Some Sept 2016 Happenings

I read a blog post the other day recounting happy memories the poster's children had shared with her which she didn't realize they remembered.  It made me think.

My life is filled with random happenings that may not seem important to others but that I want to remember. I enjoy going back through old posts every once in a while and remembering fun times. The enthusiasm included in starting this blog many many years ago is long past, but repentance is always available.  Every day :)

Many of the following pictures will have zombie duckies in them... zombie duck selfies are now pretty much required for dissemination to family members.

Saw this booth at Bluffdale town days and sent the idea on to Bethanie, Jenny, and Angela.  Jared is petting a violin.

While walking to work from the train one day, I saw this lineup of cop cars under the bridge by the station... is this a bad place in town?

I often say 'lets go to the fair!" on Saturday mornings when I really mean "lets go to the farmers market!".  And then one Saturday Emily got really excited when I messed up cuz there really was a county fair that day! So that evening after chores we went over.

We ran into some former and current ward members whose children are involved in 4H or FFA. It was fun to see them in their natural habitat.  I enjoyed looking at some of the crafts.

Why do I always judge the crocheted and knitted items according to my own inflated sense of self achievement?

Because I really am that awesome.

My blog, my opinions.

Emily and Aaron enjoyed the fair food.  Emily really wanted a turkey leg but they had run out :(

Took a picture of Emily and Aaron without them noticing, which turned out pretty good.

Emily tried taking one of me...

I embraced the awkwardness.

There were bears.. they looked rather sad and ratty but worthy of a ducky picture.

I like hootenanny pancakes and often make them for breakfast.  Uses eggs and milk of which we have plenty during the summer! Did you know hootenanny means a party? Like a hoedown? Just looked it up on Google.

For Labor day, we kept up the tradition of watching the Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Trials.  As always, it was way fun.

Zombie duckies enjoy it too.

Because it was labor day, we didn't get the whole Utah Helm crew to come with us...

We just got the best of the bunch :)

Usually get a pretty good group for Sunday dinner though!  Bailey was in Idaho... she's come the other weeks... And JAG was there, just in the back with the tractors. We made gyro's again in honor of the sheepdog trials.  This time I made naan bread instead of pitas. So much easier and quicker and doesn't heat up the house as much.

On actual labor day we canned peaches (28?)... and the last few plums! Wanted to try it although they ended up looking kinda like brains... or eyeballs.  They all came out of their skins. Too ripe?

I also run the morning milking though the cream separator on the mornings I'm not headed to work. Its a new tradition so we can start doing more with the goats cream.

Unfortunately, the last few times I've made ice cream using this cream its been very grainy, like sugared buttery cream bits surrounded with sugary frozen milk.  I've been afraid to try and blend it in case I make butter instead of helping the cream homogenize.  I think the grainyness is caused by a couple issues... 1) we used to freeze just the skimmings, meaning each small layer essentially flash froze. Now a full cup trying to freeze gives everything time to separate. 2) the cream from the separator is not as rich as skimmings so there is more milk to separate from the cream.

Still haven't decided how to fix this problem.  For now, Emily suggested if I want to make ice cream on Sunday, I shouldn't freeze the cream. Any other suggestions?

I have also been furiously working on crocheting baby stuff.  Unfortunately I let my stash get quite low (totally out!) so I've been scrambling to catch up.  Note to self... keep your stash trimmed and full! (October Conference should help me get ahead a bit)

Aaron got the tractor ready for Jared to take to our local IFA antique tractor show... I didn't get to go but Emily, Aaron, and Jared stayed the whole time so I guess they enjoyed it!

All those tractors got Aaron excited so he went out and got the little garden tractor working!

Here Emily is in the pasture trying it out.

I wasn't enthusiastic enough so it s a good thing Emily was excited.

Look at that dirt!

Part of the reason I wasn't excited enough was I needed Aaron to help me find the leak that caused our water bill to be 3 times its normal size in August... 3 days, 10 uprooted plants, and ~$1000 later its all fixed. Don't mind learning more about home ownership, but I like the less expensive lessons better.

So after a hard days work of learning, its nice to relax in front of the TV with a virgin margarita or a glass of new wine :)

Zombie Ducky Sightings

In our grab bags for the family reunion we all got zombie duckies.  Why, you ask?  Because... why ever not?

Jenny started it with sending this picture out with the caption "headed home".

And then this...

From then on, there was no turning back...

Duckies helped with the chores after getting home in Texas..

Participated in Sunday activities in Bluffdale...

And went to church in Dallas...

Still singing in Church in Pennsylvania (Sing my angel of music!)

Hanging at work in SLC... (sleeping on the job?)

Eating and making food in Texas

And celebrating Texas birthdays..

Along with Pie and Beer Day in Bluffdale

And Bluffdale Old West Days... (middle right caption, "Breakfast?")

Bottom left is Gage on a sheep!

Had some fun times in Pennsylvania...

(caption at bottom right, "Emily said to feed the tomato worms to the ducks")

Lots of watching Olympics in Dallas and staying up late..

Bluffdale Olympic watching too...

(are those DUCKIES in the parade of nations?!?!?)

More Birthdays and home comings in Dallas...

More hanging in Bluffdale... (top left, "what the hail?!")

And other fun things... (its my blog so lots of Bluffdale pics :)

I will end with my second two favorites (tomato worms is first).

Bad breath ducky and...

worried how "duck tape" is actually made.

Have there been other zombie ducky sightings?

Family Reunion 2016 (Part 2)

I got to thinking about my posting about the Family Reunion... Everyone that reads my posts were there at the reunion! oh wait... except Megan.

