Garage Shenanigans

A couple of nights ago I was making the evening rounds at our house making sure everything was closed and locked, when I got a little surprise. Rodger usually does this, but he was out of town so I was completing the nightly ritual. I went out to make sure the garage door was shut at about 11:30 so that the cat and her kittens would be ok since it's been getting kind of cold.

I've been leaving the garage door open about 5 or 6 inches so she can go in and out during the day. Anyway when I opened the door she was in the garage all huffed up like some deranged puffer-fish hissing. She was blocking her kittens and peering under my car at something she was definitely unhappy about.

The neighbors have a cat that she is not to fond of, and that's what I thought must be under the car. I walked around the car a couple of times waiting to see the cat dart out from under the car, but nothing happened.

I finally decided that I was going to have to get down and look. I was hoping to see one of these:

Or maybe one of these:





(they have been the bane of my front garden for several years now).




Or one of these:






I have seen some of these a few streets over, and thought perhaps they had migrated.






I was really hoping it wasn't one of these:











Nope, instead what I found staring back at me eyeball to eyeball was this:






That's right a coyote had somehow squirmed under the barely open garage door and was now under my highlander! To my credit I didn't scream or cry. I got up and grabbed the nearest weapon which happened to be one of the boys plastic baseball bats.

I would have thought that seeing a person would have been enough to scare the sucker off, but no luck. Coyote's are very skittish animals, and I couldn't believe it was still under the car. I guess it wanted the kittens pretty bad. Anyway I poked and jabbed at it quite a bit, but the bat wasn't long enough to reach all the way underneath the car so the coyote and I were doing a strange dance under and around the vehicle for about 5 minutes with me becoming more and more frustrated that it wouldn't just leave.

I finally had to yell for the boys to come and bring me something longer that would reach all the way underneath the car. So mop in hand I went after it again, and finally got it out from underneath the car where it started running all around the garage in a panic. Eventually I corralled it outside and was able to shut the door.

We went to bed, and the next morning I was regaling my grandparents with my little escapade when my grandpa again pointed out this is not how coyotes normally act. He thought it was probably sick.....(meaning had rabies) and that we were fortunate that it hadn't been aggressive. So then I got to go home and wash out and bleach my garage just in case.

Long story short, I better keep the garage door shut!

Grand Champion Y'all!

Our summer 4-H project finally came to an end this weekend, and I'm not sure if I am happy or sad.

Alec was able to show his goat at the Apache County Fair and took home the Grand Champion Ribbon and belt buckle. The buckle is bigger than his head.

This was the culmination of all the work he has done this summer in feeding, raising, cleaning, and training the goat. At times it was very hard and he had many injuries to show for all his time with Sissy and Nanny. Going into the fair I was not sure how much he learned, but during the shows I was amazed at how well he did. All the time really paid off.

After the show was over we were able to hang up his ribbons and get him a new belt for his buckle. He loved when the little kids would walk by Sissy's pen. He would let them come in and pet her as well as telling them all about goats. I saw his confidence sky-rocket, and I am so glad we stuck with it even though it was tough at times.

Saying good-bye was very tough. I am trying not to dwell on it to much or I get sad. Alec did cry some, but I still think 4 months of learning vs. 30 minutes of crying is a good trade. I think I am somewhat glad that he is tenderhearted towards animals. I would prefer that to a disregard for life.



I am grateful that this program exists for my kids, and we are trying to decide what if any animal(s) we may raise next year!


We also entered some of Dean's art work, and he won a blue ribbon too! I'm kicking myself for forgetting to get a picture of it hanging on the display board. I also entered some of my grandma's Dahlias. I tried to get her to do it, but she didn't think they were good enough. I waited until she left and then went and cut some and entered them for her. I figured if she didn't win anything I wouldn't tell her, and she would never know, and if she won, then she would know I was right all along. She ended up winning too, and was so ticked to see her ribbons and get her prize money.

The county fair was little, but still fun. It got me all warmed up for the state fair coming up in a few weeks, Woo Hoo!

Falling Stars

One of the benefits of home-school is that we don't have to be on any kind of time schedule, so when the Perseid meteor shower happened a few weeks ago we got to stay up and watch it.

The boys and I dragged our sleeping bags and pillows out on the trampoline at about 11:30 and snuggled up to wait for the shooting stars. Fortunately we didn't have long to wait. We were able to see 6 or so stars in about and hour. By then we were all falling asleep and ready for bed.

I know this will be one of my favorite memories of the boys childhood. In addition to talking about the stars and constellations we had lots of good talks about life and family. I felt so at peace lying there with them snuggled up at my sides. Soon they will be too old to want to snuggle with me.

Happy Birthday Baby!

For Rodger's birthday the boys and I woke up early and prepared a breakfast of bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and orange rolls. We packed all the food up into backpacks with juice and napkins and then woke Rodger up.

We all got on our bikes and rode down to the bike trail along the Little Colorado. The sun had just come up and the birds sounded beautiful. The air was so clean and fresh, it made me wish I got up earlier than 8 AM normally.....for just a minute.

We rode to the bridge and ate our breakfast while enjoying the breeze and the birds and the wildflowers. We packed up and went home so Rodger could get to work since he didn't take the day off of work. That evening we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes (Rodger's fav) and then the cupcakes he requested. We didn't get to have a party since he had to work until 8 that night.

