Before and After

Before-     

After-         

He was so dang excited to be brace free. He had his braces on for 2 years so it was a great moment!! We went school shopping, got home and gave him a hair cut, and took him back to the ranch to work until the day before school starts. He has been working on the ranch for almost the whole summer. As parents we were not ready for this yet, but he has really enjoyed being on his own. He is the only one living at the main house, so he cooks, cleans, does laundry, makes his own lunch and gets him self up on time to be to work. I hope that these are life long habits that will stay with him. I just hope that he can handle being part of the family again when he gets home, and at least remember to wipe off the counter when he is done having toast. We sure miss having him around!!

2011 Trails Part #3

Coop on his first solo horse ride. he is definitly a natural!!

Grandpa Boyd doing trails with Layne.

Boyd and Ena brought Megan and Brittnee up camping with them. Erin was thrilled to have cousins to be with.

Grandpa striking a pose.

We did some target shooting. I did shoot a bow for the
first time and really really liked it. It was a ton of fun!!

Coop needed another ride before we headed home. He is excited to go on his first overnight horse ride with dad next week. What a couple or good looking guys!!

2011 Trails Part #2

Weston was Layne's right hand man this year. Randy is working on the Hansen Ranch up the horse prairie this summer, so Weston was the one to help Layne. He worked hard and loved being with Layne and in the mountains.

They got into about 200 head of elk one day. Layne said that they were running all over the place and that they had gotten pretty close to them. I'm sure that was the highlight of the day!!

When there is snow, we must try to ski. Wes had to give this patch of snow a run for its money. He did fall down, but tried a couple more times and had a blast!!

New Picture

The last picture didn't turn out, lets see if this is any better

2011 Trails Part #1

Layne had only 90 miles this year in trail contracts. Most all of it was right here in the mountain ranges that we can see from our house. We spent last week with him at Reservoir Lake camping while he worked. His folks came up for the week also and one of his brothers and their family. Layne's dad Boyd went for two days with him and I went with Layne on his last day. We were on the Continental Divided trail. It was so awesome!! We could see Salmon, Tendoy,and Wisdom. We could see for miles and miles in all directions.

There was a large metal marker in the ground showing the Idaho and Montana sides, so we put our camera on it for a picture. The Idaho side is behind us. It was beautiful!! So fun to be out exploring together.

This was the highest point of the trail that we were on. It was 9,730 ft. The rock slides were a little scary to climb up and down because they were so steep. Layne and his mule Wilson decided that they needed a picture. As you can see we did get into a little snow. There were 2 small patches that we had snowball fights in. I love to be in the mountains!!!

Triathlon Team

My friends Susie and Carolynn and I took part in the YMCA sprint triathlon today.  Carolynn was our swimmer.  We were very excited to have her because she was a distance swimmer at BYU.  She was the first one out of the pool.  It was awesome!!  Then Susie was our biker.  She did 13 miles on her bike and did a fantastic job also.  She tagged with me and I ran 3 miles.  It was a ton of fun to be a part of a team.  We are now looking to see what other kinds of runs we could train for.  I think that we might try the sprint next year individually, but Susie and I would both have to learn how to swim, and train very differently than we have in the past.  But to have a race to train for has been very motivating in our daily workout, because we sure didn't want to look bad.  Carolynn's and Susie's husbands also did the full race individually and they did a great job.  I think that Layne will defiantly do it next year.  It was a great morning.  Pictures to come when I get them from Susie

Slacker

I know that it has been almost 4 months since i last blogged.  No excuses, pretty much just a slacker. The summer is going by way to fast, but on the other hand I am always glad to get back into a routine.
 Wes and Layne are doing trails in the mountains right here in our valley which is great to have them closer.  They were in about 300 head of elk yesterday and said that it was wild. The elk were running everywhere. 
Randy had been working on the Hansen ranch which is about 10 miles up the road that you cross the Clark Canyon Reservoir on basically since he got out of school.  He helped with 450 bum lambs and then they asked if he would like to come back and hay for the rest of the summer.  I wasn't quite ready to have him living away from home for the summer, but it has been good for him.
Erin is loving having time to read read read.  She is loving the American girl series.  She is taking voice lessons and fiddle so she is keeping busy with that and playing with friends when ever possible.
Coop is enjoying riding his bike when ever he is awake.  He loves being outside and playing with his cars.  He is excited to take his lamb to the fair the end of August.
 I had my hair in a ponytail the other day and he looked at me and said, "Holy Cow that is a lot of gray hair!!  You must be getting old mom."  Then Erin saved the day by reminding me I have the stuff in the box that fixes that and I can be good as new tomorrow.  I love my kids!!