DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE!

There's a duck pond here in town. A very "natural" one, unlike the manicured ones in Ashland.  In the winter, the ducks and geese practically trample you as you drive up, much to Kiersa and Hyatt's horror and Talea's glee, so when we went to go feed the ducks the other day, we expected them to give us another warm welcome.

Fat chance. They must be well fed because they really didn't want much to do with our bread. One goose was pretty enamored with Talea,

to the point that it got a little friendly,

and then aggressively frisky! It was attacking her...where it counts, and thereabouts! I didn't get a picture of it because her happiness at finding a friend in the goose had turned to shock and blurts of exclamation, so I was running to her aide. A swift kick had the goose going in the other direction, and though I expected Talea to be rattled from the whole experience, she was simply bewildered and concerned about her...thighs and thereabouts.

And just a few moments later, what do you think she was doing?

That's right, she was around the pond befriending yet another goose, though with a bit more reservation. I believe I may have caught her in a brief sprint too.

We, on the other side of the pond, had entertained ourselves by feeding something other than fowl. It seems the pond is full of rainbow trout and...koi? We could see huge schools of bright orange fish among the rainbow trout. The trout were brave enough to come close enough for us to identify them, but the koi(?) were a bit more reserved and only came close enough to flash their bold color. Can you see the orange spots through the murky water?

In any case, these fish were HUNGRY! They were greedily gulping down all the bread we could throw while the ducks just swam around it disinterestedly. Can you see the two ripple circles from where the fish snatched the bread from the surface?

It was actually a lot more fun to feed the fish, since that's a rarity. They were even eating out of some people's hands! Next time, I'm taking worms so I can hand feed them.

The kids hunted for nests among the cattails, but only found duck trails

and then Hyrum played a little frisbee golf with them since there is a course next to the pond. These are good times!

RASH IT ALL

I don't know if it was because of her many fevers last week, but Paisli has come down with a funky rash that was only on her neck and torso, but after several days like that, it spread to her face and extremities.

Rashes are so mysterious! As quickly as it came, it was gone.

UTAH VACATION (week 2)

On our second week of vacation, after a fun visit with Teresa's family, Aunt Susan's family (Susan Cluff that is), and Tasha's family, we were back in Orem at Maren's house to help her with her yard. Her front yard was very...boring. It looked like every other ordinary yard on the block. She needed something to set it apart, so we went to work giving it some character and curb appeal with a border along the driveway and path. I was pretty impressed with Maren, considering this is her first attempt at landscaping.

With Maren picking plants she liked and a talented nursery staff to help us with layout, we were able to take this:

To this:

The grass never would grow very well along where we landscaped, so cutting it out has taken it from this:

to this:

And this:

Is now this:

There are boxwoods, lupines, salvias, a rose of sharon, a red twig dogwood, some spirea of varying colors, a few annuals for immediate color, some burning bushes, a viburnum, a mugo pine, some daylilies, and a few ornamental grasses. I can't wait to see it in the summer!

With a little recycling of plants and materials from the backyard to the front, the dirt to the left of the hose hide-out...

now contains a small iris garden:

An island was also created in the lawn, though placement became a difficult issue since the sewer line ran right where Maren wanted it. With a little creativity, we took this patch of pathetic grass

To a respectable island (though the flowering tree wasn't planted in these pictures). There are various types of rock plants here (sedums, hen and chicks and some ground cover) and salvias.

Now all this yard needs is some rock and bark over the landscape cloth, and some time. Oh yeah, a little TLC on the grass wouldn't hurt. In a little while, everything will be grown and filled in and it will be gorgeous.

It was so much fun working with Maren in the yard! Our kids kept themselves occupied

which gave us a little time every now and then to get our hands dirty.

I'd planned on helping Rachel and Nana with their yards too, but with my kids running fevers off and on the whole week, I was lucky to get anything done at Maren's.

At the end of the week, I packed up the kids and stuff (minus the binkie, thank goodness) and headed home. Paisli never took a binkie, but she lived for sucking on one during our two weeks away from home. Once we were home, she was fine without a binkie or a bottle, and I was more than happy to be reunited with Hyrum. We've never been apart longer than a weekend before in our 9 1/2 years of marriage. I've decided I really don't like being away from him, though absence does make the heart grow fonder.

