Farmers Market

Last Saturday we went to the farmers market for the first time this year. We have alot of fun and try to go at least once per summer. We look forward to buying the fresh strawberries and specialty breads and dips the very most! Those three things are always on our list! We love to see whats new and buy a piece of jewelery or two and maybe get a massage. :) Part of the fun is just checking out the people.....You get to see alot of interesting folks thats for sure!!! Sometimes we get henna tattoos or buy soap made from goats milk...... :} Benny and Amber love the fresh watermelon lemonade...so they always get that....and we usually sample something unique to eat. This time it was a coffee cake 'supposedly' unlike anything we have ever eaten! The vendor said, "When you eat it, you will be sure that you're in heaven!" He was close to being right about that! Lol! Anyhow, after we finished up there we headed to Elements restaurant for lunch on the patio. It was a fun time, with great food! When we came home it felt good to cool off inside, and before I knew it, everyone crashed .....well at least Benny, Bryce and Amber did! Check out how tired Benny was! He fell sound asleep just like that!

Trek

Benny went on the trek to Martins Cove a couple weeks ago. His Ma and Pa were Glade and Suzette Smith. Everyone involved with the trek gets placed into families and receive names, which are the real names of pioneers that blazed that trail. Bennys name was Kenyon Taylor Butler. Their trek family name was the "Smithsonians". He had a really good time and claims to have had the "best trek family by far"! He said the part he will remember the most was when they got to a hard part on the trail that was deep sand and uphill, and the boys had to climb to the top and watch the women and girls push and pull and struggle to get their carts up to the top. He said it was so hard for him to sit and watch and not help! He said the boys and men put their hats over their hearts and werent allowed to speak....just had to watch. He said it was all he could do not to go help his ma and sisters! The purpose of this part of the trek is for the young men to learn to appreciate girls and to respect them instead of viewing them as objects of pleasure. Benny said it definitely had an impact on all of them. I received a call from Suzette the night they returned and she told me through tears how wonderful Benny was, that he was a perfect gentleman, hard worker, sweet and kind to everyone, and fun to be around. Oh gosh...those are words this mother loves to hear!!! :) I already knew that though, he really is a great kid! Anyway, I thought he was such a cute little pilgrim...........I mean pioneer!

Good Times!

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. We went to the fireworks with the Calls and Ericksons on Friday... and then went to Bear Lake on Sunday and Monday with my extended family this time. There were tons of kidlets of all ages everywhere! Gma and Gpa Page and Auntie LaRae came too! We even had a performance on the kitchen bar for our entertainment! These photos are not in any special order...and the clouds are totally random I know, but they were cool.... as the clouds usually are at Bear Lake...and once again, Bret is striking his famous pose... with Rachel my niece mocking him.

When at Bear Lake we...

make spears and hunt carp...

sport ugly goggles and swimwear...

tube...

jump over people...

Play football...

and soak in the sun...

We also love to have a dutch oven night, and a Cafe Sabor Bear Lake night. If only summer could last a few months longer....

Bear Lake teacup party!

My niece and her friends came with us. Can you tell that they loved the teacup tubes? Hahaha!

We finally had a dry weekend to go to Bear Lake for the first time this season! It was no surprise that the water was painfully cold, but we didnt care because we had wetsuits yay! At least, thats what we thought until we really checked them out. LOl! WOW! Holy 1980's!!!!!! These wetsuits came with the boat and we have never seen anything like them before! They are going to the D.I. for sure! Anyhow, we had fun wetsuits and all!

Tex and Garth

This is our beautiful Tex. It will be two years the 7th of June '10 that he died from a twisted intestine. We bought him for Alison to show in horse 4-H when she was 10 years old and they were very successful and won tons of prizes. They were perfect together, as he was tall and so is she. Both of them learned to show together and they had alot of love and trust for each other. Tex wasnt an affectionate horse except with Alison. He really didnt like men at all and loved to tease Alison. For example: he would pretend to nip at her when she was banding his mane for horseshows, and when he did he made a growling sound. She would get so mad at him, but it was sheer entertainment for me! It was sooo funny to watch them! It was like..."Tex! Stop that!" and then, "rawr" and then again "Tex! Stop!" and then.."RAWR".... over and over again! Hahaha! One time he even made her cry she was so mad! Hahaha! Alison was the only one that he would let catch him in the pasture, however, every once in a while he would allow me to do it. He had a place under his belly by his flanks that he LOVED to have scratched..so he would walk up to Alison in the pasture and get right in her face, lift his hind leg and curve his head around to point to the scratch spot telling her to "get busy scratching". Oh....he was such a cool horse! I could go on and on with stories about him. He really was what they call a "once-in-a-lifetime horse". We will always have wonderful fond memories of Tex and Alison growing up together. I feel so priviledged to have had him in our family. What an honor to have had such a great horse for my daughter.

This is Garth. He is a buckskin, 1/2 quarterhorse, 1/2 thoroughbred. He stands 17.5 hands tall. He is a giant! We found him one week after Tex died and bought him immediatly. When Alison rode him for a minute she started to cry and told me that when she closed her eyes she felt like she was riding Tex. We had to have him at that point! We found him by accident, yet, we wonder if we were meant to have him? Garth is a really good horse, well broke and fun to ride. But, the best thing of all is that he has helped fill a huge gaping hole in Alisons heart.