Topaz Mountain

I think my parents might stop accepting our invitations. They have had the worst of luck the last two trips - the only two trips with us.

At Sinkhole flat, not only did they run out of gas, they hadn't brought any extra. When they go up to the property they don't wheel as much as we did and they have spare gas up there. But luckily there was enough spare gas around camp to get them running again and then Sunday morning they took a trip to Green River to refill.

So, Jason got off work early Friday and we were on the road about 1:30. Mom and Dad weren't getting off for a few more hours and Uncle Eric thought they could meet up along the way and caravan together, however, Aunt Leslie got off work early too. But Mom and Dad wouldn't be very far behind and they had the map and directions.

Well, with all the construction going on in the Big Shitty, I-80 was a parking lot and it was a few more miles of sit-&-go traffic to even get near the on-ramps. Getting directly on I-15 would be better, or so they thought. I think it took them half an hour to get to an on-ramp that wasn't closed. By then it was rush hour, on a Friday.

We were sitting at camp, not the one my parents had the map and directions to because it was already taken, and Abriana asked, "When are Grandma and Grandpa going to be here?! I want to see them!" Aunt Leslie made a stab-in-the-dark, "Maybe they stopped for dinner, so I'd say they'll be here in...oh...about 35 minutes." 10 minutes later the van pulled up. Mom was driving, there was no trailer and no Dad either. They blew a tire on the trailer about half an hour from camp, didn't have a spare and Dad was sitting with the wheelers.

Uncle Eric had a spare and Jason went to rescue Dad. Mom started getting a little nervous when they weren't back yet and I told her I'd drive her down the road if she wanted. Just then we saw headlights. It was Dad and Jason but still no trailer; the spare went flat 4 miles from camp! Dad had hammered the fender back in place after the blow out and he even spun the tire around to make sure it wasn't touching. But, in the dark and cold, he didn't think to make sure the tire wasn't touching when he took the trailer off the jack. Oops! But again, Uncle Eric came to the rescue and pulled a tire off his trailer so my parents could get everything to camp.

With everyone finally at camp, the party began, and Eric and Cameron tended the fire. Those two love a huge fire; if it's not 6 feet high and blazing hot 10 feet away then it's not a fire.


Sophie thinks she is a parrot and could not be comfortable unless she was perched.


Mom and Dad took off early Saturday morning to make the hour or so drive to Delta to get some new tires. They were able to replace the blown ones, but the tire place didn't have rims for them to get a spare. At least it was better than nothing and they would be able to get home.

When Mom and Dad got back it was off to explore. We went up to one mine where there were the prettiest purple rocks.


You can't really see the color, but those holes are entrances that go down. I walked over there with Chey and she got a little nervous, "Mommy, careful, fall." (which means: be careful, don't fall). There's also a large hole on the left that goes down about 50 feet and is about 25 feet across. Everyone else had been down in that when they went in the lower mine, I was in the jeep with a sleeping little one.

After we explored that mine, we went looking for another, but couldn't get the jeeps through the gate so we went wheeling. It was a nice sunny day and we ended up childless; Abriana was riding with Grandma, Kayla with Uncle Eric and Grandpa had Chey. It was so relaxing to spend some time with just my hubby.

When we got back to camp, the kids still hadn't had enough of the wheelers, and Cheyenne and Ian had become quite the little buddies. They would go from wheeler to wheeler and "bive." They followed each other around and had a good ol' time playing.



The next day everyone was eager to look for rocks and stones. You just gotta when you go all the way to Topaz. Cameron knew a guy that gave him permission to rock hound on his claim, but first we checked out an area we thought might be good. I got a pretty good sized one with the help of...everyone. Jason first started hammering but, earlier he had saved a huge stake from crashing into his knee as it was rolling down the rock, and in the process smashed and peeled his finger. Every time he swung the hammer blood literally squirted, it was kinda gross.

On the way back to camp we ran into a lonely antelope that posed for pictures.


It was another great weekend, and I really enjoy the fact that my parents love to do what we do and join us on our adventures. And you know, they weren't the only ones with problems that trip; Uncle Eric's motorcycle quit running, Cameron seized the engine on his motorcycle and his scrambler and Eric's motorcycle was giving him fits.

