Perks of the Job

Every once in awhile we get a call from daddy that he has a meeting at some awesome place and we get to tag along.  Yesterday he took us with him to the Hazy Air and Space Museum which has always been the boy's most favorite place on the planet.  They never get tired of seeing the planes and reading about their purpose or mission. Also, they never fail to ask me to tell them the story of the Enola Gay, which is the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.  I always tell them that the pilots did not know exactly what their mission was that night because their superiors were afraid it would be too difficult for them to complete if they knew the seriousness of it.  They also love to hear why there is glass in front of the Enola Gay and not in front of any other plane in the museum. It is because many people, mostly Japanese tourists, enjoy spitting on the plane as they walk past. The glass is there to protect it from phlegm.  Another favorite spot, the Space Shuttle Discovery.  We watched it fly over Washington on its way to the museum just a few years ago.  We are always impressed at how massive the engines are and how it looks as if it is covered by a giant patchwork quilt. We also love the view from the control tower where we can see planes landing and taking off at Dulles Airport.

Mile High

Before catching our plane home we spent a few days in Denver.  It is a great city with plenty to keep us entertained. First, we watched the Rockies play the Washington Nationals and as you can see the boys were quite conflicted about who they were cheering for. Harley, of course, mostly just cheered for her peanuts.

We visited the Denver Aquarium which was much better than any of us anticipated.  Harley was ecstatic when she discovered "real-live" mermaids in one of the tanks!

We also went to the Denver Temple where the kids got their own set of scriptures with their names engraved upon them.  They were so proud.

But, perhaps most exciting of all was a trip to the LEGO store where granny bought the boys the "LEGO sets of their dreams!" (The Star Wars Sandcrawler and Star Destroyer)  As you can imagine, the first 3 days of our time at home has been spent building these monstrous sets.  Nash was so overcome with joy when Granny bought him the Sandcrawler he burst into tears. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "I just love Granny so much and I can't believe anyone would love me enough to buy me something so amazing!"  It was pretty adorable.

By the way if you are wondering why their hair is suddenly shaved off, we had a gum incident.

Country Life

When I was little we lived on the Crowther Dairy for a few years. The dairy is where I first learned to drive while feeding cows. I was nine.  The kids love to spend time there every year. This year they expended most of their energy chasing Runaway Kitty until she was successfully captured under an old shed.

 

Harley didn't get to ride any horses this summer but she was great at locating them and trying to climb into their corrals.

The kids also got to gather eggs for their cousins.  Nash claims he will never eat another egg from the store because apparently he can taste the difference between store-bought and farm-fresh.

Today is our last day in the country and we are going to miss it. The boys were just getting used to the freedom of life in a very small town and the adventures that go along with it. Goodbye friends and family! We love you and miss you everyday.

Pioneer Days

We are totally exhausted (and barfing AGAIN) after three days of celebrating Pioneer Days!  Unfortunately, I hardly took any pictures of the fun times we had with family and friends.  Honestly,  it was kind of nice not worrying about  snapping pictures but of course now I am sad I didn't.  I know, I'm never satisfied.  I did get one picture of some of the cousins watching the parade together.  Nash is not included because after two days of watching he refused to attend day number three, instead he hung out with Grandpa G. being grumpy.  Of course he perked right up when it was time to go to the carnival.

Rockin' the Ghost House

When I was a little girl my cousins and I spent hours playing with a little tin doll house at my Grandma's home.  We used to make ghosts out of old rags to fill up the little cottage, so it became known as the ghost house.  I was so excited when we arrived in Colorado to discover that my grandmother had given my mother the ghost house for my kids to play with all summer. She had even saved the ghosts that I had created as a child. Of course my kiddos made the doll house their very own, they squashed the ghost house idea and turned it into the rock house.  They collected hundreds of stones and spent many hours painting and decorating their treasured rocks to play with in the ghost house.  We had angry birds, star wars characters, snakes, lady bugs and bumblebee rocks all partying in the ghost house.

I Love the Mountains, I Love the Daffodils

We have spent much of our time in the mountains on the family ranch with cousins and creatures this vacation.  The kids played in the river, rode motorcycles, rode their bikes, fished, mooned the trained, chased the cows, got lost, shot their BB guns, got gruesomely grubby and did plenty of exploring.  They especially enjoyed going on night rides on the four-wheelers, scaring themselves with tales of grizzly bears and crazy mountain men and checking out the cow and her suckling calf that got zapped by lightening one day.