Harvest

For the last couple of weeks we have been visiting my parents in Idaho. My dad is a farmer and grows grain, potatoes, and sugar beets. While we were there they were harvesting sugar beets. Here are some pictures of the tractor and beet harvester. I got to drive a truck. I used to drive truck during harvest when I lived at home, but it's been about 10 years since I last did that. So, I got to drive for about a week. Mike was a good sport to take care of the kids and bring them to the field for visits.

Carson showing off the sugar beets he found.

Here I am climbing into my "10 wheeler" truck. Carson loved to ride with me in the truck and he loved to visit Grandpa in the tractor, but I'm pretty sure his favorite thing to do is pictured below. My mom worked at the sugar beet dump (the place where the trucks would deliver the beets that had been dug up) and Carson liked to sit with her and help her. He got to talk to the truck drivers on the microphone and tell them how much the trucks weigh. I got many reports of funny things he would say to people as they were driving on the scale.

Hanging out in the truck:

Pumpkin Picking

We have been visiting a friend's garden recently and picking cantaloupe, raspberries, corn, and watermelon. Then last week he invited us over to pick some pumpkins from his pumpkin patch. The kids loved it. Blake liked picking the little gourds and Carson kept wanting to take the biggest pumpkins.

Elephant Parade

Yesterday I was checking my email and I received a notice that there was an Elephant Parade in downtown Salt Lake.  It was sort of a teaser to entice people to come to the circus, which opened in Salt Lake last night.  So, I sat there and thought that I should try to go with the boys.  Then I looked at the time.  It was 9:26 am and the parade started at 12 noon.  Great, I should be able to get ready and get there on time.  Then I decided it would be easier and more fun if we took the Frontrunner train to get there.  I checked the train schedule and found if I wanted to get there before the parade started I would need to get to the Ogden station by 10:17.  I got ready as quickly as possible and threw a bunch of stuff in a bag and told the boys to get in the car.  We barely made it on the train--As I was running up the ramp to buy tickets a very nice UTA worker yelled to me and asked me how many tickets I needed.  I yelled back and he punched it in.  I whipped out my credit card and slid it in the machine.  Then the train started to whistle and we ran to the train.  The conducter opened his window and told me not to worry, that he would wait for us.  I was so glad because the boys were so excited to get to ride the train.  I was also exhausted from our fast pace and being worried about not making it.  We had a great ride and the boys were fantastic!

 We hopped off Frontrunner and got on TRAX and went to the Planetarium to check it out and wait for the parade.  We had a great time there and then found a place to sit and watch the parade.

Then the parade started.  A man on stilts (pictured below) was walking by and I said, "Carson, look how tall he is."  The guy then looked over at us and started walking really close.  Pretty soon he was almost stepping on us.  It scared us. (Yes, I was as nervous as Carson!  I kept thinking that he should be pretty good on those stilts, but then he kept getting closer and closer!)  After he almost stepped on us and walked away (with us huddled together for protection) I looked up at him and he was laughing and mocking us.  Thinking back on it, it really was pretty funny! 

The elephants came last.  They were really neat to watch go by.  The elephants in back held the tail of the elephant in front with their trunk.

As they were walking by, the elephant in front stopped.  The elephants behind it stopped too.  I thought, "Uh oh, something's wrong."  Well, the elephants turned and faced us.  They were close enough to touch us.  It was awesome and kinda scary at the same time. (I mean, the elephants are surrounded by men and women with little teeny whips.  These elephants weigh tons and they're going to keep them from trampling us with little sticks? Yeah, made me nervous.)  After I got over the fact that it was scary, I told the boys, "We had the best seats!"  The elephants only stopped about once per block. 

It was a great day and I'm glad that we decided to do it!



Birffday Boy

Blake's birthday was this month. He loved having a special day all about him. We put candles in his food at every meal and sang to him. He would run around saying, "Birthday!" It sounded more like "birff-day!" He's so much fun to have in our family.

Last Bit of Summer

We've been enjoying the nice weather around here. We set up the slip 'n slide on the hill at the side of our house. Carson loved it. Blake wasn't so sure about it. We also got a trampoline. It's been a lot of fun for the kids (and adults). Below are some pictures of when we put the sprinkler underneath it.

Camping

We decided to go camping at Willow Flat (near Preston) last month. It was an awesome trip. We did a lot of fishing and the boys loved playing near the water. Mike took his hammock and we set it up and that was a big hit too. Mike's parents came for part of the time and so did his grandparents. Unfortunately, I got very few pictures, though! Below is a picture of the boys playing in the stream with Mike's dad. Mike brought some string and tied stuff to it and then the boys would let it out and pull it back. It entertained them for hours. Literally. Who knew that some string, old toys, and pop bottles could be so fun?

Temple Square Visit

In August we had the opportunity to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It was really fun. We spent a lot of time at the Church History Museum in their children's exhibit.

Carson finishes playing T-ball

Carson's T-ball season ended on a very high note. Mostly because his coach gave each player a trophy with their name on it. Carson was so excited about that trophy!

Here are some links to videos of Carson playing T-ball. There is also a video of Blake playing in the dugout.

Carson at bat

Carson at bat again

Carson in the field

Carson running bases

Blake playing in the dugout

Temple Groundbreaking

We attended the Brigham City LDS Temple groundbreaking ceremony in July. It was really neat to be there. We sat on the lawn of the Box Elder Tabernacle. We feel very blessed to be getting a temple in our midst. We love driving by the site and seeing the progress.

No trip to the Tabernacle would be complete without playing in the ditch that runs in front of it.

A Sod Story

This story begins a year ago when we bought our house. We knew that we would have to put in a yard. Couldn't be too big of a deal, right? This past spring we had a few landscaping people come and give us bids on the project. Turns out it was a lot more expensive than we were hoping. So, after some help from my family, we decided we Mike could do most of the work ourselves himself. It was TONS of work and took TONS of time, but it saved us a lot of money and we really like the way it has turned out so far. Mike literally spent hours upon hours working to build a rock wall, install a sprinkling system (that works great, by the way!), prep the ground, and get ready for the grass. This past weekend we installed the sod (with help from my brother and our ward) and we love the way it looks!

"Before" and "after" pictures:

Front of the house:

The "during" pictures:

The sod truck arrives:

King of the sod: Installing it:

We hope to enjoy it for many more years to come!