Mason Calton at His Best

This is Molly's (our dog) best friend, Mason. He is also my mother and father-in-laws dog. I was so impressed by his driving skills that I had to take a picture. Mason is such a show off. Always trying to impress Molly with his manly skills. He thinks he's so cool. I guess that's because he is. :)

Are You A Good Girl?

Watch for Molly's nodding head. Yeah - She knows she's a good girl.

David David Bo Bavid Banana Fanana Fo Favid Me My Mo Mavid...David

My brother, David, came to town not too long ago. He got leave from the Marines to come visit us. He is in the middle of his military training. I think he's going to be a helicopter mechanic. Somethng like that. The military has been good for him. He looks good and seems happy. We are very proud of his decision to join the military. He may have to go to Afganastan in December, which would be no fun. But, in about a year he will be stationed in Hawaii. Now that would be nice!

This is David with Katie and Kelsey.

Addition to the Family

At the beginning of the summer, Tyler decided he might want to get a Texas Longhorn. I can't remember what got him thinking about them. Anyway, they are neat looking cows, supposed to be friendly, and they can become hamburger if necessary -- something we always like to have on hand :)

So, we bought a very handsome Longhorn that we named Buford. He is so friendly. Almost too friendly. I don't dare go out into the field because he would want to run over and "play" with me, which likely would end in my untimely death. However, from the other side of the fence, he will let us pet him and rub his neck all over and feed him. He really has quite the personality. Isn't he cute?!

Apparently, Longhorns really like company, so we decided to buy Buford a wife. Her name is Beulah. She is a month or so younger than him. Not quite so attractive. The big warts on her face are a turnoff for me, but Buford does not appear to mind them at all. They quickly bonded and Buford is definitely protective of her. Weird. We had our beef cow out in the field with the two of them and Buford would really muscle him around at first trying to keep him and Beulah apart. If the beef cow tried to squeeze his head into Buford's grain bucket, Buford would shove, push and poke him out of the way. If Beulah sticks her warty head in the grain bucket with Buford, he let's her! He shares it with her. Again, weird. Aren't they a cute couple? We think so!

We are really enjoying them and their fun personalities. They seem smarter than all the dumb beef cows we have raised in the past.

Anyway, we are hoping that we will have a little baby Longhorn in around 9 months. That would be so fun. We'll keep you all posted on that.

Trampoline, Kids, Camera, ACTION

I just love having a trampoline. When your kids have nothing to do they can always go outside and jump out all their energy. Totally worth the cost. So, one day the girls were expending their energy on the tramp and I got some pretty good action shots. The last picture is my favorite.

We Found Out Who's Brave and Who's Not

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures from our fabulous trip to Lagoon. But, it was so fun I thought I would blog a minute about it anyway.
I haven't taken the kids to Lagoon since Katie was about 7 and Kelsey was about 3. This experience was totally different from back then -- of course.
Anyway, Katie invited a friend and her cousin, Samantha and Samantha's friend came. Kesley invited her cousin, Madison and Aunt Tiffany came. Sooo, The teenagers went off and did their own thing while me and Tiff followed Kelsey and Madison around the park letting them do their thing.
Kelsey had told me before we even left that she was going to ride everything. I thought, "you say that now..." But I really thought when she saw some of the roller coaster rides she would be rethinking that statement.
No. She did not rethink. She got on everything she possibly could. On a few rides I asked her if she was afraid and she would say, "Yes, but I'm going to ride it anyway." I was so impressed with her bravery! I rode on a few with her but I chickened out on some she road. For instance, the ride called Wicked. I did not go but she jumped right in line and went.
She went on a ride called The Spider and came off looking a little green in the gills so we took a break, had some water, and walked around a minute so she didn't lose her lunch. After a bit, she felt better and got right back to it.
The big sister, on the other hand, was too afraid to ride on a bunch of stuff. Katie said she realized she was afraid of heights after her Lagoon trip. She still had a really good time and went on plenty of rides but wasn't nearly as fearless as her little sister.
We'll definitely have to do that again next year, it was so much fun!

These are pictures of the ride "Wicked" :

That's One Big Oryx! Really!

Tyler got fortunate enough to go on a really great Oryx hunt. He went to New Mexico which is the only free-roaming place you can find Oryx's besides Africa and I think you can find some behind fences in Texas. Anyway, he was lucky to come across this very big one. There were a lot of others he could have shot that were smaller. He really didn't know what he had but the guys that were with him told him it was outstanding. We think it will make top 10. He's very proud of it.
They are really interesting looking animals. They have a tail that looks like a horses. They are really big up front and as you can see they have spears for horns.

These are the guys that went with Tyler. Him, Tony and Tony and his brother, Matt.

One last picture. Oh, and also the meat is very, very good. Even better than elk.

July...and it's Kelsey's Birthday!

Kelsey had a great 11th birthday! I think dad is trying to steal some of the attention. No matter. It was all about Kelsey. Kelsey has come a long way from the birthdays of old when she would cover her ears and scowl rather than blow out her candles. I thought I would post this picture of Katie giving Kelsey a cantalope for her birthday. What a proud moment. Kelsey loves her cantalope! Can you hear the drum roll? Love the picture!

The Aliens Are Coming!

This is a picture of Katie and her friend Ashley. They are watching the movie Signs, thus the tinfoil hats. If you have seen Signs you will know exactly why they are wearing them. If you haven't seen the movie, go rent it now. It is excellent.

Here Come the Cherries

I found this grasshopper chowing down on one of our rasberries, so I took a picture. It's hard to see here, but you can really see him biting into it. Gross. Our cherry trees finally produced a billion blossoms. Usually we get a small amount of blossoms and not too many cherries. This year, we had blossoms gallore and bees buzzing all around.

