Chickens, and Kittens, and Fish, Oh My

There is always a lot of opportunity at Grandma and Papa's house to interact with animals. My kids' favorite thing to do is help Papa with the chores at the end of the day. They get to help feed the dogs, cats, chickens and then gather the eggs. They fight over who gets to hold what bucket and who gets to gather the eggs. It is probably more of a chore for Papa to have the kids "help" him, but he is a good sport about it!! The girls helping Papa get the food for the animals. They know which one has dog food and which one has chicken scratch. They learn pretty quick!!

Heading up to the chicken coop and orchard where the dogs hang out!!

Lauryn taking a break to give me a cheesy grin.

The kids checking out the chickens.

The chickens were grateful for our delivery. They were hungry!!The chickens are Grandma's and she is hatching out some more chicks. There are some that are a little bigger but these little babes just hatched a few days earlier!! They still wanted to snuggle under mama.

This is the chicken that Ayden had to learn to get the best of in order to get the eggs. He really wanted to carry the eggs from the coop to the house. My dad told him that if he wanted to carry the eggs then he needed to GET the eggs. Ayden has a bit of a thing with touching things and to touch something that pecks was a big task. Papa showed him how to cover the chickens head with a cup with one hand and then reach in with the other hand to get the eggs. It took some serious coaxing but Ayden finally got some eggs and he got to carry them into the house for Grandma!!

The next night after chores were done my Dad heard some crying, like from a kitten and he went out with a flashlight to search for what it was. He had noticed that for about three days the cat food hadn't been eaten on. Well come to find out the mama cat was gone but had left four little kittens. It isn't unusual to loose a cat to a coyote, we think that is what happened to the mama. Regardless of what happened we had four babies that needed fed. Of course the kids were in heaven with these kittens, especially Meysa. She is a natural mama and these kittens needed taken care of, so she jumped at the chance. We tried letting them lap up milk by themselves but they weren't getting enough that way so my Mom took to feeding them by syringe. Meysa loved watching her feed these babies.

They were sweet little guys.

He is saying he is hungry, could you please hurry up!!!

The Saturday before we left to come home to Washington Papa Chip and Uncle Aaron took, Ayden, Meysa, Jaci and Quian fishing at Mann's Lake. A couple of days before that Ayden and Quian went and found a jar full of grasshoppers. Ayden was really excited to go but we told him he needed to be able to bait his own hook. Did I mention that Ayden has a thing about touching stuff. Especially stuff that can MOVE on it's own. Well he wasn't sure about having to handle a grasshopper in order to bait his own hook. It took Aaron about a half and hour to work Ayden into holding a grasshopper. He started by having Ayden touch the wings, then the back legs, then front legs. You get the idea. Finally he held a grasshopper for 10 seconds and didn't freak out. He asked if we could just use worms, so I asked him if he would touch them instead, he said no!! I think this kid appreciates the invention of gloves. If he doesn't have to touch them with his skin he is ok!!

Some of the day's catch. Meysa caught the most, Jaci caught the biggest.

Jaci's catch. She was pretty proud of herself, and she should be!!

Aaron teaching the kids how to skin and fillet the fish. They were pretty tasty with a little butter and salt-n-pepper.

Meysa was Papa's fishing fool. He said every cast but one she caught something. She reeled it in all by herself and really had a lot of fun. Ayden learned a very valuable lesson about fishing. You have to WAIT for a while once you cast out your line, or you won't catch anything!!! Finally on his last cast he WAITED like Papa said he needed to and he caught his one and only fish of the day. Sometimes it pays to listen to Papa!!

The Dirty Dozen or so

When we go to Papa's house there always has to be a story about cows!! It is becoming a hard, fast rule. Well this year was no different. There is a special spot on the road up to Papa's house that is prime for digging. It has the best dirt. The kind that covers everything and gets embedded in every pore and crevice. It is a kid magnet. Well with a troop of kids like we had at the place, where do you think they would congregate? Of course the dirt pile. The other guests at the pile were some of Papa's cows. Once the kids realized that they were surrounded by cows they weren't so sure about their favorite location. There wasn't a good escape route!! About two seconds before this picture was taken every kid except for the two older girls, had their shirts off acting like a bunch of heathens!! Yup only mine didn't think that was a problem.

