Busy May

(Yes, this post is a little late...)
May has been a very busy month! First there was Mother’s Day. Joseph was great, he got me a two-pound box of See’s candies, which even cost extra to ship because they have to keep it cold! It was a bit expensive, but very thoughtful of him. I also got two cards, from the kids and Joseph, and the one from Joseph had butterflies that were connected with fishing wire. This string of sparkly bugs could be removed from the card and became a beautiful mobile that can be hung up! It is very pretty.

                When I got up that morning, Elora had planned an “animal hunt” for me. She gave me a plastic grocery bag, and told me to go around the living room to find all the stuffed animals she had hidden. It was very cute and thoughtful of her. I know she got the idea from her Highlights Magazine, which suggested doing a treasure hunt for father’s day…she didn’t quite get the part about there being a prize at the end.

                That day at church, we were the only ones there! We knew beforehand that we probably would be, but they wanted us to go to the building just in case someone inactive showed up. At first the kids were disappointed and didn’t want to do church, but it actually turned out pretty good! Joseph conducted and blessed the sacrament, and shared an impromptu talk about the stripling warriors. I ran the player piano, and everyone got to sit on the bench and gather around as we sang songs about family (most of the mother’s day songs weren’t on the playlist on the piano.)

                After sacrament meeting, we went in the multipurpose room, where everyone sat at the table and I shared the Sunday school lesson. It was about prayer, and there were plenty of stories that I could share to keep the kids interested. After our lesson, we had a snack of chips, then went home.

                 

 

That night, Joseph had more plans that I didn’t even expect! After I put the kids to bed, he had prepared chocolate covered strawberries and a sparkling strawberry lemonade drink he’d secretly purchased the last time we went to town the Friday before. He even did white chocolate drizzles over the brown chocolate; they looked so professional. That was a good surprise..he’d gotten the idea the week before when I’d seen a commercial on the computer for chocolate covered strawberries, and I’d mentioned how good they looked. What a good listener!

             A few weeks later, they had the Family Fun Night at the school. This time I remembered to bring my camera, unlike last year. Outside they had a dunk tank, and inside there were lots of blow-up toys for jumping. This time they put the toys for the bigger kids in the other gym, so we didn’t have to worry so much about the little kids getting trampled! In the afternoon before we got there, Joseph was in charge of the dunk tank. Sadly he was finishing up when we arrived, so I didn’t get a picture of him sitting on the dunking seat. All the kids got a turn throwing the balls though, and both Elora and Josh were able to hit the target on their turns.

 

 

The next week Elora's school had field day and some awards ceremonies. Elora did great! She won a bunch of ribbons at field day events, and got a certificate, trophy, and ribbons for winning first in the Math contest and second in Spelling in her class.

good job, Elora!

Finally, it was Elora’s kindergarten graduation day! I expected them to have music and some kind of program like they have in Utah, but nope, it was like a high school graduation. They had pictures before hand, they had a speaker, and they had the kids walk and get diplomas. In between they had a slide show of things they did through the year, and they had some of the elementary kids performing hoop dances and a drum ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all this, they had lunch in the lunchroom, then we had cake in the kindergarten room. We got there late because the kids took so long to eat lunch again, and we got the last few pieces of the cake. The teacher had bought all the students gifts with the classroom budget- really big gifts. Elora got a lifesize babydoll, and two paint sets: one watercolor and one water soluble kids’ paints. We also gave her a wristwatch, and she was very excited about that. It had butterflies on the band, and she’s been really excited figuring out how to tell time. (They’d just started learning about time in school, so she has the basic idea down already.)

 After this, we went out on the kindergarten playground and the kids got to play for an hour and a half with some other kids who were there; they had a great time!

More garbage, because I guess this is now a landfill

Where can you get a slightly used couch, or a somewhat older refrigerator?

 


Where might you find a few mattresses, a stove (or two), and even a few stools and window screens?

 

And if you want your own vending machine, where would you look first?

 

No, this isn't the local dump....this is actually a pile of stuff just a few hundred yards behind the school, and the same distance from the end of our street!When we first moved here, this pile was only half the size you see here.But it was doubled over the last summer as the maintenance staff cleaned out the teacher housing to prepare it for new residents..yeah, seriously.

oh look, a toilet! I've always wanted one of those.

 

I don't know if this is a result of laziness (I have no idea how far the nearest dump is) or lack of funding (does it cost too much to dump trash here?) But I do know this is one of the most annoying and unsafe parts of our neighborhood. Not only does it distribute garbage all across the plains for miles around whenever there is a heavy wind, but it's a great place for snakes to hide out too.
Unfortunately, my kids think it's an awesome place to play...you know, right in the middle of all the jagged boards and sharp rusty box springs?
The worst thing of all? Since I took these pictures a few weeks ago, this pile has doubled again in size!  I guess they needed to clear things out of the houses for the new staff next year? Sheesh.

















I like the maintenance guys (they're nice fellows) but I just wish they could see what they were doing to the landscape around here, and hope they realize if some kid gets hurt around here, they might have a lawsuit on their hands! Of course with the shady politics running a school on reservation lands, if we actually raised a stink about this issue, they would fire my husband on the spot under some other pretended offense. Really.

A drive through Wyoming

For my kids, the most exciting part of a roadtrip is staying at a hotel and getting a free breakfast in the morning.

