Family Rodeo

What Memorial Day weekend would be complete with out wrangling some cattle?  As always, we gathered at my Grandparents for the annual cattle round up and branding party.  This year, since we had the Ragnar and the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon to train for, Krista and I enlisted Jordan to come and run 7.7 miles before we started herding cattle.  This sounded like a good idea before we started but half way through the cows my body was feeling super tired.  Oh, well you live you learn. When we got back from running they headed out the door to herd the cattle over to the field.  I had to miss the herding because I had a baby to take care of until my dear mother arrived to take over.  Apparently, it was quite the ordeal.  The cattle were exceptionally obstinate this year and found every hole in the fence on the way to the fields. Vanessa showed everybody her mad skills on the ATV when the cows tried to get into the Cemetery.  I could only imagine the reaction of the towns people to that.  I knew it was a bad day when I drove over to the field and they were still herding cattle an hour and a half after they left.  

Once the cattle were in the corrals we had to sort the mama's from the young ones.  It was pretty windy and dusty, and Vanessa and I got the worst job.  We were behind all the cattle right in the wind and dirt.  We were covered and we hadn't even really started. 

Once we started branding and all that jazz things got hopping.  It was fun to be a part of the branding again.  I have missed years in the past either being pregnant or just having had a baby or due to injury.  We had some good laughs throughout the process.  The kids had a great time watching and riding bikes.  We only had one incident.  Cael, who had just learned to ride a bike, ran into an unsuspecting Sawyer.  It was sad yet we all could not help but laugh.  Apparently, Cael was looking at Sawyer trying not to hit him but we all know how that goes.  The thing you don't want to hit is what you end up hitting. 

We got all the cows done in record time considering we had such an awful time getting the cows over to the East side.  After we got the cows settled back in their correct places we headed back for a great lunch.  Food tastes so much better after a hard days work.  

Argh Matey!!!!

One afternoon after trying for a long time to clean and being really unproductive because the kids just wanted to play I gave into their cute little requests and played pirates with them.  Aren't they just the cutest little pirates?  We had an amazing little sword fight, Sawyer is fierce.  Jaylee even held a sword and batted it around from side to side.  I will take playing with the kids any day over a clean house.  

Happy Anniversary

Holy Cow, six years have flown by.  (How cliche, right?)  It really is amazing how fast time goes when you're busy living your life.  Two kids, 4 moves, one month of being homeless- that is a story for another time, many vacations, a few jobs switches, 2 college graduations, 3 cars, and lot of fun -we still love each other.  What a happy ending, thank goodness for our kids sake?  

To celebrate our marriage we decided to head on down to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We originally had the idea we would take the kids and have a family vacation but thanks to Krista and my Grandparents we were able to pawn the kids off on someone else.  We love our kids but packing them on our backs for the trails we did may have been the death of us.  

We stayed down at Ruby's Inn.  It was huge and super nice.  I was pleasantly surprised.  There were some cute little restaurants out there too.  We hiked the Garden trail on Friday night when we got there.   We ran into some high school kids along the way.  I forgot how awkward they are.  The hike was gorgeous and just the right distance.  

On Saturday we woke up and drove to the end of the park to get an amazing view of the whole park.  We were a little worried because where we wanted to hike there was a rain storm.  Fortunately, for us, by the time we drove back the storm was gone.  It was fun to go to the park because even though we were only 1 1/2 hours from our house it was like we were in a different country.  Nobody was speaking English.  

We headed back to the beginning of the park to hike the Rainbow Trail. It was a short 8.5 mile hike.  It was way nice.  It wasn't too crowded and the trail was nice.  We finished it in just over 2.5 hours.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  We were so thankful many times we left the kids at home.  They would have been miserable at times.  After some lunch we headed down in to Tropic to look around for a bit and to check out the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon Course- I am so nervous for my upcoming race. Tropic is amazingly gorgeous.  Instead of taking the same way back home we went up through Antimony.  It was fun to see different country.  We had a great time! 

Bullion Falls

This summer we have "big" plans to go hiking more with the kids.  We had one backpack and accidentally got another one on ebay.  Apparently, we won the bid.  We weren't too disappointed though because the backpack is awesome.  Sawyer thinks it is the best thing since "talking cereal", Rice Krispies.  

We took the kids and packs for a practice run for a Sunday afternoon walk around the block and decided for Family Home Evening, we would hike up to Bullion Falls.  Now I know Jaylee only weighs like 16 lbs but that 16 lbs gets heavy after awhile so I was worried that Travis was going to have to be waiting for us the whole hike.  I timed the hike just right because on the Saturday before the hike Travis took the Scouts on their 20 mile hike so his legs were super tired and sore.  I may or may not have totally kicked his trash on the hike up to the falls that were forever away.  The sign said a mile but I swear it was more than that.  We actually saw two signs and they both said a mile even though they were at very different locations.  

Sawyer and Jaylee loved the ride up to the falls.  We got a big surprise when we got there.  The mountain goats were down by the falls. I have never seen them this low on the mountain but hey it was just May and there was still snow at the falls.  We had a great little family outing completed by having a picnic in the back of the car because it was freezing. 

Pop's Celebration

One Year Older and Wiser too, Happy Birthday Grandpa.  My Grandpa turned the big 80.  He is such an amazing, loving, caring, funny man.  I just love my Grandpa.  He has always been there for me and my little family.  We don't know where we would be with out our "Poppa".  He is always there to lend a helping hand or a listening ear.  He is so good with my kids and just loves them to pieces.  Sawyer loves it when we go to "Poppa and Grandma's".  He even has to dress like Grandpa.  

The weekend of Grandpa's birthday the whole Smith Clan, minus Rowdy, descended on Circleville once again to celebrate.  We decided to head up to City Creek which was about as close to the mountains as we could get.  The day turned out to be pretty cold and windy intermittently, but we had a great time.  We had BBQ pork  ribs, mutton, dutch oven potatoes, and a lot of other delicious foods.  The kids ran around playing in what else but the creek.  We tried to take the kids on a little hike to get the wiggles out but the trail ended up being muddy.  

When we headed back down the mountain we played some Bingo.  The Oswald's took home most of the prizes.  We had two cakes, German Chocolate and Pineapple Cream, with our beloved Caramel Cashew ice cream from Aggie Ice Cream.  We had a great celebration and it was fun getting all together again.