Salem Days

What a great year at Salem Days! We really had a lot of fun, as the kids get older, it gets better and better. We went to the gravity grand prix, the little buckaroo rodeo, the baby contest, the children's parade, tunes in the trees, the grand parade, the library auction, and the fireworks. Saturday was especially full of fun things to do and the children arrived home that night completely exhausted (Austin & I as well). At the gravity grand prix we watched several fun races, we even saw a spectacular crash. The car rolled twice and fortunately no one was hurt, though the poor little guy driving was bummed that he lost. The baby contest didn't go as great as past years. Fiona woke up that morning with a high fever. She was even more clingy that usual and refused to let me put her down even for the picture (the main reason we do the contest). I suspected she wouldn't be the judges favorite this year, but she did look adorable and I got some pics of her later in the day that were much happier.

At the little buckaroo rodeo the children really enjoyed watching the mutton busting, and Ian was quite upset that he didn't get a turn to ride the sheep. Fiona just loves the horses and was thrilled when they would ride past us fast.
Friday and Saturday were by far the best days. We went to the children's parade. Wesley dressed as Buzz Lightyear and Ian was a cowboy (sometimes Woody, sometimes not), Fiona rode in the wagon and got to wave the little wand that I'd made for her.
We stayed after the parade for the tunes in the trees and had a picnic dinner,
played with cousins and listened to the music (Alli did a great job).
Saturday Wesley and Ian rode in Amberlee's little train for the parade, they loved it.

Fiona and I watched the parade and Fiona loved the marching bands and the tractors. We caught several balls at the helicopter ping-pong ball drop,

and got some great prizes (bubbles, suckers, $1, and a large tootsie roll). Later that night we went to the library auction and Austin bought me a tricycle (I've always wanted one), it's beautiful. Shiny red and has a cute basket in the back. Now all we have to do is sale our home and move downtown off the hill where I can ride it. I donated a chocolate lover's dessert of the month, which ended up being bought by Nadene and Karen for $60 (not too bad). After the auction we went to Grandma Davis' house to let the kids play during the pageant and await the fireworks. The fireworks were quite delayed because of a thunderstorm and we ended up leaving before they started. But when we got home we saw them from our front porch and the kids had a good time watching them before going to bed. Fiona was absolutely mesmerized by them. All in all it was a great day. And I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year.

Getting ready for Salem Days

I've been helping with the Salem Days pageant. They've had me paint a few of the props and part of the background panels. It's been a lot of fun. I did it last year and I really enjoy it, though sometimes it does get a bit hectic trying to fit it in our schedule. Here's some pics of the doll house they had me paint. I thought it turned out fun, the kids liked it.

our july 24th

Well, we had a memorable pioneer day this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't because we had fun. We actually all got sick. Yes, the whole family (except for Fiona). The night before we had taken dinner to Grandma & Grandpa Swenson. When we got home, Ian threw up everything. Early morning (around 2:30 a.m.) Wesley threw up. I felt nauseous all night. The next morning I threw up several times and found out that Austin had also. Our stomachs ached, I couldn't even stand up because of the queasiness. By midday, fortunately, the boys were doing great, almost back to normal. But I had to have my mom come and get dinner for us, because I couldn't even get off the couch.
I think we got hit by something we ate and I was really worried about Grandpa and Grandma. They never got sick, though. Such a blessing, because they've had enough health problems and didn't need this to deal with as well. By Friday we all felt almost 100%. And Saturday when we left to Enterprise we were fine.
We did get one great photo from the whole ordeal. The kids were running around in their underwear (Fiona of course in a diaper) because Austin and I were too busy being sick. Ian found a great way to carry around his guns and we had to get a picture.

more summer fun

enterprise dam







Wesley & Oliver making "liver flavor", ??I have know idea where Wesley came up with that.


We've had a very full summer thus far. We just got back from another little vacation; this time we went to Enterprise, Utah. If you're like me, you have no idea where this quaint little town is. It's 40 miles west of Cedar City. We went out there to visit Ben & Jodi (Austin's brother and his family). We had a great time with them. The first night we went to their rodeo which featured a chicken chase and a burro watermelon run. I really think we need to incorporate both of those events into our annual Salem Days. The kids went out into the area and chased chickens, even a turkey, to catch them and take them home. Wesley thought everyone got a chicken and was quite upset that he didn't catch one (a little different than the Easter egg hunts he's used to). The boy that caught the turkey wasn't much bigger than his prize, but seemed to be an old pro. For the burro watermelon run two contestants had to ride their burro down to the opposite end of the arena, pick up their watermelon and ride the burro back. The results of their efforts were hilarious. Those burros definitely have a mind of their own. I doubt any skill but a sure grip and pure luck would win you this contest (you just have to pick the burro that WANTS to go down and back before the others).
Sunday we went to church and their ward was very friendly. It was nice to go to Relief Society for a change (I've been the Primary Secretary for 8 months now, but I still love it). After church, we drove up to the Enterprise reservoir. The dam was cool. It was very photogenic and I really wanted to climb down to the little river underneath, but there was a large cliff in the way, besides 3 small children and a 5 month pregnant belly (oh, well maybe next time).
Monday, We drove to Cedar City to drop Austin off for his classes. He has a week long class and will staying there till Friday. We found a very fun discovery park and had a great time. Tuesday, We went to the Enterprise park with the ward mothers' group and fed the FFA goats that graze behind Ben & Jodi's house (we hope that they weren't on some special diet as part of a experiment or anything).
All in all it was a great little vacation and the children loved playing with their cousins. Here's the pics

Getting a picture with all three of the kids, is still quite a challenge. Here's my most recent attempts.

I love this picture. Ian is so proud of himself. He had taken the laces out of Austin's boot so I told him to hand the laces and the boot to Daddy to put it back together. After a few minutes he still hadn't given it to Austin so I asked again and Ian responded, "but Mom, I did it myself." Good job, little man.

our froggy friend

we've had a great year for visitors this summer. Austin and I have gotten used to the wild animals that seem to wander into our yard, but this year we seem to have become the 'place to be' if you happen to be a reptile or amphibian. Which in my opinion is great and much better than the year of the spiders (one summer we found 2 tarantulas, on separate occasions. and a huge wolf spider that I had almost stepped on barefoot. The image of that still makes me shake in disgust and fear). But as I was saying before the arachnids of my nightmares reared their awful eight-eyed heads, we've had many fun visitors this year. We have found a rattlesnake (okay this one was a little anxiety provoking with small children running around, but our dog is a great snake alarm), 3 grass snakes (one that bit me as I tried to catch it and left a little bit of it's tooth in my finger), a sun scorpion in the kitchen (okay we did have one arachnid, yuck!), but by far the favorite has been the bullfrog that hopped a little too far from his pond and found himself in our yard. He slept over a couple of nights before we found him a new home. The kids really loved to pet him and were very impressed with his jumping skills. Even Fiona liked to pet him (a girl after my own heart), she just got really nervous whenever he jumped out of my hands. So here are some of the pics we got with our new friend.

random pics

these are just pictures that i thought would be fun to post. it's been a while since our last post so today is marathon blog day as well. hope you enjoy all the new pics and entries




these are from father's day, each of the kids made a little frame for austin, so they each got to take a special picture with daddy to put in the frame

fiona loves to sit in this big orange chair in the front room and look at books, if it's really quiet and i haven't heard from her for a while then i can almost guarantee that's she's sitting in her favorite chair with a book

ian found austin's goggles and just had to put them on to color with. he is all about the accessories.

austin gets a lot of help around the yard.