Finishing The front Yard

This is my front yard as of last fall. I was very happy with my bigger flower bed but felt like it made the yard lopsided. So I thought all winter long about how to even it out. This is what I came up with.

As soon as the snow melted, I killed all the grass on the side lawn.Then Matt and I started work on the front part of our fence.

I went and got another basket of rocks from Matt's old boss and some from Wendy's house on the lake.

And this is how it turned out. It still looks quite bare because I have to wait til fall to transplant flowers. Also, the big pile of dirt in the front is hopefully going to become a water feature as soon as I can figure out just how to do it.

I'm pretty happy about the front yard now. It feels more even and finished to me. We have somewhat of a wind break in the fence that I'm sure I'm going to love come winter. Front yard-check! Back yard, oh my! That's another story.

Paddle Boarding 101

Matt worked this weekend and we needed to go clean Greg and Wendy's house on the east side of the lake. While we were there, Greg was teasing the kids about learning to paddle board. Apparently he was pretty serious because he invited us to go home and get our swim suits and come back.

He took all three kids out and started them with the basics. You had to start by kneeling down and getting your balance.

Within just a few minutes, each of the kids had grasped how it worked and were out paddling around on the lake.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the lake with the paddle board. It was so much fun, I'm thinking we might need to invest in one.

Seven Peaks

Brit spent about 3 weeks with Tia this summer. She babysat Wyatt and went with them to Voi's family reunion which she really enjoyed. Tia came all the way to Bear Lake to get her so we decided to meet up at Seven Peaks to bring her home.

We got to the water park at about 2:30 in the afternoon. The place was packed so Cody and Britnee were a little apprehensive about going to stand in lines. At about 3:30 we had all just gotten in the Lazy River when the lifegaurds made everyone get out of the water. There had been a thunder strike on the mountain behind us.   

So we all went back and sat under the trees while it sprinkled. And the park began quickly emptying. When we were allowed back in the water 40 minutes later, the park was fairly quiet and there were hardly any lines. We had a great time. We stayed almost until closing time then went back to the hotel and ate pizza.

I love having family get togethers like this. We couldn't have foreseen how perfectly everything would've worked out but I'm so glad it did.

Summertime

Summer is the best time of the year for me. I try and squeeze every drop out of being outside and enjoying the warm sunshine.
(Disclaimer: We love Matthew, and he loves us. He just does NOT like to be anywhere that there is a camera.)

We love to go next door to my mom and dads for dinner. This fathers day we smoked a pork roast and had a bar-b-que. The neighbors had the irrigation water running a little high so we played in the ditch some too.

I think trampolines are ageless toys. The kids took turns seeing how high they could jump.

Oh! If I could just bottle these days up and make them last forever.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Matt and Cody went to the Laketown Rodeo on Friday night. One of the events was the calf chase. All the kids 6-12 got to go into the arena and chase calves with ribbons tied to them. Each ribbon was worth a prize. Only 3 calves had ribbons and with 90 kids, Cody wasn't able to grab a ribbon.
On Saturday morning, I talked to Matt about going to Logan. Cody told us that we needed to wait because he was going to get the big prize that night at the rodeo, a $50 gift certificate to IFA, and he was going to go buy him a new cowboy hat.

On Saturday night, a bunch more kids went down for round two. I was there and tried my best to video it with Matt's iPhone. The announcer said that the grand prize ribbon was on the calves horn. When they said go, everyone rushed the winning calf. Cody just happened to be at the back and so when a second calf headed for the fence he took off. He mugged it as it tried to get out. Within a millisecond, six other kids tried to take the ribbon from him.  He held tight and took his ribbon to redeem his prize. Somehow, the announcer got the information wrong and Cody ended up with the grand prize.
We were so proud of him. He just walked back up and sat down like he knew all along that he would get what he went after.
We went to IFA on Monday and got Cody his hat.