Catching Up - Fall

Life got away from me this fall, and I couldn't let some of these good memories get away, thus the randomness. One of our family traditions every year is going to the fair. I grew up raising sheep for 4-H, and although that also brought some very bad memories (my mom has pictures as proof), I'll admit it: I LOVE the fair! I'm not alone: here in Roseau, the fair IS summer. People plan their family reunions around the fair, and people who have moved away, return just to attend.

We have to see the animals - all of them, and pet ALL of them, except me because I would spend the rest of the fair sneezing, with red eyes and hives all over my arms.

I think Eli pet every single horse there.

And probably so did Lilly.

And of course, the fair is not complete without going on a few rides. Except when you choose the wrong time, and end up spending almost 2 hours standing in line for one ride --ask Lilly, Leah and Ethan about that. Summer would not be complete without the fair. One year we were in Utah during fair time, so we had to go to the Lake of the Woods fair (an hour drive) to make up for it. Yes, we

love the fair.

Another favorite family activity is the Corn Maze. The corn maze in our community began small, but has grown into a big event with a large maze as well as a kid's maze, a petting zoo, and many fun games. This year we had tons of fun, especially Alex! The maze was of dinosaurs.

These girls are the best!

 Alex wouldn't let me take his picture, so I had to shoot this one behind my back, upside down. He was thrilled!

This dude loves getting his picture taken - thanks Ethan!

These boys are trying to find all the dinosaurs in the maze to get a prize - and believe me, they did it way faster than their old Mom.

Of course Olivia found the ONLY flowers in the corn patch and picked them for me.

I taught Olivia how to let a calf suck your thumb like I used to do as a little girl. She liked it as much as I used to. She's a regular cowgirl!

And look what I found while we were there!

Yikes!

Fun times on the haystack!

Fall is the best!









 

Saying Goodbye

Well, it had to happen eventually -- one of my kids leaving home.  I had tried to prepare myself mentally for this, but the emotions that come to see your child actually go out on their own are incredibly hard to cope with.  At least for me. How do you know they're ready?  How do you know you've done all you can do to prepare them, and will they be ok?

 

Lilly's time to leave on her mission finally came.  Preparing to go was a feat in and of itself - maybe that was good because I was so busy helping her, I didn't have a lot of time to mourn. Since she is going to a third world country that is 90 degrees with 90% humidity a lot of the year, there is a bug problem.  So we spent a good deal of her last day at home spraying all her clothes with a toxic pesticide that dries odorless.  Believe me, it was not odorless going on!  I was dressed in gloves and a balaclava to protect my hands and lungs from poisoning.  A few whiffs of it almost did me in.

 We set up a clothesline, and loaded it, the woodshed, and the ATV's with all of the clothes she will be wearing over the next 18 months.  We'll just say we were glad to be done when that was over!

 Then it was time for packing, with a little break in the evening for one last time ice skating.  Everyone went, but not everyone skated -- Alex and I used the excuse that we don't own any skates.

 

 The chair makes things even more fun!

 

I got some pictures to document the evening - and everyone else had a super time playing freeze tag on the ice.

After an olympic effort at packing, we went to bed in the wee hours of the morning.  I told Lilly customs would have a time if they actually opened her suitcases.  She had bottles of all kinds of things: apple cider vinegar, olive oil, coconut oil, essential oils, and to the untrained eye, many of them probably looked like liquor bottles! Little did Lilly know we slipped a bag full of Halloween candy with a goodbye card from the family in one of her suitcases.  Lilly got a total of 4 hours of sleep, but got up bright and early to take a last look at everything and say goodbye to her dogs, with last-minute instructions to Leah and Ethan who will take over their care.

 And we were off to Fargo!

 It was nothing short of a miracle that her suitcases came in under weight. Olivia insisted on helping Lilly with this one.

Ethan was feeling as sad as I was to see his big sis go.

We had to get in a few last pictures...

 Of course Eli had to try to add in a little humor to this situation.

 A few last hugs - so hard for us all.

