Sweet 16 Kaitlin

Yes, it's true. Kaitlin turned 16 this week.  She spent half the week at her Dad's house where she got a huge surprise party with dancing and everything. At our house on Saturday she had a co-party with her friend Rachael who just lives a few houses away.  Her family hosted half the party where they served dinner and played water games, and then they all came to our house for smores and cake. After last year's cake success,  Kaitlin and I had fun trying to make a tiered fondant cake.  It turned out cute and the party was a lot of fun. 

Almost There

We have one week to go on our Days of 47 Float. After several failed attempts on the sheep bodies they've decided on a style and are welding them.  Our pioneer lady's head is finished and the sheep heads only need painting. This week I got to  make huge glittered yarn balls.  Ready or not, our float is supposed to make its premier in a town parade this weekend. 

 
Last Week of School

This week Ruth and Jared were very busy in school with doing important things like: building a solar oven and making nachos, building a catapult, doing science experiments, building and launching a rocket, learning German.   And next week will be even busier with events such as: field day,  teacher student softball, and clean the tote trays day.

Happy Father's Day

Microwaved soap mountain.

Today, for Father's Day, Chuck was treated to a Jared sandwich special: three pieces of bread with ham, cheese, pepperoni and banana peppers.   We celebrated the rest of the day by playing computer games together, blowing up Ivory soap in the microwave, eating ice cream and watching the movie Courageous.  We're so blessed to have a great dad like Chuck. He always puts our family first and works hard for us.


Float Update

I spent quite a few hours this week putting the final touches on the screening of the rocking chair and spinning wheel.  They had someone else finish the wheel and the next day they emailed me and asked me to come and 'fix' it.  I did, and then Chuck and I went back over the weekend and cleaned them up and put on a few patches.  While we were there working the other group came in and started laying down the first of the floral sheeting.  All this time our float has just been an ugly frame. It was fun to watch the color start to go on.



Let the Summer Begin

Kaitlin finished off Driver's Ed and now just needs to do three drive-alongs and then she can take the driver's test and get her license.  We aren't sure how long it will take for her to get scheduled for her drive-alongs but we hope it will be soon.  So now that summer school is done, Kaitlin can enjoy a few days off before the next big events in her busy summer - her 16th birthday.  That's right, Kaitlin turns sweet 16 on Wednesday.  We are co-hosting a big party for her on Saturday.

Driver's Ed

Kaitlin started her vacation with summer driver's ed.  Luckily, she has several friends in the class; that has helped it be more fun for her.  However, she said driving in circles for 2 hours at 6am is not fun.



City Days

Every year our city sponsors Touch-a-Truck where they park city vehicles, police cars, fire trucks and military vehicles in a field and let us clime all over them.  This year there was a big helicopter there and we got to watch it take off.  It kicked up quite a wind! 

Saturday morning was our town parade. It was better and bigger than past years. It was fun to see several floats in the parade that I had seen in the construction phase (because of my float building training).  Jared and Ruth got tons of candy.  

That night we went to the "Enduro Challenge".  We had never heard of enduro cross, so we looked it up on the internet.  It consists of motorcycles driving around a track covered with logs, rocks and pipes.  It was the first race of its kind in our area, and it was open to anyone willing to pay the fee.  We went in the afternoon to watch the practice runs.  It was a scene of carnage. Each new group was just wrecks and getting stuck.  It was one of the most entertaining things we've ever seen. The UTV class was our favorite. I posted a video we made of the event on YouTube

Float Update

This weekend we saw two other stake floats in the city parade.  That means two other groups that were asked to make floats are done, and we aren't even close.   I was able to finish screening the rocking chair and I started work on the spinning wheel and got that half done.  I took the weekend off, so I'm interested to see the progress that has been made

.

Memorial Day

On Monday we drove up to the farm to celebrate Memorial Day with the family.  We visited the cemetery where many of my family is buried and left flowers. Afterwards we had a nice lunch and enjoyed visiting and hanging out together.  Exciting happenings included, Kaitlin being grateful that she didn't fly into the barbed wire, Uncle Mark's 4 wheeler getting driven into the canal, and a debate on whether veggi sticks are tasty or gross.   I took a bunch of pictures but now I can not find them and have to assume they were deleted from the camera.  Just imagine in your mind's eye a picture of the children reverently standing beside a grave, flowers in hand, listening attentively as grandma tells them of their great ancestors, an American flag waves gently in the breeze in the background. Yeah, that's what happened all right!


Take Me Out to the Ball game -or- My Best Friend Orrin

On Friday we drove into the city to see the Bees play, a minor league baseball team.  Our tickets were courtesy of our good friend Orrin Hatch, and included a seat in the outfield and food vouchers for hotdogs and drinks.  None of us really like baseball, but we decided to go for the experience since we've never been.  We ended up having a great time.  The Bees won and we even got to chat with Senator Hatch and get our family's picture taken with him (picture to come).   In addition to the occasional moments of excitement that the game provided, we also enjoyed rapping about cinnamon almonds, throwing paper airplanes and going to treats at Winco after the game.



Working on the Float

 On Saturday, Chuck took the kids to the ribbon cutting of our new section of highway that was just finished.  It was a big deal with a fun run and booths and free stuff.  The kids came home with tales of free snow cones and cotton candy, free frisbees, water bottles and backpacks.

Kaitlin glued her hand together.

 Meanwhile, I started the screening of the rocking chair on our Days of 47 float.  In the afternoon Chuck and Kaitlin came to join me.  It's an interesting process.  You wrap aluminum screen over a metal frame, and then glue and shape it to fit exactly.  Once sticky and gluey you mold and stretch the screen so it's tight like a skin.  The glue (95$ a gallon) is like rubber cement on steroids and sticks to your hands, and tools and everything. 

Chuck used his spacial skills to cut the pieces.

If you get it on your arms you can just kiss the hair goodbye.  And working with the aluminum is like working with a thousand little needles and then those little needles get glued to your skin... anyway, you get the picture.   It was certainly an adventure and we kept a good attitude and had a fun time doing it.  We got the chair about half done.  The next step is to paint it.

You can follow the progress of the float at my float blog HERE.