Murder She Wrote

Dalanie scored this typewriter at a garage sale. She was pleased as punch with her $1 purchase and couldn't wait to get home and start using it. It's been perched on nearly every table in the house so as to be accessible any time she gets the urge to type. We may have a writer on our hands, but then again, maybe a mathematician since she refers to the typewriter as her "number thingy."


I had to give Dalanie a crash course on typewriters and it made me remember all the time we would mess around with my Grandma Parish's typewriters. She had quite a few. Somehow the keys responded best to her strong fingers. It took a direct hit from a deliberately pointed finger to get a letter to show up on the paper for me.

Shirtless Summer Supper

The heat prompted the removal of shirts.The removal of shirts led to some silliness with the hose.And the entire evening ended with them eating dinner without their shirts.Fine by me, we could hose them and the patio off again.

You're only a kid once and the summer only lasts so long.

First for the First Grader

Since we drove the 'red-eye' route home from Powell, I was a bit concerned for Hudson's first day of school. But he jumped out of bed like a champ and found himself waiting for the school bus. Lucky for me so I could get a picture or two.Then came Bus #7, exactly 10 minutes earlier than last year. It picked him up and whisked him away to school. The rest of the day was filled with questions like "When will Hudson be home? How much longer?" by his adoring fan, Dalanie.

Finally, we heard the bus squeal to a stop and off got this confident first grader.
The heat and long day pretty well wiped him out. He wanted dinner and then to go to bed.

A week and a half later and we are still trying to get in the school groove. School nights are rather short by time he does homework, eats, and play for a bit. But I think having Fridays off makes up for the longer school days.

Garden Joys

I enjoy having the kids work beside me in the garden, pulling weeds and hauling them to the chickens. It provides for some neat teaching opportunities. This year I decided Hudson and Dalanie were old enough to have their own plots. They planted them and have been responsible for getting them weeded.
Hudson planted some pumpkins in the bottom of a deep hole. I told him they would never grow. He sobbed "I'm a horrible gardener! I don't know how to plant them." It was a good reminder that even though they have helped plant in the past, they still need some help. And then there are some that refuse help and plant their peas side by side.
You can see from the face, he was very upset with how overgrown his garden had become.They will volunteer to pick their peas or cuts some of their lettuce for dinner.

Final Summer Fling

My BIL & SIL presented us with an opportunity that we couldn't pass up. Never mind that Hudson was supposed to go back to school and that I had just finished EPIC. We packed things up, pawned Ruby off, and headed south for one amazing experience at Lake Powell. Tracy picked us up at the Bull Frog dock and boated us back to the house boat at sunset with the music cranked and warm air blowing through our hair.
We had an amazing camping site in a secluded cove, surrounded by 300' cliffs. We were greeted with good food and good company before a late night swimming party. We were going down the slide, jumping off rocks, and playing football in the dark. . . and it was still hot! We all crashed on the top deck, a big communal bed rubbing ice all over trying to cool down. It's hard to describe the atmosphere. . . it's magical. Kids don't fight and they entertain themselves. Well. . . until they're so exhausted they get a little grouchy, but still.

We swam, caught lizzards, played behind the boat (surfing, wake boarding, tubing) fished, hiked, played in the sand, and swam some more. There's no doubt about it, Lake Powell makes you tough. You get to try new things and stretch yourself. The kids did amazing. We finally convinced them to try everything once. They didn't have to do it more than once, but they had to try it. And once they did something, they didn't want to stop. By the end of the trip Hudson was scaling up rocks and jumping off, Dalanie was jumping in the water and swimming by herself, and they were both EZ skiing.

It was such a happy ending to a great summer.

A tough hike that separates the men from the boys. Despite the rough start where about 5 of the kids were crying, we got through it and had a great time.

Hole in the Rock

Feeding $4 icecream to the sucker fish at Dangling Rope Marina

Rainbow Bridge

Man alive, these kids loved to fish. They took all the leftovers to bait their hooks. Steak was the preferred bait. The last night there, they kept reeling the catfish in.

AArgh! Ahoy mateys, land ho!