TURNING GREEN

Though you may know that Talea has green eyes, and was born in Oregon, which is of course the green state (color-wise and eco-friendly-wise), you may not know...

she can turn green and plug her nose without the use of fingers!

Boy am I glad she wasn't born with this nose!!!!

TO PIERCE KIERCE, OR NOT TO PIERCE KIERCE

Halfway through our Utah vacation, Hyrum was able to visit us on a weekend trip before he had to go back to Rexburg to work during spring break. While we was with us, he decided it was time to make his baby girls look like girls, so people would stop calling them boys, by piercing their ears. Poor Paisli smacked her eye shortly beforehand, so she was going to have to cry twice in one day out of pain.

They weren't that thrilled of course, and I was a little worried since we were getting it done at Walmart rather than a jewelry place, but Walmart was the only affordable place to get two kids done together.

Turns out I had reason to worry.

They totally screwed up on Kiersa's ears, piercing them too low, and one of the earrings was pointing downward. We took hers out and will redo them later. (You can see in this picture where Kiersa took scissors to her hair a few weeks ago and cut her curls off.)

We'd already paid for both girls to get pierced, so we went ahead and had them pierce Paisli's, hoping for a better result. Thankfully, hers were perfect.

The craziest thing, though, is that until we pierced Kiersa's ears, we'd never noticed that Kiersa's ears are different types. One ear has a hanging lobe like the rest of the family,

and one ear has an attached lobe.

How did we never notice this before? She'll have to wear dangling earrings if it bothers her how studs emphasize this difference. Now that I'm aware of the difference in her ears, I can actually see it when I look at her head-on. In this picture you can tell the left ear lobe looks higher than the right. It was really obvious when she had the earrings for a few minutes. It doesn't matter though. She's still just as cute as ever.

UTAH VACATION (week 1)

We went down to Utah for Hyatt's 4th birthday, and we stayed for two weeks. Hyrum went back home though because he had finals week. I figured he'd study more if we weren't around.

First we had Hyatt's party while we were in Orem for the weekend. The kids love playing at Aunt Maren's house!

(The babies are watching the big kids out the window.)

Then the kids and I went up to Bountiful to Aunt Teresa's house so we could stay there for a week to help her with her yard and to see Tasha who was in town with her girls for the week.

Of course one of Tilly's favorite things about Teresa's house are the reptiles (though the snake is gone). She LOVES the bearded dragon and wore it as often as she was allowed.

She'd kiss it,

and pretend to be scared of it,





and she wanted to keep it, but when it pooped the biggest, slimiest, nastiest, STINKIEST poo ever, and then I (not she) got to clean it up off her clothes, I decided there was no way it was coming home with us. Besides, we have no room for a dragon cage in our tiny place.

Hyatt, not being an animal/critter lover AT ALL, found it entertaining to climb the furniture. It's always fun to use bunkbeds as jungle gyms!

I busted Rain sneaking snacks while watching movies. Tilly loves playing with her!

I'm just throwing this one of Kiersa in because it's a face you commonly see on her. She just studies people, as though she's reading their soul. I'd call it staring, except she blinks.

It ended up snowing 6 inches or so of snow right after we arrived, so the yard work was put on hold for a bit. Then while Teresa had to do an unexpected hospital run for Darin, I borrowed her van and took her girls and my kids to go see Tasha, Cage and Dru, and everyone at Dave's house (Dave is Cage's dad).

They know how to entertain! They're late eaters, but man the pizza was great! Dave's girlfriend teaches yoga so she's got these sling/swings hanging up in the living room, and the kids were going wild!! They loved them! Look at how many kids squished into one! Hyatt, Talea, Star, Rain and Dru!

Kiersa and Paisli even had a blast swinging together.

And let's not forget the dart guns. Of course those were a hit.

Tasha found her heads she carved when she was around 18. Dave had them all this time! Good thing! I thought they were lost.

I wish I lived closer to Tasha. We just may move to San Diego or somewhere close to get Hyrum's nursing experience before we go over the road when he's a travel nurse. She'll get her fill of me then.

After all the chaos of 10 kids and 5 adults in one house eating and swinging was wound down, we headed back to Teresa's.

Paisli and Rocky were partners in crime: raiding the chip box, dumping the dog water, dropping their food on the floor...

I did manage to do a little bit of yard work before I left, but not much, and of course I forgot to take any before and after pictures. It was fun week anyway. I know Teresa's family got their fill of Johnsons I'm sure!