One of the cows that decided to crash the party. She doesn't look too happy about not being invited in the first place.

"Look Mom, I am filthy!!! Do you want a hug?"

"What?"

This is the friendly resident bull, that is a big marshmallow, but he looks mean. The kids weren't sure about him.

While Wyatt wasn't in on the dirt party, once down there he sure wished he had been invited too.

We weren't going to let the dirt balls inside without getting them hosed off but all we had was a little kiddie pool. Well heck, throw them all in, the more the merrier!! Mason sure thought it was a great idea!!

I don't think that water is drinkable now. Dirty little monkeys!!

Oh darn, party's over, we sprung a leak!! We took all of the kids in a gave them REAL baths after this but before we put them to bed.

And that is why Papa Chip's house is so much fun. The opportunity to get dirty beyond dirty and not get in trouble for it!! Plus you get to hang with the cows, even if nobody invited them!

On the Road AGAIN!!

We left Eagar after church on Sunday and our intended destination was Flagstaff, AZ. But wouldn't ya know it, just outside of Holbrook, my Dad's trailer tire blew. We weren't that surprised, it seems anytime we go any distance away from home something breaks down or something blows out!! When the tire blew it took along with it some of the fiberglass from the trailer. Thankfully we had a spare and after a quick change and some horsing around we were back on the road, again!!
Dad getting things off and ready to change. JD and Roman did help with getting off the spare and changing the tire but I just thought I would post some of the antics these boys come up with.

JD missed out on the 4th of July rodeo so he thought he would have one of his very own. Unfortunately it was one mean bull and he didn't quite make a full 8 sec. Maybe next time JD!!

I am not sure what Roman was trying to demonstrate to us all but you can see the problem with this tire was practically the whole center tread was gone. Kind of weird I thought!!

Aaron was our tourist for the day. He thought he would change out of his Sunday pants and into some shorts in order to help out. But he didn't think to change his socks or shoes. Really Aaron if you are going to be a tourist you really need a louder shirt!! He is also showing off his lovely sunburn he got from the parade the day before!! OUCH!

Here is the rest of the wagon train, waiting in a/c vans!! The kids were troopers I tell ya!!

Well this is tire number TWO!! Yup, not five miles after we changed the first tire the spare tire really blew out!! Now we are stuck about 5 miles from Holbrook, and we have no other spare tire. So we hobbled into town and tried to no avail to find something open on a Sunday evening. The other problem was we had hotel reservations in Flagstaff that we had already paid for. So we did the only thing we could do and that was leave my parents behind in Holbrook to wait until morning when things would open up again to get a few new tires!! The rest of us went on down the road headed for Flagstaff!!

My parents parked the trailer in the parking lot of a tire shop and when they opened up in the morning they got both tires fixed and headed on down the road to catch up with us!! Kind of a long way to get to Flagstaff!!

The rest of us went and checked into our hotel in Flagstaff. We arrived at about 7:45pm and the kids were hungry, of course!! Right across the parking lot from the hotel was a Denny's so we trudged over there to feed the masses. Let me remind you of our stats!! We were now down to 3 adults (1 man and 2 women) and 17 kids. We took up the entire waiting area and we sat at five tables. So if you were a patron at Denny's that night what would you think when you saw our troop? I'll tell you what our waiter thought!! He asked Lana, my SIL if we were from Utah, to which she replied, NO she was from Idaho. Then he just kept making little comments here and there, but when it came time for the check, he put Lana and Aaron's check on her table and said here is the check for "THE" husband. I had my own check as I paid for my kids plus some. When we went to pay, Wyatt had tried taking a butter knife so I handed it to him and he said thanks and he was glad that we were an honest FAMILY!! Do you see where I am headed with this one? The guy thought we were a POLYGAMIST FAMILY!! I tried to tell him that we were actually FOUR different families and that some of us lived in Washington and some in Idaho. He gave me the "yeah right, I'll nod my head and humor you" look and then we left. It was kind of funny, but because I was sitting at the table all by myself I must have been the second wife, and I don't like being second!!! Totally kidding, just trying to find the humor in the situation!!!

