Memorial Day

We had a wonderful Memorial Day this year. We made plans with 3 of our friends to take boats out for a ride up to Black Canyon again this year. Lucky for us, the weather was beautiful, unlike last year when we got caught in a down pour of rain. We actually didn't make it all the way up to Black Canyon due to low fuel levels in one of the boats, but we found a nice little area for us to all hang out and let the kids play on the "beach".

Our red neck yacht club (as Christian called us).

 As we were driving along, I offered Carson $5 if he would ski, thinking there was no way he would. I was wrong. He and Travis both skied! Crazy kids! We made Travis use Carson's skies, which are a little too big, so de didn't last too long before he flew out of the skies and face planted!

 The kids had so much fun exploring the rocks on the beach. They found crawdads and fishing lures galore.

Carson exploring the tip of one of the huge rocks. The water levels are still really low this year because they have been letting out lots of water from the dam in preparation for a higher than normal runoff from the mountains.

This area is beautiful and lush!

We spotted a small waterfall across the canyon from where we were playing.

 We got back home around 5 and immediately went to work planting our garden. Our neighbor, Greg, came and tilled it for us the end of last week, and we finally had a chance to get it all put in. We planted 25 tomato plants, 8 bells, 4 jalapeño, 4 Hungarian wax, 2 cucumbers, and one each of watermelon, cantaloupe, squash and zucchini. We didn't get any manure incorporated into it this year, so I hope it does well!

After planting the garden, we built a fire and had a weenie roast. They boys have been asking to do one for weeks now!

Pryors

Yesterday, the we filled our day with lots of horse riding and moving cows. We spent the first part of the day helping Christian's grandpa move his cows to their summer pasture up in the Pryor mountains. It was beautiful up there! The grass was green and tall!

Peyton (Christian's cousin visiting from Utah), Travis, Carson and Landon hanging out while everything got ready to head out.

Carson, Peyton, and Christian were on 4-wheelers, Grandpa Monk on a side by side, Daniel and Jared on horses, Charlie (Christian's cousin) on foot and I followed behind all of them in the truck.

Travis and Carson ready to head out on the 4-wheeler.

Landon waiting for Christian to come and drive him.

Letting the calves mother up

Grandpa Monk.

Heading out.

It was so beautiful!

The cows approaching the last gate.

The flowers were vibrant and abundant!

 After the cows were where they were supposed to be, the three older boys wanted to know if they could ride around on the 4-wheelers. They rode them back and forth I don't know how many times, but loved the chance they got to actually drive them on their own!

The 3 Amigos: Carson, Travis and Peyton

Having a bite of lunch.

Grandpa Monk took Christian and I on a little ride to run through the cows and make sure they were looking good. It was fun to hear him talk about the area and hear stories from past adventures up there. You can just tell that this is one of Grandpa Monk's favorite places to be!

One the boys' favorite thing to do on the way to Pryor and back was try to point out all the Prairie Dogs they could. Those suckers are everywhere and the boys were all wishing they had brought guns!

We got back to Lovell around 3 and found out the Christian's dad needed some cows moved, so we ended up heading out there to help him. All the boys rode horses. It ended up turning into a long day, but the boys enjoyed their time on the horses and getting to hang out with Peyton!

Carson and Jared riding along, The mustard (the yellow flowered plant) was so high. Some of it came up to my waist while I was leading Landon on Tonto!

School's out Bash!

With yesterday being the last of school, we had our annual School's Out party. We had it all planned out to be a water party, but Mother Nature had other plans for us. It was overcast and windy all day, which made it not very warm. So, I decided to still have it but move the party indoors. I threw together some Minute to Win It games for the boys to play and then we went outside and made good use of the two coolers full of water balloons we had filled the night before hoping the weather would cooperate with us!

Lunch...with a side of dabbing.

 The first game we played was the dice game where you see how many candies you can suck up with a straw before the person next to you rolls doubles.

 

The end turned into a dog pile for the remaining m&m's.

The elephant walk was the next game and it was pretty hilarious to watch those boys try to knock bottles over with nylons on their head.

Carson and Travis competed against each other in the cookie game. They had to move the cookie down their face into their mouth without using their hands. They had some pretty funny facial expressions to get them down their face!

Next, Landon and Carson's friend Jacob, competed to see who could pull out the most Kleenex in one minute.

Parker and Sam tried to see who could blow the cups off the table the fastest using balloons.

The final minute to win it game was seeing who could move the most m&m's from one plate to another in a minute.

We decided that we would do some games outside with the water balloons we had filled. We had a contest to see who could place their water balloons in certain squares on the sidewalk, had a distance throw and then they through them at a target we had left over from fun day at the school.

Landon trying to get his balloon on the square.

After the water balloons were gone, we made snow cones and then they boys played basketball and baseball. It was fun to have this group of boys in our home. They are all so fun and are such good kids!

top: Carson, Rocco, Travis, Landon, Parker, Dallin

bottom: Jacob, Sam and Kaeson