The view from our back yard.

Another Fire

Yes, we've survived our second fire in as many years.  This one was different in that it was not as close to our home. It wasn't like the fire two years ago that barreled down our mountain right towards us, and gave my children nightmares for months after.  That fire only burned a few homes, and no one we knew.  This fire was further to the west, but burned right through the yards of several of my friends from the Arts Council.  One friend was decorating for her daughter's wedding reception when the thirty foot flames blew towards their house. What a blessing, she said on facebook, that so many people were there because of the reception to dig fire lines and douse their home with water. 

My friend Julie's house

So while farther away, this fire was also close to home for us.   Today in church, a policeman told of the fire sweeping across a field towards the subdivision he was evacuating.  He saw the vinyl fence barrier melt as the flames licked closer and ran towards his truck for his life, then the wind suddenly shifted and the fire blew away, sparing all the homes.  He felt in his heart that it was the prayers of the people that saved the homes.

My friend Debra's house is the one in the middle front.

In the end, four homes were lost.  My friends were all safe but three of them lost their yards and outbuildings.  It gave special meaning to us today, in church, when we sang the Star Spangled Banner together - the feeling that, as a community, we are there for each other - that we are in this together.

No More Teachers

This week was Ruth and Jared's final week of school.  For Ruth this was her big graduation from elementary school.  She is looking forward to middle school and the first long summer break of her life.  Thanks to our year-round system, Jared will be going back to school at the end of the month.  He's excited to have a fresh start with a new teacher, as he has struggled with his teacher this year.

Finishing the Float

We had a big push this week to finish our Days of 47 float.  I hadn't worked on it for a few days, so when I went to work on Saturday I was so impressed and happy to see how wonderful it looked! Our float makes it's debut on Tuesday night in the city parade.  We are excited but also trepidatious that the transporting of it will damage it.  There are a couple of weeks between the parade and the preview where our float will be on public display and will be judged that we will have to repair and improve it.

Kaitlin panning for gold with her friend Susan.

Youth Conference

Kaitlin spent several days at a youth conference with her church group.  They went camping and spent a day at This is the Place Pioneer Village, doing service and learning about pioneer life. She got to pan for gold, rake weeds and go on a hike to a waterfall, among other things, and reports that she had a great time.

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.

This is Kaitlin. Hey. Sup. How's it goin'? I'm the guest blogger this week, I guess.

Kaitlin's photo on the advertizing poster.

So this week, firstly we went to my Photography Showcase at my school. It was nicely set up, with all the pictures matted or nicely framed around my school media center. There was happy guitar music and tasty cookies at the end. A bunch of kids got awards, but I didn't, and that's cool. One judge voted for me. :) But a couple of kids have told me they loved my pictures and I told them that if they remind me on the last day of school, I'll give my photos to them, buuut I seriously doubt that any of 'em will remember. hehe

What else? Well, since this next week is the last of school for me, we had our end of year assemblies and all that jazz. They announced that next year, not only will we have a bronze mustang statue put up in the commons, but we are also gonna have sleep-in Fridays! Yay! I love sleep-in Fridays! But they also said we're going to have 3 lunches instead of 2, which means that there is even less of a probability that I'll be in lunch with my friends. Then again, I don't like my friends, so maybe it's all a blessing. :) The teachers flat out told us not to show up next week, since it's Tuesday through Friday and everybody sluffs anyway, but I always go. I show up and tell the teachers to "Please teach me something so I can learn!" But they roll their eyes and I end up cleaning. It's fun anyways. I'm looking forward to it.