OK, I will go on.

The next day was Color me Mine and wear your family reunion shirt day.

Of course I didn't get any pictures of all of us in our shirts or of us painting at Color Me Mine but that's just the way it is.

Afterwards we ate lunch on some grass in park city.  Hannah showed us her taekwondo moves (which I didn't get a picture of) and Bethanie showed us something else (which I did get a picture of).

Half of the group (the other half consisting of young children and in laws were walking around looking for more grassy spots).

That night we played a fun game of stacked 3...

Bethanie had put three things that go together (example: red, yellow, green) with a number 1, 2, or 3 on it.  You had to find the other 2 that matched you and then stack up in that order.

Wish I had taken a video of the craziness that ensued.... it was so loud!

The next day was supposed to be lake day... after much discussion and waffling about, eventually most went over to the lake that afternoon.  I didn't go with them cuz I wanted to go out on the lake with Emily in the kayaks.

The day before I had gone out in one with Angela in the other one and Cooper swam out to me.  When Emily came back from work, we went out and each of us took a dog.  Cooper just wanted us to be together, Daisy wouldn't even come out to the water and I ended up having to carry her out.  Poor old girl was worn out by this day... I think they eventually had fun  barking at the birds.  I liked being out on the lake although I was pretty sore the next day :)

That evening we played a fun game Emily did for us called the brown bag challenge.  She counted us off into two teams and then one person from each team would square off.  The losing team got to pick a brown bag which had two servings of some type of food.  Whoever finished their portion first won.

I didn't get a picture of the first 1 which happened to be pudding (Joel and Jacob?)... it was funny because once everyone saw the first challenge they thought this was going to be a snap... But the rest were much harder!

 Melina and Andrew trying to eat pretzels and peanut butter... Poor Melina with braces!

Hannah and Gage with Oatmeal Cookies... Hannah did great even though she had braces..

Neita and Zane with some sort of beefaroni fake meat and cheese meal... love the faces in the background.

Neita didn't even bother to open hers :)

Bethanie and Angela with Spam...

YUCK!

Laurelynn and Bailey with cuties... Laurelynn at first tried eating the skin too :)

Jared and Carly with Gummy peach slices... Carly wanted it more :)

Aaron and Alec with powdered donut holes... too much coughing!

Dad and Mom with Haagen Daz single serve ice cream. Dad knows how to chug...

Nathan and Sarah with 7up...

Sarah had to breathe... Nathan must have learned chugging from Dad.

Jim and Natalie with pimento olives...

Natalie got a late start but then she downed them all and started chewing!

Amy and Anneliese with chocolate Swiss rolls... Anneliese with the shove it all in!

I don't have a picture of Jenny and I going crazy with the flaming hot cheetos... Jenny put them down her front instead of eating :)... I didn't realize she didn't like cheetos or I would have picked something else (I might have seen Emily putting a few of the bags together for the activity)!  There were a couple of bags left so the little kids did some rematching... Much excitement ensued.

The next morning before we left we took pictures by families and other groupings (yes, I'm going to show them all here instead of going to yet another post).

Grandkids (Alec, Jalyn and Carly had already left to go meet old friends)

Idaho Helms

Utah Helms

Dietrichs (some of my pictures are blurry and I don't know why.

Unmarrieds (love the last three reunion t-shirts!)

Parkinsons

Siblings

Siblings, Patriarch and Matriarch

Family Reunion T-Shirts! And no, not planned.

Sigh.. Aaron and Dad.

Having given my phone to a niece... I have many many more pictures of this grouping :)

Things I wish I had taken pictures/video of:
1.  Aaron giving his power point presentation on tanks in the movie room and how raptly he was attended to by the young boys of this family.
2.  Dad in the bandolier I made so he could always have cheesesticks with him. It was patterned after chewbacca's and the sand people in Star Wars.  He only wore it that first day when Aaron presented it to him... could have used it on that first day he forgot his lunch :)
3.  Older girls and Grandad sitting around the fire talking after the first evening's s'mores bar.
4.  Bethanie and Angela practicing "Have you ever, ever, ever in your long legged life" and adding new verses.
5.  Andrew throwing the ball over and over and over again for the dogs.  He would put the ball behind his back and Daisy would sit down in front of him.
6. Working on Color Me Mine creations as well as before and after shots
7. Taekwondo moves
8.  Emily's tent set up in the back and then how everyone helped to put her things to right after the wind blew it over and sent water all over her work bag.  The hockey table was turned on and the papers and tablets spread out over it to dry out.
9. Jared and I carrying Nathan up to the house so he wouldn't have to put his dirty feet inside his shoes.. Emily and I came running down because we thought Nathan was hurt.
10.  How as the family reunion progressed, every night more and more children went with Emily and the dogs on the evening "poop" walk she took along the edge of the lake so the dogs wouldn't go in the yard.  Poor dogs had quite the audience by the last night.
11, Dad presiding over the ice cream makers Sunday evening.
12. The kids playing together in the back yard/in the lake/at the top of the mountain/in basement.  Love seeing the cousins enjoying each others company.
13.  All the leftover lunch food! Especially the unopened boxes from Costco of fishies, granola bars, fruit snacks, apples, etc.

I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of right now.

All in all I think Aaron can mark this one down as very successful.  Great job everyone!

Next up, Zombie duckie sightings...

PS... The party came to our house that afternoon... Everyone except the Idaho Helms stayed with us for 2 more days.  We Helms know how keep a party going!