Wyoming rotation

We are currently 3/4 of the way done with our 2nd Wyoming rotation.  Tyler is living in Riverton M-F and then driving 2 hours to see us on the weekends at Grandpa Asay's house in Worland.

The backyard is huge, like the size of a Pittsburgh city park.  The garden alone is about 10 times the size of our Pittsburgh backyard.

This is what we do most of the time.  The weather has been so nice and so the girls spend the day digging in the garden, eating tomatoes and raspberries, shucking dried corn and cooking up fancy recepies for me.

They've "dug dinosaurs", looked for buried treasure and spent hours a day for the past 3 weeks running in the grass and digging in the dirt.  It's wonderful.

We also descended on Worland during sugar beet season!  We've done a lot of research on beets, dug one up, followed a sugar beet truck to the factory, boiled one and made sugar water and ate a picnic lunch while watching them get harvested.

Heidi told me "I changed my mind about being a ballerina when I grow up, I want to be a girl sugar beet worker!"

The girls have loved doing chores at the farm.  Grandpa has been gone everyday from early in the morning until bedtime (or much later!) pregnancy testing cows.  The girls have enjoyed seeing him though and Quinn chases him around and calls him Daddy, while Heidi chats his ear off and gets really upset when he leaves "But he JUST GOT HERE!"

We get to go out to the farm and feed the cows and any other animals that might be around.  Quinn has learned the routine and today she carried the bucket, helped fill it with corn, helped carry it to the cows and empty it in the trough.  She is very independent.

We always end chores with a drive around the field along the canal.  I let the big girls sit in the back of the truck and we got about 2 miles and hour.  Heidi usually sits back there singing herself a song while looking at the trees and fields and its the sweetest thing.

In such a big backyard we have learned how to play baseball, "tennis' and lots of other made up sports.  While in Utah I made the girls capes for the winter, I let them wear them this chilly day for the first time and there was plenty of excitement. 

Alex is a wonderful helper during the week when it's just us girls.  She is doing great in school and always catches on to everything quickly.  She discovered honeysuckle in the backyard and I can usually find her sucking on the end of one to get the nectar.

Heidi's skateboard has turned into more of a device to play with than skate on.  There were so many tomatoes in the garden when we arrived that Alex and Quinn ate 3 or 4 a day.

It's been a lot of fun to take my kids the places I grew up at and have them share in the memories.

We were treated during our second week here when my Mom and Danielle came to visit!

Quinn was very "helpful" to Matthew, and the girls loved getting to know Ryan and spending time with him.

They hadn't spent much time with little boys and it was a source of joy and at times frustration for the girls.

We went to Thermopolis and spent a day at the star plunge.  It was wonderful as always.

Mainly though, we have been able to relax and enjoy the last of the warm fall days.  The leaves have fallen and the mornings are cold, but we are still able to get outside time and enjoy the sun.

Having grandma around was a treat.

She took care of all the babies, and children that needed attention.

One of the days we visited Castle Gardens.  It was fun, but slightly overshadowed when we discovered that the secret family fossil beds were being destroyed by road construction.  It was gut wrenching to watch.

We carved our names in some sandstone.  Well, the first letter of our names- poor Quinn probably won't be doing much carving of her name, that was really hard.

It was a lovely adventure that ended with chocolate milk and a fish hatchery.

We also saw this.  The girls were out of their minds with excitement. REAL COWBOYS!

The girls built the obligatory sugar cube pyramids for history class.

Quinn is a total farm girl.

She screams and runs after the 4 wheeler.

Another treat this week was visiting "Uncle" Mark's taxadermy shop!  We saw all sorts of crazy exotic animals and got to ride a bear.  He even sent us home with a tongue and some teeth (fake of course).  The girls beg everyday to go back.

Utah Rotation

When you don't blog for 3 months, it's amazing how things slip away from your memory.  During Tyler's Transplant surgery roation we were mostly car-less and stuck around the neighborhood or rode our bikes.  But we were still able to manage squeezing a summer's worth of fun into 4 weeks.  There was the Squire BBQ where the girls got their faces painted and jumped in bounce houses to their hearts content.

We checked out the Museum of Natural Curiosity on the same day that we went to the Ogden Utah Temple Openhouse.  Somehow I don't have those pictures though.  The best part of the Museum was the 3 story playplace that both adults and kids could climb through.  I got my work out that day.

Quinn loved this idea and screamed and screamed when I took her away from the water table.

Alex had attended preschool at a neighbor's hourse- Mrs. Thibault- Tyler's Kindergarten teacher 20 years ago.  We happened to be in Utah the same time she was starting the school year and Heidi was able to attend for the first 4 weeks- it was so much fun for her and she had a blast!

