Some exciting things that happened yesterday

Camryn's last day of school - Can you spot her?
She is excited and nervous and just a little bit sad to be leaving Ms. L.B., who has been such a great teacher.  Some of her good friends will be making the transition to Aprende' Junior High, but some she will never see again. 

Treyson took 3rd place at the Pinewood Derby last night !  Way to go Treyson !!  Afterwards, they came up to visit, and show off his trophy, and we were watching Payson and Brightyn and making No Bake Cookies, so it was a great fun busy loud crazy time in the kitchen with the family.  I LOVE IT !!

Celebrity Newscasters

Treyson is in 3rd grade, and had to do a book report - his first !  He was so excited, and did such a great job.  Boy book reports are surely different than when I was a young girl.  How fun is this !  He got 40/40.  Way to go Treyson !

Now Tagg couldn't be left out of the action, and boy does this young man know a lot about dinosaurs !!  He is going to be a Paleontologist when he grows up.  He is amazing.




And of course Thatcher - wants to be just like his big brothers :)

Graduation from 5th grade

6 years ago - this was the first day of Kindergarten at Kyrene Del Soreno' Elementary School in Chandler Arizona.  Such a cutie.  

1st Grade picture

2nd Grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade



And now - this is a picture from yesterday at her Graduation  from Elementary School !  The years have passed by so fast !  In August she will go to Apprende' Junior High.



Such a sweetie, with her own unique brand of style !  She loves Converse :)
We love you Cam !

Random

France (the goat), apparently likes to use Miss Piggy as her mobile food truck !

Caught this cool pic last night about 6:20 pm.  The storm was just rolling in through Hardscrabble.  It took me about 50 shots to capture the lightning.  Soon after this, it was a downpour, and just a quickly, it had moved out and the sky was clear over Hardscrabble.  I should have taken a picture then, to show the contrast 30 minutes makes. 

Zac and the boys were working on Pinewood Derby cars in the shop.

Wish I could have gotten this on video.  Treyson and Tagg were standing together, and Thatch came around, tried to see on one end..........moved to the other end, still couldn't see, and then squished himself in between the two, muscleing his way in to see just what was going on.  

Hardscrabble Creek causes flooding at the Property

They announced in the 5th ward this morning that Hardscrabble Creek was flooding at Steve and Loraine Smith's property.  Dad wondered how that would affect the Welch Ditch Dam at our Property...................

We weren't there to see it flooding, but we sure saw the aftermath :(
They put the dams (for the ditches) in early this year because they knew there would be no Spring runoff.  I guess the rainful we got yesterday wasn't expected, and boy the creek is UP !!

You can't really tell, but that is MUD, all over the rocks in the pit.  This whole area was totally flooded, up over the bridge and everything.  Notice the water is dark reddish brown, just like chocolate milk. 

The dam backed up with debris, overflowed the banks, and came across and through the bowery, leaving mud everywhere. 

The cables holding the dam both broke, and one end of the dam shifted, almost off its cement moorings.   One side finally busted through (or maybe it was removed by the trackhoe, (we aren't sure) allowing the waters to subside. 

You could see the aftermath, see the brown down in the middle of grass a the far end?  That is mud........

Not good - not good at all.  I don't know how the ditch company is going to fix this.  What a mess. 

Since the forecast calls for more rain this week, I'm not sure how our Memorial Day will shape up.  It may still be too wet to do much of anything.  

Take a look (click here) at prior flooding in 2011 - it was worse today at the property than it was then !!

Rainy Marathon

Roger and I took the little boys down to watch Zac finish the Ogden Marathon.  Just like two years ago, it was rainy rainy rainy.  Here is the post from two years ago when he ran the half.  

Mom and Dad came too !

We tried to keep Thatcher out of the gutters, and under the umbrella, but by the end he was totally soaked, head to toe.  He didn't complain one bit though, even though he had to be cold !

Finally at the 3 hour 50 minute mark, he finished !!
It was long, and cold, and hard, and cold, and rainy, and cold.  He said for the first 3 miles it was beautiful, then the rain started in.  

At the beginning - there was hope that it might turn out with no rain......  (I totally stole this picture and the picture below from FB)

He said as he crossed the Pineview Dam he seriously thought about calling us on his cell, and having us come up over Trapper's and pick him up.  He was so cold.  Zac would much rather run in 100 degrees than the cold. 

He was sure glad to have a warm dry sweat shirt that we brought him at the end.  He was shaking so bad, and his hands looked like he had soaked in a bathtub for HOURS, they were so swollen yet shriveled at the same time.

