A Fowl Folly

Sorry - this is a long post, without any photos. Sit back, relax and read-on.
New Year's Day was eventful for us. We spent New Years Eve at the Runyan’s, making use of their home, while they were in Colorado. Our stake had a Stake Temple Day on New Year’s Day. What a great way to begin the New Year! We scheduled to be Ordinance Workers for the day, kind of bittersweet, as this was our last shift before our release. We thought it would be most convenient to be near the temple for our early arrival. The Lyons, and Jared came along too. Jared was kind enough to tend the Lyon’s kids, while they were at the temple (Debbie was not feeling well and stayed home with her critters).
We had been tending Gump for the Runyans – he is their 12 year old Dachshund. He was a perfect gentleman the whole time. We can’t say the same for our Weiner Dog, Weezer. She is a relentless pest. Gump was kind and patient with her.
We took the dogs to Folsom with us, for fear fireworks on New Years Eve would have them out of sorts while we were away.
The Runyans have two chickens – Cindy and JoJo! You may have read about JoJo a while back on Runyan’s blog. She is the chicken who swallowed a shoelace, causing some embarrassment and a big Vet bill for the Runyans.
We enjoyed pizza, snacks and games on New Years Eve, while sadly missing Debbie and the kids. We left early in the morning for the temple and the Lyons soon followed, leaving Jared in charge of 3 wild boys, one cute baby girl, two dogs and two chickens! He is amazing with the kids. Thanks Jared!
Jared got really frustrated with our annoying dog, as she kept going out the doggie door and pestering the chickens, safely fenced inside their coop, – a new thing for her. Gump got used to the chickens long ago!
Finally, Jared had to lock the doggie door and keep Weezer inside. At the appointed time, Jared loaded up the kids and met Emily and Aaron at the temple, as they came out and he went in. When Emily got back to the house, she saw the locked doggie door, and quickly opened it, fearing doggie accidents. Later on, they picked Jared up at the temple to take him back to Runyan's house. We still had a couple of hours to go on our shift.
When Jared got in the car, he found out Emily had let Weezer outside. She had no idea Weezer had been pestering the chickens. They debated who would win in a chicken/dog fight. Jared’s money was on the chickens – as Weezer is only a 7 lb dachshund. Emily figured there was no way Weezer could get the coop opened up.
When they got back to Runyan's they immediately went outside to find - no chickens in the coop and no Weezer in sight. They called for Weezer and she soon came around a corner – with feathers stuck to her face. Jared then found JoJo, the black and white chicken, dead in the side yard. Emily was horrified when she saw Jared standing there silently with both hands over his mouth, peering at the dead chicken. Emily didn't know whether to laugh, cry or vomit as she cried, “Oh No, Oh No, Oh No.” They looked for Cindy and found her hiding under the chicken coop. No way was she going to come out with a rabid weiner dog lurking about.
The Lyons figured they better get their kids out of there before they saw anything and they left for home, while Jared waited for us. When we got there, we all stood there mortified at the carnage and disgusted by our little dog! Obviously, Jared would have lost money had the bet been for real.
We managed to coax Cindy out of hiding, and I bravely picked her up and put her back in the coop. When I did, I noticed she was bleeding, and we found a good size chunk of her tail end missing. We were able to get a hold of Andrea and she advised us to “put her down.” Andrea was in the car with Megan, who also harbors chickens. I won’t explain their reaction here.
Unlike Weezer, Bud and Jared don’t have the killer instinct. They spent about 10 minutes debating the best technique for the surviving chicken’s demise. Neither wanted blood on their hands or clothes! I heard "ax, neck wringing, hoe, sledgehammer, etc, but upon seeing the tetherball in the backyard, I suggested garroting the poor thing. We looked for wire, but found a piece of rope instead.
Bud got a hold of Cindy by the neck and Jared attempted to get a rope around – no dice. In the frenzy of the moment, Bud just choked the poor chicken. He thought she looked pretty dead. I got a plastic garbage bag, and they put her inside. Bud stomped on the bag for good measure. Then they went to get the other chicken and toss her in the bag. Just when Bud tossed her in, out came flying Cindy! I was inside and heard Jared hollering hysterically – kind of a cross between revulsion and laughter. They let Weezer back outside, thinking she was better skilled to end things. I yelled at them to not let her do it – I didn’t want to further encourage her killer instinct. Finally, Bud got a hold of Cindy and held on to her neck for a good long time – til he was sure she had met the same fate as JoJo! Both chickens were then transported in the black plastic bag to a nearby dumpster – I found out later it was at the nearby Kindercare! Men have no regard for what is appropriate.
Needless to say – we are so very sorry Runyans! I apologized over and over. I had planned to have a big pot of chicken soup waiting in the fridge when they got home from Colorado, as a “thank you” for letting us use/abuse their home. I thought better of it! Maybe I should offer them Roy – our ceramic rooster who’s been sitting on our kitchen counter for 10+ years. I would, except I have him listed in our will for Micah. Micah would you consider donating Roy to the Runyans?

Grandma got Nerfed

 

Ben got a Nerf Gun from Santa - and Grandma was a target. Grandpa has a collection of Nerf Guns, and now the 4 and under guys have their own. The war is on!

 



The usual suspects (Lyons, Runyans, Jared's Fam and G-Ma & G-Pa Hawley)came for Christmas Dinner. We had a great time, but missed the rest of the fam.

