fun in caruthers

Where in the world is Caruthers? I asked the same question when Garrett suggested that we go to the Caruthers District Fair and let Coleman race his dirt bike. Come to find out, it's only about a 40 minute drive from Clovis, smack dab in the middle of raisin country. And after just spending quality time at our area welfare project--a raisin vineyard--"rolling raisins," I found myself admiring acre after acre of neat rows of raisin bundles as we drove to the fair.

So Coleman competed in his first (and last?) dirt bike race. He was pretty darn excited. His buddy Brett was racing his quad. Can it get any better than that for a 7-year-old boy? Actually, yes, it can: when that boy comes home with a trophy! No matter that every kid was handed one as they exited the track after their last heat, and no matter that it says "participant" on it, to him it's a TROPHY! His first trophy!

The pictures aren't the greatest, but he's so darn cute in his gear on his little bike. Here he is on the straight-away (almost center of the picture) and rounding the corner. He was a little timid--not the fastest guy out there, but he had a great time.


In his first heat he killed his bike at the starting line and had a rough time until some guy came and helped him get it started. He got going in time to make a couple of laps. He did better in the next heat and was happy to announce that he passed a couple of guys.

Garrett was in the pits with him so the other kids and I spent a few minutes checking out the rest of the fair. When that few minutes was over we'd seen everything there was to see (did I mention this was a very small fair?) so we sat in the stands to watch the practices. The kids got pretty stir crazy and we were sweating our faces off, but we had a good time.

The guy sitting by us was not very comfortable with a camera, so bear with the picture. Check out Ellie's hair. She and Anson were entertaining themselves by wrestling on the benches. You should have seen the dirt in the bottom of the bathtub. These next pictures demonstrate their general mood.


And to change the subject, I had to post these pictures of Anson's obsession. These go along with the last post and his Thomas shirt. He takes great care to set these all up before he can be happy going to sleep. But boy, is he happy!

happiness for sale

My friend Lisa picked up this Thomas shirt for Anson for $2 because she knew how much he loves Thomas. And boy, does it make him happy! He gets so excited when I put it on him. He jumps up and down and spends a lot of time looking down at it.

I don't know how he became so obsessed with Thomas. He only recently got an actual Thomas train. He's just had the little train set with a couple of random Thomas characters that Coleman had. We got a movie a while back--I think that did it. It's funny how different kids latch onto different things. Coleman wasn't all that interested, but Anson eats, drinks and sleeps Thomas. So thanks Lisa--much more than $2 worth of happiness out of that purchase!

ellie bellie

Tonight as we were leaving Enrichment Ellie saw her Primary teacher, Karen Foster, and ran up and gave her a big hug and said, "I miss you!" (She really has no concept of time.) Karen pulled me aside and told me how much she enjoys having Elisabeth in her class and how she's so loving and sweet. She said, "I always need a hug."

That got me thinking about Ellie's loving personality and about two things that happened at our Utah reunion in July. At the 24th of July parade in Salt Lake, all the kids in the extended family were sitting right in the front, so I wasn't right with my kids. I didn't notice what was happening until someone said, "Who's Ellie sitting with?" I realized that the people right next to our kids weren't part of the family, but Ellie didn't. She had just made herself comfortable with the nice lady by her and ended up in her lap. The lady didn't seem to mind at all. Ellie loves to be loved and cuddled--she'll take it from anyone she can get it from!

Later in the day we had our reunion lunch, games, stories, etc. at a park. Garrett's Aunt Pat had brought a lady from her ward who doesn't have any family. She sat alone most of the time as the rest of us had responsibilities, kids to feed and chase, games to play, etc. But later in the day I noticed Ellie sitting by her and chatting away. No matter that she didn't know her. It's like she knew that this lady needed a little attention, and Ellie needed someone to listen to her for a minute. From this picture it's obvious that Ellie made her day!

We love our sweet Ellie Bellie. She has her moments of strong-willed stubbornness, but I'll take it if it means we get our sweet, loving, hugging, giggling, silly, happy girl.

my best friend's wedding

What a fabulous weekend! My dearest, greatest friend, Lissy Sanders, got married in the Salt Lake Temple to a wonderful guy, Mark Sarvela. I've never seen her look so radiantly happy. She was beaming from head to toe! My other good friends, Kay and Jen, were there. We were all roommates at BYU (missed you Jamie and Liz!) It was a beautiful sealing--Garrett and I were so glad we were able to come. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Sarvela!

We also got to enjoy absolutely perfect weather and great company for the weekend. We visited my Aunt Patty after the wedding in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where she is serving a mission in the Family and Church History Mission.

We enjoyed walking around the temple grounds and basking in the gorgeous weather. What a day! This is one of the best pictures Garrett and I have taken in a while!

After all the festivities, we met up with some of our good friends from college. We hadn't seen two of the couples in about 10 years! It was great to hang out with them. There was a lot of laughing, as usual. Roger's wife, Angie, commented to me, "I think Rog and Garrett are soul mates." Later Garrett told me his cheek muscles were cramping and sore and that Roger spit out his food multiple times. That's the sign of good times.

Jeremy & Janet Astle, Alesha & Clark Finlinson, Roger & Angie Gardner, Us, Andrea & Mark Ryser

We enjoyed two fun hikes with the Burbidge clan that was in town. Friday we hiked in the mountains on the west side (I can't spell the name!) then drove to the top and looked down into Kennicot Copper mine. What a sight! Saturday we did a short but beautiful hike up a little canyon in Salt Lake. I had no idea this lovely stream, waterfalls, and lake were so close! After a picnic, some duck feeding, and Angie taking advantage of the prettiest nursing spot ever, we took a few silly pictures and headed back. It was a perfect day! (This didn't have anything to do with the fact that our kids were home with mom. They would have loved the hike too--I think!)

The perfect end to this wonderful weekend was a very nice old lady giving us a ride home from the airport. We got home in the middle of church, so we didn't want to bother anyone to come get us. We figured we'd just get a taxi. But there weren't any hanging out, so we were wandering a bit when she spotted us. She'd just dropped off her daughter and said, "Do you have a ride?" She didn't even live in Clovis--it was quite a bit out of her way. We offered her gas money, but she refused, even when I tried to stash the cash in her car. So we had a lovely ride home with Billie and enjoyed her gift of service to us. There are many good people out there, and it's good to be reminded of that!

P.S. I don't want to sound ungrateful by including this as a post script, but I need to mention that this wonderful weekend was made possible by the generosity and loving devotion of my mom. She came to stay with our kids so we could fly (wow, what a treat!) to SLC. She even helped the kids participate in our annual block sale. I know, I know, I can't believe it either. Garrett and I both regret asking her to do that, but the kids were so excited to sell some of their things and earn some money. So thanks A MILLION Mom! We all love you to pieces!