Our Week in Pictures

Bringing the guinea hens home. They're a type of watch bird. They have been known to kill snakes, so we hope they will keep our yard safe. They're pretty ugly looking birds (they remind me of the dodo birds on Ice Age). But I like watching them roam around the yard and eat my bugs.

Roosting in the garden shed.


It was hot enough last week to get the kiddie pool out.

I'm loving my yard. I'm getting braver about snakes - we are spending a little more time outside. We've only seen one other snake in the yard so far, and it was a bull snake. It's coming on toad season and Kache isn't scared of much of anything.

Ryder on the other hand...

Dallie loves it outside too.

She especially loves the animals. She wishes she could get ahold of the cats, but most of the time Rex will do.

He's good and patient with her, even when she pulls his hair and scratches his face.

What's Been Happenning

Jason had a birthday on Mother's Day. He turned 29. I can't believe how old we're getting. He also had to speak in church that day. Of the six years we've been married, I think he has had to speak on Mother's Day four times. It's his least favorite topic to speak on because he's afraid of offending the women. He did a good job though. He is a really good speaker.

Dallie started crawling last week. It's time to childproof everything again. She's been scooting around on her rear for a while, and she still does when she's on the hardwood, but when she gets on the carpet she will crawl. The boys are already not happy that she is crawling because she always heads straight for their room and wrecks their trains and everything else.

Kache was invited to lunch at his school. He's not shy at all. He and Ryder left me as soon as we got to the school and sat with all the other pre-kindergartners. They also got to stay for recess. I didn't see either of them talk to any other kids though. They just played together on the slide. I guess we'll see how they do without each other when school starts.

We finally got our guinea hens. We have them locked up in the garden shed for a couple of days so they don't fly off. Hopefully they will let us know when there is a snake in our yard (or just take care of it themselves).

Last Day of the Sister Reunion

Sorry it has taken so long to finish up the happennings of our sister reunion. My terrible internet, along with my terrible computer make it very difficult to download pictures.

Jason had some time Friday morning to saddle Mike and Nick so the boys could ride.

Cole and Ren.

Wes and Bode.

Ryder.

Kache.

On Friday afternoon we drove out to an old homestead (no longer standing) and cemetary in one of our pastures here on the McGinley. There are four people buried there (who died in the early 1900s), but Jason and I had only seen one headstone. Mom dug around and found two more headstones, but instead of finding the fourth grave we found a rattlesnake, so we decided to be done digging around.

We had a fun week and we can't wait to do it again next year at Mikey's.

More Sister Reunion

I found some more pictures from when my sisters were here.

These boys found matching pjs at walmart.

The babies.

Branding Day

This is the scene on branding day. Most of the Rex Ranch crew is here and a few neighbors. We had about 40 in all.

They start out by gathering all the pairs into this pen that we set up beforehand.

They each get a turn at roping (that's the fun part).

The ropers drag the calf to the wrestlers.

Two guys will throw the calf and hold him down while another guy brands, one vaccinates, and one castrates if the calf is a bull.

Sometimes it takes a while for a roper to catch a calf and the wrestlers have to stand around and wait.

This is the branding pot. We have two brands on the Rex Ranch. One is a crown (apparently "Rex" is Latin for king). They use that brand on the east side of the ranch. The Eldred Unit uses the Hip-O brand - it's pretty impossible to mess it up.

The hobbled horses.

We take the snack out mid-morning. Some of these guys had to leave home at 3 in the morning to come help, so snack time is pretty important. Everything shuts down when the snack comes out.

Brek sizing up the cowboys.

The kids were able to wrestle a few calves. The last branding of the season is called the "kid branding". The wives and kids are invited and get to help gather, rope and wrestle. It takes longer, of course, and that is why we only do that for the last branding of the year.

This is Dr. Mortimer. He is the vet that comes up from CSU to help calve. He and Kache are thumb wrestling, a favorite pastime of theirs.

I wish I would have taken pictures of our meal. We had great weather, so we set the tables up in my yard instead of having to clean the shop and haul everything down there. The crew seemed to enjoy eating in the yard too; usually they eat and run, but for some reason they stuck around for a long time.

Kollin's Birthday

Today is Kollin's birthday. He would have been 32 today. Sara and Luke, you'll always be in our prayers.

Alma 40:12 says, "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righeous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow."

Planting

My mom got me some flowers and when we got home from town we spent the evening planting them. And we didn't see any snakes (I had a rattler in my yard the other day. Thankfully I found it and not the boys.).

Kache, Ryder and Bode.

The whole crew and my house that needs a paint job (or new siding).

Ryder.

It's so nice to have a yard that is established. It is so difficult to get trees and grass to grow here. Now if I could only keep the snakes out so we could enjoy it.

Sister Reunion - Day 2

Wednesday we spent the day in town. We didn't spend all day in town because there are a lot of places to shop, we spent all day in town because it takes an hour and a half to get there. We stopped along the way to see Chimney Rock. I never imagined I would live in a place with such rich pioneer heritage. When Jason was finishing his thesis research in Torrington, Wyoming, we decided we needed to make the two hour drive to see Chimney Rock because we would never live that far east again. Little did we know that in a few months we would be living farther east than Chimney Rock and would, in fact, drive by it every time we went to town.

The boys loading the wagon in the museum so they can start their trek west.

Ren and Ryder.

On our way to town we also pass the largest tractor bone yard in the U.S.

We had lunch at Applebee's.

The boys' table (l - r): Ren, Bode, Wes, Cole, Kache.

Mom and Kristin.

Mijken, me, Dallie, Ryder, Brek, Tricia and Claire.