Pigpen Awards

This weekend was our annual family campout. I love the campout. It's always so fun and this year was no exception. There are lots of kids in our family and they are so fun to watch. We did notice, however, that they got just a little bit dirty.


Here's our Joey.





Joe and Derek are showing off some animal bones that they found.

My nephew's boys.

Too funny that here are four girls. Two are relatively clean and two are COVERED in dirt. Megan is so much like her mama. At that age, Angela could play all day and not get dirty either. London was so dirty that the dirt was falling off of her.

Our little Andrew. His shirt used to be white.

His hair was so full of dirt that it hardly looked blonde anymore.

In spite of the dirt, we had a wonderful time. I love my family and I'm so grateful for this tradition of camping together each summer.

"Hoping to Adopt:" Fastest success story ever

Maybe you remember reading my post a couple of weeks ago about Mike and Mary, who adopted our little granddaughter Rachel. After only three weeks on the "hoping to adopt" list, they have a new little son and he is BEAUTIFUL!


We are so happy for this beautiful little family. Baby Reed is gorgeous and we can't wait to meet him. Huge congratulations and much, much love to the four of you from us.

Obeying All Safety Rules

Boys always obey safety rules, right? Here are my boys doing just that:


Rule Number 1: Place a child at the wheel of a big piece of farm equipment and let him control it.



Rule Number 2: Stand on a precarious edge of that farm implement and allow the child to raise you high in the air.


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Rule Number 3: Operate a chainsaw while standing on the precarious edge of that farm implement while that child is at the wheel.

Mike and Mary: Hoping to Adopt

You might notice the new gadget here on my blog that says "Hoping to Adopt." This link takes you to the blog of our very, very dear friends Mike and Mary. It feels strange to call Mike and Mary "friends" because they are really family to us, but we're not biologically related. Mike and Mary are the adoptive parents of our precious little granddaughter Rachel. Rachel will be two years old this month and we love her and her parents very much. We feel that Mindy was truly inspired when she chose Mike and Mary to be the parents of her daughter. Rachel's adoption has led to a sweet association with Mike and Mary that we believe will last a lifetime and beyond.

Now these dear parents are wanting to give Rachel a little sibling. I have added their link to my blog just in case anyone out there knows of a mother who might be considering an adoption plan for her child. Mike and Mary have my unqualified endorsement! Please consider them!

How He Did It

Joey explained that he was holding the can in his right hand and shot at it with his left hand. The BB went through the can then into his hand. Doesn't that make perfect sense?

Self-Inflicted GSW

What a week this has been. After a couple of really bad days, Mike, Joey and I felt like we needed a get-away. Friday we loaded up the car and went on a picnic. We drove up Unaweep Canyon and found a nice spot by a creek. We ate our picnic and waded a little. It was wonderful. As soon as we arrived home, our friends Danny and Joellen called and said they were heading for their cabin and did we want to come? Even though we had been in the car all day, we still jumped at the chance. We loaded up the 4-wheelers, packed an over-night bag and again headed for the hills.

The cabin was so wonderful. We enjoyed a nice dinner and conversation with dear friends. We slept well, then awoke to a beautiful Saturday morning in the mountains. We took the 4-wheelers on a very long exploration and had the most wonderful time. We were awed by the beauty of the state we live in. Everywhere we looked there were picture-post-card perfect views. It was just heavenly. Joey caught a fish and learned how to clean it and he was so excited to eat it.

While dinner was cooking (steak and fresh fish) Joey went outside to play with the BB gun. A few minutes later he came back in with a hole in the palm of his hand and a BB just under the skin in the back of his hand. The BB had passed all the way through the muscle, but not through the skin. Joey showed me the wound, then passed out on the floor. We quickly loaded everything back up and headed for the ER.


Here is the x-ray of Joey's right hand with a cute little BB inside.


This little bugger is the offending BB. Joey wanted to keep it.




Here is the entrance wound one day after the "incident."





In the ER on Saturday night, the doctor made a small incision in the back of Joey's hand to remove the BB. Here is how it looked on Sunday.



This is the back of Joey's hand with the BB still inside. You can barely see it in the picture, but it was pretty obvious in real life.



This is the entrance wound on Saturday, when we first arrived at the ER.


Here is our little man, waiting to see the doctor.
It all came out okay; Joey is taking some really good antibiotics and resting and his hand is pretty sore. The worst part was that we missed the grilled steak and fresh fish!!!

Our Little Farmer

It's that time of year again... when every few weeks the hay lies in windrows in the field, waiting to be baled. Today Joey decided to be a farmer and help out. He hooked the John Deere wagon to the 4-wheeler and headed to the fields.


Here he is with the pitchfork, pitching the hay that the power rake had missed back into the row.


When he was finished, he loaded up his equipment and headed home for dinner. What a great little farmer he is!!