Sick Kids...

I took Melissa & Ava to the doctor today. I know Ava has an ear infection because she has tubes and her ear is draining. Melissa doesn't have a full blown infection but it's starting so the doc put her on a z-pak. He put Ava on chewable amoxicillin and of course she doesn't like them. So I dissolve them and make her take it from a syringe. It never fails that she is sick when she's supposed to start or finish school. She was out the last two weeks of school because she had an ear infection and was so sick. In fact she lost 3 pounds and still hasn't put it back on. She's so skinny. The summer has been good...no sickness until now. William seems to be doing good. At least Ava will be on antibiotics long enough that it's okay to send her to school. She starts on the 2nd.

This weekend some of my family is coming. We are going to bottle some tomatoes, peaches, pickles, and hopefully green beans if we can find some. Rose is coming Thursday so we'll start before the rest (Melissa, Trisha & her family, Lance & Natalie, and my cousin Brooke and her family)get here on Friday. I've had the canning bug since I moved here but so far I haven't convinced Nathan to help me plant a garden. I have a pressure cooker, and water bath canner so I'm equipped but I just don't have the produce. Luckily there are farmers markets and friends that are willing to share. I'll have to take pictures and post next week. Until then, have a great Labor Day weekend.

So busy!

I feel bad I haven't posted for so long. We have had a crazy busy week. We just finished hosting a lunch for Mining Days here in Marysvale. We put on a smoked barbeque in the park. It was fun but a little stressful. It's the first Mining Days so we didn't know how many people to plan for. We overplanned a little but at least there was enough. Most of Nathan's family showed up for the festivities. They were all a great help. We're glad they all could make it. Nathan had a bunch of trail rides and we had a few guests in the cabins. Nathan also had an Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday. It was his first to conduct. It went well. He did a good job on his remarks. He is doing so good in scouts. I think all the boys really like him. I'm counting the days until preschool starts...Sept. 2nd. I can't wait to send Ava and William. I need a little break. I hope William likes it. Today was the first day of regular school. They only went a half day because the power was out. It was only supposed to be out for 8 hours but ended up being 12 hours. It wouldn't have been so bad except our pump on our well runs on our electricity so we didn't have power or water. I didn't realize how bored the kids get without tv. It's a lot of work to keep them entertained. Well not much else to report.

This is Nathan and I on a 50 mile ride on the Paiute Trail. We decided we would do that for our 10th anniversary/my birthday since we don't usually do much. It was so much fun but I was silly and didn't wear sunscreen. My arms fried. It was worth it though.

Old Friends

Well I guess this blogging thing is a good thing. I happened upon several old friends I haven't been in touch with for quite some time through other friends blogs. It is so great to catch up with all of them. I did notice that my posts are quite a bit longer than the posts on most peoples blogs so I'm mostly going to do pictures with captions from now on. Nobody wants to read the long sagas anyway:) So here are the latest pictures. Melissa has her mouth full as usual with a huge marshmallow. William and Ava are sitting in their favorite chair together. William by the haystack. One of our guests from Oregon took this picture. He has a knack for photography.

Melissa Walking

Well Melissa has started really walking this week. She was taking a few steps here and there but now she can make her way across the room. She has no fear of falling down. I think William has cured her of being scared of getting hurt. She has to defend herself from him. He was so good with her when she was real young...well not that he was real good with her, he just left her alone. Now he pushes her down, kicks her, takes things away from her, etc. She is pretty tough. She'll fight back and climb on top of him. I don't know if it's good she's learning how to fight this young but at least William gets a dose of his own medicine:) All three kids play pretty well. They all love to be outside. Melissa heads for the door whenever it's open. She does her best to get out before someone closes it. Then once she's out she crawls out to the asphalt and stands up next to the 4-wheeler barefoot. I guess she has Bunker feet. They sure aren't tender. That poses a problem because that's the only way I keep William on the front porch. He has tender feet and doesn't venture too far without shoes. I'm sure she'll just take off. We're having a nice, busy summer. People are coming all the time to stay in the cabins or ride horses. Nathan is extremely busy with all of that plus scouts. He leaves at sun up and comes home usually at or after dark. I can't wait for winter when I can spend more time with him again. I won't complain because I feel extremely blessed to live here in Marysvale.