The following Sunday we had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner and had cake too.

Family Feud

Last Thursday I heard an announcement on the radio saying that the Family Feud would be in Phoenix that weekend auditioning families for their show. I of course got really excited because I love the Family Feud!

I ran home to call my Mom and ask if she would be interested in auditioning. We figured the odds of us getting an appointment were slim to none so we decided to give it a shot. Imagine my surprise that evening when we got the word that we had been selected to come and try-out.

This was a very spur of the moment trip so we packed up and took off Friday night because the appointment was early on Saturday morning. We had a safe drive down, and all was going well Friday night until I looked into the back and realized my suitcase never made it into the car. Then all hell broke loose. I had packed 4 different outfits so that I could coordinate with my mom and sister, but that was out now. In fact I had nothing to wear, kind of a problem when your mom is FOUR sizes smaller than you are!!!

So hysteria set in for the evening, but I was fine Saturday morning and I was able to find clothes of my Mom's that looked cute. We couldn't coordinate, but oh well.

The audition went well, and we did super with our questions, but I'm not sure we had enough enthusiasm. They set up a mock game against another family, and we beat them, but who knows if that even matters. We probably won't make it on the show, but it was a fun family memory anyway.

Once it was over we went and stuffed our faces at Macayo's Depot Cantina, that was my favorite part! The only part I'm totally bummed about is that I didn't get a picture of all of us.

Camping at Black River

Two weeks ago we decided it was about time we put all the terrific camping gifts Mom has been giving us to good use. We drove up to Alpine/Black River area a couple of weeks before we went, and found the perfect spot too.

We finally convinced our friends the Poche's, who are not sure if they like to camp, to come with us...and the camping trip was born.

We left Friday morning, and drove to the camp site. When we got there we discovered that a large group of campers was already there, RUDE! So while Scott was laughing at all my careful planning going down the toilet, we continued up the road looking for a spot. I shouldn't even call it a road because it was nearly impassable in some places. I'm still shocked that the Poche's van made it through.

We had lots of fun hiking, eating, shooting, eating, talking, and eating. I have to say, the Poche's are all very funny. They have kids around the same ages as our boys and I was very surprised the Katie and Dean became such good friends. Alec and Spencer also paired off and had a great time. All of their kids are so well behaved and fun to visit with, and we are glad they came with us.

The next day we headed down to Black River for some water shenanigans. The girls and I waded out into the crawdad infested waters where we were promptly pinched and ran back screaming. The second expedition went better crawdad-wise, but I ended up falling in. Rodger was taking a nice nap in the shade while all this was going on until I informed him that he was sleeping in Poison Ivy. This was followed by a looooong bath in the freezing cold river. The rash did indeed show up 3 days later, but was very mild thanks to the dip.






The Poche's headed for home then, and my Grandparents and Erin headed up to hang out with us.
They got lost along the way, and we spent some time driving around the woods looking for them, but all turned out well in the end.

We will be heading off to camp with my Mom's family this weekend, and I think we are definitely going to be making camping a summer must!

A Walk in the Woods

Last weekend we decided to go on a family picnic and hike to say goodbye to our relatives from Texas. We set out Saturday afternoon and headed for Point of the Mountain lookout for our picnic since it has a nice view and benches. The kids enjoyed tossing rocks and looking at the wildflowers.

After the picnic we headed up to Big Lake and the Indian Springs trail head. Erin and I have been biking this trail a lot this summer, but we decided to take the whole fam and take the Big Lake Lookout turnoff. Grandma and Grandpa spread a blanket and read in the shade while we hiked.

We found wild raspberries and the kids decided to sample them...they seemed to be a little sour.

The path was beautiful, and I could really enjoy it this time since I wasn't whizzing by 100 miles and hour and hanging onto the handle bars of my bike for dear life.

The lookout was on top of a big hill, and I must say the view was well worth the hike. When we finally got to the top we stepped into a parking lot full of other tourists. Turns out you can drive right up. I'm not gonna lie.....I thought they were Pansies for driving up, but then I didn't have to share my beautiful hike with a bunch of slowpokes. Guess I'm sort of glad they were all too lazy.


I don't have any pictures of the way back down because it started raining, and I decided it would be a good time to get my jog in before I was soaked to the skin.


We were all totally jazzed to see some wildlife since turkeys, deer, coyote, elk, and hawks have been seen on previous bike rides, but this was the extend of our sightings.....

we saw cows, a horny toad, a rabbit, and a chipmunk.
Woo Hoo!

I've seen better "wild" life in my own neighborhood. Oh well, I'm sure this is going to be a regular activity from now on so maybe next time.
Sami decided she wanted to pet the horny toad and it totally let her. So Dean decided to try it too, and the toad took off across the grass. They tracked it for a while and then Dean bent down for another try. He came up screaming that it had bit him, apparently it had used up all it's tolerance for the day.

Special thanks to Rachel for blogging about shutterfly collages so I was able to post a bunch of pictures and hopefully not bore those of you that didn't want to look through all of them individually. I love how they "pop" open when you click them so you can look at them up close if you are especially interested!