Fall Garden and Ashtons Ham Pics

 

Mom and Ashton are the biggest workers in the yard/garden.  We're learning as we go. We do most of the mowing, weeding, weed eating, and watering.  Shane is a great poisoner. But given his working hours, he's priorities are not in the yard so much - though he did recently cut down and take apart two dead trees in our front yard.  Thanks Shane!

  Here's how the apple trees and the apricot tree are coming along.  The all bore fruit this year, which was nice of them, but not expected!  I just want them to grow, and not die!  I've been working on bug poison and watering.  Doing what I can to improve their growing conditions!

 The pomegranate trees are doing amazing!  I don't feel like I've done too much for them, they've just wanted to grow and be green and beautiful.  I appreciate their stick-to-itiveness.  Right now we have a variety of growth stages, from buds to flowers, and different sizes of fruits.  I'm excited to see how they'll end up!!

The grape vines all grew.  We had nice little bunches of red grapes. I think they must be just a nice table grape.  They tasted sweet, but with the lack of attention i gave them, something else ate them all up!!  Birds, or lizards, or bunnies, or something ate them from the vine! I have high hopes for getting them growing correctly next year!

 These are just cute little pictures of Ashton one day when we were playing together.  He drove that little pirate in that car for hours!  It was adorable.

 He's getting all 'Hammy' for the camera.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes and Cave Day

"Adventure Day! Adventure Day!  We're going on Adventure Daa-aaay!" was heard for miles and miles of travel - I sometimes sing about everything when I'm happy.

Monday's are Shane's Day off.  And before NQ started Kindergarten, we took advantage of one of our Monday's off for an ADVENTURE DAY!

Cool and cloudy - little spots of rain here and there throughout the whole day - that was the forecast. 

We left in the morning headed towards Kanab, UT in search of Caves and Sand Dunes. We traveled by way of Apple Valley and Colorado City - I think I've only ever driven by Colorado City once, in college, out of morbid curiosity of the polygamist colony there. Pretty sure Rob dragged me along.

We stopped in Kanab, and in the spirit of adventure, stopped at Big Al's Burger Barn  - or something along those lines.  Not so great, but it was food, we didn't get sick.  We'll try a different dinning adventure next time.

Over to the Caves!  We stopped at the tourist attraction Cave and listened to an old timer tell us about his family of years gone by, and the presidents they met, and the dino tracks collected nearby.  The glowing cave with black light paint and large cases of phosphorescent rocks could be interesting - luckily Shane had his own black light flashlight with him...just in case. The place is neat, and should probably be turned over to someone who could turn it into something really super special.  Because right now, it's lackluster. Case in point: souvenir shop full of cheesy plastic crap and lots of fish fossils from Kemmerer, WY.  Nothing unique within the shop.

So we then ADVENTURED onto our own caves!  You can see them from the road and climb right over to them.  My favorite thing about the area is the phenomenal COLORS in the sandstone! (NO PHOTO'S!!!) The layers of color remind me of Grandma Shepherd's rainbow jello.  A different beautiful color in each layer!  Orange, YELLOW, red, Peach, WHITE - so bright and distinct.

After caving for a while, and a potty break, we headed for the Coral Pink Sand Dune State park.  Also lovely, as shown by the photographs.  It was sprinkling lightly upon our arrival, and made neat tracks in the sand. We watched some kids zoom remote vehicles over the sand. The boys loved that.

After some time there, we headed home for a fun Family Home Evening activity with the Wongs, Orchards, Jensens and Esplin Kids at the Entrada Cliffs pool - and had a BBQ there. 

Shane, after everything, said this was his favorite part of the day.  I don't know if it was because all the kids used him as a pool jungle gym, or if it was the being social with some other grown-ups for a few hours, or if it was just cooling off after a sandy day. Ashton tried to drown, once again, by jumping in near no one.  Luckily little Ashton Esplin surfaced him.


Overall: Great Petty Adventure Day.

The Harris Family Spotlight

I struggled finding a title for this post, a few of the ideas I had:

Bosom Buddies
Sister Wives
You've Gotta Have Friends
Best Buds
Friends: the Family you Choose

It all boils down to the fact that I'm doing a Harris Family Spotlight, so let's stick with that.

In St. George, we have friends that are as close as family...  We dearly, dearly love the Harris Family!  They crop up in so many of my blog post's that I thought I should just get the story out there - officially.