Isn't the tree beautiful?!

Here's a shot of some of the cherries all those blossoms produced. We got A LOT of cherries but really had to eat them fast, because the birds were wanting them just as bad as we were.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

This summer started out wet and stayed wet for the whole month of June. It just rained and rained and rained. Kelsey found some enjoyment in it.

First, she tried to get Molly to go potty while it was raining, thus the umbrella. Molly hates the rain.

Well, Molly wouldn't go potty but Kelsey decided it would be fun to run around in the rain. I remember that being fun when I was a kid too. So, she rain around the driveway for a minute getting wet.

Molly's Birthday!

We've had Molly for a whole year. It sure has gone by fast. She's such a great dog and so smart. She knows a lot of tricks. The best is when you ask her if she is a good girl and she nods her head.
Anyway, Katie, being the great cook that she is, decided to make Molly a birthday cake. The cake was actually a recipe for a cake for a dog. Molly loved it and we let her eat most of it.

Molly is licking her lips because it is so delicious. Katie and Kelsey point out all the crumbs she needs to clean up!

My Visit with Nikki in May

In May, I had a conference I had to go to for work and it was in Chicago. Since Nikki lives an hour or so away, we decided to hang out at the end of my conference. We had a great time! Nikki took me to a very cool park. I can't remember what it's called,but there were some very neat things to look at. She also took me to a waaaaay good restaurant. It was delicious and a fun area to walk around in. I don't have pictures of that. Chicago is such a fun city. We walked down to the Tribune building and saw the piece of the Salt Lake temple that's in the wall of that building - along with pieces of other buildings from all around the world. I also got to go her house and meet her new dogs and hang out with her and Eric. Their house is so cute and they have an amazing yard. It was just too fun and I would love to do it again, but maybe a bunch of the family could go because it really is a fun place to visit.

Nikki, Mishka, and McGyver in her yard. Mishka could really drag Nikki. :)

This is at a park in Chicago. It was so cool!

The "bean". This was also a very cool to look at and walk under.

The kids have been asking me to get my wedding dress out so they can see it. Actually, ever since Julie posted hers a year ago, we've been talking about unboxing it. Well, Monday night I finally pulled the box out of the closet and opened it up. I haven't opened the box since I took it to the dry cleaners to box it up, many years ago. Well, it was in a box, in a plastic bag, in a really pretty box. It wasn't easy to get to. The bow and top were going yellow, which upset me because I thought the boxing was supposed to prevent that. Oh well, it's still pretty and the kids thought so too. Although when I told Katie, "Hey, now you have a prom dress" She rolled her eyes at me. Wonder why? The coolest thing about the dress is that my mom made it, so whether or not it ever gets formally worn again it will always stay in the family and be a reminder of how talented my mother is.

Here is Kelsey modeling it. She is an excellent model. The dress is much too big for her, of course, but I love all the poof in the skirt.

Now, Katie modeling it -- another outstanding model. It fit her quite well. I can't believe how little I was when I got married.

So, pretty. Too bad Katie will outgrow it soon. The girls obviously got their dad's tall gene and not my short one.

And, of course, I had to try it on. Wow. Looks nothing on me like it did when I was first married. How sad. I couldn't even zip it up. What a surprise.

It was fun to pull that memory out. Now it's back in the box until next time.

Wow. David Archuleta throws a good concert!

I took Katie and Kelsey to the David Archuleta concert because they really like him. Actually, Katie is in love with him and plans to marry him someday. I thought I would enjoy it, but I was actually surprised at how good the concert was. Benton Paul came on first and sang. He was very, very good. Then some girl (can't remember her name) came on and sang a few songs. It seemed like she had a good voice until she kept singing and then it was just weird. Kelsey summed it up nicely, "Mom, she would make a good Yodeler" Uh, yah. it was odd. Then, out comes David Archuleta and it was loud...the screaming girls that is. But, he can really sing. He's got a great voice, he talked to the crowd and was really cute about it all. At one point he asked if he could video tape the audience because he had been doing that at all of his concerts so he had memories. It was a fun and entertaining night to say the least.

I think this is during his encore. He came out alone and played a couple of songs. It was funny when he came back on stage because he said, "Well, I'm back" He is so funny and I don't think he tries to be.

Both he and his band really got into all of the songs and danced and bounced all over the stage. It was pretty high energy. We stood for half the show.

We were pretty close. Row 11 and about 15 chairs away from the stage.

The Calton girls at the concert -- fun times! Okay. So, it's a pretty close head shot of me, but I was the one taking the picture.
It was a fun night and definitely worth going. Katie loves him even more now and also loves Benton Paul now. She has so much love to share. And, while Kelsey always did like David, she does like him more now.

That's all I'm going to post because Katie will be updating her blog and I'm sure that will be much more entertaining than mine.

Face Painting Fun

I'm always so happy when my girls are getting along and playing with each other. The other day was no different...Well, with the exception of how impressed I was at their creativity. Face painting with make up? What fun! Anyone want to hire them?

Can you say, "The Joker" -- Ringing any bells?

I love the uni-brows.

Dog vs. Cat

Every time we take Molly outside, she tries to attack our cat, Moshi. Saturday was no different. I let Molly play outside while I washed my car. Here came Moshi the cat. She flops down on the grass and lays there, apparently waiting for Molly to visit. It was interesting because Molly acted like she wanted to eat Moshi. At one point she even had Moshi by the throat, but the weird cat just layed there like she didn't care.

I decided she either wanted attention so bad (we give her none) that she would take whatever she could get, or she has a death wish and was just hoping Molly could put her out of her misery.