What a Summer

Whew! Busy busy busy. Vacation there, trip here, welcome visitors... Hardly time for a rest! Just the way we like it. Here's the update...at least for a few of the things. Don't be offended if I accidentally didn't put you in. I have a terrible memory since becoming a mom and things get jumbled up in that crazy head of mine.
First, Casey got to hang out with his great-grandma Knudsen for awhile. They sure got along great but neither one of them wanted me taking any pictures of them!

Then the summer took off with a double trip up to my parents'. The first was with Cali Coates and her kids. Casey loved having all his cousins around to play with, especially when they left their markers on the ground without putting the cap back on tight. I think he looks like The Joker from Batman. Luckily, somehow, he didn't get marker on anything but himself! Whew! Gramma's house is mostly white and light beige and that red marker is not the sort of decorating I think she needs. It took me two days to wash it all off of him!
Then about two weeks later, I went back up for a little longer stay.  Casey just loved gettin' lovin' from his Aunt Tay. He did not love the sand and water so much when we all went to float the river though. And he wasn't the only one. Eliza had a pretty hard time for a little while too but she eventually warmed up to the idea. Casey had to sit with Gramma the whole time. Dax, in the background, obviously had no problems whatsoever getting in that chilly water. Such a fun time!

Mom and Dad even came down to visit! Twice!! The first trip was a quick one to drop off some bulls but then they came for the 24th of July and stayed for awhile! It was so great having them come stay!
Dad even helped work on my poor garden. God smote me for bragging. Man. After that post about how great it was doing, the ground squirrels took up residence and ate all my carrots, several onions, two tomato plants, and who knows how many potatoes. Not long after I discovered this infestation, we had a hail storm of all hail storms that broke most of my corn stalks, pulverized and leaves on any plants - lettuce, chard, rhubarb, potatoes, and even broke pea pods in half!
It was pretty sorry looking after that but I tended it and most of it bounced back ok. Well then, our creek ran dry! This was the point Dad showed up and tried to help. I couldn't water it nearly as much because I had to use the well water...which now also had to water the horses and sheep, my lawn, and continue the load it carried of house water - laundry, showers, dishwasher, etc. So now I had to choose what to sacrifice. Most everything was the answer (but flowers went first). I had to watch this little pathetic garden I had tended so well choke. Anything I did want to try to save, I watered with a hose, by hand, down each little row, soaking it up the best I could.
Just when I thought things were going to turn out ok, our yard gate got left open and in came the sheep. If I thought gophers were bad...! They managed to mow down everything from one side almost to the other before we woke up and realized they had spent the night eating our food! They hadn't gotten to the potatoes or tomatoes too bad. After that, I had maybe two corn stalks left standing, beets with no greens I had to find and can so they didn't rot in the ground, three straggly bean plants, and of course, the potatoes and tomatoes...minus a few leaves. The second time the gate got left open, the sheep finished off everything, weeds included, except for the tomatoes and potatoes but both rows were definitely worse for wear. The only thing that saved the tomatoes were my EZ Walls around them. The plants that weren't in a wall, kinda destroyed.
The third time the gate was open! the sheep really started in on my last standing rows. Most of the potato plants were stripped of leaves, several tomato plants were gone, tomatoes were knocked off and chewed on, even the ones' in the walls were eaten down as far as they could. Luckily the sheep were only in for an hour or so that time. Well, yeah, needless to say, I learned my humility lesson! I also learned I need to post a sign on the gates saying to close it behind you.
So, on to happier matters! Other visitors over the summer included Seth and Natalie and their kids for the 4th of July. We watched the chillins while their parents made a quick trip to Vegas and back. They were sure good little rascals, especially Rylee who was such a good helper with her brothers and folding laundry and anything to do with Casey.
Krystal and her baby girl Emilee also made a trek to visit. Although they spent most of their time in Wells, they did make a stop out at the ranch with Kagen and his family to ride some horses and see our place. Austin sure loved having his family here and being able to share some of his favorite things with them. Those kids were amazing little riders! And they loved being around those horses.
Tayler came to visit a few times - rodeo's and fairs will bring her every time! We didn't see much of her while she was here but Wes got to. He was always much more pleasant for having hung out with his favorite little sister.  We enjoyed the little bit we did see her, even if most of it was pretty sleep deprived.
One of our favorite cousins got married this summer also. Gina came from California and met up with Wes and I to make the drive together. It was a great trip for all of us, except the poor little man was pretty sick of driving by the end of it. Gina was great about playing games with him but eventually he just went into zombie mode. We had a rather eventful return trip, with caused Gina to shorten her stay with us but it was sure fun while it lasted.

The last trip of the summer was to a lake near Ogden where we met up with Shelleen and her husband and Libby. This lake has nice, sandy beaches surrounding it so we did what any mature, reasonable adults would do. We built a sandcastle and made me a mermaid! We had a blast for a few days there, even though the weather didn't always cooperate and we got rained on a little. Austin and I even got to go to a movie together when the other's offered to babysit Casey for us! I had almost forgotten what a date without a baby felt like!


  So that pretty much sums up our summer. Whew! Longest post ever! I know I forgot important things and lots of fun details but this is all my poor brain could come up with for now. I'm sad to see the summer go but I guess that it will just make way for getting to dress Casey up for Halloween and decorating and wearing sweaters and drinking cider and hot chocolate and watching the leaves turn colors and carving pumpkins and lots of delicious treats and and and, and I suppose, fall isn't so bad...

 P.S. This is Casey's "I'm so excited Grandpa moved in and lets me play with his flashlight in the dark" face. That was a pretty great end to our summer. Grandpa Knudsen moved in to stay with us for a few months until retiring and moving to Ogden. Casey couldn't be happier!