"Joy in the journey"

President Monson's recent counsel to "find joy in the journey", is the inspiration for this posting. It seems like it's the little things in life that bring the most joy, such as carving a silly face in a pumpkin. Children seem to have that innate ability to find such joy. When is the last time any of us have ran around the house naked, with only our pants on our head? ( O.K. maybe that's not a good idea for some of us.) The video is a scene that I often come home to. Ty singing dancing queen or some other musical rendition at the top of his lungs. I hope I can do a better job finding joy in the journey. I just don't know if it will be with my pants on my head (:

Pumpkinaze

With Tracey gone on her semi-annual scrapbooking getaway, the kids and I decided to head down the road to the pumpkinaze. We all had a good time going down the slide and getting dirty. We even made it through the corn-maze without too much trouble. The kids favorite part was the slide. I didn't think that they would ever tire of going down it, but they finally had their fill. The best part was that Ty was free because he is still 3 yrs. old. I guess that wasn't the best part, it was just being able to spend some time together. I'm already looking forward to next year (other than I will have to pay for Ty to get in). Too bad they can't stay little forever, I guess that is why we always need to enjoy the time we get when we get it.

Looking for buried treasure!

Mountain Man Rendezvous

Today was Tristyn's big 4th grade mountain man rendezvous. She's been anticipating this for weeks. We were a little worried because just yesterday she had a high fever of 104.9! She had been sick for a few days, so we took her to Dr. Watts and got some antibiotics for strep, which he thought she must have. We lubed her up on meds and hoped for the best. Thankfully she felt great the whole day. It was a lot of fun for both of us, as I was glad I was able to be there with her. We left the school first thing in the morning, and walked 3 miles or so to the rendezvous point. They had all kinds of things for the kids to do and learn about. They had a b.b. gun shoot, and taught them how to shoot a bow and arrow (Tristyn hit the target on both, and a bulls eye on the b.b. gun shoot)! They were able to go for a canoe ride, and pan for gold(Tristyn's favorite, she's always loved bling-bling). They learned about trapping animals, and all about the pioneers. Some folks from the nature center brought some birds of prey for the kids to see and learn about. Overall it seemed to be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Around two o'clock we took the hour trek back to the school and then headed home. Sure made you appreciate having a car. It was a lot of fun spending the day with her. One man asked her if she was a Comanche, Apache, Blackfoot....? Tristyn responded "no, I'm a Ferguson"! I got a good laugh out of that.

Sharp shooter Tristyn(must have got it from Grandpa Fred).

Tristyn with her teacher Mrs. Holmes(Sacajawea)

open wide

We all had dentist appointments yesterday, but for Ty it was his first ever. The hygienist was so cute with him and made everything fun. He sat in the chair like a big boy and did everything she asked him to do. His favorite part was playing with the mouth sucker thing that sucks all of your spit away. I think we need to get one of those for the house, maybe then he would sit still while we brushed his teeth. We all made it out of there with no cavities thankfully. Our hygienist was so thorough on cleaning I think she scraped off two or three layers of tooth enamel, but other than that we'll chalk it up as a successful visit.