Fun Stuff: Horse Races, Soccer, Art Festival!

The Petty's have been doing fun stuff!  I've been pretty motivated to GET OUT THERE and experience fun things with the kids.  I really making an effort to MAKE IT HAPPEN!  They'll be children for not very long, and, as we all know, life happens quickly.  I've got the "Don't save something for a special day.  Every day is special" mentality.  On that note, we've been doing some special stuff!  (Sadly, Shane can't join us for all of it, but we're happy to share pictures and experiences later!)


The Horse Races:
Saturday, April 6, the boys' only request was that we went to a park. And maybe get a burger.  I had bigger aspirations.  I wanted to go to the races!  Lucky for us - the Dixie Downs track over in Hurricane would provide EVERYTHING we needed!  We loaded up a whole hour before post time.  The fair grounds come with a lovely little playground right in the center of the grounds.  So we played there for about 40 minutes or so. Check!  The Lions Club was selling hamburgers on a flame grill.  Delicious.  Check! We sat down to eat with the first race starting about 4 minuets later.  We stayed and watched four horse races! Check! Check! Check!  The boys made fast friends with the people sitting behind us.  They brought three toy breed dogs with them.  The boys were in doggie petting heaven!!  About 2:00, I could see that Ashton's attitude would soon dissolve into tantrum and tired, so we packed up and headed home, with BOTH boys fast asleep before I hit the freeway entrance!

Enjoying the burger.

My Carbavoir eating "the bread."

The racers!

Us checking out the starting gates.

Modeling his rock in the parking lot.

 Later that evening, after naps and getting going again, Shane and I were working on unplugging sprinkler heads in the lawn.  The boys took the express opportunity to run wildly through the water again and again and again.  They were like drowned rats at the end of the evening.

General Conference day.  After a delightful meal of Chicken Paprikash and cous cous, with grapes, the boys started cleaning up dishes for me.  Lunch was late and conference was starting.  Through the magic of Dish Network, Sling link, and a Smart Phone, the boys watched LIVE streaming TV through Shane's phone as they did dishes!! If you squint, you can see Mo Tab singing on his phone!!  This is an AMAZING day and age, isn't it?!

Soccer has begun again for NQ.  He's still playing up a division, so he can play with his primary friends.  So he's the youngest kid on the team.  The rest are all 1st graders. They're all improved over last year.  And Nathan is FAST!  However, he's got to reverse everything he's learned about social interaction!!!  Yes, it's okay to take the ball away from someone.  Yes, it's okay to kick it away from the other team.  Yes, it's okay to be in someone's personal space...etc.  He's such a cute little midget. He gets up and down the field in record speed, just never for the ball!  I don't care, he enjoys his friends and being there.

I LOVE the view from the soccer fields!

 The Art Festival:
A week after the horse races, we hit the Kayenta Art Festival.  They have local artists and high school students making Phenomenal art work on the ground with chalk pastels.  The one directly to the right of Nathans head in the picture below was so beautiful, I wish I'd taken a picture.  

Luckily for the kids, an artist had outlined this very large piece that the general public was allowed to help with!  The artist in charge put you in a spot and told you what colors she wanted it, and away you went!

The "Let's save the desert Tortoise" foundation (not the real name) was there too, with some live tortoises.  This was Ashton's favorite place to visit. he loved the tortoises and spent most of the time there - until finally he was making a nuisance of himself   by trying to share/feed his toys to them.  They came right over to investigate, so once it was apparent that they would LIKE to take a taste of plastic snowboarder, there was no discouraging my three year old from complying.  He was NOT happy about leaving the shelled ones.

 We came to the festival with our friends down the street again, so Nathan and Ethan colored their little hearts out.  They were a colorful mess when all was done!

Nathan is standing over the red area that he, Ashton and I worked on.  After coloring, we sat down and watched a group of girls singing and dancing on a little stage.  Nathan found a little friend from school and sat and talked with her.  They were shy and cute as they sat by each other, excited to see each other away from the classroom.

We probably would have stayed a little longer, but I was finally motivated by fear to get my Relief Society lesson organized and finished for the next day. (It went well.  So I hear.) I think all you have to do is mention the word trial and women start to cry.  But I did my best to focus on the SUNSHINE and strength we receive through trial...and I had some great quotes.  So that was good :)

Keep tuned, like I said at the beginning, I really want to have the everyday be a special day!