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.

Stomach Pains and Gunny Sack Racing

It sure is nice to have Wynn and Phyllis home from their 3 ½ week trip. We were all excited to see them last Sunday evening. My trips to the flat increased this past week tremendously. On Monday evening we went to Adam’s Grandpa & Grandma’s place referred to as “Grandma’s” for a potluck with the Manwaring family, Adam’s aunt’s family who was having a family reunion there for the week. It was fun to get to meet and get to know more of his cousins, especially ones I’ve never met before. On Tuesday afternoon Tyson started getting pains in his stomach, which after having Phyllis check him out she suggested that we take him to the InstaCare to see if they could figure out what these pains were, since we thought maybe it could be his appendix, which that proved unsuccessful. Wednesday he was fine as I ran errands all day in St. George while trying to gather together a scout uniform for Adam for a scout meeting that night. By Thursday afternoon he started having the pains again, which I just took him home and then Friday I focused on him only spending a short time outside and then coming in to cool off and drink water more, in case the pains were related to the heat. That proved well, but then mid morning Saturday Lincoln started having the same pains, so we have concluded that it must be some type of stomach virus. Also on Saturday Adam helped put the flags up in the morning and since Tyson went with him then Lincoln and I got ready and walked down Center Street to go watch the LaVerkin parade. Lincoln enjoyed picking up candy and it was nice to be at a parade that he could have a chance to pick it up since when we are in Hurricane at their parades there are so many kids to quickly gather it up that by the time my kids catch on to the concept it has vanished. Afterward we met up with Adam and went to the city park for the boys to enjoy the playground and Adam and Tyson to participate in the 3-legged and gunny sack races. Tyson tried the gunny sack race that didn’t really have an age group section and so as I came up in front of him to record it he had tears rolling down his cheeks and had this look like he just wanted to quit since he wasn’t doing very well. Little did he realize that he was ahead of all the little kids that were his age and was only left in the dust by much older kids. It was a pretty funny site to see. Since Lincoln started having those stomach pains we decided to put everyone down for a nap when we got home and took advantage of the time to get some rest ourselves. It was a pretty relaxing day as we spent the evening out at the flat. While Lincoln slept on the couch, Tyson enjoyed riding his bike around that Will had given Lincoln. I had purchased a new tube for it and Adam put it back together for them earlier in the day. Something interesting to see was when Tyson went cruising down the little slope in the driveway and hopped off to follow g-pa over to check the water on a fruit tree and then as g-pa went back over to the pump at the pond Tyson got back on the bike and rode it the rest of the way and parked it right in front of g-pas truck. I watched as he headed over to g-pa and as he approached the door of the truck he quickly turned around and moved the bike into the weeds away from possible destruction. I was impressed at his quick analysis of what could happen if he left it. I substitute taught another primary class on Sunday. This is the third week of substituting a range of ages from Primary to Sunday School.

