A Day Out Before Surgery

Our Kenzie Jean is headed for surgery in the morning to fix a torn labrum in her left shoulder.  So to take her mind off of what is about to happen, I decided to take the kids bowling. I must say that it was not my best day on the lane!!  But the kids had fun.  While it will probably be a while before Kenzie is throwing a bowling ball down the lane, we know she will be up and going soon.  Good luck Lou...we love you!!

Maiden Voyage of the Ring of Fire

It was another one of those busy Saturdays...you know...a house to clean...a garden to water...fields that needed to be disked...de-winterizing the trailer so that hopefully we can go camping...just to mention a few of the things that got done today.  But the best part was that we finally talked Randy into putting in the firepit we've been waiting for.  To break it in, we had a weiner roast and some tasty s'mores for dessert.  It's just like being in the mountains...but then I guess we do kinda live in the mountains :-)  Guess I better stock up on the ball park franks, marshmellows and chocolate bars for the summer!

Avenues Baseball

Today I headed to Salt Lake to watch Damon play ball...his last one of the season.  The "avenues" up in Salt Lake have a beautiful little baseball field.  Three different fields build on a mountain side so each field gets a little higher up the mountain.  Needless to say it's a little hike to get to the fields.  Thank heavens Damon played on the bottom field.  I love this picture of him in the dugout before the game began.  He plays coach pitch ball but instead of a coach pitching they have a cool pitching machine to pitch to the kids.  Damon's one of those lucky kids that gets to have his dad for his coach.  Morgan is an awesome coach...I guess that's because he really loves the game.  He is also wonderful with the kids.  You can tell he really cares about teaching them how to play ball and did I mention the patience he has with those little kids.  "D" had some great hits and it was fun to watch him playing 2nd and short stop.  Thanks for letting me come and watch.

A father and son moment on the field

I love this picture of Damon...it's priceless!

The Cattle Drive

After working on the fence for the last two weeks (not me...but Wayne, Daniel, Wyatt, Randy, TaNeal, Kenzie, Haylee, Taite, Dominic and Tailar)...and we are talking about a fence that surrounds 300 acres of field...the day finally arrived to move the cows.  Let me make it perfectly clear that I am not a cowboy and driving cattle from one field to another doesn't make my day!  But I knew I wasn't going to be able to talk my way out of it.  The really sucky part was that I missed both the 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock showings of "Days" today!!!!  Anyway, TaNeal and the kids came over and it was off to the field to begin the cattle drive.  The hour Randy promised me it would take turned into 3 hours and since driving the old truck was killing my leg, I traded TaNeal places.  She drove the truck and I rode the 4 wheeler a little and walked alot!!  Thank heavens those big old cows and their babies are safely tucked away on 300 acres of yummy grass...which hopefully means we won't have to move them for a while!!

It's amazing what 7 people, 4 4-wheelers and an old truck

can do in 3 hours.  This is the crew at the end of the trail.

TaNeal and the old brown truck

I think it's been about 40 years since my last pair of boots and

after walking for two hours in these...I think they are now

offically "broke in".  Thanks Amy for wearing them to work in the garden!  I would have had blisters on my feet if you hadn't!!

You've been FLOCKED!!

This morning as I was backing out of the driveway to head to baseball games, I looked over and saw a bunch of plastic flamingos in my front yard and was wondering what the heck was going on.  Then I noticed a pink note taped to my front door.  The note read..."by request you've been flocked...A flock of Flamingos has migrated to your yard...for immediate removal call Shelby (your local migration specialist). 

Shelby is trying to raise money to go to Australia as a student ambassador with the People to People organization.  This has got to be the most creative fundraiser I have ever seen!!  For $10 she would come and remove the birds from your yard...for $15 she would remove the birds and have them migrate to a yard of your choice...and for an extra $5 you could purchase Flamingo insurance to guarantee the flamingos never migrate back to your yard.  Now is that cute or what.  Needless to say I paid the $20 for the birds to go to a neighbors yard and bought the insurance!  I just wish those poor little birdies would have had a beautiful green lawn to land on...maybe I need to do my own fundraiser :-)

Dominic and Tailars last game

When you have 11 grandkids, there is always something going on.  It was my first chance to make it to watch Dominic and Tailar play ball.  Dominic is in kid pitch now and Tailar plays T-ball.  With all the rain they were playing the last of their makeup games.  What a beautiful sunny day to spend with family watching baseball.  After the games we headed to Applebee's for Daniel's birthday lunch.  Thanks for letting me come visit!

Dominic looks like he's really into the game

Batter up!

I love this picture of Tailar tossing the bat!!

Guarding 3rd base.  Don't you like the pink mitt?!

Bowling Buddies

This week was the beginning of the kids summer vacation.  I was feeling like a little bowling, so I called my grandkids to see if they wanted to go with me and of course they said yes.  It's been a while since I've thrown a ball down the alley...the last time ended with a trip to the emergency room with a pinched nerve in my back.  But I have an awesome new chiropracter who can fix me up if that happens :-).  My first game was so bad I told the kids we were going to play another round just so I could redeem myself!  My score for the second game was 121 (I won't even mentioned what it was for the first game!!) I can see that I need a lot more practice!!  While we were eating lunch, Logan leaned over and said "Thank you Granny for the fun adventure"...aren't grandkids awesome!!!

Our next stop was Roy's Pizza for some lunch

Then a stop to Wal-Marts vision center so TaNeals kids could say hi