Grandpa & Grandma Tippets Visit

Beides having the local fire department visit us during mom & dad's visit .... we also had the 24 hour flu bug visit our home. It was a 10 day visit of not much but sickness! Started with Max who had the stomach flu (mildly and was finishing up strep throat the week they arrived and had pink eye the week before!) on Friday, Grandma got it on Monday / Tuesday, Grandpa got a sore throat on Wednesday so we drove him to the Quick Care unit for the z-pac. Thursday we took Max to the ENT specialist, Audiologist, etc. and now have ear tube surgery scheduled for him on May 6th. After all of Maxs' dr's appointments we drove down through DC and viewed the blossoms from the car (Max now asleep) and ended up at the DC Temple. We had a nice drive through the city and did enjoy many beautiful buildings. Friday by noon I was sick with the flu bug .... which seriously is sooo miserable but, mom and Max had been through it already and had some sympathy but, until you are down to dry heaves ... your miserable as we all know! Saturday morning I had to be at work at 6 am and ate crackers and grapes! Sunday afternoon dad got the bug and started to feel human again on Monday afternoon. Tuesday, mom and dad flew back to Utah! WOW ... what a week! Not much vacationing but, we did have fun together despite being sick! On Monday night I realized I had not taken any pictures so before Max went to bed I snapped the two pictures below. I think for this picture ... no one was feeling sick!

Toy Gun Holster Production

Yesterday we went to Afton to pick up a GPS that I could use on my trip across country next week. While we were there Max found several toy guns that he wanted. Once I convinced him that we had no room in the car for the kind of gun "that the army guys use to protect dad" we settled on the $1.49 pistol. He is on high alert on guns these days since the other day a skunk got in to one of my dads traps here in our yard and Grandpa had to shoot and kill it.... another whole stinky story! When we got home, Grandpa thought long and hard on how he could design and make a holster for Maxs' new gun. After some thought, Grandpa cut out the pocket of some old jeans, had Grandma sew it together, add an extra belt loop, add a little cardboard to help make the gun slide in easy and wa-laaa ... you have a fantastic gun holster for a 4 1/2 year old! See detailed pictures below. My thought was, somehow, I have got to configure this all in to this years Halloween costume!

Production at the kitchen table.

Adding the right size of cardboard for a perfect fit!

Grandpa adjusting the holster with belt.


Ta-da! Finished product!

Gun & Holster in use .... of course only at snakes, spiders, ants, flowers & trees!

Such a happy boy ...

Oh the joy ...

PS - I did convince Max to leave the gun & holster on the table for bedtime last night vs. sleeping with it all! These are the moments we'll miss once we are back in Virginia!

Fruit of our Labor ...

We have been working on our garden here in Star Valley for months now. This picture was taken early on when the onions, peas, potatoes, and green beans were just starting to come up. Dad devised our "deer fence" by stringing empty coke cans around the garden as a somewhat distraction for keeping them out. I thought it was quite funny - but it has certainly worked on keeping the larger animals out. All around the garden we have iris and daisy's growing which have been blooming. On the one end of the garden dad has been growing evergreens for a couple of years now and perhaps next summer they will get transplanted in to the yard.

This past week we have been picking the peas. Max has had so much fun going out with the bowls, pulling the peas off and getting them out of their shells. For lunch on Friday we picked fresh peas and pulled up some of the potatoes so we could have baby potatoes and peas for lunch. This week we will be harvesting raspberries. I can't wait. We have about three red ones so far but, they will be coming on here pretty quick.

Max shelling the peas with Grandma Tippets

Not Any House ...

Not just any house .... this is the home that my grandfather built and my mother grew up in. You'll find this little home in Circleville, Utah. About 2 1/2 hours away from St. George, Utah. We went over to Circleville a few weeks ago to buy potatoes which is the most common item farmed in this small town. We picked up (3) 50 lb bags of potates for $10 each. We delivered a couple of the bags to my mothers sister and brought the remaining bag home with us. My dad cut the potatoes up and planted them in our garden here in St. George in hopes for potatoes this fall. For sometime, my mother and her family lived in only the basement of this home. There were just a couple of rooms and eventually my grandfather built the top of the home. Life was not easy and truly you made use of every single thing that you got your hands on. It was a fun little day trip to drive over and to be able to show Max where Grandma grew up!

Valentines Tic-Tac-Toe

For family night this week I decided we would talk about love and the commandment that Heavenly Father has given us from John 14:15, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." We talked about how Jesus loves us all year long but, on Valentines Day that is coming up, we make a special effort to tell everyone that we love them. Afterwards, we played this little game that I made (after seeing in on another crafty blog) and Max has been having fun with it all week. I cut a heart out of construction paper and drew the tic-tac-toe lines on it. Then I sewed together hearts and filled them with beans for our bean bags. They were easy enough to sew and I made them with material that I had on hand ... so it was very inexpensive. Every time I sew ... I am reminded that I am so grateful that I do not have to sew for a living! While my hearts are not perfect, they were perfect for us and our little game! No doubt, I will incorporate this in to an upcoming Primary lesson too!