Swimming

This past week was busy as usual. Adam left at 5:30 Monday morning for the 50 mile Scout hike. His pack weighed about 50 lbs, but when I talked to him on Tuesday he had collected a few more things from some of his boys so he said his weight jumped to 60 or 70 lbs. He hiked out on his own on Wednesday afternoon, since being gone for a whole week during the busiest roofing time would be somewhat of a challenge. A couple other men from the ward hiked in and met up with the group to finish off the week of their hiking. The bishop and his family invited Tyson, Lincoln, and I along with the wife and two children of one of the other leaders gone on the hike, over for Family Home Evening. We had tacos for dinner, a FHE lesson, and then all the kids enjoyed playing/swimming in the pool. I don’t own a swimsuit (since I next to never go swimming) and so I warned the Bishop that Tyson had probably been in a pool about 3 times in his 4 yrs of living and that would not give much experience for judgment in water. As we both tried to point out the diamonds that were in a semi-circle and that after crossing over those would drop you into the deeper part of the pool and then asked Bishop’s daughter Halli to walk that pattern with him, it backfired as to our attempt to help him out as he started to walk towards Halli and instead of turning and following the diamond pattern he walked right off the drop off into the deeper end. All I could do was gasp and Bishop jumped in and reached down and grabbed him. Halli and I were just in shock at what just happened, but Bishop was quick to react (I wonder if he has had to do that before). Tyson was definitely not happy and in fact it was only until the end that he would step back in the water. He spent his time loading and re-loading a water toy and squirting Halli and the Bishop’s wife as well as taking a bucket of water and tried pouring it on them. He tends to have crushes on pretty girls/women. On Tuesday I went with our Webelos to another pool in our ward and we worked on the Aquanaut badge. Tyson and Lincoln did very well to play on the swingset and keep their distance from the pool. On Wednesday evening Shelley and I celebrated Tyson and her twins, Jace & Jenna’s birthdays as Tyson kept asking me when it was going to be his birthday even though his had come and gone. I realized that he has reached the age to notice that it is your birthday when you get to have a cake and be sung to and blow candles out. Susie encouraged me to make this dozer cake that she saw online, but I managed to talk her into putting it together if I bought the stuff for it. So that is what we spent Wednesday afternoon doing and it turned out very well as you can see. Great Job, Susie! Tyson loved it and shared it with Jace. Sorry Jenna, boys’ ruled on this one. On Saturday Daniel and Susie had watched our boys over night and they took the kids to a splash pad/pool at Susie’s friend’s place in St. George. I think Tyson just doubled his pool/water experiences in just this one week. I have registered Tyson for a couple weeks of swim lessons in July, so I am looking forward to having him learn a little more about water and how to act in it. Friday was our Anniversary and so in the afternoon we dropped the kids off at Susie’s and headed to St. George (Hey, this is a big step since this is the first time we have done anything for our anniversary in the 5 yrs we have been married). I had a list of options of things for us to do but no set plans so it was fun to do whatever we felt in the mood for. We went to Shade and I finally used a gift card there that Susie had given me last year for my birthday and I bought a swimsuit (imagine that). We then went to a couples massage that I was able to schedule on our way over to St. George. It was a first real professional massage for both of us. We then went down a couple blocks to Texas Roadhouse (Adam’s favorite place to eat), and then went over one block to Stadium 10 and purchased tickets to Knight and Day, a comical/action movie (not Adam’s favorite), but it was showing in 15 minutes so it worked out great. We then went over two more blocks the other way and got a hotel room at Country Inn & Suites. Saturday morning we had plans to go to the temple, but Adam had this dry cough that seemed to come on after descending on the return hike earlier in the week and didn’t want to be in the temple coughing, so we found a movie on the television in the hotel room and watched it until checkout time. We ate breakfast over at IHOP and then headed home to change into work clothes and go to the flat. It sure is hard to get out of relaxing mode, but it was a break well needed and enjoyed.

He Did It!

Adam passed his trade and business management tests for his Nevada roofing license on Saturday. We already have the application turned into them so we just have a few more things that need to be done and we will be set to do roofing projects in Nevada. On another good news note, we found out on Friday that we are all set with our Arizona license, so that was exciting news for us as well. To finish off recording about the rest of our week's adventures the boys and I met up with Wynn and Phyllis at Smith's Mesa on Wednesday and finished helping plant tomatoes, corn, and some zuccini. It took us a little longer to get up there than I had planned as I ended up making a lunch that we all shared and enjoyed up there. I snapped a few pictures of these hard working boys. Tyson and Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed packing water in little buckets for grandma and grandpa. Wynn had a good little system rigged up for getting the water out of the tank in the back of his truck since you have to haul it up there in order to water. On Friday the boys and I walked over to the church to help with the cleaning and then we went out the flat that afternoon and I cleaned up the floor of the meat shop so that it would be closer to being ready to put the sealant down. It was a hot day to be out there working but I didn't mind it too much and Gage came to help by picking up the nails with the magnet. At around 6 p.m. I went to the church farm and participated in our stake's peach thinning assignment. Since Adam was in Vegas for most of the week then I had to keep us busy with things to do. On Saturday we watched Stuart and Heidi's kids, which Tyson and Lincoln enjoyed having them here. We drove into Hurricane to Snokaps and enjoyed that treat at a picnic table under a shade tree in the heat of the day. Lincoln went to a birthday party for a little girl from his nursery class and wowed everyone with his dance moves and his conducting ability while singing the Happy Birthday song. He is quite the entertainer. After that we all went out to the flat to kill our pig, skin it, and get it in the freezer (Well, Adam, Ben, and Daniel did all of that and I'll spare us all pictures of it).