 Even as hard as this was for me, I am so proud of all she stands for and her reasons for going to serve the Lord. What an amazing example she is to me.

 Everyone got a turn.

 These kids really will miss this girl - she has been so amazing with them. She's the party in their lives.

 I was a little late on the draw on this picture, but these two are best buddies.

 As are these two.

 And Alex has such a good example to follow in a short time.

 One last look for the next 18 months.

 And all at once that was it - she was gone. We spied on her through the security doors, and then went out to try to watch her plane take off. 

 There goes my beautiful, brave, determined first-born, off to work miracles in the lives of the people of Honduras. From my arms to the Lord's hands. We love you so much Lilly!

School Started

Yes, I know, school started a long time ago, but I have been too crazy busy to put all these family happenings on this blog.  So I'm catching up.  And I couldn't miss posting these cuties on the first day of school.  I am still homeschooling - and these guys make it all worth it.

Ethan's in 5th grade this year! He's 10.

Eli's in 2nd grade this year and he's 7.

And last but not least, Olivia's in Kindergarten and is 5. We could pretend this is her personality...

...but in reality, most of the time this is.

Alex and Leah are dual-enrolled at Roseau High and home.  Alex is a super senior,

 

 and Leah is a sweet sophomore! Here's to an awesome year.

 

Out West Again

I'll admit it. We love the West. We can't seem to keep ourselves away. We love the mountains, we love the dry crisp air, we love the rolling hills, but most especially, we love the people. Why else would we spend two whole days in the car each way with barely stops for gas and potty breaks? With two trips in 4 months, it is all about our extended family.

The purpose of our trip was to attend conference and have Lilly take her endowment out in the Logan Temple so family could attend.  We had tickets for the Saturday afternoon session of conference....but apparently so did almost everyone else (new apostles were called this session) as this is the closest we could get before they closed the doors and said it was full.

 As you can see, there was no one between Ethan and I and the doors. As disappointed as we were, we still enjoyed the atmosphere on Temple Square, and feeling the Spirit as we heard from our apostles and prophet throughout the weekend.

 We were able to take Lilly through the temple for her endowment, and were so pleased to have extended family members there.  It was such a beautiful experience, one we will never forget.

My sister Lila hosted a dinner after the session for extended family, and we had about 50 people there.  It was such an amazing experience to have so many people supporting our Lilly.

This is three sweet girls on our walk to the park - newly married cousin Julia, Lilly and Leah.

We were able to get together with Steven's sister, Mary Ann for a few days. It was fun for cousins to spend time together.

 Aren't they so cute? Elijah was so sweet to Olivia.

Even Diana and her sweet baby Ryan came to see us while we were there.

We even went to the Olympic ice skating oval which is around the corner from their house.  Cousin Devan works there and showed us a good time.

These guys are awesome!  We haven't ever been able to make them sick of us yet (at least not that they've told us).  Gotta work on that one a little more I guess. We just love them to death!

Mom's love to see some sibling love like this - makes the trip all worth it!

This too!



Of course, the trip would not be complete without spending some quality time with grandparents!  This is what makes my heart ache to not be living closer. My kids adore their grandma and grandpa. What a treat to be able to see them twice in a year!
We were able to take advantage of the loaded down apple trees and take home the best tasting apples on earth, which we turned into 40+ jars of tasty applesauce when we got home.


Before we went home, we had to go on a hike in the mountains.  Olivia and I were happy to sit and watch the others climb to the top of the cliff.  We captured this selfie right before my phone fell out of my pocket and cracked on the rocks, but the hike was worth it!



This face has a story to it - Aunt Kathy decided they needed another kitty to help catch mice, so she stopped at a neighbor's house who had found a little kitty.  Well, needless to say, Olivia lost no time in 'mothering' or was it mauling that little guy.  He seemed to keep coming back for more, but I'm sure he was happy to see us go.  (Not before Olivia tried to sneak him in the car though.)

You can take us out of the west, but you can't take the west out of us - LOVE it!