Ruby Valley Adventure

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had an awesome opportunity to visit our friends the Livingstones in Ruby Valley, Nevada. We have wanted to visit them for a long time and finally made it out to them. Tyler and Nancy, who is a Neff and grew up there, run Neff Equipment. They live, what seems to us, a very rural lifestyle, even though we live in what a lot of people would say is a rural area. I mean, they have horses and while we were there Tyler was in the process of training his cows (which roam near their home) to eat weeds. Max and I used to river guide with Tyler and he was the laid-back longboarder who grew up in California. It was so fun for us to see their ranch and see what he does now. 

The first afternoon after we arrived, they took us to ride two of their horses. The boys loved it. 

The next morning we went to the Lind ranch. Max works for Charly Lind and his father owns a beautiful cattle ranch just down the valley from the Livingstones. They invited us to come out to help at the annual branding. It was fun to see a real working ranch up close. Before the calves were brought to be branded, the kids played in the thing in this picture--I don't really know what to call it. The cage? The holding pen? Anyway, they thought it was fun to pretend to be a calf.

Then the branding, tagging, and giving of shots started. Emmett did not like watching the calves get branded. It was stinky and the calf would whine and struggle quite a bit so he and I didn't stay very long.

It also got very cold and rainy, and even snowy, which really slowed down the process of branding. They had to put all the calves in the barn so they wouldn't be soaking wet and bring them out a few at time to brand. The singeing wet fur smelled even worse than the dry. They had hoped to be done with branding to have a late lunch, but the bad weather slowed everything down and the men weren't done until closer to 4 or 5. Everyone was freezing and wet. Audrey Lind and I mostly stayed inside with the kids trying to keep all of them under some sort of control in the Lind ranch house.

Jonah got bored in the house after a while and wanted to go out and help. He ended up being the gate keeper. He would open the gate for a calf and then close it behind it so it would back up. He ended up staying out in the snowy-rain for a good hour or two. I was amazed. Give that kid a job that makes him feel needed and he's good to go!

This is Tyler and Nancy's home right up in the foothills of the Ruby Mountains. Who knew this part of Nevada existed? It is so beautiful!

On our last morning there, we all took a hike up into the mountains. The boys gathered wildflowers for me and stuck them in my hair.

Thanks Livingstones and Linds for an awesome trip. We loved it!

Summer Cuts

Ah, the summer cut. Too bad Wyatt had a class party outside the next week and got his little noggin fried.

Spring 2012

When the snow melted--a little too early for our liking this year--we headed down to Moab. Our good friend and co-worker at Western River Expeditions, Robin Guymon, passed away fairly quickly from colon cancer, and his wife and friends put together a memorial. We stayed in Brody and Wendy's backyard and made sure we got a quick river trip in the day before the memorial.

 The memorial was held at Big Sandy beach on the Colorado River. It was a beautiful setting and it was amazing to see how many people had come, some from very far away, to show their love for Robin and Raine. I thought it was such a tribute to the man Robin was to see the huge range of types of people and economic backgrounds. One man pulled up in his black Lexus and another man looked like he was probably homeless. There were preppy dressers and drum-circle hippies. It really made me think that this is what Christ's "funeral" might have been like and what I would hope my funeral might someday be. Robin didn't judge people. He loved everyone where they were in their life. I'm happy I had the chance to know him.

 Justin and Ashly and Fish and Rocko were with us too. We love good friends.

Easter came along--this was our first easter in our new house and with such a big yard there were a lot of places to hide eggs. It was a cold morning though and even with the slippers and jackets, the kids were ready to be done searching for eggs because their hands were freezing!

 Emmett is wearing his Jedi robe under his jacket. For several months, the Jedi robe was worn all the time, even to bed.

Jonah and Wyatt had their gymnastics performance in the Spring as well. Here's Jonah doing a one-handed cart wheel. And he couldn't even really do a cartwheel before starting gymnastics in September.

 And here's Wyatt doing a twist. By the end of the season (May) both boys could do front flips on the trampoline and land of their feet. They liked gymnastics, but they didn't like that it made it so they couldn't do soccer and the community play. We'll have to see what they think about doing it next year.

 Emmett and I had plenty of alone time while the older boys were at school and gymnastics. For a while he really got into playdough. I used to try to keep my boys from mixing the colors, but I let Emmett just go for it. I figured, maybe he just wants to see the colors mixing. It was really pretty. And then everything turned to a nice greyish-greenish brown. The day this photo was taken we were pretending to make silly sandwiches with things like frog legs and elephant toenails and bat wings in them.

Max ran a 5K to support someone at his work. The 5K was for a dance studio and everyone was supposed to wear tutus. Having three boys means we don't even own a tutu. He had to buy one at the start of the race. I told him that I want to blow up this picture and the one of me jumping over fire in the Spartan Race and hang them up in the house.