Yesterday we went to Planet Play, the fam and I. It's this little fun center about what, 25 minute drive away from our house?  We walked in and we were all pretty much thinking the same thing: 'This is going to be soooo lame...' but after two games of black light mini-golf, we went and ate at this super amazing all-you-can-eat buffet, and the food was never-ending and surprisingly delicious! I mean, have you ever had barbeque pizza? Me neither, but its probably the most wonderful food I've ever eaten in my life. And there was a slushie machine, and I think everyone in my family had at least 3 of those little slushie cups.
After we ate, we went and played some arcade games, which generally, I don't enjoy. Also, I'm not very good at them. But we played everything from throw-the-balls-at-the-screen to step-on-the-button-when-it-glows (Which we dominated. I'm talking like, 60 tickets per game. Of course, it was considered a "toddler game" in the little kid section, but whatever! :D) So that turned out to be really fun.

Waiting in line for laser tag.

And we did laser tag, and it was Ruth and Jared's first time. Our whole family was the blue team, and everyone else was the red team. As my mom said, "It's the Barnums against everyone else." Needless to say, we won. Dad won, actually. He had the most points of everyone. I always feel really ninja during laser tag, because you have the vest, and the gun, and you're trying to shoot everyone but be sneaky at the same time. I was trying to be real spyish and hid behind stuff and shoot people in the back. That's fun. I wish we could play laser tag whenever we wanted. Like, have a fun center in the basement? Yeah, yes? Potential remodeling plan? haha

Hmmm...uhm, Jared got his karate suit this week. He wears his belt with his stripes on it pretty much every day. Except today. I just looked over there and he's not wearing it today. Weird. His karate suit is pretty cute. I like it. Jared also got these suspenders to wear with his Sunday clothes!! SO. CUTE. All he needs is a little newsies hat to wear with it! I love it!



Oh, and lately we've all been talking about names. I have a problem with my name in that firstly, no one knows how to spell it, and secondly, there are bunches of Kaitlyns and Kaitlynns and Caitlins and Kaitlins everywhere, and I don't feel original. So we've been talking about things to change my name to. I don't like Kate, and mom says I'm definitely not a Katie, so this week we've been trying Kay. And it's not working. But it was cool to think about, because then we'd have Jared Jewelers (♫ It can only be Jaareeedd! ♪),  Kay Jewelers ( ♪ Every kiss begins with Kayy ♫), and....Ruth. Which is not a jewelry store. So then we decided to change her name to Fred. Don't ask me why. I guess Fred is a jeweler? :P But if you care to know, Jared wants to be called either Zane or Jay, and Ruth wants to be called Rue as in the Hunger Games (or street in French. Rue is street in French. Fact of the Day.), and I...still need a catchy nickname. Hit me up if you have any ideas.

Our Week in Pictures

I had a great birthday this year. Ruth and Jared are still off-track so we spent the day together. Chuck brought home pizza and we finished the night with Kaitlin's choir concert. I got a new shirt and a new laptop (as mine had been acting up).

Kaitlin did great in her end of the year choir concert.  She is looking forward to being in the advanced choir next year.

I made these eagle wings and this owl hat for our cub scout Arrow of Light Ceremony this week. It's fun when you get a chance to do something truly creative like this. I'll also wrote the ceremony. I'll put a link to it below.

I played the role of the Bobcat in our Arrow of Light Presentation.  The two boys are my last Webelos who both got their Arrow of Light that night.

Jared's been pretty bored during off-track, so in addition to swimming lessons, we've tried to stay busy with some projects. Jared built a 5 foot tall K'nex Roller Coaster and also made these "boppers" out of pool floats and PVC pipe.

After a long morning of weeding and mulching the flower beds, we took Ruth and Jared to see "Avengers" at the movies.  We loved it.

On my birthday I took Jared to buy all new Sunday clothes as he had grown out of his.  As we were leaving he asked if I would also buy him some suspenders.  Well, who could resist?  Isn't he a handsome kid? (no he didn't lose a leg, it's the photo angle)

Today we are got ready for the solar eclipse by by building a pinhole projector. It works pretty well and we only have to wait a couple more hours.

Here is a link to the Arrow of Light Ceremony that I wrote.  For those that don't know, in Cub Scouts, the Arrow of Light is the highest award that a boy earns before he moves on to Boy Scouts. So it's a pretty big deal.