 















To me, the best part is seeing all the new scenery while we drive! Whenever we go on a trip, I bring things like magazines, books, journals, etc. thinking I'll want them to be entertained on the long drive. But inevitably, I don't need any of those things and I just enjoy the view.
Last month, we went with Joseph for a spur of the moment trip to Wyoming, where he had been called for a job interview. He ended up not getting the job offer (though it was close) so one might be inclined to think the trip was a waste of time and money. But really, we had  fun experiencing all the new parts of Wyoming.
On the way there, we had to hurry to be to the appointment on time (it is an eight hour drive without stops, so at least ten with kids along!) We were followed by a rainstorm through the mountains of northeast Wyoming, all the way down to the Riverton area. As we drove, I mentioned to Joseph how pretty it was, and I got one picture when we were stopped for construction.This was on the outskirts of a community called Tensleep; I decided I could totally live there.

 















(There was a lot of construction going on through the mountains, we got worried that we might not make it in time!)but the only other time I took a picture was after we'd passed all the mountains and were back in the more barren parts of the state; we had stopped so a certain little boy could go potty..



















But after spending the night in Lander (doesn't this statue at the hotel scream "Wyoming"?)

 




















we took a very leisurely drive home. First we stopped in Thermopolis for a picnic at the park. This is the site of the world's largest hot springs, and I have fond memories of spending a day at a family reunion here many years ago.

 
































There was a cool rock-like climbing structure at the park where we took some fun pictures,

 




















 and before we left we had to pose in front of at least one of the hot spring areas too!

 




















When we got back to the pretty mountainous area, Joseph was awesome and pulled over at a bunch of lookouts without my even asking, so we could enjoy the view and take pictures. It was great! We saw stuff like this as the road wound higher into the mountains:

There was some atmospheric haze that looked cool in person

 





















And there were some breathtaking vistas from the very top of the hills, but I was disappointed that it didn't really translate at all in my camera. Oh well, at least I can remember it!

 

This one must have been shot on the trip down, but I don't remember taking it..

At this turnout with the flowers, I got out of the car to take this picture. There were a couple of bikers stopped there as well, and Joseph swears they were checking me out. Yeah right. They were probably wondering what the crazy lady was doing taking pictures of flowers instead of the view!

As we got to the pass, we discovered that the rain that had plagued us the day before had chaged to snow overnight in the highest areas; it looked completely different! Of course, in the snow, at the very top of the mountain, was when everyone decided they had to go potty. Did I mention we were all wearing sandals because it had been hot at our house when we left?

















 
















 















Shortly before we crossed the border back into South Dakota, we saw the coolest thing of all...a moose!

HI, Moose!

Moments

May was full of a plethora of activities: end of school celebrations, school parties, travel, and everything else that fills up the transition from one season to another. But amidst all the hubbub there were moments that more fully define this time in our family's life. Quiet moments on rainy days, gleeful moments playing together and laughing, and sweet moments that can be too easily forgotten in the daily turmoil of raising a family.

I will be writing a post soon of all the craziness, but right now I wanted to tell you about some of those little things that are worth remembering.

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Elora is my flower girl. She is always scooping together handfuls of dandelions, plucking up clover, and scoping out any other colorful weed she can pick and present to me after playing outside. I always tell her I'd rather she leave them in the ground so we can all enjoy them together, but she generally ignores this suggestion. Sometimes the boys bring me blossoms too, but it is always at the direction of their older sister.

 

Except one day, when Elora was still at school, Josh and Jonah picked me some flowers on their own! Even though I usually discourage any flower scavenging, I was touched that my cute boys had been so thoughtful to bring me some pretty flowers...so I had to take a picture. Or two.

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On an evening not too long ago, Joseph decided to get out a big bubble wand he'd found at school, and take it outside for the kids. As the stream of bubbles flowed wildly across the windy grasslands, all the kids  gleefully ran through the soapy display. The kids go outside to blow bubbles often enough on their own, but this day seemed special because daddy was there too..and he had a freakin' huge bubble-wand to produce those giant bubbles!

 

 

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Last year around this time, it was a very rainy, wet season. Puddles decorated the ground around our house and everywhere else we went; mud and rain were the bane of my existence. This year we prepared early and bought rain boots for all the kids, but alas, the scant snow this winter combined with the non-existent rain of the spring has rendered those boots all but pointless.

But toward the very end of May we finally had a few drizzly days. While I hated having the kids going nuts trapped in the house, I still loved the subdued atmosphere that a rainy day will bring. And I was in love with the unfocused, rain spattered view from my bedroom window. I have no idea how to even start, but I would love to have a painting of a rainy window like this, with everything so deliciously out of focus:

On one of the most recent bouts of cloudy afternoons, we all ventured outside for a few minutes after dinner.

We were watching the cloud formations on the horizon, where you could see the lazy sheet of rain stretching to the ground as if it were static and still in the distance.

I brought my camera out and walked a bit away from the houses so I could have an unobstructed view, and of course everyone followed me. We saw some beautiful scenes like these, though of course you could also see the grass in the foreground that my camera couldn't capture at the same time (isn't the human eye amazing?)

 

they weren't really this dark at the top, but if I did this lighter you couldn't see all the cool stuff below!

At this point, Josh decided he was going to run over to the pow wow grounds, even though we were about to all go inside. Joseph was about to go catch him and make him go home, but I suggested we all go walk out there for a few minutes, and Joseph could bring the car in case we needed to hurry home from the impending rain.

While we were there, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, at the same time as a light rain began to fall. It was so pretty!

Of course I took a few pictures of myself for some "human interest" tee hee.

Joseph pulled up with the car and piled all the kids inside, but I insisted he come out with me for an impromptu photo shoot (after all, we haven't taken any pictures of the two of us since I was pregnant!) We took a bunch, but these two turned out the best:

 

 Then silly Joseph decided he would pose for a few shots on his own. Seriously, I don't know why GQ doesn't just call him up right now!

thoughtful

excited

surprised

 Before I jumped in the car (I wasn't ready to go, but everyone else was) I saw a pretty double rainbow back by the houses. What a great evening!