Yea !!  Glad it was over !!  This may be his last marathon............he may stick to halfs from now on..........

T-ball is Terrific

Payson had to really really be talked into playing.  I think it was a "shirt" thing.  He sat out the first "up to bats", but when his team took the field, he ran out to hang with Thatcher.  I stole this picture from Grandma Carol's facebook, because my camera died :(

Thatcher was pretty excited - he is such a goof !

Dusty Rock is their coach, and I think Adam Walker is helping.  They are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  They line up to bat in their jersey number order.  Payson is #1 and Thatcher is #3.  Payson hit the ball the second go around, and ran to first !!

This is before he was ready to go in.  Grandpa Roger and Kacey did their best to try and talk him into it. 

But Mom..........

Here is Thatcher's first up to bat.  He hit the ball so hard, that the other team got their hands on it before HE COULD !!  How do you like the throw down on the helmet??  haha.  His second up to bat, the ball didn't go as far, so he threw down his bat, and ran and grabbed the ball.  T-ball is SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH !!


And here is Payson !!  He knows right where to run :)

Red Cliffs National Conservation Area

Just 5 minutes off the Leeds exit is a wonderful place to stop and take a hike.  The entrance fee is only $5.00 per car.  We parked near the trail head, and hiked probably 1/2 a mile to 3/4 of a mile. It only took an hour.  It was beautiful.

Roger D. was very happy that I didn't "make" the request to drive one hour into Zions, pay $25.00 entrance fee, and then hike at least 2 hours (to make it worth our while), then drive 1 hour BACK to I-15.  He was a good sport :)



I was sure hoping that rock didn't decide to fall.........



There were a few pools of water, but no running water because of the dry winter/spring.  None of the pools were as bad as the one we had to wade through on our Subway hike in 2002.  We didn't wade through these either, just skirted around them.

All I could keep thinking was, wouldn't the grandkids LOVE this ??  I think we definitely need to stop here again with them.

If you are headed to or past St. George, this 1 hour BREAK is definitely a good one.

A little Arizona trip

We made one of our twice yearly trips to Arizona to visit family this past weekend.   As usual, we drive to Las Vegas and spend the night on Thursday (and on Sunday coming back).  We've found a new FAVORITE place to stay.  Downtown Grand, in the old part of town.  From here, it is a short one block walk to Fremont Street, and multiple restaurants, casinos, souvenir shops, activities, bands, etc.  The hotel is very very nice, and very reasonably priced.  This picture is under the canopy at Fremont Street Experience.  It is quite the "experience", and we saw many sights !  Some scandalous !!!

The reason for our visit was THIS GIRL'S birthday celebration (a few days early:)
She is turning 11 years old.  Isn't she beautiful ?

LOVE this pic !
Me, Cam, Manda

Why do you always scowl???
Look at those LINES between your beady eyes !!

Oh Grandpa !!

MUCHO better :)
Love ya !!



Our girls



Cam's wall.  We went to Home Dept and got a pre-made shelf and hangers, and got it mounted, so she would have somewhere for all of her "books" that we made/gave her.  See them on the shelf?  She's got quite a few !!

Cam Claussen (with Cam Schutt photo bombing :)

Isabella (Cam's best friend) came with us to Texas Roadhouse for a birthday celebration dinner.  Then they had a sleepover too.  She is a great friend, very polite and kind. 

Elle came too, with Mitch and Therese.  Such a cutie :)
Marvin and Jessica came also.  I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone :(

On the famous SADDLE at Texas Roadhouse, the birthday girl gets a ride.  It was pretty embarrassing for her.  Don't we just love that ??

Outside of Bren and Manda's home (with Cam and Manda in the background) Those trees are a lemon and orange tree, and MAN do they produce the best fruit.

This is their rental home which they are getting ready to sell.  They have been getting it fixed up and renovated for the past few months, and it will go on the market soon. 

Selfie!   We traveled out EAST to the Santan Valley to go to a Peach Festival, but it was so crowded on the country roads that we couldn't even get close !  We decided to bag it, and had lunch and went back home.

The kids were good in the car.  That is what you get with almost teenagers compared to little ones.  Kinda nice :)

Cam's been doing chores both around the yard, and in other yards in order to earn money.  He has become quite the entrepreneur.

Camryn has been going to a volleyball camp for a few weeks.  They are learning the basics. 

She is hoping to try out and make the team at her new Junior High, which starts up August 3rd.  She will be in 6th grade.
It was a great trip, and now it's back to real life at home.