Our initial plan on Monday was to leave from Flagstaff and go to the Grand Canyon in the morning and then head on up into Utah. Well because we were waiting for my parents to get new tires and then catch up with us we stayed at the hotel and went swimming instead. We met up with my parents at about 10:30am and headed North hoping to make our reservations in Provo. We didn't have time to go see the Grand Canyon so we waved at the turn off and kept heading North. We did however stop at Glen Canyon to check out the dam there, which was really cool.

They had a little ranger station where the kids learned about the Native American uses for corn and basically the history of corn. Then they got to plant some Indian corn in little cups. All the kids planted some, but not all of them actually made it home to Grandma's intact. Ayden's did and he planted it in a pot at Papa's house and he is hoping Papa then planted it in his garden. We will see when we go back to Idaho in a few weeks. (this a reminder Papa Chip)!!

The whole troop at the Glen Canyon visitors center!! It was hot that day and Lake Powell looked mighty inviting!!! But we had the road to get on once again so we couldn't play!! Darn! We did make it to Provo that night at about 10:00pm and crashed hard in our beds. Again we only had one King bed and so me and mine squeezed into it all snug as little bugs in a rug!! We had another long day on the road the next day and we started our day bright and early again. We made it to Lewiston at about 10:00pm that night and I was sooo glad I didn't have to get up and drive again for a little while!!!

The trip was really fun and totally worth all the driving. My kids had a blast with their cousins and really loved getting to see new places. My one and only wish would have been for Ryan to get to go with us. Maybe next time!!!!

Grandparents are GREAT!!

I was so excited to get to see my grandparents while in Arizona. The last time I had seen them was when I was pregnant with Meysa and before we moved to Iowa. Sadly they hadn't seen any of the younger three kids and Ayden was 2 when he saw them last. My kids loved getting to go to their house and to play in the super cool tree house. They all left their mark on it and wish they could play in it again. I am really grateful for the opportunity my kids had to see my grandparents, their Great-grandparents. We live close to Ryan's grandparents and they see them pretty often, which they love and I love watching the memories they make with them. I do wish we lived closer to mine but we will cherish the time we spent with them this summer. We love you Grandma and Grandpa!!

Arizona Fun!

(photo by Chris Wilson...Cousin)
We had so much fun in the week that we spent in Arizona. This is a picture of all the people that made it for our family reunion. It is a crazy tribe, and it wasn't even everyone!! We camped by Mexican Hay Lake, which is in the White mountains, so it was much cooler than the rest of Arizona. We got rain just about everyday which was nice and the kids had a ball just getting plain dirty!! Here are some other things that we did during the week!!

(Photo by Chris Wilson...Cousin)

They played with Playdoh, made bracelets and necklaces, played mafia and other fun games.

They hunted the meadow for frogs and flowers, and struck a pose at a seconds notice!!!

I got my hair done by a world renowned hairstylist. She was the best!!!

Spent time with Great-Grandparents!! Love them lots!!

Loved the campfire fun. Smore's are sooooo good!!

Listened to stories from the olden' days!!
Played a mean game of horseshoes!!

Our whole family was in the 4th of July parade!! The banner reads. "American Pride...God, Family, Country....Vurrell Finch Family.....9 kids, 46 grandkids, 113+ Great-Grandkids, and 1 Great-Great-Grandkid"

(Photo by Chris Wilson...Cousin)

Ayden loved walking in the parade. He should have drank more water though, he got dehydrated and didn't feel very well the next day.

Lauryn loved her little flag!! She fell asleep about half way through the parade!!

Meysa had fun on the trailer!! Funny story about Meysa Lynn!! We got to the start of the parade where we were to meet and get on the float. We had all piled into one of our vans so that the other one was back at the end of the parade. Once we all got out of the van and got on the float, I couldn't find Meysa. Of course it was hard to tell where she might be since we were all wearing red, white and blue. We started to wonder if she had gotten in the van at all, or was she still in the van roasting in the sun. I was starting to panic and my brother Aaron went to check the van to make sure she wasn't there and he spots a little toe headed girl a few parking lots away. This particular little girl was captured by the sight of horses being saddled, getting ready for the parade. She had seen them when we first had gotten out of the vans. Little twit!! That is probably the first time that I have thought I lost one of my kids. We had so much fun being in the parade!!!

I was so glad that I was able to make it to Arizona this year. It was a blast to see family and catch up with loved ones. Family really is a blessing and I am very thankful for mine!!