Until next time...no plans yet until Memorial.

Adventures adventures

I don't know about anyone else, but I am just loving Spring, and it seems that the rest of my family is also.

On our way to Sinkhole Flat Jason saw a Ram Charger for sale. It's something we have been talking about for quite some time now since it is hard to wheel in the winter with the girls just hanging out in the back of the mud truck. Getting the jeep was supposed to help solve that, but it needs some money put into it to get it where we'd like to go, but then it wouldn't be such a great family vehicle for running errands.

We thought about it for a week and then Jason made the call. He ended up talking the guy down on the price, so how could we pass it up?


We took it wheeling Thursday night when we brought it home and realized it was almost exactly a year from when we bought the jeep (maybe we've started a new tradition). Well, it is not the wheeling machine the guy made it out to be; just going down a dirt road that had a few dips in it, and we were rubbing the fenders with the tires.

Our plan is to swap all the parts from the mud truck to the Ram Charger so it will then be our mud truck. We'll have to do a little more work on it to fit those 38" tires!

Friday night Abriana had her friend, Tanisha, spend the night and we took the RC out again to find some squeakies. We got to Axtel and the thing died in the middle of the road; seems we need an alternator. So we went back home and loaded up in the jeep. No luck on the squeakies, but it was a lot of family fun.

In the morning we went fishing. Jason has had a hankering for trout for awhile so we hit Nine Mile. The sun was shining, the breeze was cold, the girls were hiking, the fish weren't biting. Hours and hours without a bite isn't much fun anymore, so we loaded up and went home to grab a few things before we went to try Redmond. We were thinking some more 27 inch pike (or bigger) would at least curb the fishing crave we had.

John called when we got to the house. They were headed up XL Canyon and asked if we'd like to come. Sweet! We've heard a lot about it, but never have been. Change of plans; we'll go fishing in the morning and Tanisha can stay another night. We left right away and since we beat them there we took a few minutes to get my new gun on paper. I like my new gun!

We finally hooked up with everyone and set out up the canyon. We were the first ones to park and walk. Our jeep does not have the clearance or flex that it needs to conquer that canyon. Maybe that is a good thing considering what happened later.

John was the next to park it when he got stuck in a hole right beside a rock. Eric and Mandy didn't want to beat their truck or do any body damage, so they parked it a little farther up. Kevin and Mike kept going until Kevin came down on a rock and split the tube of his drive-line in half! Everyone was saying, "Wow, I've never seen that happen before!" So while the guys worked on replacing the drive-line, a fire was started for the kids. Mike decided he wanted to go up to the top and see the waterfall.

Kevin's truck was ready to go and we could hear Mike coming back down when all my girls decided they just wanted to lay down in the jeep. I walked them back down and sat waiting thinking any minute we would leave. Jason showed up almost half an hour later and said, "We are officially on a rescue mission. Mike did the exact same thing his brother did, and when pulling his truck off the rock, it yipped over!" It was a sight to see and I really wish I had remembered the camera.

John got his Blazer unstuck and tried to get up to Mike to use the winch to upright the truck. He didn't make it very far; he almost tipped over on the next obstacle. Everyone decided then it would be best to go back in the light. We changed our plans again, and said we'd get the mud truck up there to help.

Long story short, by the time we got the mud truck just about ready to go, we figured they had already got the job done. Besides they probably had enough vehicles up there anyway. So we loaded up in the jeep and went fishing on the west side of Yuba.

It was a great day to be fishing! The sun was blazing, the girls were playing in the sand and water, and the lake was smooth as glass. Wish we had the boat out there.
But again, no fish were biting. We stayed for quite some time enjoying the nice summer day, until it was time to get the girls home, showered and put to bed.

It felt so good to be outdoors in the nice weather! It was like a mini vacation.

Sinkhole Flat

It's a good and bad thing that I put a memory card in the digital camera. Now my pictures can't get lost and I can take more pictures, however, that is also the downfall. I've been trying to figure out which of the 105 pictures to post and doing a little thinking on how to do it exactly. But here it is a week after our trip with another weekend to blog about.

