Life on the "Farm"

Tyson (4), Dallin (7), and Bracken (2). You can tell they have so much fun together!

Bracken, Chandra and I were able to stay with my two littlest brothers while my parents and other younger siblings went to Lake Powell for a "work" trip for Dad. We had so much fun! We missed Brian, who stayed at home to start back to school, but we kept busy playing hard.

Breonna hates it when anyone refers to my parents home as a "farm" or "ranch." But for us little city dwellers, it's about as close as we'll get. They have a big field to run around in, ducks, chickens, dogs, horses and a goat. Plus a good sized garden and all the gravel around the storage units to play in. When I went outside to bring them in for dinner I'd usually find them in the sand box, down at the chicken coop chasing ducks or trying to catch the chickens, purposely letting the goat out so they'd have to catch her, feeding the horses, riding bikes, or climbing up the gravel pile with sticks and yelling, "I'm the king of the mountain!" One day Bracken said, "Mom, we're playing on the farm." he waved around and said, "This is a farm." Close enough!

Tyson with his very own chicken "Nicely."
Bracken and Tyson feeding the horse Nawaka.

This is Dallin milking his goat Brooklyn. He bought her with his own money, goes out to milk her morning and night, and sells her milk to neighbors and friends. He's an efficient little milker, and it takes a lot of hand strength! Bracken got to help milk Brooklyn too, but he usually only stuck around long enough to get a stream or two of milk in the bucket, or have Dallin squirt milk into his mouth (grimace from me, but oh well), then he would feed the goat, chase the chickens or climb the rock pile.

When Grandma came back we went to the city pool. Bracken wanted to do everything his uncles did. He'd tell me to watch, then I'd see him looking at me from under the water while he blew bubbles. "I went all the way under like Ethan and Dallin and Tyson!" He went down the water slide over and over, and kept jumping into the deep pool before I was ready for him. He kept trying to get to Dallin over by the diving boards but it was too deep for me, and when I finally told him it wasn't safe he looked at me and said, "Mom, I have no fear!" Very true, and a little scary. He looks up to his uncles so much and wants to be big like them and do everything they do. I'm glad they're such good kids!

We went on walks on the dirt roads by our house almost every day. They took "Little Pup" (the wiener dog that is staying with my family until it finds a home) with us, named every cow and horse they saw, and looked at the neighbors chickens to see if they were cooler than their own chickens. They picked cattails and made a fuzzy mess of them and looked around to find a good place to release their pet tadpoles. Every little boy should have a place like this to play.

Chandra was such a sport as she was toted along from one activity to the next through the week. She liked being outside so much.

She's become a thumb sucker, but doesn't know what to do with the rest of her fingers so they usually end up covering her entire face. She tries to get all the fingers of both her hands in her mouth at the same time, and just ends up gagging herself. She's not all dressed up here, but I love her big blue eyes!

As much fun as we had, we were all ready to go back home and see Brian, and he missed us too. Thanks for a fun week Dallin and Tyson, we love you guys!