It's Always Fun When Grandpa/ma Comes

The kids excitedly anticipate any visits with Grandma and Grandpa.  We appreciate the effort my parents make in being a part of our children's lives.

Fancy Nancy walking her dog

 Earlier in the growing season, Grandpa mentioned that he would love some of the indian corn Dalanie was raising in her garden.  Here she is making good on her promise, although it was really hard for her to decide which corn she was willing to part with.

There are races to be had and tricks to be shared.  "Watch the hand" has become a favorite between Hudson and Grandma.

Prepped for a parts run to Jerome, with the promise of stopping in Burley.

My childhood stomping grounds have become a magical and special place for my kids to visit.  Whether it's chasing the chickens, picking some sort of fruit, wandering the gravel pits, or helping in Grandpa's shop, the visits never seem long enough.

Happy Fall Y'all

This kids love picking pumpkins.  We had a few whoppers this year that Hudson and I had to get loaded in the wagon.  

 Our loaded wagon.

 A little mishap.  The pin was missing from the "dump" trailer.  Of course Hudson chastised me for not having one it.  The kids stood there in disbelief wondering what we were going to do.  It was funny to me since we had just loaded all of the pumpkins, surely we could haul them up to the house.  A kind neighbor, Ed Hunter stopped to help us.  I think it was purely out of sympathy for me being pregnant, but we appreciated the help.

 There was a potato decorating contest as part of our ward harvest party.  Ruby adored her little potato baby, Dalanie painted up one "cool" penguin, and Hudson affixed a "temple" to the top of his celestial spud.

 I made these props for the harvest party.  Good thing the kids had fun playing with them at home since we never made it to the photo booth the night of the party.

On The Move: Monteview

Once we were finished chopping in Grace, it was time to head up north to Monteview for our big job.  (We had 600 acres of corn and 1,000 acres of hay to chop.)

Thank goodness I had Hudson around to help me get things packed into the camping trailer.  He is getting stronger and becoming quite handy to have around.

Temperatures kind of took a nose dive while we were there.  It became especially critical to get the crops harvest in a timely matter before they lost too much moisture from the frosts.

A cold wind was blowing out of the north, stirring up all sorts of dust and holding us hostage in the trailer for the first two days.

That made for plenty of time for being silly, getting pretty with sticker earrrings, crafts, old movies, and coloring on the walls.

Hudson was responsible for pulling samples of the silage, weighing it out, putting them on the Koster tester, and recording the results of the moisture.  He was happy for the responsibility and did a great job.  Somehow the 4-wheeler got involved in every job he was asked to do.

It was a group effort to get the lunches assembled and delivered, and one that the kids took quite seriously.  We would watch for trucks to come and meet them at the scale with their lunch.  On more than one occasion, Dalanie or Hudson would run in frantically demanding a lunch for an incoming truck driver.

In honor of spud harvest, Hudson thought we needed to make twisted taters.

Since we were camped near the pit, we got to watch the tractors work pushing and packing an ever growing pile of silage.

The funnest part of the entire trip was watching all the elk.  Last year there were a few, but this year because of drought and fire there were over 20 that we pushed out of fields.  Admittedly, my point and shoot's zoom is not up to much, but there are two bulls between the pivot towers in the picture below.

Dalanie was obsessed with all the wildlife and wanted to be in the chopper as much as possible so she could see "the most."  As of late, everything has become a competition with that girl, "the first, the best, the most."  She enjoyed the cottontail rabbits, white tail deer, and elk equally.

The area had an open hunt for cow elk with a tag.  The farmer/rancher was happy for anyone to come and hunt on his place as the elk are a big nuisance to his operation.  We called and invited Dad up with a pretty sure promise that he could shoot and elk.  It was the highlight of our week to have Mom and Dad up.  The kids were excited to be a part of the hunt.  Hudson buddied around with Grandpa and helped with the elk "carcass."

 Mom crafted and snuggled with the girls.  What could be better than snuggling with Grandma and eating chocolate?

They got in on the lunch assembly line and later in the day, Dad got thrown in a truck to drive for a few loads.  It was fun to have them involved and see what our harvest operation is like.