So, the weekend before last, a bunch of us went southeast on the Swell: John & Shiree, Eric & Leslie, Eric & Mandy, Cameron, Brian, Mom & Dad, and Lena. We had an adventurous weekend full of sight-seeing, wheeling and fun. We camped on the Sinkhole Flat and although we drove by the Sinkhole like half a dozen times or so, we never stopped to look at it. Next time. There is so much to see down there, we will definitely have to plan another trip.

Saturday we took off on a trail that would be about a 60 mile loop back to camp. The rocks and geology were breath taking, I couldn't get enough.

This was the second trip for Mom and Dad on their wheelers, if you count the first one; 8 miles in 4 hours really isn't wheeling. So when we found a spot in the trail that was really fun, Dad says to Mom, "This one is gonna be your test." She was a little nervous to start out, but then it was an adrenaline rush! Chey was sitting next to me just a cheering everyone on! "A-hoo Unco Ewic!" "A-hoo Ba-pa!" It was so freaking cute!

Well, about halfway around this loop, Mom and Dad realized they were low on fuel. John decided to take a short cut to get them back to camp faster; just a little jaunt down I-70, no big deal, right? Well, luckily Mom's wheeler has a reserve tank because right there, halfway through our little jaunt, on the Interstate, her wheeler dies. Brian was already in reverse to load up her wheeler, when Uncle Eric pulled up and showed us where her switch was for the reserve tank. What good men! So off we went.

We were almost back to camp when we realized we lost some folks. Mom finally appeared and said Dad ran out of gas, so we hurried to grab the gas can. We were almost where she told us Dad was, when there was Dad on Uncle Eric's wheeler, followed by Brian's truck with a wheeler in it. What a nice guy Brian is, he didn't even hesitate to wait for anyone, just loaded up Dad's wheeler. However, Brian, Dad and Uncle Eric have more muscle than they realize and pushed the wheeler right into the back window of the truck. Um...oops! If it wasn't for the tint, Brain would've had a seat full of glass. Dad later asked Brian what he owed for the back window. Brian said, "Don't worry, I've done worse. No big deal."

Sunday we went sight-seeing:

At one point, Jason took John's motorcycle for a little spin. He was flying down the trail and the thought crossed his mind, what would Manda do if I died? It was that fun of a ride! He was telling us all about this and Leslie says, "Guys don't think like that!" That's why he is my guy!

We all had a great time, just wish there was more time.

Next trip: Topaz Mountain.

Easter on the Prairie!

Jason and I have been waiting for spring and for the prairie dogs and squeakies to come out. We planned to take the kids camping for our anniversary weekend and to welcome spring. We went looking for them the first weekend in March and saw a few but obviously they needed a little more time to decide the weather was warm. So we postponed our trip to give them another week. However, we wanted spring here more than it was ready to be here; a winter storm was in the forecast for the weekend, and then another the next weekend. Easter weekend looked good - it had to be good, it was the beginning of SPRING BREAK!

We left Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday afternoon. The sun was shining yet the wind was blowing and cold. We didn't see any prairie dogs in our favorite spot, but found some new spots not far away.

Abriana was eager to shoot her gun! She took a few shots and then we remembered her sights needed some adjusting. When Dad adjusted her sights, she set up cans almost 50feet out and practiced. She needs a lot more practice, but she is getting there.

Saturday night we dyed eggs in anticipation of the Easter Bunny. Cheyenne couldn't decide if she wanted to be by the fire or make a mess with the dye. The other two didn't want to quit with all the stickers and colors. We found a camo dye set that had something like 147 stickers. Yup, they used just about every single one!



All day and all evening the girls kept discussing where the Easter Bunny was going to hide the eggs and where were their baskets going to be hidden. Well, he did a pretty good job at hiding those 30 camouflaged eggs. The grey colored eggs were actually the same color as the dirt! The teal colored ones turned out to blend really well into the sage brush. It was hilarious watching Cheyenne scream, "EGG EGG!" as she ran around following her sisters. I helped her out a little bit to find some of her own. She was so excited when she found some she took the two in her hands and smashed them together screaming, "AHOO AHOO!"