NUTSHELL:
Holly (Old), Joe (Older), Ben (6), Kade (4), and Carter (1) - Holly and I knew each other in college, and once in while met up in mutual friend circles. I'd met Joe once or twice, and Holly remembers seeing Shane a time or two. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, we'd friended each other, and I knew Holly was living in St. George when we were looking at our Dish Network transfer. After our first week in St. George, I called her and headed over to her house, on a whim, with the boys. (Shane was back in Wyoming finishing up there.)  We reconnected quickly, and ever so simply. It was natural.

REALITY:
The Harris's are the friends that you can drop in on, and don't care if they drop in on you without calling.  We don't care if each others house is clean, if the dishes are done, or if the kids are even dressed.  We don't stress if the rooms are messy when they come over, and we don't care if their rooms are messy when we go to visit.  Life is what is it.  And when life happens, we just roll with it, in whatever state it may be.  (Because, sometimes, it IS clean and picked up and organized and planned!!) But, it doesn't HAVE to be, and that's part of the beauty!

SISTER WIVES:
Shane started calling Holly my Sister Wife after I'd come home, after SO MANY times, telling him about roaming the city and the parks with the five blond headed boys and us two blond mommas out trying to control the little boy chaos that followed everywhere. Not to forget the fun and joy that came to our day because of it.

FAMILY:
In my last post - I talked about the joys of being in Wyoming, and what a wonderful time the Petty and Barney family had! We REALLY did!! What I didn't mention was how, at times when we were doing fun things, I'd wish the Harris Family was with us doing them too! I knew that Ben, Kade and Carter would have loved doing some of those things! And I'm pretty sure Holly and Joe would've loved seeing the kids do them!

When I talk to Travis on the phone, he asks how we're doing and what fun Holly things we have been up to, and when I talk to Brooke she says, "I want a Holly."  And when Shane fixes the 'farty door' in the kitchen, he laughs and says that he hopes Holly and the Boys won't miss it.

And I love that Aunt Nattie and Grandma Johnson are also included.

We have fun together here in Southern Utah doing our day trips and visits about the area!  Here are some recent August adventures: 

The Washington County Fair:  devoid of what I grew up to understand as being a fair: there were no animals - pig pens, sheep shows, beef barns, prize chickens or rabbits, none of it.  But there were fun things to do and see.  A large commercial barn full of business enterprises.  And the visual kinds of fair presentations for those submitting sewing, cooking, or art projects - I do love seeing those! 

It was well over 100 degrees at the fair, but what can one expect of St. George in August?  Bet you didn't expect Sting Rays and Horseshoe crabs! The boys looked in and marveled at the little sea creatures.

The big boys enjoyed the bubbles and the bumper boats - except for Ashton, who still does not enjoy rides and said to me  "Momma, I don't like it, my boat!!" So out he came. He and Carter happily watched the big boys from the sideline with Grandma Johnson.

A few weeks later, at the end of August, it was apple picking time in Springdale next to Zions National Park.  I LOVED apple picking day.  It was cool, green, serene, delicious and so nice to be out picking apples.

There were purple and white morning glories all over the orchard.  I loved them so!


The boys played "Mario" on the grass for ages. And ran up and down the rows of apples. They climbed trees, smelled flowers, picked apples, tasted them, and had just as wonderful time as I did. Combined, ther must have been over 100 pounds of Apples Picked!!

I'm so glad that even though Shane works Saturdays that the Harris family chooses to invite us to do things with them!  That they think of us when planning an outing!!  That the rag tag team of Petty's can be a part of their day!

We enjoy each other's success without envy or jealousy!  We cheer each other's progress and we feel each other's sorrows.  We share pulling the load of this life full of ups and downs.

It was meant to be!

Thanks you, Harris's, for being You!!

July In Wyoming!

I should probably break this into a few separate posts - but think that one long one will suffice.

July was filled with family, friends, fun and adventure in Wyoming!


Shane had 10 days off and spend them in Lander with the boys and I.  We went to Grandpa's Cabin, we hit the Lander rodeo a couple of times, we saw the Lander Parade and - we did not have any fireworks.  Much to our chagrin.  The whole country has been so desperately dry that a fireworks ban was called just days before we headed north. 

