Courtland Heritage Fall Festival Days

He had more fun sitting in it and being pulled than the other way around. He's such a great helper.

He was a little afraid of all the little donkeys, sheep, and goats...he wouldn't even sit on a Shetland Pony just his size. O'well.
This lady (you can only see half of her) sat for 40 miutes cranking that old metal thing atop the glass container (behind Lena's hands) until she had homemade butter. Lena loved trying and seeing all these new things. Cai and Lena were both fascinated with the corn husker tool--it even spit out the empty cob at the end.




Trying his first "Dum,Dum" lollipop--paper stick and all (we got it away from him before he finished that off too)! Back at home where the weather is beautiful and the leaves are starting to change to my favorite time of year around here.

Taxpayers March on DC 912

What a nice day it turned out to be for a march on Capitol Hill. Overcast skies that never let out any rain and temperatures in the low 70's made the freedom march very enjoyable (along with the company of hundreds of thousands of fellow patriots).

Here's a few pics from the day:

I really liked this - as we passed down Pennsylvania Avenue with our signs and sounds we took notice of our right to do so emboldened on this building wall >

"CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF OR ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH OR OF THE PRESS OR THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE ADN TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES"

I liked that sign that reminds me why our Nation became great.

Introduction to America

After we picked up Lena we wanted to show her a little bit of what America is like before school started. So we had a backyard barbeque.

And a fun day at the beach!

Cai loves his truck and at the beach he learned a little about four wheeling his truck in the sand and water. It was so much fun.

This is the best time of year to go to the beach since the sun isn't so hot and the water is warm.

This is Lena, our exchange daughter from Mongolia. It was her first time to ever see an ocean or beach. She'll be a part of our family until the school year is over in June.

The End of All in a Day's Work

Luckily, this was yesterday and not the same day as the 18th, but as you can see (it's very faint), I went to "touch-up" work around the kitchen. After the paint dried, I realized it wasn't the plain white color it should have been. I looked at the can again, whoops, "off white." We repainted the whole kitchen since I had done this over large surfaces and it was easily noticeable.

As you can see, that fridge is covering a bedroom door. This house is cute, but they didn't create a place for the fridge to go, so we are. Yes, I've been working on it every day--dry walling, sanding, dry walling, sanding, and hopefully I'll prime it today for painting. Off white on kitchen side and plain white on the living room side.

Jarad built the wall. I am so impressed. He did a great job.

All in a Day's Work

I don't know who got more wet, Cai or I? He was insistent on holding the hose and washing the dog carrier by himself. He's so helpful.

When I was growing up, I loved reading the comics in the Reader's Digest at my Grandma's house while all the adults talked and laughed. (I wish I would have paid more attention to their stories now because that would have been great family history I could have passed on), but o'well, I remember reading out of the section titled, "All in a Day's Work." Yesterday, I had to take some pictures to put on Craigslist, where we put Kenai up for adoption and a nice K-9 Cop got him two days later. Well, when I was downloading these pictures, I looked at all we did that day and you know, sometimes I'm amazed at what we did in one day...and how fun it was to accomplish. Here's just a few:

(The top one): I'm not crazy about mowing our grass, which takes up to two hours on this thing, but I tell you what, I had so much fun today and the neighbors must have thought I was crazy. Jarad learned, from a book, about how to properly mow your fields (it was from the guy who is the head lawn mower at Wrigley Field). So, Jarad told me we should go opposing ways every other time we mow. This time, I decided to do circles. I started out really big, until I was turning a very small circumfrance around in tiny circles, on full speed.

We took all the dead grass back to the woods, where, while I was dumping it. Cai climbed down from the seat and literally flung himself into the massive pile of clippings. I will never forget the look of complete joy as he smiled up at me...and then began to spit out grass. It was so cute.

Cai loves to pick the tomatoes with worms in them. He takes them right to Roo, the Rooster, to feed him. Cai knows to move away fast as soon as he puts it to him, but sometimes he doesn't move his fingers fast enough away sometimes and Roo nips at him.

An oddity? Our pumpkins are ready. It's August 18th. Should we celebrate Halloween early this year?

Harvesting Sunflower seeds. You know Cai was putting those unroasted and unsalted into his little mouth and saying, "MMMM." He loved seeing me pull them out one by one. He would pick it up and put it back into the flower. Reminds me of the grass we had to pick up, from the circles in the field story, well, I would put it in the trailor and you know little mister would climb up in the trailor and throw it back out to me.

Breaking Free

I'm feeling the need to write. Okay, let's start with Kenai.