Since the wind was blowing pretty hard most of the night, the Easter Bunny found a clever spot for those baskets filled with goodies - inside the jeep! On the front seats were 2 Reester Bunnies (Reese's peanut butter and chocolate bunnies. Mmmm...) and 2 pudding cups - for Mom and Dad. In the back were the three sought after baskets (actually buckets) full of pudding cups, granola bars, fruit snacks, cheese and cracker snacks, a box of animal crackers, juice bottles, a solid chocolate bunny, bubbles and sandals.

Cheyenne found Dad's "feetball" in the motorhome and all three girls kept themselves entertained with it. And they entertained us! Chey kept wanting to get right up close to Bri when Bri was throwing it, so she would tell her, "Stay there." The little parrot that Chey is started telling her sisters the same thing when it was her turn. She'd clutch the ball under one arm, put her hand up with the other to signal to stop, and say, "Day dere!"

Then the kiddo's got goofy...

Maybe you noticed the tires on the jeep. Eh? New ones! Mud ones! So, of course, we went wheeling! We went up one of the canyons north of camp and found a little mud and some snow one day. The next day we went south, towards Moab. Jason was really wanting to find some area to test out the new tires and see how much we could tear up the jeep.

We had the maps with us, and picked our way by looking at the terrain at each fork, or from the top of a hill. We passed some old mines and found some rocks to climb. The tires are awesome! Now we need a lift...but then we'd need bigger tires, hmm. Well we ended up in Arches but really couldn't see much since we were on the 'wrong side.' I'm sure one could backpack through there, but there are no roads to speak of. We picked our way down the slick rock and found some cool rocks for the front yard. Then we came across a miniature grand canyon.


Jason jumped the crevice to get a better look at everything below. He was helping Kayla over when she looked down and decided NO WAY! It was about 2 1/2-3 feet wide and oh, 30-40 feet down. The rock wasn't sheared completely from the mountain and was 5-6 feet wide itself. And looking off the edge of that was a sight I didn't have the guts to see. I was fine with my feet being where they were. I am afraid of heights when I am not in something. That is most likely because I am a klutz and I know it, therefore if I have something to support me, I'm ok. Besides it didn't help me much when Chey was curious and wanted to look over the edge. My stomach did things I have never felt before!

I probably would have jumped over if I didn't have the kids with me. The over-protective-mom kicked in and I wasn't ok unless I had all my chicks under my wing. Cheyenne did jump over with Dad and even though she was safe with him, she wasn't under my wing and my stomach continued to do crazy things.

The older girls and I went down past the crevice and looked down. We all stood like 3feet from the edge, too scared to get closer, but it was still gorgeous. Trees and grass and a creek running through it all with what was left of someone's cottage from decades ago filled the bottom. You could see where the water would run off the edges and create waterfalls. Kinda wish there was a waterfall to see.

On the way back to camp, we were flying down a straight stretch of dirt road and I got some cute snapshots of the girls.

We had great fun. It felt so good to be out of the house. Nobody wanted to come home, not even the motorhome. It decided to overheat with no warning. Quirky thing will have to be fixed before our next trip in two weekends.

The Mitten

Kayla was in another play, this time with her morning class. They did 3 short plays to accommodate all the students, as well as, to illustrate the stories they have been reading in class. Kayla was the badger in 'The Mitten.'

It's a story about a boy who really wanted Grandma to knit him some white winter mittens. She refused because she knew he would only lose them in the snow and not be able to find them. After many pleadings, Grandma finally gave in and knit him the mittens he so wanted.

One day he went out to play and sure enough, dropped one of his mittens in the snow. During the night many of the animals in the woods saw this mitten and thought it would be a warm and cozy place to snuggle up. The mole was the first one to curl up in the mitten. Then the rabbit hopped in. The hedgehog crawled out of her burrow and into the mitten. Then the owl swooped by and joined the trio. The badger came out of the snow and said, "That looks warm and cozy. I'll want to go in too!" And she was able to cuddle up in the thumb of it.