The most memorable day, whilst in Lander, was the day the Petty and Barney clan went to Boysen to go boating.  The highlight, for me, was that Nathan and Olivia, once in life jackets were free to swim from the boat!  They were independent little swimmers without need of a parent attached to them!  They both swam to and from boat to beach and jumped in the water free and clear of fear! It was so freeing to know they had confidence and joy in the water! I was proud of them both!

The big kids (Shane, Travis, and Amy) also dove into the lake and swam and played.  We had a picnic, make sand lump 'castles' got pulled in the tube and had such a marvelous time! 

After Shane returned South, back to work, the rest of the clan headed North to Sheridan for Rodeo Days.  We had several nights of rodeo and carnival plus another fun parade. (Sheridan really knows how to throw a parade.)  Nathan enjoyed a few carnival rides, and then we damaged poor little Ashton on the dragon roller coaster.  He has not enjoyed any sort of carnival ride or experience since.  We'll have to give it some time.  I think the coaster was just too jerky and fast.  He rode with Olivia - who smiled and cheered and loved the whole thing.  Little Ashton just reached for his momma and said, "Get off!! Get Off please?!!"


A favorite day in Sheridan is when we kayaked the river.  It's also a very scary day. Travis and Amy brought their blow-up Kayaks and we took turns, with kids, floating down the river ever so slowly.  (Let's just say the river was very low and we spent more time trying to get unstuck, then worrying about rapids :)

Those who were not kayaking, were on the beach at the swimming hole.  At one time, Travis, Devlin, Ashton and I were waiting.  Travis looked over and said "Uh-oh!  Ashton!"   Ashton had reached into the river to get the squirt gun he had dropped.  It was drifting down a deeper part of the river away from him.   As I looked over, he was face down floating after it, making no movement whatsoever!! Travis, swiftly, got to him and picked him up - but he didn't make any attempt to kick or wave his arms or anything...he lifelessly floated away for a few seconds.  When he was pulled from the water he continued to reach for his squirt gun and wasn't even upset about being in the water.  I, however, WAS!  I got weepy and hugged that kid to me for a long time and thanked my blessings for Travis looking over at just the right moment.

After the Barney crew headed back to Lander, the Petty's stayed on for a week in Sheridan.  We cooked, went to the park, played at the water park, got ice cream, played with Sterling, and cooked with the Grahams.

We had a BBQ at Reo and Paula's, Theresa and Dan were there, and a bunch of cousins!! Reo and Paula came for a BBQ at Brooke and Wes's place too. We relaxed, I read a book or two, we saw baby turkeys and had a very calm relaxed time at Aunt Brooke and Uncle Wes's.)

We got back to Lander and played with Julie, Lisa and Lynnden and little baby Jackson.  We did more playing at Trapper park, and spent a special night picnic up at Bubbling Bucket.  We felt the soft ferny trees, and ate Subways sandwiches at the pond.  We saw an elk wallow, a little garter snake, antelope and some beautiful mountain sights. 

We saw more friends, Holly, Jennifer, Sarah, Huana, went to church and saw our WONDERFUL ward family - and were lucky enough to attend ArVae Randall's open house before she moved to Logan.  Other Lander doings: rode the Pony, drove 4-wheelers, NQ steered the SUV along country roads, went on long hikes up the canyon, saw several hatches of butterflies, fed the fishes, picked a bucket of chokecherries and turned them into syrup, got stung by a yellow jacket (My hand swelled up like a red puffy winter glove for nearly a week!), "Hiya Hiya'd" all around the Tee Pee's, had a 'bear' sighting (Okay it was a cow, but it was right next to the bear bait!!) and the boys threw rocks whenever they presented themeselves. 

On our way back to St. George we stopped in at the Rock Springs BLM office to surprise Julie and that night stayed with Aunt Annette and had yet MORE picnic, BBQ fun!  We saw the the whole Canning clan, after a long day of travels!  We stayed a few nights there, and also saw Aunt Betty and Garth and another visit with Lisa. Nathan was in heaven with more cousins to play with! And we started on our Summer Olympic Viewing the two nights at the Canning home.  On the day we left for home we had a fun morning at Cabela's and The the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point with Alex and Rob.

We surely missed Shane, being gone so long, but we didn't miss the miserable St. George July heat. 

We did miss some torrential St. George Downpours, and yard damage.  Our expensive pump system was ineffective against the flooding, and as fast the water pumped out, it return right back into the yard.  So after another August storm and a non-working system, called the landscape guy and he said he'd do some fixes under the initial (EXPENSIVE) payment that we'd already given him. 



