Remembering Grandpa John

It was memorial day yesterday and I only had to work for an hour so Patrick, Connor and I went fishing at Strawberry Resevoir. It was cold and drizzly but we stuck it out and had a good time. Breanna had a cold and wasn't interested in the slightest in going and we thought it was too cold for Hillary(there is still snow on the ground up there) so they stayed home. Connor has become quite the fisherman. This is the first year he's been more interested in fishing than in playing in the water. He has learned how to cast his line and is pretty good at it even. We decided it must be the Grandpa John in him. He didn't catch anything yesterday - but wasn't upset and still wants to go again. I was the only one who caught anything yesterday. We kept it and cooked it and it was YUMMY.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

On Grandma Tinka's suggestion, we let the chickens out to play in the yard Saturday. They had escaped earlier in the week and we had been able to get them back without any trouble, so I figured I could to it again. So we let them out. Hillary had a blast. They seem to love to eat grass so she is always picking grass and dropping it in the hen house. So yesterday she was chasing them around with leaves saying "Heres a Chicken snack, here's a chicken snack." They just ran away from her though. But they enjoyed their time out and we got them back in the coop without much trouble. For those of you who haven't seen the coop or the chickens, here they are. They all lay brown eggs. We are getting 2 to 3 a day so if you come to visit you can have fresh eggs for breakfast. The kids keep trying to name them - but they keep giving them boy names and then they can't remember them anyway. Pat calls them my other children and I call them the girls. I guess it doesn't really matter since they never come when you call them no matter what name you use.

Grandma Carol and her old house

We we lucky enough to come home at the perfect time yesterday and catch Grandma Carol stopping by to see the old house. The couple who live there continue to improve the house and yard. They spent the last week moving huge boulders into the back yard to create a retaining type wall on the north side. It's pretty. So we took a couple of shots of Grandma and the house and the kids who were around.

Friday's Foto Finish

Yummy!

Some of you know that I won a prize from Yahoo through the freecycle website I use. For those of you who don't...I won a prize from Yahoo through the Springville Freecycle website. Anyway, it was a rather large gift certificate for all organic food. So I placed my order earlier this week and ordered what was called a "Family Sampler pack". It was like Christmas yesterday when it arrived. All fresh veggies and fruits picked when I ordered them and shipped to me overnite. Pat and Hillary and I were like kids unwrapping each item and stacking it on the counter. When we were done, I realized how much stuff we'd gotten. And it is all GOOD. We immediately ate the grapes but are saving the rest for a great fruit salad and dinner salad this weekend. Pat was also excited because I bought him some buffalo and lamb meat. The best was the carrots because they still have the green tops on them and my kids have never seen them like that. Hillary calls them bunny carrots.

Connor

Connor posed for a Mothers Day picture for me. He was so sweet this weekend doing things for me and gathering gifts for me.

Here fishey, fishey, fishey

A couple weeks ago we went to the sporting goods store to look at fishing poles. I need a new one this year and Pat needed new line. So I picked out a really fun pole that's orange and when you spin the reel - it has flashy lights on it. Hillary has since become obsessed with fishing. She is always begging to go fishing. If we won't take her she will get the pole out and pretend to catch fish in the house. It's pretty cute. Anyway we took her fishing at Hobble Creek and she had a good time. She didn't fall in the water which is what I was afraid she was going to do. She was pretty patient sitting on her rock waiting to catch a fish. Sadly we didn't even get a bite. She didn't complain though and was satisfied for a couple days.

We had a fun filled weekend this weekend. In addition to it being Mothers Day on Sunday we had a lot of stuff to do on Saturday. We went up to Orem early to get in line for free Build-A-Bears. We had to wait in line for a couple of hours but it was worth it. The kids each got to make a bear. Then we visited Grandma Carol. We had a nice visit with her. We were going to go to the aquarium - but the kids were too tired and not interested. We decided to do it another weekend when we could enjoy our moneys worth. So it was a busy Saturday and a fairly relaxing Sunday. The kids all made me the usual cards and gifts and it was very nice. We had Salmon (my choice) for dinner and then I got to watch the finally of Survivor. I wasn't thrilled with who won (Parvarty for those of you who care) but it's always fun to watch anyway.

31cent Ice Cream

I managed to get the kids out to 31cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins last night. I even let them bring some of their friends. So we filled the van up and trekked over. Luckily they had a 3 scoop maximum or I'd have been in real trouble. But everyone got their three scoops and were happy. The older ones were a little embarrassed that I made them pose for a picture - but that's the price they paid for ice cream. However - I wouldn't recommend hopping 6 kids up on sugar and confining them to a mini-van to anyone.