On the Farm with Poppa

This is just a fun sun shot. Ignore and move on...or admire. Heehee.



Little Dude has been waiting rather impatiently for Poppa to move the big hay wagon, certain that when it was moved he'd get a ride! So, after they fed the cows...on the quad...



Poppa hooked it up to the hay wagon and got ready to give them a ride.


A patriotic pic just for fun here. :)


Then we got ready for a night of camping. First and foremost was the preparation for a fire.


The boys happily carried wood to the fire pit, located next to a picturesque (though a bit low) pond.


I have a couple of videos but they are having issues loading right now, so stay tuned. :)

Beary Blue!

We went to pick blueberries.

MMMmmmm. I've never seen them so plump and big. It didn't take too long before we had a good couple of bucket fulls. Mom worked diligently and just about filled a bucket herself. I didn't work hard at all and had at least 1/2 a pail and Little Dude had a fair bit in his bucket too.

Munchkin didn't get any berries in the buckets, they led a steady line straight into his mouth. Grandma said she could hear him munching behind her.

I think he must have been a little bear in a previous life, he was so happy to be standing and picking berries and eating them!

Later that day we had some family over. I was tired and didn't bring out my camera soon enough. I did, however, catch some pictures of Little Dude trying to pull my Uncle, my 6'4'' tall Uncle. :)
He tried


And he tried


And tried some more...


Finally his Uncle had to give him a hand...

Wedding Bells

So our first big reason for this summer's vacation was the wedding of Big E's niece on July 17th. I got to go help set up the wedding and reception areas. It was kinda nice because the only weddings I've decorated for have been in an LDS chapel gym. The challenge there is to have enough decorations to make it look NOT like a gym. This is difficult and involves a great deal of work-we're talking hours. At a reception hall where things are already NOT like a gym it takes surprisingly a lot less time! A couple of hours and we were done! The bare bones of the place

were tasteful, we added a bit and voila!...it was ready for a wedding.

We had some help, and some decorations-a perfect mix!




This is the head table and the table for groomsmen and bridesmaids. Kinda like a king and queen and their court. The guests were seated across the dance floor on the other side. (I didn't actually get a picture of those...hmmm...must have been distracted.)


Here's the cake table, sans cake.


Sign in table....


Walk down the aisle...

(I got to pin on the little blue bow/curly ribbon things...they looked pretty cute.)

We had 6 special decorations created for the bride and groom that were placed on the walls around the reception hall...one right at the front by the podium...


Seriously, the next time I plan a huge party (my own wedding was a bit on the big side) I'm totally splurging for a reception hall....MAYBE even an event planner because boy can they help big time (as long as they're good).

We got ready at the farm and then drove in for the big party. As I post this I have to keep reminding myself that the picture I'm looking at is one of me 7 months pregnant on a wide screen that makes me look twice as wide as I hope I am in real life. *sigh* But, like I tell everyone who doesn't like their picture taken-"If we don't have pictures of you, it's like you weren't there!" So here is proof that I was there.


People arrived and visited while we waited for the ceremony to begin.


The children were entertained by one of their uncles.


And here is the beautiful (and absolutely delicious) wedding cake. Even though we couldn't stay right to the end, my mother in law kindly brought a sample home. Lip smacking good doesn't even begin to cover it.


When Munchkin saw the bride he called her a princess. I didn't bother to correct him-after all, today she was the princess!

Morpeth...and the Zoo

We decided the boys would have fun at a small zoo near-ish the farm. We certainly saw a variety of animals, I think the most amusing were the miniature goats, whom everyone took a turn feeding.









We didn't actually see them until the end. In true independent fashion we headed off on our own route through the maze of cages. Not realizing until part way through that these interesting duck signs on the cages were meant to guide you through the park! Ooops, oh well! We walked quite a bit that day, Poppa strolled with the stroller-snort, laugh. :)



Grandma was being smart about sun exposure and used an umbrella. She had quite the sunburn the next day...who'd have thought??!@?


The boys enjoyed a couple of the statues that were there...they rode the bear!


They had this amazing Lilly pond with GINORMOUS Lilly plants growing there. Here's a picture of one, though it gives you no idea as to size...imagine it as big as your head and you'll be in the right ball park.


Surrounding the Lily pond was what they called a miniature Shakespeare village. Here's one of the buildings, it's about 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide.


We saw a big Siberian tiger.


And a couple of lions. We were sitting enjoying the shade when one young couple came to a cage holding a young female lion. The guy started to run around the cage and play hide and seek with the lion who eventually started trying to run after him. It was interesting to watch although in the back of my head I wondered if it was really wise to be teaching this lion to run after humans.

Gibbon's Park

Gibbon's park is HUGE and lovely.



It has a river running through it. :)


With geese and ducks and turtles.


And big Gnarly trees!

The trees don't really need help staying up....but we figured they must be tired and we'd help out where we could! Heehee.

SOOooo behind!

I've been away from my photo editor and the computer had to go in for repairs and now I'm going to be attempting a frantic catch up! Sooo...here we go...

One night at the farm we decided to go for a walk. First we checked the mail.

No Mail! Now every time that Munchkin sees a mailbox he calls out, "No mail!"

Then the boys didn't want to go back yet so we walked down the road for a ways.


Munchkin wanted to collect stones...not a hard thing to find on a dirt road! The trick was finding the right ones for his pocket. :)


The next day we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Z's. The boys convinced Grandma to play with them in her beautiful garden.


And it's really lovely there, a little bit of Eden. Here are a couple of her flowers.




And then we went to the park to meet up with some cousins.