Huntington/Clove Family Reunion

Every year there is a Huntington/Clove Family Reunion which is my Grandma Turek's brothers and sisters families. It's held in Hatch and as of right now the only one living is my Aunt Ada--who interestingly enough is the only one without any children. Kinda' says it all why she's still living eh? Dang kids kill us off early. Anyway, this year Todd was gone on a fire so I decided to take the kids to enjoy all the activities. They loved it!! They spent most of their time on the Merry-Go-Round but found time to rope pretend cows, run away from Uncles who were trying to rope them, throw water balloons, and ride horses. It was actually one of the more fun reunions because there were things for the kids to do. I had to put in a few pictures and videos.

24th of July in Pictures

Instead of boring you with all the details of the 24th of July I thought I'd just do it in pictures.

Porter is waiting for the Parade to start so he can see Payton on the float. Payton in his Pioneer "Costume"

Playing Pioneer Games at the Washington Park. Someone at the booths let the boys hammer nails into a board without having to give any tickets.

After the fun in Washington we headed up to Enterprise for races, playing in the water and a BBQ. After the Enterprise races they have the fire department throw money donations into a large man made pool where the kids find as much money as they can. The older they get the more the firefighters spray them with the hoses. They sure can blast the heck out of the 14 year old and up kids.

Payton and Porter waiting for their chance for a cool swim.

The water was nice and calm when they first got in, but after a quick squirt from the firemen's hose Porter was done.

Payton actually found $3.50 in change. He was one happy boy!

Just a quick one

It's been a while (ok way too long) since I last blogged but for some reason it's not in front of the line of things to do lately. I've been working 3 days a week for the past three weeks filling in for girls at the office who think it's summer and want to have a vacation with their families. It's been good for the money part--considering we're building the house and want to pay for things. It' been hard to leave my kids that much and it's almost been even harder on my lower back. This little girl (or 85% girl--just in case it's really a boy) is letting me know I'm getting older but I'm letting her know who's boss...most of the time. Anyway, the house is almost done. I think we'll be closing the first or second week of August, YEAH!! It will be a great anniversary present for us although it's not the cheapest gift we've ever bought for each other. I'll have to post pictures of my getting better all the time house soon!!

House full of Russians

Today the boys and I went swimming at g-ma Julies. When we returned there was a strange car parked in the driveway and the garage door was open. I was very curious to find out who was in my house...as was Payton. When he walked through the door he yelled, "Hello?" and a very nice man's voice yelled back, "Hello!" I was still unloading things from the car so I asked him from the garage who it was. He said, "I think it's Aunt Ada's husband." Well, my 95 year old Aunt Ada's husband has been dead since I was born so that gave us all a good laugh. It was a family from Washington State that had come this way to visit my aunt. Because of the road work on my aunts street they weren't able to chat at her house so they came to ours. The man was from the Nordell side of the family so I didn't know them at all. He had married a Russian woman and they had one little girl Porter's age named Anastasia. The woman's mother was also with them but spoke no English. Anastasia spoke English before her two week trip to Russia and now she speaks Russian. Payton and Anastasia got along great and when I would check on them down stairs Payton said, "Mom! She can speak Spanish!" I got a good chuckle. The two of them played great regardless of the language barrier. As far as they were concerned there was no barrier. The mother who spoke no English gave me a chocolate bar from Russia which tasted pretty good! After they left Payton told me that he kissed Anastasia "right on the lips!" When I said we don't kiss girls he said, "Well, we do if they're beautiful." I guess that's the criteria. Payton got his first kiss from a Russian girl, because she was beautiful.

The Results Are In! We're Having A...

So I went to the Dr. today for my ultrasound. I had mixed emotions--not about the sex of the baby but about the situation I am in. Todd has been gone to Arizona for the past week on this fire crew for the BLM. He is toying with my emotions because he was going to be home Sunday and when I talked to him that morning he was working on leaving. When I talked to him Sunday after church he said he was going back to Arizona because he had been called out on another fire. I knew I would be disappointed if he wasn't with me at the ultrasound because our house has been split 50-50 on whether it was a boy or a girl. Payton and Todd vs Porter and I. So I devised a plan that when the Dr. got to pointing out the sex of the baby, I would look away and he could just type whether it was a boy or girl so Todd and I could watch the video later and be suprised together. Everything was going to plan but the baby wasn't cooperating and wanted to be modest. Anyway, later during the ultrasound he had to point some things out to me and explain why he thought the baby was a GIRL but he was only 85% sure. So, Yup, we're having our first Princess. Todd was way happy when I told him on the phone. I just don't know if we can really afford to have a girl. I guess I better start learning how to do hair or start investing in some really cute girl hats.