 

This was one of my favorite shots of Christmas - the sign of a "real" man. Aaron is doing dishes, armed with a disposable diaper in his back pocket.
This was the first Christmas Eve in about 37 years that we spent the night at home without any kids in the house. We got up early and went over to Lyons to unwrap presents with them. It was kind of odd going to bed on Christmas Eve without any children in the house, but also kind of peaceful!! And, because we did all the unwrapping at someone else's home, we were spared all the extra wrapping paper mess. First time I can recall our garbage can was not overflowing the day after Christmas.
We had the traditional Chinese Food on Christmas Eve, with our Nativity Story re-enactment. Those photos must be on Emily's camera. She will have to blog those. Then we did the traditional breakfast at Emily's house, and Dinner at our house. It made for a very nice Christmas Day. We feel so very blessed in every way imaginable.

Thanksgiving, 5K Turkey Trot & Family Reunion

We started off the long weekend with our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Not all of the family were there, as Josh and Courtney spent the day with Courtney's family and Megan was enroute from New Mexico - leaving her family behind (sad face). We had great food, and great company.



We kicked off the Family Reunion with a "No Chickens Allowed" 5K Turkey Trot on Friday morning, after Thanksgiving. It was a good way to burn off the additional calories from the Thanksgiving over-indulgences. It was a beautiful morning to run, after a much needed rain. The kids did a 1.4 mile run, while the adults did a 5K. We all ended up at Emily Lyon's home for juice and bagels. Aaron Lyon came in first, and I came in last - woohoo - at least I was there, and I finished.




Yes, we had the Family Reunion to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday. There were 72 in attendance. We had wonderful time. It was so great to see my parents enjoy greeting their children, many grandchildren (15 of 24) and numerous great-grandchildren
(38 of 60?). We played a Jeopardy game with questions about Grandma & Grandpa, we had many photo ops with each family, then each family put together a scrapbook page. We presented the album at the end of the evening. We ate dinner, had a variety show, and then had cake and Hot Fudge Sundaes, per Isabelle's request. It was a perfect evening. Thanks to all who made the trek to Cali. The grandchildren came from as far as Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Nevada and Utah. I know it was a sacrifice for many, but Grandma and Grandpa are still floating on clouds over the magnitude of the event.

Sister Act + One Grandma

Here is our contribution to the Family Reunion Variety Show. We celebrated my mom's 90th Birthday with a gathering of about 70 family members. It was a wonderful time to see everyone and renew family ties.
Emily roped us girls into doing this parody from Saturday Night live that my granddaughter, Sara, had shown us. I made the snazzy aprons and Emily chose to be the "odd" sister. We are in order from left, Emily, Andrea, Laurie and Megan. And that is a pillow filling out my apron front! Anything for a laugh!
I will be posting more photos of our fun filled Thanksgiving, 5K, and Family Reunion soon.
Enjoy!

Isabelle turns 90!

First, I think it is fitting to show a photo of Thistles taken at Apple Hill a few weeks ago. Thistles are the flower of Scotland - a fitting tribute to my mother.
She turned 90 years old today. We will have a bigger celebration in a few weeks, but for today we took her and my dad to Chili's for lunch. We had a great time and she got to laugh a lot.
 

Me and my mom. She is pretty spry for a 90 yr old.
 













Me, my mom and Hannah & Ben (Jared's kids)
 













Great Grandma, Grandma, Mommy - Emily and Brielle. Great Grandma Isabelle was very pleased to have 4 generations there. Grandpa looked on with a tear in his eye.
 

It is such a blessing to have my parents live close-by and be able to share these times together. They are both blessed to have one another, even after 68 years together.
We are anxiously looking forward to our family reunion in a few weeks to celebrate my mom's 90 years. It will be wonderful to renew family ties with siblings and nieces and nephews.
A reminder to all ya'll to work on your VARIETY SHOW entry. We will also be making scrapbook pages, so if you are not attending, you can send me a 12" X 12" page with family photos(thanks Jenni for getting yours in). You may also send a 5 min or less DVD with your birthday greeting (thanks Mike H. for getting yours in).
She and grandpa still get around fairly well with their walkers. They seem to like their living conditions at The Courtyard Assisted Living. They go to Church with me every Sunday, unless one or the other is sick, which is not very often. They tire easily and are not as sharp as they used to be, but everyone who visits them from the ward comments on how fun they are to talk to, and what a great sense of humor they both have. Yesterday, the kind ladies from our Relief Society Day-Time Stitchers Group brought them both lovely lap quilts. Both quilts are works of art, made by loving hands. Thank you, dear friends.
If you'd like to leave a birthday greeting here, I will print them up and show them to Isabelle/Grandma/Great-Grandma.

Annual Bishop's Pumpkin Patch Trip

What a great place to spend the afternoon with grandkids. This place used to be one shack and a patch of pumpkins, when our kids were little. Now it has grown to several buildings, petting zoo, train ride, hay trampoline, railcar, 3 story treehouse, lots of things to explore, corn maze and yummy food. The Walnut Pumpkin Pie was amazing. We had a great time - albeit some puking in the car on the way there :( (poor Carter) Fortunately, we had a bag in the car, and some of the chocolate milk barf made it into the bag. The rest landed on me and Carter.
Enjoy the photos.

Labor Day Fun!

Micah, Sarah and the kids visited for Labor Day weekend, and we had a fun filled few days with them and the local kids and their fams. Here are some of the highlights.
Woo Hoo - bowling shoes!


Lacey was not about to let the big boys have all the fun!



Thomas the Train is a favorite with the under 4 guys


The sand table is a new favorite.


And, of course, Schwimmin is always a hit - with Weezer on duty as Lifeguard. Jackson and Lacey have some awesome swimming skills.


Thanks for coming, Micah & Sarah. We loved it!