Swimming and Digging

On Monday Adam had his dad come over to supervisor putting up the fence to replace the one he tore up over the previous weekend. For Family Home Evening that night we met Daniel, Susie, Addie, and Liam over at Susie's friend, Comet's place to swim. It was fun because our husbands were able to be there with us and the kids enjoyed being to play with their dads in the water. Lincoln loved jumping off the edge into Adam's arms. Adam was a little more daring in letting the kids jump in and then pull them out of the water after they went under. I'm sure on this swimming trip that they took in quite a bit more water from it all. He said doing that would teach them to close their mouth, which it seemed like they did start doing that after a while. Comet was in the process of moving, so we will all be sad that she doesn't live where this pool is anymore. On Tuesday Adam started digging the trench for the sprinkler system and did the office work when he got too hot. Tyson hopped into the backhoe with him and shortly after that I found Tyson digging the moving the levers, digging the trench, and dumping the dirt and then repositioning the arm of the backhoe to get another scoop. Adam said that Tyson caught on really quick as to what lever moved what. That means I have to be a little more attentive when he is around equipment like that because he'll think that he knows what to do and go to it. I started Webelos again, which was challenging after having about a 2 month break. The two boys that I had previously had their b-days and moved up to 11 yr old scouts and I miss not having them at den meeting. Adam started the school in Alamo Nevada on Wednesday and so he was gone for a few days there and then went on a 6 hour drive to Natarita Colorado to bid on a church there and then...you got it the 6 hour drive back home. Luckily him and Stuart went together so they could trade off driving. On their way back they picked up a new dump trailer for the Alamo job. It was nice to have him home for the weekend. The boys and I have a very difficult time when Adam is out of town and traveling constantly and it always comes in spurts. I took the boys to a wedding reception Friday night, which Susie and I met up there since both of our husbands were gone.

The Day Long Horse Ride

I can’t say that anything too exciting happened during this past week. We did continue to work on landscaping our yard with Saturday proving the most productive as you can already see a change from work put towards leveling out one section where we will re-install a new metal fence to separate our property and the pasture where some cows graze occasionally. It’s amazing how something completely opens up when you cut down a couple of trees and a mangled fence as well as destroying the tall weeds that could be mistaken for trees. I forgot or didn’t quite realize how big our backyard really was. Apparently with our irrigation we only pay $10/month for unlimited use and it is shut off the beginning of November and then turned back on the end of March. We’ll have our culinary water as backup for those times when the irrigation comes through really muddy from rainstorms in other areas or when they have to turn it off for those same types of reasons. I am just excited to finally have a lawn and a few other things that come with getting rid of the dirt lot to the back of us. I have found that it is nice to have Adam home when anyone comes by (which isn’t that often), but when people do stop by he seems to gain the same embarrassment that I have had for some time and is finally making it a priority to get a plan in place and work to accomplish that goal. I should just invite people over during the times he is home so that that motivation continues. I guess I would kind of be using people, but it is for a very good cause : ) On Friday morning Adam left at 5:30 for a day long horseback ride on a trail up to Kolob. I caught a ride with the wife of someone else on the trip and we drove up to where our ward was having an over night campout by the lake up there. Adam had arrived there at 6 p.m. He hasn’t been on a horse since he was young, so he knew he would be feeling pain for the next couple of days, but did not know that he would feel that pain of soreness right after he was done. We rode back with Adam in the truck and pulled the trailer with the horses back as well. I was kind of glad to have the excuse of getting the horses back, since the boys still have nights where they wake up and aren’t exactly pleasant or reasonable and I am always worried about that when opportunities for camping come up. I didn’t want the ward mad at us because they couldn’t sleep from two crying boys. I asked Adam how the trip was and if he could have just taken the same route on a 4-wheeler and he said, "No Way!" There was things they went up and down that he would never take a 4-wheeler on and he was surprised that horses would go up and down them. He even had a 'Man from Snowy River' experience as you can see from the first pic. The 2nd to the last picture is of a guy in our ward that is a hard core roughing it kind of guy. Adam said that the horses were so tired from the day long ride that only one horse with this 10 yr old girl on it was able to go up that part and the others got off and walked and so that guy grabbed on to his horse's tail to have the horse pull him up (his horse is actually the one that he let Adam use for the ride and Adam was really glad he got that one). Tyson and Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed sitting on Brooke's horse before they were loaded up. If those boys could have a horse they would be in heaven. Saturday evening we went over to the demolition derby at the fair. We left Lincoln with g-ma & g-pa and somehow Tyson talked Adam into letting him come along, which I was looking forward to a date with just Adam, however Tyson was actually a very good boy and easy to please. We watched the fireworks at the end and then sat and waited for a while as the crowd dispersed and clogged the exits. On our way out we found someone from our ward that was distraught as her and her daughter did not have a ride home and her cell phone died and they didn’t know what else to do. We offered them a ride home and ended up taking the daughter as the mom had another option that came up. She hasn’t made the best choices in life and actually does not have custody of her daughter, but her mother takes care of her daughter. I just feel so bad for her and the struggles and pain that she inflicts on herself. Throughout the week Tyson was given the responsibility to feed the neighbor’s cat. He did very well and was so responsible walking over by himself with the food and giving the one scoop and checking the water and then coming back. On Wednesday Adam and I went to the temple. We finally were able to have an individual sealed to his parents, which he has been waiting for since 2008. I found his card caught in the back of a shelf next to the computer not too long ago while cleaning it out and it has been on my mind to get the work done for him. I feel much better now after having done that. Today I taught Tyson’s class and ended up with Lincoln in there as well since he somehow managed to wet his pants through his diaper while sleeping on Adam’s lap during Sunday School.

