Cookies!

Oh, we haven’t taken cooking-making pictures for ages!

These pictures are just me and the boys making granola-chocolate-chip cookies. YUM! The granola gives the cookies a great flavor but a weird texture. You would think that they would be crunchier than normal, but the granola actually gives the cookies a “lift.” In other words, they are more airy. It’s really hard to explain, but they’re really easy to eat!

And, why do I have a flower behind my ear? Was I just practicing the hula? No. Because she is sweet and sometimes romantic, Bub frequently picks a flower as she is walking into the house and gives it to me.

Oddly, she never picks them with a long enough stem that I can put them in water. They usually end up behind my ear, and let’s face it – it doesn’t hurt!

Learning how to eat sunflower seeds

Once every summer, we usually manage to score tickets to a Bees baseball game. We keep going because 1) I like watching baseball, and Bub is a really good sport in spite of not liking the game at all, 2) we keep hoping that the boys will become interested, and 3) it’s free and we don’t get to take the boys to very many things because of our budget right now.

The highlight of the event is usually the cotton candy, for sure.

I’m the only person that cares at all about the rest of the game. Even at age five, we still take lots of walks around the baseball stadium, roll down the hills at the edges of the stadium, and request a lot of sugar in the form of candy, licorice, cotton candy, and lemonade. Five years old is still too young to sit through nine innings of baseball. We only stayed the entire time because there were fireworks afterwards.

The highlight of this game, however, was teaching them how to eat sunflower seeds. Meatball got the hang of it very quickly. They’re both doing a very good job of it. It’s now Peanut’s snack of choice when we’re in the car. (The car is also very messy, now.)

Sleepy boys

OK – this is just cute. He wanted to wear my hat to keep the sun out of his eyes. Then, after a very long day at the zoo, he fell asleep.

Meatball is almost always the first to fall asleep.

Ophir Day

Last weekend, we went to Ophir Day. I don't know how things are in other parts of the world, but almost every town in Utah has a "day" where they celebrate whatever makes that town special - especially the small towns. So many of these are specific to what is grown in that area: Raspberry Days (Garden City/Bear Lake), Peach Days (Brigham City), Lamb Days (Fountain Green), Onion Days (Payson), Tomato Days (Hooper). Some of the towns have other celebrations that are based on a big event like the 4th or 24th of July. They try really hard to make these unique since thousands of other cities are celebrating at the same time (example: Pioneer Days in Fairview).

Ophir, however, celebrates an event: the arrival of the first train into the city. You see, Ophir was a mining town back in the mid-1800s. Soldiers in the area noticed that the local Indians were making bullets out of silver. The soldiers tracked the source of the silver, and then promptly got rid of the Indians.

It is located four miles up a tight canyon. I was surprised when I read that by the 1870s there were 125 homes and businesses crammed into this tiny place. A branch line was build and operated between 1912 and 1928. It connected to the main line that ran through Tooele at the time. The silver, copper, and ore deposits were quickly depleted and there was no need for an entire train line to be maintained, so after just 16 years, the rail was out of service.

However, the residents of the city (all 38 of them, according to the 2010 census), take great pride in the maintenance and upkeep of the city. They have quite a sense of humor, too. Many of the house signs are quite funny. Instead of giving the name of the family that lives there (the Smith's), the signs say stuff like "Ophir fun" or "Ophir Pete's Sake."

Many very old historical buildings have been moved and restored. These are open every Saturday during the summer from 11am-3pm for the public to tour. It's a quick tour, but it's worth it. We had a great time.

First, we went to the school. It consisted of one large room with desks, a big stove, and a piano. There were three smaller rooms, too. I don't know exactly what two of them were for - I'm assuming that they were for older kids to study in, but they were decorated in a way that didn't make it very obvious. One of them today houses a TV and some chairs so that people can watch a video of the history of the town. One room was clearly the teacher's quarters with a small pot-bellied stove, a single bed, a desk/table, and a wash stand:

I forgot to take a picture of the school room, but I did get one of the boys after they rang the school bell about 20 times. It's small, but LOUD. With such a small number of residents and such a tight canyon, there is no doubt that this bell could be heard by all students in the area.