In May, Emmett turned 3. He wanted a Finn McMissile cake and a bubble gun for his birthday and he got just that.

 Being 3 means that he wants to go go go all the time, but sometimes, usually late afternoon, he crashes. And sometimes he crashes in the most unusual places or positions. Future planker?

 We've been attending the Home Depot workshops with the boys and they love them. They've built bird feeders, organizers, and planter boxes. Just a couple weeks ago, Max bought some wood to fix up a free swing set we received and as Jonah was helping carry the cedar planks to the backyard he said, "Ah, the sweet smell of Home Depot!" Home Depot's ploy to snag customers when they're young seems to be working for our kids.

Some other fun things we did this Spring include miniature golfing at Trafalga or Trafunga as my kids call it...

 Emmett dressing up as Captain America...

 and dog-piling on Dad (during Mustache May--luckily the mustache leaves with the Spring).

Winter Time Fun

In an effort to catch up some blog posting, here is our winter in a nutshell. We were SUPER lucky this past winter to go skiing a lot. My dad bought a new truck at work and with it came two season passes to Park City. He has been having some back trouble and also figured if he did feel well enough to go skiing, he'd probably go to Alta or somewhere closer, so he gave us 2 season passes to Park City Resort. Quite the present! When he offered them, I said, "You know this is a really, REALLY nice gift, right?" He just said, "I figure you'll use them more than I would." And we did! It was wonderful being able to take the boys skiing for just a couple hours--about the maximum they can handle it anyway. Max and I went a couple times together and he and I even took turns going alone a few times. It was wonderful!! Thanks Dad!

 I got brave a few times this year and tried some things in the trick riding park. My boys loved going in there and doing the little jumps and Jonah took a skiing class at the Olympic Park so he wanted to try some things he had learned and Wyatt wanted to try the things he'd seen Jonah learn since he was too young for the class.

 On a full moon night in March, we took the boys tubing at Soldier Hollow. It hadn't snowed for a few days and had warmed up enough in the day to make it icy at night so the sledding was very fast and lots of fun!

 My little brother had his second annual birthday skiing party and this year all 6 of us brothers and sisters (plus Max) were able to ski together. Mom and Dad came and met us for lunch. I'm so blessed to have wonderful parents and to be friends with all of my siblings, oh and to have an amazing husband too! I mean look at us. Don't you want to hang out with us too?

 On one of the last possible skiing days in Park City--there was seriously a pond you had to ski through or around (in the slush) to get to the lift--we took Emmett for his very first day of skiing. He did amazing. We love edgy-wedgies. Totally the way to save your back and help your kid feel somewhat confident right away. I forgot to mention that Wyatt took his edgy-wedgies off this year and was skiing like a pro.

 Overall, a pretty sweet winter!

California Knows How to Party

Last week, Max had most of the week off so we headed off to San Diego for some fun. We got there Wednesday afternoon and had time to play at the beach for a few hours. It was the boys first time to ever see they ocean and they loved it. The water was freezing but that didn't stop Jonah and Wyatt from getting wet. Max was the only one who went all the way in and he said that it made it his head hurt.

On Thursday we went to Legoland. We had originally considered going to Disneyland but some of my siblings suggested Legoland because it is great for younger kids. I'd have to agree. Jonah was able to ride on everything alone. Wyatt could ride everything with a parent, and Emmett could ride almost everything. It wasn't too crowded so we got to go on a lot of rides. We thought it was funny how we kept seeing the same people on each ride. We were on the same schedule as the guy with the green and black backpack and his son and a Japanese family with two kids.
I liked that a lot of the rides at Legoland involved the kids--pedaling or pulling themselves up a rope. I think it made it more fun for them to be the ones who made some of the rides go.
As you can tell from the kids' t-shirts, the Star Wars exhibit was a big hit.

On Friday we headed to Sea World. It was overcast and definitely colder than than the day before. It made it a bit harder to want to get wet on any of the rides, but Jonah and Wyatt LOVED the Journey to Atlantis ride and since it was fairly cool there was barely any line. We went on it 3 times in the morning and once in the afternoon.
We saw the Pet Show, the Dolphin Show and the Shamu Show. I don't know if the kids were just showed-out by the Shamu Show, but they didn't seem that impressed. It could also be that the dolphin show was quite a show--people riding on dolphins, people dressed up like birds flying around on trapezes and bungees. Since no one gets in with Shamu like they used to (and for good reason) the dolphin show is much more showy. Still, it is pretty amazing to see these huge animals jump so far out of the water.

Emmet and I made fish faces on the Elmo fish ride.

Wyatt was the only one brave enough to get very wet in the rapids with Max.
Saturday morning, we only had a few hours before we needed to head out of town so we went to the beach for a very cold and windy picnic breakfast. It soon started to warm up and we had a bit more fun writing in the sand, racing to the volleyball standards and dipping our toes in the cold ocean.