We're looking forward to the festivities on the 23rd and 24th. I think people from both sides of our families are planning to come here. There's a scout dinner and fireworks on the 23rd and the parade, rodeo, and trout rodeo on the 24th. It was a lot of fun last year and I'm sure will be even more fun this year. We'll see some of you then.

4th of July Fun!

Happy Independence Day to everyone! We hope you all had fun. We sure did with the exception of a horrible migraine for me. I called in a refill on my prescription but the pharmacy was closed. I was down for much of the day but felt a little better in the evening. Berkley, Janet, and Whitney are here this weekend. We didn't have too much of a plan for the 4th because we had people coming to stay in the cabins so we had to stay around home to check them in. All of the parties showed up by mid afternoon and one family wanted to do some horse riding in the arena. They had a 4 year old boy that William really hit it off with. He rode the horse first, then his older brother, and finally his mom. His dad didn't want to ride. When they were done Nathan put William and Ava on the horse together and took them around the arena a few times. They had so much fun. The 4 year old boy left his bike helmet by the horses so William, Nathan, and I took it back to them. They were roasting marshmallows and invited William to roast some with them. So William had his first marshmallow roasting experience. He loved it. By the time we left he had marshmallow all over his hands and face. We got all the guests settled and then went for a ride around town. The only fireworks we saw was the neighbors below us. They had some pretty good ones. Lance and Natalie showed up later in the night. They came up to fish and spend some time with some of Natalie's family. It was nice to visit with them for awhile. I hope they had good luck fishing. I haven't heard yet. I'll have to call them. I guess it wasn't a typical 4th of July celebration but it was fun. Tomorrow is Sunday and all the guests are leaving. Nathan did two more trail rides today. The trail rides are pretty popular and we're happy about that. Not much else going on. Our next guests come on Wednesday as well as a group of scouts. There's never a dull moment around here!

Rose Ranch Fun!

These past two weeks we have been pretty busy with the Rose Ranch Resort. We've had several guests and Nathan & Berkley have guided several horse trail rides. Janet and Whitney came for a few days last week. It was nice to have them...sad to see them leave. I love having company so anytime they leave I go into a little depression because my life has to go back to the same old routine. I love my life don't get me wrong but it's really nice having other adults around. We had all 3 cabins rented out two weekends ago and then this weekend we have had 2 cabins rented out. One was a reservation and the other just called from a motel here and asked if we had anything available. They were looking more for the outdoorsy type place to stay. All who have stayed so far have been very impressed with the cabins and all want to come stay next year...in fact we booked the first group that rented all 3 cabins for next year already. Everyone that has done the horse trail rides have been really positive about it too. It has been great getting things finally started. The ranch is looking really nice. I need to go take some more pictures.

It's nice and hot here. We wondered if summer or even spring was ever going to come. It was so cold for so long, but now I'm missing the cold. I'm not a desert rat that's for sure. Friday we had a little barbeque here. Berkley smoked some beef, brisket, ribs, and chicken. Oh my how delicious it was. I made some baked beans, rolls and cobblers to go with it. Everyone we invited showed up and we had a great time. We just put some tables out on the lawn and ate outside. The weather was perfect. We'll have to do it again for a family reunion or do just another barbeque. I think the smoker was a great idea and hopefully we'll be able to offer dinners on the weekends at some point this summer.

Not much else to report. The kids are all healthy for once. Melissa got 4 teeth at once. She was pretty miserable for awhile. Ava is anxious to go back to school. Every morning she says "bye, bye" like she did before she got on the bus. I know she misses it. William is William. His entire day is trying to get out the front door. He wants to be outside constantly. He has rubber boots and they are the only shoes he knows how to put on by himself so that's what he wears. He also still likes to put on his beanie even though it's almost 100 degrees outside. Strange kid. Nathan is super busy. I don't see him too much anymore but that's good. It means things are going good. I have been getting a babysitter on the days the cabins need to be cleaned. It's a nice break for me even though it's still cleaning. I have a wonderful babysitter that can come at a moments notice. My nephews Josh and Jeremy Roemer have been working here this summer too. It's been fun having them around. They both have a good sense of humor. Sometimes they come and stay with my kids at night while I clean too. I've never had so many babysitters in my life. It's so great!

This is another way too long post so I'll go. Come visit us soon!