(If you can't tell, Kayla is the one on the far right.)

A fox came to investigate and climed inside the mitten. And then the bear heard the commotion and thought he should be in there too. A meadow mouse came along and said, "Wait for me!" As the mouse scurried in, he tickled the bear with his whiskers and made the bear sneeze. The force of the sneeze shot the mitten up to the sky.

The little boy saw the mitten in the sky and ran towards it. He showed Grandma his two white mittens and she said, "I am glad you still have your new white mittens." However, one was kid size and the other was all stretched out.

~THE END~

Forgive me if it sounded a little broken up. Kayla helped me write it. It was all her words, I just tweaked some of them. She even insisted I write 'THE END.'

After the plays, the kids put on cowboy hats and sang a few songs.

I decided to see how the video worked on the digital camera and found out I couldn't zoom (that is the clicking you hear), sorry about the heads.

It was cute and again, she had a lot of fun.

The 1st Annual Thomas Tiny Ranch Round-Up

We are planning the family camp out for the weekend after Father's Day. We are hoping the weather will be perfect by then and that everyone can make it this year. We should also be able to find the camping spot we were in search of last year. You know, the one that is in the middle of no where surrounded by trees with the possibility of a pond or lake nearby and no fee.

I'm sure it goes without saying, but every one who has a wheeler should plan on bringing them. We, however, will be in our jeep.

So the dates...June 20-23. We are making a 3 day weekend out of it and hope you can too. We will let you know more details as we figure them out.

Grades are in and the girls are doing awesome. I am so proud of them!

Abriana needs to learn to keep the talking to a much lower level, as well as bring her homework home. But other than that, she continues to be a smarty.

Kayla was put in all day kindergarten since her assessment showed she may need a little help to pass at grade level. Well...it is working; she is above grade level! She is reading, doing math and learning how to tell time. She's so funny with 'the clocks that have hands.' It will be 3:20 and she'll tell us it's almost 4!

The grey line is the target goal, where they should be to be at grade level. The black circle is where they are at!

And as you can tell, I got the scanner working. Simplest thing. All it needed was a little reset; unplug for a few seconds and presto! I came upon that little tidbit on accident. Thought maybe the power strip was going out so I plugged the scanner into the wall and the candle warmer into the outlet the scanner was in, and all of it worked. So I put all the plugs back where they were to start with and I'm a scanning and printing now.

So Cheyenne starts screaming this morning, "MAAAAHMMM. BUUUUUG!" over and over. I go and get the bug swatter as she was scrambling up in the chair still screaming "BUG! BUG! MOM! BUG!" and found this:

I told her, "Honey, it's a sticker!" She looked down from her crow's nest and said, "Oh." then climbed down and had a much closer look at it. Her nose was about 2 inches away from it when she decided it was safe. She picked it up, put it on the table, and was off to continue to play with her cell phone.

Happy Birthday Kayla!

6 years old! Wow! Where do the days go?

If you didn't hear me say it before, I'm going to say it again; technology sucks! For some unknown reason, my camera decided to now tell me that some pictures I took are unable to view. So again, I am missing pictures; only one this time, but still... Not only that, my scanner/printer won't turn on. I had an awesome idea to create a slide-show of 'Kayla through the years,' but without the scanner I can't do much about it.

Yes, I checked the plugs and cords; everything is where it should be. I did find a spider's nest right around the plug going into the printer, so maybe the little buggers hatched and they are crawling around the circuitry creating mayhem inside the darn thing. If only I could turn it on, I'm sure it would fry those little demons. Talk about having a bug. Hahaha!

I didn't mean to get off the subject. It just so happens that I typed the first line and the idea struck me. So off I went on a photo search only to come back to my seat and discover my problem.

Oh, where is my patent-lawyer brother. Someone somewhere needs to invent a computer that would scan things into it by simply placing the object on the computer screen. That would be a lot simpler than having all these cords and plugs that intertwine and entangle themselves amongst the dog hair and dust bunnies. And, I would only have one power button. I guess then, one would need to also create a fingerprint resistant screen. Hmmm...I'd like one of those too.

