Johnson County Fair & Rodeo

Our week at the fair started last Tuesday with the Sheep Lead.  Nine of Don & Phyllis' Great-Grandchildren participated!  We made wool jumpers for the girls and Joyce made the boys little black vests with the JH brand on them.  The girls' t-shirts had the brand as well.  We made a corral that went around Madison and the sheep, Mary.  The other kids carried the corral and Gio pulled Milan in a wagon.  They did a great job and won "Most representative of the wool industry"!  They were all pleased with their prize of $5 each, a huge sucker, and a pink participant ribbon!

Mary the sheep

Gabi in her wool jumper

Maya's jumper was a bit big, but still pretty cute.

Gabi & Gio with Mary

Off they go!

On their way to model for the judges!

On their way back

Don & Phyllis with their sheep leaders!

 The girls had a fun time watching a few shows, the parade on Saturday, and the rodeos.


Maya watching the beef show with Papa Don

Maya watching the parade and gathering lots of candy

 Each of the girls entered quite a few items in the fair.  They made cookies with Grammy Joyce, made arrangements with flowers from the garden, selected marigolds and zinnias.  They each entered a painting and peas from the garden.  Gabi also entered the Heaviest Zucchini contest and won a purple ribbon!

Gabi's big blue fish finger painting won a blue ribbon

Maya's watercolor painting (that she spent an hour on one morning this summer) also won a blue ribbon!

Gabi's giant zucchini!

 Maya took home quite a haul of ribbons!  She won Grand Champion for her sugar snap peas!  She won reserve for her peanut butter cookies and another for her flower arrangement!

Notice Joyce won Reserve Champion for the Adult class too!!

Below is the poem that Phyllis wrote for the Sheep Lead.  The announcer read it as the kiddos were walking out with Mary and modeling their outfits.

Hall Cousins

This herd of cousins are styling 100% wool duds

They are friends, playmates, and also great buds

Madison’s leading the sheep named Mary

McGiveny’s said “Go steady – do not tarry”

Madison’s skirt is purple, with a plaid band

And everyone here has a big JH brand

Ella, Kate, Gabi, Maya, and Milan – all the gals

Wear their plaid jumpers – they are all special pals

The boys in this group are Gio, Marco and Jay

They are sporting black vests on this special Tuesday

The vests are all wool – don’t they really look spiffy

Will they wear them all day? – That would really be “iffy”

All the clothes from wool cloth were made by a Grammy and the mothers

And the corral for the sheep was made by some others

They figured with this many kids – just perhaps

The sheep needed protection against major mishaps

By the time these kids enter 4H or FFA

The ranks will be bigger in a very good way

They are all a bit small, but they like this style show

When they get older they will all be “in the know”

These descendents of the Hall’s – ages seven to one

Have good times at the ranch – its hilarious fun

They wear wool for their clothes with JH on their chests

And they are trying real hard to be some of the best.

A special thank you to Ian McGiveney for the use of his Rambouillet Ewe, Joyce Hall for the wool all of the garments were made from, and Phyllis Hall for writing our catchy poem.

Mountain Fun

A few weeks ago we headed into the mountains without a plan and had a super fun day!  We ended up going to Medicine Wheel, a Native American historical site.  We hiked into the area and walked around admiring all the cloths, trinkets, rocks, and dreamcatchers that adorn the area.

 Both girls hiked nearly the entire 3 miles and had a great time!

There was even some snow along the trail that inspired a snowball fight in July!

Maya did a good job walking but needed a ride for the last mile or so!  Daddy to the rescue!

After our hike, we found the most picturesque site for a picnic along a stream in the woods.  The girls had fun playing in the stream after lunch.

We stopped at the Fish Hatchery in Story on the way home.  The girls' favorite part was feeding the large trout in the stock pond.


 

Miss Cutie Patootie (aka Crazy Hair Girl.)

Sometimes the most fun days are the unplanned ones!  Tara

Good Bye to our Best Buddy

Our sweet dog Jackson was put to sleep on June 26th.  It was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do, but I'm so thankful that he isn't suffering anymore.  We miss him so much.  I have been putting together a collection of pictures of Jackson to make a little memory book for the girls.  I thought I would share them here as well.  Gabi & Maya loved Jackson.  They ask about him every day and like myself, have had the tears flowing.  We left on our vacation the day after we put him to sleep, so it didn't really hit us until we got home and he was gone.  I've been hearing his collar tags jingling and sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.  It is strange how that happens.

Jackson was our adventure companion.  He helped us train for marathons.  He led the way on many, many hikes and backpacking trips.  He climbed the tallest peak in Colorado, Mt. Elbert, with us.  He once beat me in a trail race by 20 minutes. :)  He was a happy dog when he was free to run.  I hope he's running freely (and breathing much easier) now.  Here are a few picks of Jackson with us on our adventures.

