A fond farewell and a happy hello

We said goodbye to Spring yesterday and hello to Summer today, and we did it in a grand way. Yesterday the boys and I were able to feast on some super yummy strawberries that have been growing in our garden! There are so many more just waiting to be fully ripe for us to devour. And then the raspberries are on their way, we cannot wait! Then for dinner I went to the garden and picked some of the lettuce growing there and had myself a healthy dinner out in the back yard while the boys ate their own non-garden food (quesadilla and noodles). I thought our send-off to Spring was appropriate.

Then today was hello Summer. It was beautiful today! Warm, slight breeze, sunny! We got out the pool and the boys loved it. They love getting wet, as long as someone else is not helping them get wet. While they played in the water, ate more strawberries, and played in the tree; I finished mowing the lawn and did some gardening. Beautiful! Then for dinner we ate outside again and I had another yummy salad. The boys snacked on watermelon, oranges, bananas, and rolls while going in and out of the pool. Then they finished it off by having an ice-cream sandwich. What a great way to have dinner. Hello, Summer!

Scofield adventures -Lambs, Docks, Fish and Fun

It was definitely a fun week, not free of problems, but worth the trip to Scofield. My boys love it up there. William loves the water, Caleb and Peter have kind of taken a break from the water and are more about playing around the cabin site, but they all have fun any time we are there. This past week we spent the whole time there while Rob came back to Salt Lake for a few days of work, then he met back up with us and we all came home together. It was great.

When we got to Scofield we found that the lake was at capacity, it has not been this full since 96. We normally have quite a lot of beach between our cabin and the lake so to have the lake be one cabin's distance away from us, it was fun. Our dock was already out in the water as you can see and the boys loved fishing off the dock. Caleb that first day caught 8 fish, they loved his hook. We of course released all of them back in the water, my boys are not fish killers and we are not fish cleaners. The lake kept rising and by Thursday the tip was under water. Rob was gone so we were trying to figure out what to do. There was a big storm and the waves were big. Because of all this, our two front poles started going down. Sinking deeper and deeper in the mud and I could not pull them out because of the waves and mud. By Friday morning this is what our dock looked like.

That is our friend Bob fishing off the dock. The front two poles were completely submerged and the only thing holding it in place were some rocks and the back two poles. Insane! Rob, Bob and I ended up doing some super tough work trying to get those other two poles out and pull the dock up. The only tough thing I did was dive in the water and rescue a sunken pipe wrench and hold some wood in place while the two strong guys pulled a stubborn pipe out of the mud. Rob ended up the worse off by getting too cold in the water, having his fingers smashed with the pipe wrench and spending 45 min. in a hot tub of water to thaw his body out. But in the end we pulled the dock out of the rising water and the other two pipes are still submerged and waiting for the waters to subside. Awesome times!

We went on a very cool hike and the boys loved it. Scofield really is a beautiful area. The boys love getting out in nature and exploring. Caleb loves going off without any of us and proving what a stud of a hiker he is. At one point however we had to do the "follow my voice" locater system because he just ventured too far from the group. Watch out boy scouts.

And for our favorite part of the week, the baby lambs. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we had playing with these little lambs! They were ADORABLE! A lady and her husband, Tonda and Pace, have a cabin next to ours and on Thursday they showed up with a horse trailer, fencing and 18 sweet little baby lambs inside the trailer. Tonda has shepherd friends who asked her if she would take on some bum lambs (lambs whose mother cannot or will not feed them). Tonda, being very ambitious, took them in. She has to feed them from a bottle 3 times a day and so needed to bring them to the cabin that weekend because they came up for Father's day. We loved being so near the lambs. It was fun to have them "talk" to you. Seriously, you would baa to them and they would baa right back. I had one talking to me for a good 4 "baas". Tonda let us go into the yard and pet the lambs, and just sit there with them and play. We even got to feed them a couple of times and it was neat! She had given them each names according to markings on their wool. There was Mammoth (he was the biggest with a fuzzy head), Clown (because of colorful chalk markings on him), Freckles, Queenie (biggest female), Mascara (had black markings around her eyes that looked exactly like mascara - Caleb's favorite), Toy (the smallest), Charlie (brown), Blackie, Red Ear (red marking on tip of ear), Target.... It was so much fun, we loved it!

Awesome!

The boys came up with that design together, they were very proud.
My boys are cool! Peter today had his 5 year/Kindergarten checkup and he was great! It came time for the shots and he bravely stepped up to the plate. You could tell he was nervous/scared but he was ready. The first two shots came and he handled them like a champ. I could see he wanted to tear up, but he was brave. Then the last two shots and only a small, nervous laugh came from him, followed by a "I did it, Mom." smile. What a brave, tough kid! Caleb had left the room because he did not want to see it all play out, and when he came back in he was surprised that Peter was all done. He was awesome!
Now for Caleb, yesterday he gave a terrific talk in Primary. I was so proud of him because he basically wrote the talk on his own. I just jotted down a few questions related to his topic (faith) and he answered them. Then from those answers I added a few other lines he wanted from a conference talk and wallah, he had done it on his own. I was especially touched when I read what he had done for his testimony of faith (the last line of his talk), he really has a good heart. He is a fantastic speaker, always speaks so clearly and with good pronunciation. This was his talk:
"Faith to me means that you believe in something you do not know about. We can show we have faith by believing in Jesus and Father in Heaven. We show faith when we keep the commandments because we believe that Father in Heaven will bless us when we follow them. In conference Elder Nelson said, 'It takes faith to obey the commandments, and keeping His commandments will strengthen that faith.' Faith also helps us know that Jesus loves us so we love Him. When we believe in Jesus and that he came to Earth and died for us, our love for Him grows stronger. We can also trust Jesus and His power when we show faith in what He says in the scriptures. In Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 Jesus tells us, 'I will be on your right hand and on your left.' When we are faithful, He and His angels will help us. I know that faith is a strong witness that Jesus and Heavenly Father exist and that They love us very much."
We are proud of him. Now comes another moment tomorrow night when he has his baptism interview with the Bishop. I am excited for him, for this time in his life. I know he will do well in the interview, he knows his stuff. I just hope he feels it in his heart, so that it is really important to him.

Bro-Sis Day and the end of school

The end has come, summer has begun. So technically, the real "fun" is just starting. :) Caleb's last day of school was fun. Heartland Elementary has a traditional dance festival where each grade works on a dance and they all perform on the field the last day. I wish I could get it to load because it is awesome! Second grade danced to the Waka Waka and it was so fun to watch them all, especially Caleb and Miss Pasker. Caleb was so excited to be out there and have fun. However and the end of the festival the DJ had everyone go out and dance the Chicken Dance. Caleb is less excited about the Chicken Dance, especially since his mom knows it and was out there doing it with style. :)

Peter finished Preschool and loved it. He says he is glad to be done but secretly I bet he would love to still be going. I think he is only excited to be moving onto Kindergarten next year.

Bro-Sis day had it's debut this year. Last year was our last year of Brother's Day and with a sister on the way we had to come up with a new name for our holiday. Bro-Sis Day was adopted and even though it sounds like a disease when you say it, we still had fun. They kids had their traditional t-shirt to wear for the day. They painted the front with stars, each their own design, and I added my own flourish to the back. They made their crowns, ate donut holes for breakfast, and had snowies for a special treat after school. Plus when dad came home we went to the park and played. It could not be agreed upon to go golfing or tennis so we went for new territory and played Frisbee at the park. It was great and they all had fun.