Zions National Park

Last Friday we went over to Zions National Park about a 45 minute drive from our house here in St. George. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We did the mile hike up the canyon that at the end starts "the Narrows" climb. You definitely must get in the river at the end of the trail and walk up through the river. It can be very dangerous at the end simply because if rain and storms come in, there is not trail. You have only rock and river to survive by. None-the-less, we had a great time and here are just a few of the pictures that I took. Max had a great time with Grandpa & Grandma and in the end we wore him out but, he was a great little hiker. He loves to climb all over the rocks, throw the rocks in, and say hello to EVERYONE! We will soon need to give him the speech of "don't talk to strangers" but in the meanwhile he loves to go and sit with anyone, say hello, share his lunch or their lunch and truly he is a little social bug! Love the weather here in St. George right now!

Family Night

On Monday nights we have Family Home Evening and I tell you Max LOVES it! We have a short lesson, sing a couple of songs, read a scripture and of course have some sort of treat! He usually asks to have family night every night! This past week we talked about tithing and how important it is to give back to the Lord 10% of our earnings. I used a couple of different ways to explain it to him ... first, we used popcorn. Everyone was given a bowl with a small amount of popcorn and I had one bowl that was empty in the middle of the table. I asked Max, Grandma & Grandpa if they would be willing to contribute any of their small amounts of popcorn to the bowl and if they said yes, then I poured more popcorn in to their bowl ... enough to almost overflow the bowl. Of course then explaining that when we give, we receive more blessings than we know what to do with. Then we counted 10 pennies each and gave one penny to tithing, 2 or 3 pennies to future missionary fund and the rest went to fun money (of course to buy more gum!). We went over the tithing envelope and that we give our tithing to the Bishop at church and this in turn is keeping a commandment that Heavenly Father has given us. I also had picked up a cute bank at Deseret Book so that Max could keep track of his "treasure" that is for tithing, missionary fund and fun money. He had a great time. Our closing song each week is Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes ... so here is Max and Grandma having a great time singing and doing the motions. Grandpa missed out on this video version but, each week we all do this several times before we call it a night.

Grandma & Grandpa Tippets

Last Saturday, my parents volunteered as part of the Event Staff that helped run the 206 mile bike race from Logan, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming. There were somewhere between 1000 and 1400 bike riders. Many many riders come from all over the world to participate in this bike race. Mom and dad helped with parking and the support crews in Alpine, Wyoming just before the journey up Snake River Canyon. Max and I had gone to Jackson for the day and on our way home we passed the first few bikers on their way through the canyon. The average speed for the front runners is 24 mph. That is unbelievable to me! Snake River Canyon is difficult but, the bikers had two others that were harder from what I hear. Amazing strength these athletes have.

On Sunday, September 13th, mom & dad celebrated their 49th anniversary. We had some of their friends over for a little dessert party. It was a nice evening with their friends and Max and I played down here in the basement. We served chocolate oreo truffles, mini cherry cheesecakes and mexican chocolate cake. Yum! Happy Anniversary mom & dad!

Tales Of Our Get-Away!

We have had quite the adventureous two weeks .... our trip included visiting Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Montana. I have lots of pictures to post and I will do my best to journal our trip with the details that kept us moving!

After getting settled in to mom & dad's house in Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming the next day was Memorial Day. We celebrated by going down to the cemetary in Thayne, Wyoming where local guards had a small ceremony. Prayers and songs were offered followed by a several shots being fired. How grateful we all are for those who have served in our military to fight for our freedoms along with all those who serve now to help keep our freedom. Almost all of the graves were decorated in this cemetary. Quite a sight to see. By the way, it was a bit difficult to explain to Max why we were in a cemetary, honoring those who had died or gone back to live with Heavenly Father. But, we did our best to teach him to honor and show respect.

Thayne, Wyoming Memorial Day 2009

Teaching Max (3) to honor & respect those who have served.

Local Guard who conducted the ceremony.

Afterwards, we went back to Grandpa's and had some much needed play time in the yard. Grandma & Grandpa have beautiful views from their yard and fun trees that all the grand-kids like to climb. Yes lots of snow still in the mountains of Wyoming at the end of May.

We talked quite a bit about what we could do all week while we were there ... and our final decision was to help Grandma & Grandpa paint the upstairs of their house. (Mark is an excellent painter if you didn't know.) After several trips to the hardware store we were finally able to get enough tape, paint & supplies to get the job done. We painted the two bathrooms one color and then the living room, kitchen, hallway, and two bedrooms a green color called "honky dory". We laughed about the name of the paint but in the end we felt as though the walls did turn out great! Somehow I missed pictures of the bathroom.

Taking a dinner break from taping!

In the taping process ... love high angled ceilings!

Maxs' favorite activity with the exception of "having a meeting" in Grandpa's truck where he can pretend to drive was swimming. Here he is on SVR's pool with dad & Grandpa. We had to take a break from taping & painting!!

Work in progress.

Some finished views.

Once the painting was done, and all the furniture & pictures were put back we all agreed that the painting looked great and that the pictures really stood out. Many of the pictures in their home were painted by Grandma Tippets (dad's mom), crossed stitched by Marie (Grandma) Tippets or woven by dad (Grandpa) with his various weaving techniques. More pictures to come.

Each night before we settled down we would get out and try to go for a walk which usually included dipping our feet in to the "very cold" stream near their house. Here are some pictures of the walks and some of the beautiful flowers in their yard.

More pictures and stories to come tomorrow.... stay tuned!