Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is one that I look forward to every year. My whole side of the family usually comes to the ranch and we EAT, play games, fish, ride 4-wheelers, ride horses, and hang out, oh, and did I mention EAT??? This year nobody from my family was able to come except for my loyal and favorite (just in case anyone from my family is reading this, they will know how is on top of my list:)), brother Steve. He invited a few of his friends and Dans sister and her husband came along with Dan's brother and his friend. We ended up with quite a crew there. The weather was suppose to be bad, but it ended up being really nice. One of the big hits of the weekend was the "ranger" that my brother brought down. My boys were more content being all together than they ever have been. They drove around and around for hours, it was an amazing babysitter. Ben drove and notice that my two youngest have helmets on and holding on for dear life?
So, needless to say that after driving around and around in the dusty dirt 24-7, they all had a layer of dust that covered their entire bodies. I love getting them all clean after a long day of play, becaues after all, isn't that what the ranch is for?
On our way home, we ran into a man who went hunting for bear and mountain lion, he showed us the pelts of the bear and mountain lion. They weren't too excited about touching them, but they thought they were pretty cool. All I can say is that people can get all of the bear and mountain lions near our ranch that they want. :) We had a really great weekend thanks to everyone that came. I love getting together with family and friends at the ranch, it makes it a lot of fun.

Shout Out

Those of you that know us know that we have a ranch in southern Utah. We run a summer camp for kids. We love it and spend our whole summer down in Bicknell. Well, a couple of months ago, we received a phone call from a group out of BYU Idaho that does a service project during their school spring break. They happened to choose our place this year to come down for 5 days and WORK!!! (I thought they were crazy to spend their whole spring break and do hard labor-but who am I to question.) Anywho.... as a result, they reconstructed our whole front fence, raked all the leaves.......
redid our bell-tower so that everytime it rings, it doesn't feel that it will fall on top of the person ringing it, re-did the inside of some cabins, etc. It looks really great, and we were soooo appreciative.
One other thing they did was rip out the carpet that was in our front room of the main house. No, this is not tile that they replaced it with, but this is the linoleum that was under it, pretty, huh? (we are thinking about leaving it:). Anyway things are looking great there.

If anyone knows of any kids (nieces, nephews, friends, cousins, etc.) between ages 9-16 that would love a great experience at a summer camp, we are giving great deals right now for tuition because we are a little behind in enrollment. Check out our website at www.navajotrails.com. Just a thought.

Rock Star

My son is in the car WAY too much, which means, so am I. He is picking up on many lyrics and the rythmns of many popular songs. One day we were driving and I looked back and this is what I saw. Each time I stopped to take a video, he stopped doing his air guitar performance. So, I had to take the picture while I was driving. (I have to make this disclaimer: Please DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, I am a licenced driving professional.) I love this video, he is a rock star.... I will save this for our American Idol try-out in 13 years.

Easter

I love Easter, although this year it happened to sneak up on us rather quickly. We enjoyed dyeing eggs with some of the neighborhood kids. Although Jessica looks a little bit sad, I really think that she was having just as much fun as the children. (or was it the refelection of the "tinfoil" that we had lining the table so it wouldn't get stained) who knows???
The Easter bunny came to our house and gave us WAY too much candy. But I think that my boys didn't seem to mind all of the sugar that was in their baskets.
It was a bit cold the day we dyed the eggs, notice the winter coat and the forced smile. He is trying to to say that he really was having SO much fun. Look at that cute girl next to him, she is yummy.

Spring Break

For spring break we were able to have my nieces from Prescott, AZ come and visit for the week. They are such cute, sweet girls. We had a lot of fun with them. We don't get to see them very often so it was a treat to get to have them here. It was fun to have GIRLS around!!!
We went to the zoo and I was a little worried that they might keep my monkeys in the zoo and not let them come home, can you tell which one is the REAL gorilla?

Here Comes The Sun?

We just recently went on a quick trip to St. George. We took the boys swimming, played tennis and we were able to see my handsome nephew, Andrew wh0 is playing football for Dixie. It was so much fun.
Can you see what I love about this picture? Do you see it? O.K. besides the two adorable boys in the picture having so much fun in the water.....yep, you guessed it, it is the SUN!!! I loved sitting by the water reading a book, watching my boys play and soaking in the sun. It felt so good. I fogot how nice it is so see the sun. Anyway, on our way home we hit a huge snow storm and we were back to the cold:(
Here we are, a bunch of rug-rats and my nephew and his cute "friend" Talisa. It took me awhile to get her name right, I kept calling her Teniqua, Tanisha etc. Oops, sorry Andrew, she was really cute.

The crazy threes

I love the two's. Whoever said that they were "terrible" was wrong. Now, the three's are a whole different ball game. They learn how to USE all of those words that they were learning as a two-year-old. "NO" is a favorite in our household and many other clever, sweet, adorable words that the older brothers have taught the younger ones that I will spare you from. Anyway once-in-a-while the little monster in my three-year-old goes away and I am left with the funniest kid ever. If you look closely at this photo, he is wearing ski goggles and cowboy boots. Quite the combo.
He wore the ski goggles for a few days and loved them so much, he would sleep with them. He has the funniest personality. I tried to blog the video I took of him in his car seat, strumming an "air" guitar and singing to the radio with his eyes closed and his head moving with the beat, but it didn't work. Oh well.....
In this photo, I was in the kitchen cleaning while he was bringing all of his favorite toys into the kitchen and made himself a cozy little bed. He had 3 pillows stacked and it took him quite awhile to get the blanket just right with all of his toys on it. It took him a few tries to keep everything in its place while he got under the blanket. He was happy as a little clam. LOVE HIM.