Now then, I'm still waiting for a bunch of photo's from Wyoming - and have just put down a few of the ones I have now. 

1st Day of Kindergarten

As it turns out - I've survived the first two days of Kindergarten.  Not to say I haven't gotten a mist in my eyes a time or two, because I have.  Some of the mist came when Dad called (as we were in the car on our way to school) to share  the heartache of first day of school memories for him from when I was a kidlet.  Then he brought up the scene from Forest Gump - at the end of the movie when Forest sends his own little boy to school for the first time and tells the youngster that he'll wait right there until the bus brings him back.  It's so sweet, Forest just sits down and waits hours for his little one to come back to him. Isn't that, as parents, exactly how we feel sometimes?  And isn't that exactly the message we want for our children?  I'll wait for you.  I'll be here for you.  Nothing is more important to me than you! The sentiment is wonderful.

Nathan's done fine - and so has Ashton.  Nathan, reportedly, has already been separated from another kidlet in class for his continued visiting and chatter - that's my boy!  Ashton has been willfully and joyfully exploring big brothers room and playing fearlessly with everything he can put his hands on.

I'm getting a bit of cleaning and cooking done.  And I know I have six weeks of back-logging to get to - and I will!  So be looking for stories and pictures from our Month in Wyoming.

Coincidentally - yesterday, as I was doing laundry again, the 1st Harry Potter was on TV - thus restoring the joy in my heart of what school experiences should feel like: magic.

Today, he's all mine.

Today - the last day before it happens for real.  The last day to look at my five year old and know that he's not part of someone else's day.  That, today, he's all mine, but tomorrow he will be finding a whole adventure, challenge, friends and foes. 

Today, on the television, I caught the last 30 minutes of the last Harry Potter, (I CRY my eyes out watching Snapes memories) and the last 5 minutes of the last episode of Friends. (not so much crying.)  Okay, maybe it's silly of me, but those were some of my most favorite bits of viewing in the whole world!  I was sad when they both came to an end in the world, and I was sad when they ended again today, and it added to the weepy mommyness of my baby boy being old enough to be in Kindergarten! 

Tonight, after 'Back to School' night, we'll set out his clothes and get him ready for his first official day of school!  A FULL day of kindergarten! And his mommy will be so lonely for him!  He's my best little helper!  I KNOW he's ready.  I KNOW he's excited and nervous, and brave and going to do GREAT!  I LOVE that little Stink Weed SO much!  I KNEW this day was coming, but it always felt so distant.  I proud of him, his attitude, his eagerness to learn, and his smart little personality.

Tomorrow will be a big day for all of us; for a BIG kid off to school, for an emotional momma, for a little brother who adores his big brother and will ask all day long, "where's Nay Nay?" Big changes around here.  Looking forward to a bright amazing future - but will also long for the lazy, easy going,  and magical days of when he was all mine.

Happy Things

In no particular order:

1. Production of Hairspray at Tuachan with the Orchards. Fun date night out, and we loved it. Even Shane did, as I knew he would. :)

2. Nathan going to summer classes for pre-kindergarten at Dixie Sun (Spanish Immersion). I called out his name in the house the other day, to which he answered "Aqui!!" I think he's going to really excel with this language program!

3. Every time we drive by a stake center, or a church Ashton cries out, "Look!! The Temple!!" Give's me warm fuzzies

4. Seven and a half miles - on foot, not super-fast, but completed!! (And on accident.) Jessica thought we'd be going almost, but not quite five miles. 7.5 - good for us!

5. Ashton, after church one day, declared: "IIIIIIIII'MM BATMAN!!!" And he has continued to declare it whenever we ask him who he is. He's batman.

6. Seeing a Coyote on my jog one morning.

7. The new hatch of baby lizards. Tiny little guys scuttling all over.

8. The growth of the grapes and pomegranates

9. The slow death of the almond tree, and watermelon plant - which is not happy, but informatvie.

10. Nathan's desire for a headlamp. He's found a secret hole that leads to a new land in a crack in the cupboard under the stairs. I told him it likely leads to Hogwarts. He loves investigating it.

11. Shane checking on my primary class every week to see if I need help.

12. Shane and Nathan riding the scooter.

13. Getting excited for our trip to Wyoming!