Should I stop there? I've got a ton to say about him, but I know you don't care to read any of this. I'm writing more for my sanity and trying to figure this day out than anything. HE's been breaking free for the past week. He broke the chain at the collar. Showed up on the neighbor's doorstep at, what time was it...six or seven in the morning. Barking. I've lost track of how many times he's ended up on their doorstep now--even with his chain dangling from his collor. (And yes, we've gone through multiple varieties of chains).

They have a girl dog. Hmmm...puppies? Neutering was in the works, but now he's going away tomorrow. Virignia Beach. That should be far enough that he won't make it back home, end up on the neighbor's doorstep. I'll miss him.

Barking. Then again, maybe I won't miss him too much.

He's a cutie.

Cai. Cai, oh boy oh boy. He figured out how to break free from his crib.

Three times today.

Pounding on the door, "Jelene! Jelene!"

Yes, he's resorted to calling me by my first name when he's frustrated.

Pounding.

I climbed into his crib after the third time of returning him to his rightful, cozy napping spot and find myself peeking out of one eye...wondering..."How does he escape?"

He does a pull-up, kicks on foot up on the bar and then catapults himself into his crib.

I've got an Olympic gymnist for a son.

Tapping on my head, "Jelene! Jelene! Eyes! Eyes!" His little fingers are poking into my tightly closed eyelids.

Driving home from a Church meeting. The kid unbuckles his car seat. I'm driving on the highway, reviewing my craziness with Kenai breaking loose...

I see out of the corner of my eye, a flash of red.

I think, "Cai's wearing red shorts." I give a quick turn to see what it was. I do a double take right as Cai's about to pull the handle on the car door. My heart is in my throat. I'm not sure if I looked out the rear-view or how I got off that busy highway, moving along at 60mph, but everything happened so quickly and gratefully, so safely.

Maybe your car has one of those start your engine and doors automatically lock features.

That's nice.

I learned my lesson.

What's up with this?

Cai had half his buckle off as I pulled in tonight.

Kenai's back on his good chain. For the night. Que le vaya bien Kenai.

Another Fabulous Family Reunion

July 18th, Hiked Lone Peak with Jarad.
It was a gorgeous, kinda hot day, but we had a great time.
Thanks to Chelsy, Mica and Keebs for watching little Cai.
Our second time leaving him with friends, which says a lot.

John, Jarad and Phil We found a tree with our initials carved, “JJ”-Sweet
July 20th, Monday The Classic Cheese shot. Lucky his mouth wasn’t full of food like other times when I’ve been sprayed. Guess who else was at the Wilk that day? But one of my great missionary comps, Hermana Norman!
Try this for funny—so we bought a book for Jana, really for Mark since he collects books written by apostles and prophets. It was inscribed to “Jan” (1968), so we added an “a.” and made Elana and Jana a cake (which really did taste good, but was super ugly). Elana’s first question, “Ooo, Jana, did you make the cake?”

July 21st, Hiked Mt. Nebo. It was so beautiful, with tons of wildflowers. We went as a family, with Elana, Pam and Travis. It was so fun. As you can see, Elana and Pam were great entertainment for all of us—they kept us laughin. Jarad carried Cai all the way up, other than twice when we let Cai hike up and then down. Elana and Pam Jarad near the top, it was steep, but slowly and steadily, we made it.

July 24th, The Pioneer Parade (really they call it Fiesta Days, I don’t know why, but it’s our first time going there and it was fun to introduce Cai to a Clown. Later, we went up the Canyon to a family picnic. It was so much fun! Everyone participated in a Talent Show and we had a BBQ.
Saturday, July 25th Flag Raising Ceremony, honoring our Nation’s Freedom and Family Service Project, tidied up around the Church yard. Of course, we did the Slippn’ Side at Rock Canyon Park along with fun water games, but Cai played on the playground the whole time. It was a great Parkinson&Carter Family Reunion.

Family Reunion July 2009

THE FAMILY IS OF GOD

Gurr Family Reunion, July 3-4. Met up at Oquirrh Mountain Temple in Utah.

Family Service Project, Friday July 3rd~ Spanish Fork Canyon





We built Initiative Games like the Mine Field and sanded down the wood, built a firepit and laid the volleyball poles in cement.

Saturday, July 4th consisted of fun with fireworks after a Pizza picnic, with the Freedom Parade in the morning and playing Rook late into the night.

After all was said and done, there was still more fun to come...we went to the waterpark after hiking Ensign Peak on Monday, July 7th

On Tuesday, July 8th, we visited the sights in downtown Salt Lake--

That evening, we drove with the Milletts on to Nebraska. We saw Interstate 80 for a long time...ask Marshelle about Wendy's.

On Friday, July 10th, we visited the Doorly Zoo before flying home. It was so fun to be with everyone.

We made a little video of all the fun times with family. Love you all!