Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day was interesting.

Our stake, every year, has a nice program and breakfast for Memorial Day. They serve fruit and bagels, have a speaker, sing all the theme songs to each branch of the military and have all the military personnel in attendance stand up. Then they play TAPS. All that is sandwiched in a VERY professional posting and retiring of the colors. Sometimes they do the ceremonial folding of the flag, with explanation (for us non-military types). All in all a VERY good way to spend Memorial Day. The only thing that would make it better is if Dad could be there to honor.


But this year I'm looking through different eyes.



The girls had no idea what was going on. For some strange reason they didn't have school on the day after church. Mom and Dad wake them up early, don't feed them breakfast, drag them to the place where you get baptized, don't let them get enough food, stand out in the freezing cold, and don't let them talk or play. Oh, and people use a lot of unfamiliar words like Memorial, honor, serve, respectful, patriotism, and military. There is this cool thing where the army men march in a straight line and carry flags, though.


In other news...



All the kids worked VERY hard walking behind Dad and the tiller picking up rocks that he dug up and loading and dumping wheelbarrow loads of good black dirt. They were spurred on by random breaks where we had otter pops, lunch, juice and other treats or rode bikes. They worked hard ALL day long and got very tired and very sore. We even got to plant a couple rows of our 1200 strawberries.


All the kids, that is, except Ryah. She was in one of her moods. She even put herself in time-out, skipped lunch and sat around for most of the day with a scowl on her face. Poor girl. She (luckily) doesn't do those type of fits very often any more.


Other than that it was an extremely productive day. And very rewarding to those who worked hard (we can already taste the strawberries).

Then tuesday Keith took a day off so we could get a spot prepared for the garden (I know, we are REALLY late). Murphy stepped in and the tiller broke. It needs to be replaced and we are on a time crunch so we hired our tractor friend to come and till. In 2 hours he tilled twice the ground we spent all day monday (and a couple previous days) trying to prepare. He'll come again today for another 2 hours and spread and till in the black dirt.


It is really true.

You can buy anything in this world for money.


Except maybe the satisfaction of tired muscles and a job well done.


And to end, some pictures from our camping trip on friday and yard for your enjoyment (sorry for the formatting, I don't have time right now to weed through the HTML and fix them)



Elijah helping to pack for our camping trip to Zion's Camp. Yes, we had to buy a few more sleeping bags. :)

Elijah LOVED the boat and water and I'm surprised he didn't fall in.

There really is a boat big enough to hold us all. We didn't go very far, very fast, or very straight until Dad took over the paddling.

Alina "playing" with the campfire. I don't think they have ever been around open fire before. They kept wanting to put things in it--including themselves. I'm surprised we didn't have anyone get burned.

Elijah and Caleb enjoying the top bunk. We slept in the leader's cabin and had a blast.

Miriam and Kristina cleaning up after a fun night.

Anastasia building her own campsite. The pinecones were tents, the fern leaves were trees and though you can't see it, she even had a little fire with sticks.

She also likes to pose.

Not to be outdone Ryah did her own playing in the dirt. Everyone got VERY dirty. That means the camping (or at least the fun having) was successful.

We found a nest amidst our (very healthy) weeds growing in our pile of rich black dirt. Four blue and brown speckled eggs. I can't seem to catch the mother with the camera. Everytime I get close enough to possibly catch a glimpse (or snap a picture) she hops away through the weeds. So I'm not sure what kind of bird she is. The fig trees and lingon berries that we still need to plant.
The tractor, our pile of logs (a job for another day/ season) and our piles of dirt. Can't see the dirt? Look for the bright green, healthy, pile of weeds.
The part that the tractor tilled. The garden will go here. Our burn pile is in the middle... also a job for another day. This year's garden will be relatively small but next year we hope to have all this planted.
The strawberry patch. If you look closely you can see the trees we planted. These are pear trees. (Cherry, apple, and plum are to the right and back a little ways). The trees are 15 feet apart, just to give you an idea of the size. All the trees are finally planted.

As a side note the neighbor stopped on his way to work and commented about our orchard. We are the only house on the street that isn't beautifully landscaped so I guess they all keep track of our progress.

Dabbling

I already posted the "doctored" photos of Kristina. These are some that I also played around with. I've got a wedding someone wants me to take pictures at in a couple of days and I'm very nervous!! I've never done that before. So I'm practicing and looking at lots of pictures others took to get ideas.

My all time favorite picture. Elijah set up the shot himself while I was putting camera stuff away after Kristina's shoot. I wish I could have put something more vintage looking than just the plain ol' white stool. But I like it anyway.

Kristina

I finally had some time (when Kristina was cooperating) to take her birthday/ baptism pictures. But first......

Kristina turned 9 on May 9. Since we were on a time crunch we spent most of the day planting trees. We took breaks every so often and she opened presents during that time. She got some nice presents from her host family in California. and a BIKE. She is sooooo excited about that bike. She asks me each night to wake her up early so she can ride her bike and she rides it after her chore at night as much as she can.


Keith bought her ice cream cake (I ran out of time to finish her Barbie cake-- got it baked but couldn't get back to get it decorated ) which EVERYONE loved. (sorry about the funny colors and the blown cake on the picture-- we found out later the camera was still set for portraits with the extra lights-- I'm still learning)

She was baptized on May 10, one day after her birthday. A lot of people came. Brother Olsen, who speaks Russian, gave the talk on baptism and did it both in Russian and English. Elder Frandsen, one of the missionaries who taught Kristina gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Of course, Dad baptized her.

She didn't want her picture taken in the jumpsuit so we couldn't get the tradional shot. For some reason Anastasia didn't want to join us for the group shot. (Don't mind the bright green tights or everyone's scary hair.)

Anyway, here are some quick shots of Kristina for her birthday in her baptism dress.

Just two minutes

You would think that two minutes wouldn't be that long.

Last night at dinner (after all the hubbub of homework and chores) everyone was talking to me all at once (not necessarily an uncommon occurance) and I was very tired. So I challenged everyone to NOT talk to me for 2 minutes. They couldn't do it. The longest anyone could go was about 30 seconds. I kept "restarting the clock" everytime someone talked to me. They even kept reminding each other NOT to talk to me, but they still couldn't do it. I finally gave up. I guess that is the benefit of being Mom to a large family.... you always have someone's hand to hold, plenty of hugs and kisses AND always someone that needs you. It is nice to be needed!