A P.S. TO JUNE

Who wouldn’t want to dress up and scare a bunch of teenagers?  Well, that’s exactly what we did, TWICE!  Okay, I’ll explain.  The Chesterfield town site (of which we only live 2 miles away) is a popular place for youth group pioneer treks.  They dress up as pioneers and take hand carts over the mountain and camp.  We (along with others from Chesterfield) dress up as mobsters and Native Americans and try to give them an authentic experience.  Now, don’t get worried. Their leaders actually asked us to do it and even planned it.  The mob was first.  As they lined up with their hand carts and got ready for their trek over the mountain, our mob came through, yelling at those “Mormons” to “get out of our town.”  Then we grabbed a boy (he knew it was coming), and tarred (chocolate syrup) and feathered him to reenact the tarring and feathering of Joseph Smith.  The next morning they were camped on the other side of the mountain.  We dressed up and painted ourselves and our horses as Native Americans and rode into their camp, trying our best to sound as they would have.  We took a few people a little more nicely than they would have kidnapped them, made them walk out of sight with us, and then let them go back to their camp.  We had fun being renegades, and were thanked for giving them two moving experiences! 

 Chris ready for the raid

JULY

I feel like we’ve been going a hundred miles an hour this month!  But then, isn’t July always a month for vacations and family reunions? Something we didn’t expect to be doing this summer is doctoring Cricket, Autumn’s young horse, every day.  Unfortunately, though, she must’ve gotten into some wire in late June and she really did a number on her knee.  However, we are happy to report that she is healing well and more quickly than we imagined, thanks to a miracle spray called Vetericyn (Seriously, if you ever have an animal with a wound, check this stuff out).  We’ve even seen her running around on it some!

Back to the family stuff, our month started with having Autumn’s 14-year-old nephew, Darin, come stay with us for two weeks.  Darin likes to come spend time on the farm whenever he can, and this year he was a great help with some projects, including tearing down an old fence and putting up a new one. It wasn’t all work, though. While Darin was with us, we enjoyed attending the Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher annual rodeo.  Here, Chris got to rope a couple calves in the team branding event, while Darin got to brand his team’s calf (with paint, of course).  However, Darin said his favorite part was catching chickens.   

 Dustin, Darin, Chris, and Shawn playing Ladder Ball

We also got to celebrate Independence day with Darin.  This was really a fun-packed day, starting with the 5K race in Soda, in which Autumn and Chris’s sister, Aubrey, participated.  Next, was the parade.  Darin said this was much better than his at home because there was so much more candy!  After the parade, we went to 24 mile reservoir for a picnic and some water fun.  Most of Chris’s family joined us, and we all enjoyed taking a turn in the canoe, raft, or tube.  For dinner, we went to a BBQ at some friends’ house , then we met back up with the family for fireworks in Lava Hot Springs.  The highlight of the fireworks this year was actually the glow-in-the-dark sticks a couple of us brought.  The kids had a blast with them! We had glow-in-the-dark jump-ropes, roping ropes, and even glowing kids! 

 Chris helping Rachael get candy during the parade. Darin chilling.

Darin, one of the kids, and Shawn at 24 mile reservoir

Glowing Rachael and Autumn!

We headed up to the Sawtooth Mountains the first weekend in July for a camping trip with Autumn’s family.  Activities included campfire visiting, a 3 mile hike (which actually turned out to be 9 miles), playing in the lake, and of course, eating.  While on the camping trip, we exchanged Autumn’s nephew for her sister’s two girls, and brought them home with us for a week.  With our nieces, we enjoyed horse-back riding, swimming, watching movies, and playing games.  When it was time to take the girls home, Autumn took the opportunity to stay with her parents for a week.  While at her parents’, Autumn helped her mom paint a room, engaged in some retail therapy, and caught up on some visiting with high school friends.

 Chris on our hike to Bridal Veil falls

 BEAUTIFUL scenery on our hike

 Hanging around the campsite

 Sydney's favorite part of her visit? John's puppy, Blue! Morgan watches from behind.

Finally, Autumn came home and things were back to normal. But only for one full day, because the next day we took off again, headed for Yellowstone with Chris’s family.  We travelled through Jackson Hole, Wyoming and got some great shots of the Tetons on the way there.  Then, we travelled through Yellowstone and on into Cody, Wyoming, where we stayed 2 nights.  While in Cody, we attended their famous “shoot-out,” explored the Buffalo Bill Museum, and toured the Buffalo Bill Dam.  On the third day of this vacation, we went back to Yellowstone, travelling on different roads to make sure we saw all the beautiful country.  We went into the park near Lamar Valley, hoping to see some wolves.  Well, there was one wolf who ventured out and crossed the road in front of the cars, and everyone got to see him.  That is, everyone except those in our car.  We were a bit behind the rest of our group and were disappointed at the next stop when we discovered they had all seen a wolf, but we had missed it. However, we did see a lot of bison, elk, and waterfalls.

 Chris and Shawn at Buffalo Bill Dam

 Artist Point

Even though we got home from Yellowstone late, Autumn, Chris’s sisters, and Chris’s aunt still got up early the next morning for the Pioneer Day 5K.  Our big accomplishment here was showing up late and still not finishing last!  Autumn and Aubrey also received medals for participating in 3 Caribou County 5K’s.  After the race, the rest of the family joined us for the parade.  Later, we attended the rodeo with Chris’s siblings.  Finally, the day ended with neighbors and a hot dog roast in the back yard.

Two days of normal activity (Chris has to work sometime!), and now we are off again for another family reunion.  This one is Chris’s mom’s family and so it’s back to Oregon we go.  When we get back, we’ll head right into the fair and finish July off and start August with it.  So stay tuned for August’s blog to see how the reunion, the fair, and the start of school pan out!