Next, we visited three houses - real honest to goodness homes - with 1, 2, and 3 rooms. The 1-room home couldn't have been more than 12'x12'. Seriously. Everything was in that one room. Table, stove, bunk beds, and that's it. (We are so spoiled by space and stuff in today's world.)

Here's the 1-room house. The bunk beds are behind me as I take the picture:

Here are some photos from the other tiny homes.
This white stove was one of the first electric models ever made:

I was trying to get the butter churn in the corner hutch. We had one when I was little (actually, my sister still has it), and we honestly had to churn our own butter when we had Mandy, the milk cow. The picture on the wall (clearly from the 1940s or 1950s, doesn't fit into this room at all):

See that Singer treadle sewing machine? I have the same one (or incredibly similar) in our computer room!

I just really liked the look of this china. (I'm never a fan of fake flowers, by the way.)

Here is a photo of the post office. The woman in the photo on the wall was actually the post master for something like 55 years.

After checking out the history, we went back to the festival. We actually arrived for breakfast before we looked at the old homes. Yes, the day is so much fun that there is a breakfast, BBQ hot dogs and burgers, bingo, bands, arts/crafts, raffles, snow cones, cotton candy, and a bounce house! Not bad for a town of just 38 residents!

Here we are playing tether ball. TETHER BALL!!! I forgot how much fun this game is. (Or how much fun it is supposed to be. I usually got pegged in the face or side of the head, so it wasn't always a great time for me.) The boys had a blast:

We spent some time in the sandbox playing with Thomas, of course:

And, this tire swing was a huge hit. He had me spin him for 20 minutes, easily:

And, really, it's just a beautiful little canyon:

I would recommend Ophir Day to anyone. It's almost always the first Saturday in August. Just call me, and I'll let you know for sure because we'll be trying to go every year!

Owls

On a trip to the SLC Downtown Farmer’s market, we came across this guy and his winged friend. We stop and look at owls whenever we get a chance because we have been practically trained to do it since Granny is such an owl lover. Well, that and the fact that they are really cool. So, this guy was basically promoting his business (?) and education outreach program. He’ll take this owl or other birds of prey to schools and businesses and programs to spread the word about caring for them and the planet. He’ll even come to birthday parties. This owl was only about seven months old. Huge for such a young creature in my opinion, but let’s face it. I’m no expert. Beautiful bird, though!

See? I told you that we are trained to stop and check out all owls!
It is hard to see in this picture, but there is an owl up there on that branch! This owl lives in the cemetery by our house. We see him once in a while. On this particular day, some other birds were really squawking at him and circling around him. I think that he must have been bothering one of their nests. We spotted him as we were headed home from picking apricots from a tree in a vacant lot just down the road.

This is just a great picture. Bub took it years ago. This owl had been injured, and it was off the side of the road. She and another motorist scooped it up. The guy took it to wildlife people.

Bad asses on July 4th

As we headed out to the Tooele July 4th parade, we got the boys to pose for us.

Here they are showing us their muscles. Oh, yeah, baby! So impressive!

Here they are being completely cool bad asses.

Here they are sitting with me about halfway through the parade. It was a long parade!

First lost tooth

A couple of months ago, the boys were bathing and playing (and making a watery mess, of course). Peanut had a washcloth in his mouth, and Meatball was pulling on it. I told them not to do that. Bub told them not to do that. Then, Peanut was crying. Um, duh. What did I just tell you?

So, Meatball had pulled a bit too hard, and it hurt Peanut’s tooth. There was even a tiny bit of blood. AND, the tooth was wobbly. Now that he finally learned a lesson, he was very careful about what he put in his mouth and how he played with his brother. We were hoping that a little bit of time would help his gums tighten up around this tooth, but it was a long shot.

Finally, it got so loose that we just wanted to pull it out so that he wouldn’t swallow it. He, of course, didn’t want us to. That’s too scary for the first tooth! So, we were walking through one of our favorite stores doing our grocery shopping when he stopped us in the middle of the cleaning aisle to show us the tooth he was holding between his thumb and forefinger. He just tinkered with it until it came out!

So, here we are! The first lost tooth. It will easily be two years before this hole is filled with his permanent tooth. The dentist says not to worry at all about it, so we aren’t. What a cutie!