Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Smith reunion and Family BBQ


(Saturday)
I have to be honest. I did not want to go to the Smith Reunion. I know basically none of these relatives and it's torture to sit around making small talk with people sometimes. Regardless, so I did. It was nice to see Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Earl again, and Aunt Dana and four other cousins. They have a raffle every year, which is always a great hit. My kids loved it, but not the few prizes they won. Notice Isaac's face about the Fiddle Faddle.
*****

I don't see much of my brother Kent and his family when I'm in town, but we did have a family bbq, with his Shawn and his family, sans Cortney (with friends) and Nate (on his mission in Argentina). Corinne stole the show with her blond antics...forgetting to open the lid on the ketchup bottle, getting a serving fork because all the others were gone, retelling a bat story that happened with her Mom in WalMart. Mom made a delectable dessert; I had about four servings. Baby Jude is such a treat to have around. I love to watch Erin be a mommy. You can tell how much she loves him and her hubby, Kevin.

Corinne and other misc information




I love love love my niece, Corinne. She is a rare gem. She cleaned Grandma's car this morning, then came back later and we made fun flower hair clips. That girl is something special...such an amazing lookout on life, so positive and sparkly. I'm honored to be acquainted with her.

Mom and I went out with our cameras tonight. I tried to teach her the little I know about ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc, but I don't think it took very well. It's like a new language. We went to the new North Logan cemetery, First Dam so Ammon could feed the ducks, and drove by my grade school. We spend time out in the yard photographing flowers and misc. places.

Shawn took the three older kids fishing tonight at Newton Dam. Jacob said he was ?? darn can't remember the word, but it was funny. He didn't catch any. Isaac caught two and Allison one, the smallest. They declared they had a good time. No fishing hook incidents this year, thank goodness.

Trilobite Hunting




After a scarce one hour sleep, Grandpa woke me up. Ick. We left only 15 minutes after scheduled: 6:15 AM. In the van was Jacob, Isaac, Dax, Grandpa, and me. We listened to Brian Reagan on the iPod. Good laughs.
It took a little remembering from Grandpa, but he did figure out where we were suppose to hike, and he wasn't lying...it was a steep hike. We found the Spence Shale area and rapidly were able to find trilobites, almost on every rock. Some were better than others. Grandpa and I spent quite a bit of time on a huge rock that had two nice sized trilobites.
Hiking back, we found a well tread trail which would have made bush whacking much limited than on the way up, and maybe helped not have so many darned grasshoppers land on us. On the way up, Dax got a grasshopper in his shirt; he thought it had been a bee. Later he found it squished and was thoroughly grossed out.
I love to go rock hunting with my dad. We work well together and always have. I can often see what needs to be done and help him out without speaking to each other. Justin and I are like that on some things too, like folding up camping gear...it just comes naturally.
 

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