Still Making a Little Progress

On Monday Adam had his younger brother Jared over to help finish cutting up the trees that he had cut down last weekend. Stuart came and dug out the trunks with the backhoe and as usual Tyson and Lincoln enjoyed the commotion. On Friday afternoon Adam hauled a couple loads of gravel to our house so we continue to make progress on our lot. We missed Adam most of the week as he was gone for 3 days to Flagstaff Arizona for a church he was working on there and then on Saturday morning when we are all looking forward to having him around or being able to go with him wherever he goes, he had to go to Brianhead to check on a job there since it had been raining and he wanted to make sure the job was done right. Lincoln was very unhappy when Adam had to leave Saturday morning, that he produced tears and and let us all know by the way he was crying that he was very unhappy. My boys always seem to know when it is about that time of the week (end) and they should be spending time with their dad and they always seem to be pretty disappointed and crabby when it is taken away from them. On Friday I took the boys over to St George to meet up with Susie and Stephanie and their kids at Susie's friend Comet's pool. It was very nice since the pool only goes to 3 ft 6 inches deep and Tyson can walk around in a good area by himself with the water up to his shoulders/neck. We went to 'The Children's Place' and grabbed a few shirts that were on sale afterwards. Lincoln took a very late nap and then we joined Wynn and Phyllis over at Shelley and Cody's for dinner. They were out of town at Lake Powell and Phyllis had been watching the twins (Jace and Jenna) all afternoon over there during their late nap. On Friday I ended up cleaning the house and balancing the company check book and posting a few other invoices and such, since Adam had to go check on that job. It was nice to rotate between my house and the company stuff and have a change of pace as I got each little segment/chore done. I got it all done by the time Adam returned and we bought pizza for dinner and took it to the Flat to share with Wynn and Phyllis and spend the rest of the evening. This morning I started those yummy homemade crescent rolls for dinner later today and finished the last step before letting them rise the 3 hours while we were at church. In between the 2 simple steps of preparing the dough I prepared the lesson for the 12 & 13 yr old class that I was asked to substitute in. With the exception of last week I had substituted 3 weeks in a roll before that and then between this week and then substituting in Tyson's 4 yr old class next week, I am becoming quite the regular substitute of all ages between 4 and 17 years old. It hasn't been too overwhelming since we were able to cancel Webelos for July and are not starting again until a little further into August, so I have enjoyed a little "summer" break with that calling. Some entertaining things from the boys' end is when Lincoln likes to try and penalize you for not doing what he wants by saying "fine I not pwaying wif you" (aka I am not playing with you). He picked that up from playing with Tyson and the twins (Erika and Emily), it's just funnier when he says it, because he will use that phrase for everything. He also likes to shout out of the blue "shut up piggy", which he isn't trying to say anything mean by it, but just likes to say it and I have no idea where he got it...I take that back I think Tyson and Marshall have said some silly phrases like that when they are just spouting out what comes to their head. It is most unpleasant and down right embarrassing to have him say it after the sacrament prayer. Luckily I managed to be quick to cover his mouth because he was talking loud and then I realized what he was saying so I was double glad for my quick reflexes. These pictures I snapped of the boys as we went out to the Flat one afternoon. Lincoln had his hat and Tyson wanted one as well (which is a little too small but still cute).

They Like to Travel

This past week we celebrated with Daniel his birthday with a barbecue at Aunt Roma Ann's house as well as a sprinkler under the trampoline and a slip and slide for the kids. It's always nice to have good reasons to get together and eat food. Earlier we were out at the flat trying to get the chain saw fixed so that we could try to get started on cutting down a couple of trees that are partially dead at our place, but we were unsuccessful. Adam said he use to always be the one to fix the chain saws, but has been out of touch for some time. On Wednesday Adam and Stuart traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, then to Page Arizona, then to Kayenta Arizona, then through Monument Valley and then went by Mexican Hat and up into Height Utah and then down into BullFrog/Lake Powell to measure two roofs and came home through multiple other places for a total of 900 miles and getting home at midnight. We figured he pretty much drove to Oregon and half way back in one day (with a lot of ups and downs and arounds to get where they were going). Talk about crazy travelers. Thursday evening we were just plain tired as the boys had been dealing with a little asthma for Tyson and stomach pains still for Lincoln the day before and hadn't left the house much of the day due to late naps for the boys, so we drove into Hurricane and picked up a pizza and went to the park for dinner. Tyson and Lincoln just ran and played on the playground equipment. They used a lot of energy up, which only put us to bed after midnight with Lincoln holding on as long as he could. When we left the park around 9 p.m. Tyson said, "That's a fun summer park. When can we go back?" On Saturday Heidi and I spent some time trying to make her numbers match from the selling of the wheat in trying to get Wynn his money for the wheat and Angelyn her money for the buckets. After a few hours we were successful and then Heidi did some custom tayloring for me with a few pieces of clothing. Adam spent the morning getting his guys going on the old Hurricane Elementary roof and then had Stuart help him get the chain saw fixed and went to work cutting down one of the trees in our back property. We went with Stuart and Heidi to the temple and then to Texas Roadhouse (not surprising if Adam can put his 2 bits in on where to eat). A good way to finish off the week. I snapped this picture just now since I didn't really have any this past week, which reminded me that Lincoln was bailing off the couch and collided with Tyson's head and ended up with a puffy bruised up eyelid. These two boys as well as their dad sure do love to wrestle. I can tell that Adam is getting them ready for football season by their wrestling moves turning into running tackles and the "Tackle, Touchdown, Sack" words coming back into play. Boys will be boys.