Alright. I took a deep breath. Back to my younger daughter, my 2nd oldest daughter, my 6 year old Kayla.

This month's WSS was on Kayla's birthday. She loves her grandparents so much and misses them a great deal so it was a sweet way for her to be able to share her day with them and the rest of the family. She was so excited when I told her about it that Saturday night, as she was going to bed, she told us, "I will wake you up when I am ready." We asked her, "Ready for what?" She says, "For my birthday and WSS!" We both chuckled and Jason says, "Darlin, it's not Christmas."

As soon as we got to Grandma's, she says "Can we do presents now?!" I told her, "Let's get in the door first. Then we'll have waffles and then you can open your presents."


The Kellers gave her Moon Sand. She also got Moon Sand from Mom & Dad and her sisters.


Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Warren gave her some much needed snow pants and snow boots (the girl needs to quite growing).


Grandma Linda and Grandpa Allen gave her a goody-bag with puzzles, headbands, pens with interchangeable charms, a purse, a necklace, a princess cup, a color-her-own-princess-poster with markers, lip gloss, a flashlight, a 'hug-me' frog & dress-up shoes. Wow! She came home with a loot!

Abriana was the only one into playing dress-up. She kept modeling all the outfits.


Cheyenne disappeared and found a cozy spot to go to sleep.


When we got home Kayla told me, "Mom, that was such a great birthday!"

She says, "Thank you everybody for the cool presents!"

Technology sucks!

Sunday we decided to go look for sheds, but first stop by Redmond to see what it looks like. The lake is fed by a natural spring so we didn't know if there would be ice or what. There is very little ice.

As we were driving by just looking, we saw a guy hook up and start reeling. Jason says, "Oh, he's just got a 6 inch catfish or something small like that." But his pole was bending in the way it would with something big. So we spun around and watched him reel in; he had a Pike!

Once he unhooked his fish, he noticed us and Jason tells him, "NICE pike!" He replies, "It's been a nice day!" We asked if we could see his fish and he welcomed us all to come on down. So we trotted down the hill and found that he and his brother-in-law each had 3 Pike on a stringer. All of them around 2 feet.

We had a great time talking to these two 'good ole boys' that grew up in Salina. They have been friends since they were 'youngsters' and continue to cause trouble and just live it up. They are a hilarious pair. Did I ever say I love it down here? Well if I haven't, I do! Jason and I got such a kick out of hanging out with these guys. They were so friendly, funny and just Grandpa's at heart.

As we were talking, one of the poles got a bite, the one guy says to me, "Are you gonna get that or watch it?" So I grabbed the pole and got to reel in my first pike! However, the bugger flipped right when it got to shore and spit the hook. Oh, well, it was still neat.

Then another pole twitches and Milt says to the girls, "Who's going to get this one?" Abriana backed off playing at being shy, but Kayla ran right over, "I DO, I DO!!" I was surprised! Kayla is the shy one and one that gets bored with fishing so she doesn't even do it.

Now this is the part where technology sucks! I took pictures of Kayla reeling in a 27inch pike with the help of Dad and Milt. I took pictures of her holding her pike, with a huge grin and sun on her face. I took pictures of the next fish she was asked to reel in with the other pole. I took pictures of the gentlemen standing with Kayla holding the 36 inch pike she didn't have the strength to hold up. I took pictures of lil' Chey hauling boulders around; she was being a tough girl picking up the biggest rocks she could get her hands under. I took pictures of Abriana enjoying the sunshine and sliding down the hill. I even did playback to show everyone the shots I got. But when I got home, they were mysteriously gone. The only pictures on the camera were the ones of the rest of our day.

When it was time for the guys to head out, they gave us the pike Kayla reeled in and 2 more! It was a really cool afternoon at the lake!


I took this one of Kayla in the house before we filleted her fish.


Then Chey wanted to hold the fish!


After we left the lake, we went east to look for sheds. However, the snow was in the perfect condition to wheel and once we were done screwing around, it was a little too late to look. Besides, Cheyenne's legs are still a bit short to be walking around in the deeper snow where we needed to be looking.

