My "To Do" List Just Got Shorter!!

Saturday we decided to stay out of the snowy weather and clean our storage room. It was a HUGE mess. We have been just opening the door and tossing things in for quite awhile. We emptied the entire room (minus some food storage boxes and cans) and went through EVERY bin and box. It was a big project to say the least. The basement was tore up for most of the day and we filled BOTH of our outdoor dumpsters with unwanted junk and had a pretty big donation for DI by the end of the day. I labled bins and boxes and buckets so we don't have to guess anymore to it's contents. When we finished, we actually had some EMPTY shelves and bins!! It felt sooooooo good to have that big project D O N E!!! Looks pretty good, huh?

Grandpa was Officially Stuck!

Last Saturday when we were working the calves, Grandpa momentarily forgot that he is an old dude and climbed up on the fence in the corrals. Well, he found himself STUCK and let me tell ya that it took him a little while to figure his way back down! We were giggling at his predictament but he was flat out laughing at himself. It was a pretty funny site to see. What the brain won't accept as the body gets old.......(Notice that no one is coming to his aid! Poor guy. We were so busy laughing that we didn't think to go help him! Grandpa kept us laughing by saying things like we needed to call the power company and have them bring the big truck with the cherry buckets to get him down. He's quite the character!)

Colorado Objects

These are a few of the objects that caught my attention at Cow Camp this year. Maybe it's the new camera. I see things a little differently through a camera lens. There are some really interesting things out there on those 28,000+ acres...

Turkey Bag

I made this bag for my church stuff. I think he turned out pretty cute! It says "have mercy!". It's made from a tea towel. Sooooooo easy.

Why We Go to Colorado Each Fall

Here are a few pictures of the cows--the reason we travel so far (about 7 hours for us in Layton), spend a ton on groceries, spend a ton on gas to get there, spend a ton on propane trying to stay warm in our trailer, eat more food than we usually consume in a two week period of time in a mere 4-5 days, freeze our hineys off, put up with getting up each morning at 5 am, collapsing into bed each night at 11 pm, sit for hours on end in a truck during an almost blinding snow storm, put up with all the mud--in your truck, in your trailer, in your hair, EVERYWHERE!, play endless card games with the family, have absouletely NO privacy for any amount of time, pee on the mountain behind a horse trailer--or possibly IN the horse trailer when people are around, have it sooooo dang cold outside that the water all freezes up and you can't shower for 2-3 days, wear so dang many clothes to stay warm that you have to start 15 minutes before you actually need to pee to get down to bare skin!, eat yummy food, have great conversations with family, enjoy the outdoors, get to see your hunky hubby on a horse with some chaps on, see some REALLY magnificent scenery and feel blessed for where we live, eat dutch oven food, eat TONS of homemade cookies and meals, laugh with your mother-in-law and feel grateful that she is a part of your life, admire your father-in-law for all that he does for each and every person in our big ol' family and to see how cute he is with his wife of 55 plus years, to witness some really beautiful sunsets and if it's not your turn to cook breakfast you get to see the sunrises, have scripture study as an extended family and to do family prayer as a large group, to see how awesome some of your nephews are--love that Dustin!, these are but a few of the reasons we go to Colorado each fall and actually look forward to it all! Looking forward to next October already!

My New Baby

Look what I got! I'm pretty excited. Wish it were red but otherwise, I'm happy!

When You are in Charge of Two Seventy Five Year Olds...

One day at Cow Camp the weather had been bad so Grandpa and Grandma decided that they didn't want to drive so they hopped in my truck and demanded that I drive them up and down the mountainside. BTW, Grandma never did any driving while at Cow Camp--not sure why she thought this day might be different but she was very vocal about not wanting to drive this day. Anyway, we stopped on the mountainside to wait for Terry and Dustin to give them their lunches and this is what two seventy-five year olds start doing while waiting. I really thought I had been put in charge of two six year olds. They kept laughing and telling jokes and stories. They really enjoyed being with each other (IF they weren't asleep that is!) They are pretty cute senior citizens! Maybe I'm just partial to them!

The Job of Chauffer

While at Cow Camp this year, I got the job of chauffering Grandma Rae up and down the mountainside. She is one craaaazzzy lady so there was never a lack of laughter and good times and good conversation. I consider her one of my best friends in life and have to say that I REALLY enjoyed the job. On a side note tho, we would be in the middle of a conversation and she wouldn't respond so I'd look over and her lil ol head would just be bobbin and yep, she'd be sound asleep! Apparently I can be quite boring! The roads were snowpacked and had dropoffs on the sides so my eyes needed to stay on the road. I felt silly at times cuz I'd just be ramblin on about something only to find that Grandma had fallen asleep! Fun times! What a great lady she is even if she shows a small level of disrespect to conversators!

Introducing....

SHOWA! Here are some pics of Showa at Cow Camp this last week. She did great and helped Grandpa cover a lot of ground looking for cows. She didn't mind the snow and the mud. She loves carrots and apples. She doesn't like dogs--oops!--not a good thing in this family of dog lovers!! She liked being in Colorado and likes Utah even better. Today she meets Gunn, Uncle Jared's horse, as she comes back from Colorado to Utah to live in Ioka. She is a VERY tall horse and is very gentle and easy going. She doesn't like to have her neck petted and patted in anyway but otherwise likes her nose scratched. Thanks for the name, B. It's a good one and will serve her well. Welcome to the fam, Showa!