Alex always wanted to walk Heidi to school and it was adorable.  Then she would watch Quinn when it was over so I could go get Heidi alone.

Sometimes we all went though.

This was one of Alex's preschool dresses, which made Heidi feel even more special.

We were able to make it to the Gym twice and Alex and Heidi impressed me with all their hidden talents.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Brady let us join them for FHE and told us stories about when they were kids.  Grandma shared a room with 6 sisters and there were only 2 beds.  Grandpa rode a horse to his baptism, and on the way back he got sprayed by a skunk!  It was so smelly that his Dad just buried the saddle!

We went out and tried to see the Northern Lights but they never appeared.  We saw the "drinking gourd" though and the girls thought it was a success.

I played around with the flashlight and camera, so I also thought it was a success. 

We were able to visit our good friends the Hyer family on their farm and see their fancy house.  It was a kid's dream come true with all the baby animals.

Alex was super brave and wanted to hold everything.

Quinn was unsure but enthusiastic.

Alex is going to make a fine shepherd someday.

We left with some souvenir quail eggs that we stuck under a lamp for 2 weeks.  They never hatched and we had to move to Wyoming.

Rachelle was an awesome host despite her morning sickness.

These 4 kids have known each other since they were babies.

The highlight of the trip was when Kate and her 3 kids flew up to see us!  There was also plenty of horn honking every morning as the kids would insist that Grandma and Grandpa Brady honk the horn and wave before leaving for work.

Aunt Kara and Uncle Devin took the kids fishing!  This was Alex and Heidi's first time and they loved it.

Uncle Devin was a champion, baiting all the lines and casting the poles for the kids.

Alex blew my mind when she actually put a worm on a hook- she was very into this fishing thing.

There was plenty of excitement when Alex caught her first fish!  She wanted to keep it forever.

Annie seemed less sure.

When Heidi caught her's it was part excitement and part terror.

We got to go back to the Kids Museum at Thanksgiving point!

We discovered that most everything is better with friends, especially these friends.

This was our Grandma day and boy did she treat us well!  After the Kids museum it was off the the farmland for pony rides!

Then on to the wagon ride.

Annie and Heidi became the new Alex and Archie.  Now we just need Salem to grow up so Quinn can run around with her.

And there were Popsicles!

Kate and I planned a train ride to Temple Square in SLC and invited our friend and her kids to skip school and join us.

Here we are before boarding in Provo- smiles and energy galore!

A nice man gave us all free sunglasses on the train, which was perfect because it was a hot day. 

We got to go in the tabernacle!

and we saw the Christus.

At this point heat and exhaustion were taking over.

But there was enough energy to chase down a "princess" and tell her she looked beautiful.

We let the kids dip their feet.

and I think the mom's secretly wanted to do the same thing, and were wondering why we thought it would be fun to take 8 kids on the train to the big city.

Quinn was 1 part angel, 9 parts..... not angel.

It was a fun day, complete with Lionhouse rolls and everyone's fill of trains.

We ended our fun Kate week with a Grandpa day.

He took the kids on a walk to the duck pond and then shoe shopping!  This was a major task and there were meltdowns!  Then we got treated to lunch and he ended the day with a hike to Bridalveil falls!  What a guy!

I love how Annie and Archie both have the same swagger here.  Very hip.

Archie and Grandpa headed the Heidi rescue party when she climbed too far.

Heidi in general loves Grandpa's attention.  These two are good friends.

I remember a picture i took of Kate holding Alex when she was about 7 months old.  Kate had a big pregnant belly full of Archie, and in the pictures Alex was leaning forward and kissing "Archie".  I joked that these two were going to be best friends and they really did turn out that way!

More Grandpa Heidi time.

I don't think any kid could ask for a better grandpa.

I finally got a picture of Quinn Katherine and her namesake.

Quinn has tamed the inner beast quite a bit in the past 2 months, although pictures like this remind me of what Dr. Jekyl can turn into.

It was an awesome day.

And there was plenty of finding and assigning of walking sticks, and then tears when perfect sticks had to be left behind.

These two are so much alike!  And here I caught them reading books together, to themselves.

It was heartbreaking to leave.  We got to see Finn at least twice a week, play with friends and cousins, visit all our favorite haunts, and spend hours with Grandma and Grandpa.   It was like we were home, like we had never left.  It's crazy and sad to think of how much everyone will change by the next time we see them.  Leaving Utah was hard, it was raining in our hearts and in the sky.  I'm pretty sure everyone except Tyler was crying as we drove away.