So what did we do? We looked for deer - again! This picture was taken with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Russ in mind. How many deer are here?


I don't know how well it will work for you and how good it looks on your computer, but the answer is 7.

We were cruising down the road headed home and spotting deer way out there, when something appeared in the road. Turkeys!! There were four of them, but one took of the other way. The batteries on the camera decided they had had enough for the day so I couldn't zoom in. I was just snapping quick pic's to hopefully get a good shot before the turkeys were gone and the batteries completely died. I didn't do too bad.


Well, it was another fine weekend for all of us at the Thomas Tiny Ranch. Jason fried up the fish for dinner and we made plans to go catch our own pike!

Kids are funny.

Jason needed a little R&R from the brutal week of storms he drove through and got stuck in, so we stayed home this weekend. The kids, however, had cabin fever. So when we had a break between storms Saturday afternoon and the sun came out, we told the kids it was the perfect time to go build a snowman. They all bundled up and went out there with the best intentions, I'm sure. I took a picture of their attempt at a snowman, but the camera didn't like it and it didn't show up. There was just a pile of snow in the front yard! It was too cute.

They had given up pretty quick and were riding their bikes. So Jason and I went out there to help them. Well...Jason did the building, I took the pictures and the kids helped a bit. Cheyenne had more fun spinning the wheel she found.


We discovered the problem with the snowman Abriana and Kayla were trying to make: the snow in the front yard wasn't perfect for a snowman, so we went out back. Jason got the bottom of the snowman done and told the older girls to push it to the front yard.


They did get it moving, it just took them awhile, so Jason helped them the rest of the way.

Jason wanted a really big snowman since we actually had enough snow for one. Or so we thought. There just wasn't enough of the "good stuff" to roll up in a big ball. He got the middle portion as big as he could while Abriana packed as much as she could for the head.

It's a bit out of proportion but everyone had fun. Kayla and Chey had had enough of the cold though, and went in the house before 'man' (as Chey calls it) was completed.


Jason picked some dead flowers that grow in front of the house for arms and Abriana even found some rocks in the frozen ground to complete him. Let's just hope Ruger doesn't eat its nose like last time!


After we were all too cold for any more fun, we went inside. Abriana was telling me about an assignment she had where she had to unscramble words and how it was hard. I told her it wasn't that hard, so she read the questions off her paper to me to see how fast I could figure them out.

"Can you carry this r-t-y-a?" she asked.

I said "tray."

"Ok that was an easy one. This one's harder. 'Why are you l-a-y-w-a-s smiling'?"

"Always," I spit out.

She rolls her eyes but continues to ask me all 15 questions. I got them all in a snap and each time she'd sigh in frustration. She decided to make it harder for me; she would think of a word and scramble it up.

"Ok, Mom. Let's see if you can get these. r-s-s-a-g."

"Grass."

"Ok. o-t-t-a-y-l-l."

"Totally."

"Arrgh. s-e-g-s."

I said, so matter-of-factly, "Well if you add a 'u' then it spells guess."

She replies, "The answer is guess."

"Ok, the word guess has a 'u' in it."

"Oh. How 'bout a-t-l-f."

"Flat."

"NO! I got you, it's fault! HaHa! You got it wrong!"

I calmly said, "I don't think so. The word fault also has a 'u' in it. The letters you gave me spell flat, so I did not get it wrong."

"Well I tricked you anyway," she says thinking she's one up on me.

We did this quite a few more times until I was done playing this game. I told her she couldn't trick me or give me a word I couldn't figure out. So Kayla decided it was her turn to be funny. She asked, "Mom, what is your name?"

I laughed at the cuteness, "Mom."

She asks, "What color is the sky."

My first answer was purple, but then she told me to be 'sewious', so I answered blue. She then asks, "What is the opposite of down?"

"Up."

Abriana and Kayla just start rolling on the floor in hysterics, laughing, "Mom blew up! HA HA HA Mom blew up!"

I thought their reaction was funnier than the joke!