interactive post that I know I can never top that. So I will not compete. That's how I roll. If I can't win, I won't play. Just kidding. sort of. So we don't have any pictures from our last two swimming trips because the camera doesn't belong in the water, and Tate doesn't belong in the water unless I'm right next to him, in the water. Which is why I am sunburned, despite my children's best efforts. They do pretty well, but there are always strange-shaped sunburn spots on my back. Ah, summer. Also I didn't take a pic of us hitting the garage sales this morning. We all found some kind of treasure. I found two upholstered armless chairs. They were sturdy and the springs were good. They had clean lines, so covering them in new fabric won't be a problem. I was stunned to find they were $1 each. I grabbed them and threw them in the van. On the way home I think I figured out why they were only $1......the smell was overpowering. We had to open all the windows. So it looks like I will have to slice them open and strip them down to the springs, cover with new muslin, padding, muslin and fabric. Which is more than I had intended to do. Now mind you, I will not back down from this challenge, although it must get in line with all the other half-finished projects. Perhaps the smell will bump them up in line some. They can't sit behind the house forever. See, I told you that I'm not so clever.