The girls loved their dog and he loved them.  We called him the "gentle giant"....100 pounds of pure love.

Jackson was a naughty puppy...he's lucky that he was so cute. ;-)  As soon as he turned 2, he calmed down and was the best dog one could ask for.

10 weeks old

Look at the size of those paws and ears...we knew he would be a big dog!

Jackson loved the ranch.  Whenever we would come to visit, he would roam, swim, run, play, chase to his heart's content.  I'm so glad that he was able to spend the last 1.5 years of his life here doing those same things everyday.  We buried him right outside our yard.  The girls and I made a heart out of rocks on top of his grave.

Here are a few of my favorite photos of Jackson.

The four of us aren't the only ones who miss Jackson.  Rocky has been having a very hard time and it breaks my heart.  Rocky was just a few months old when we got Jackson, so they grew up together and were pretty good pals.  Since we returned from our trip, Rocky has been roaming the house at night meowing.  His meow sounds like a cry.  Poor kitty...I'm sure his heart is broken too.

Thanks for reading this post.  I know some people think it's silly to get so upset over a dog, but he truly was a member of our family.  We miss him so much and have been trying to remember all the fun times we had with him.

Here is the last photo I took of Jackson the morning he died.  I found Gabi lying with him on the rug telling him what a good dog he was.  Rest in peace, buddy.  You will be greatly missed.

Fun in Iowa...

From Denver, we headed East towards Iowa to spend a short week with my Mom and Dad.  We stopped in Lincoln at my Auntie Virginia's house for a BBQ lunch.  It was great to see her, my Uncle Gary, cousin Allie, and Grandma Dorothy!

Aunt Virginia and Maya

Uncle Gary & Gabi...they had a blast playing together and I'm sure he slept for days afterwards! :)

Gabi & Auntie Virginia

We reached my parents' house on Saturday evening...just in time for dinner!  My parents always feed us like kings when we're there!  The girls had fun playing in the sprinkler, going to the park, and playing Uno inside...it was super hot and humid!

Gabi loved catching fire flies...we don't have lightning bugs in Wyoming.

Gabi did lots of sparklers.  Maya tried them, but she didn't like it.

Maya riding my old horse "Blaze."

 On Tuesday, we went to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.  Even though it was hot, we enjoyed seeing all the animals.

Gabi feeding a giraffe

Maya high-fiving the lion

The really enjoyed riding the train through the zoo.

Maya and Grammy Mary on the train.

Daddy & Gabi on the train.

We made our first trip to an urgent care clinic for stitches while we were in Des Moines.  Maya was running into my parents' walk-through closet and must have been looking behind her because she smacked the edge of the open door and cut her forehead.  It bled a ton and she was pretty shaken up.  The cut was about an inch long and fairly deep.  She was quite a trooper and didn't even cry as they were stiching her up.  She has 4 stiches in all and will get them out on Monday.  You can see them at the very top of her forehead in the train picture above.

We were thankful to be in Iowa over the 4th of July because we were able to see two excellent fireworks shows (all of the fireworks in Wyoming were cancelled because it is so dry).  We packed a picnic dinner on the 3rd and headed down to the Iowa State Capitol lawn to attend the Yankee Doodle Pops concert and fireworks show.  Different jazz bands played for awhile and then the Des Moines Symphony played ending with a fireworks show set to their music.  It was really fun! 

Iowa State Capitol building...the girls thought the gold dome was super cool!

A view of the stage...they set the fireworks off behind the stage.

Urbandale has a huge parade on the 4th of July.  We watched the parade for almost 2 hours and it wasn't even done when we left!  The girls scored big time with the candy!


Watching the parade

We were all able to view Urbandale's fireworks show from my parents' house and it was even over a full moon!  Here is a picture of Gabi doing even more sparklers.  I need to work with my camera a bit to be able to shoot fireworks.  I got this photo of Gabi with a sparkler by leaving the shutter open a while...it turned out kinda neat!



Gabi's big news is that she can ride a big bike with NO training wheels!!  She has had a balance bike for about a year and has been doing so well on it, that we all decided it was time for a real bike.  Since she already had the balancing part down, Joe worked with her for less than an hour on how to do the pedals and steer the bigger frame and then she had it!  We didn't even have to put the training wheels on!  She is so excited about it and we're glad she was able to learn on the level concrete sidewalks in Urbandale and not the hilly gravel roads around here!  She rode it all the way to Joyce's house and back today and did great on the gravel roads too!

Joe getting her going!

"Look Mom! I can do it!"  She had a big smile on her face the whole time!



Maya's legs are still a little too short for the balance bike, but she cruises right along on her scooter!



Phew!  That's all for now!  I promise to update the wyomingishome.blogspot.com blog this weekend with pictures of our landscaping.  Thanks for checking in on us.  Tara