A Real Hero

A few weeks ago Hyrum was went out front to do something, when he hurriedly came back in and said "Mom! You've got to see this!" When your six year old son tells you this you never know what you will see but I was expecting something along the lines of a large bug. Instead I saw this.

 

I have no idea how they got into our cul-de-sac but it was 90 degrees outside and the poor things didn't have any water.  The ducks were actually panting.  Did you know that ducks pant?  I had no idea.  Along with another neighbor we flooded part of the yard so they could get a drink and cool off, but we knew it was only a temporary solution.  Worried about these little ducklings we decided to heard them down the street, around the corner, and across the street to the park.

Hyrum loved the herding.  He thought it was great that he was allowed to chase them.  We kept them marching through the park to the golf course, and down the green until finally . . .

 They made it safe to the pond.  We were so glad to see them safe at the pond.  Hyrum kept say "I'm a real hero."

Yes Hyrum you are.

Hooray for Fry's!

We just got back from vacation and I needed to run to the store. You know how it is when you've been gone for two weeks. We had no milk, eggs, bread, the basics. While at my Frys check out line I noticed something new. They did something that I have only ever seen in Utah. Their Cosmopolitan magazines, you know the ones that usually have mostly naked women on the cover, right at eye level for little boys. Well, they had the magazine covered up except for the title. Yea for Frys! I think they have become the only grocery store I will take my kids to.

Does your Fry's do this too? Let Fry's know that you appreciate this and ask them to do it in all their stores.

Overheard

Me:  Have you heard any other stories about Daniel?

Hyrum:  Oh yeah, Daniel and the Lion King

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Alan:  I can't find my sandals anywhere!

Me:  Maybe you should try looking in your closet.  That's where they are supposed to be.

Alan:  Well It's pretty obvious to me that I never put my sandals in the closet.

Motivation

They always started out in a serious racing position but I think it
always pretty much ended with them falling in the pool.

 The kids did swim team this summer.  Hyrum could hardly swim at the beginning but it was good for him to practice a lot.  They were excited about it and enjoyed going to practice.  The kids didn't really understand what a meet was or really what it meant to compete at first.  About half way though they realized that they were getting last in all of the races, but got ribbons anyway.  When it was over the kids weren't particularly sad but Alan said that he didn't want to compete the next week.

Being the sensitive mom that I am I told him that they were going to compete anyway.  Of course I gave them the lecture that the only person they were competing against was themselves.  The next week I told them that if they
beat their time in all of the races we would go out to ice cream afterwards.

The first week Hyrum looked like this a lot. 

Every few feet Hyrum would stop and hold onto the lane line to catch his breath.  After the promise of ice cream the next week he looked more like this.

Hyrum would start heading over to the lane marker and we would all yell at him to not stop and keep going.  For the first time ever Hyrum made it across the pool with out stopping.  You should have seen the look on his face when we told him he knocked 40 seconds off of his time.  In the end both of the kids improved their time in every single race.  I was so proud of them.  And best of all they were so proud of themselves.

Here are the proud boys with their ribbons.  Now I want to now where my ribbon is
for sitting out in 95 degree temps watching them.

On a Grand Scale

 Last weekend we went with John's work to their annual clean up at the Grand Canyon.  This is our families third trip to the Grand Canyon so it is nice to be able to go up there for just a few days and take our time seeing what we want to see and not feel like we have to hurry to see everything.  Every time I go I come to appreciate it's beauty even more.

I went to the Grand Canyon when I was 16.  My best friend had a family reunion there and they planned to hike rim to rim.  Being 16 (meaning young and stupid) I was thrilled to go along.  It is a completely different experience being in the canyon rather than looking from the rim.  I thought I was ready for the canyon.  The year before I had gone on a 15 mile backpacking trip.  That was easy.  Never mind that it was 15 miles spread over 3 days, all down hill.  The Grand Canyon was 14 miles down the North Rim and then a very steep 9 miles up the south.  The hike down was long and exhausting but not too bad over all.  I wasn't prepared for the rest of the trip however.  At the bottom of the canyon the low temperature was 80 degrees (now that I live in Phoenix that is such a common occurrence I don't even think about it but to a California girl that was insane).  The one truly smart thing we did was making our packs as light as possible.  That meant no tent for us.  Everyone else in our group was worried that it would rain on us but we ended up being the only ones that were able to stay cool and sleep well that night.  Everyone else was too hot in their tents.

The heat however completely wiped out my appetite.  I did remember to keep drinking but I hardly ate at all.  Combine that with the very steep 9 mile hike the next day, it was a miracle I made it out at all. I felt exhausted and sick.  I don't think I ate for a week after that.  That being said, it was an amazing experience that I'm glad I had.  Also, and experience that I don't want to have again.

Just a couple of picture of my cute little boys while we were there.  I tried to post a picture of me at the bottom of the canyon from when I was 16 but my scanner is being cranky.  Oh well.

Dad

It's a day late but I was out of town on Sunday and I still wanted to pay a small tribute to my Dad.  Sports weren't played much in my house growing up, but when I was in the 4th grade I played soccer for a total of one half of a season.  I was certainly the worst on the team.  Though I don't think I have any pictures of my soccer playing days to post, I do remember my Dad going to all my games and cheering me on.  Thanks Dad for supporting me and helping me feel better despite my less than stellar performance.