Justin's Birthday - spring break

Justin turned 12!!!!! His greatest desire was to ski at Sundance. He printed a map out, laminated it with packing tape, and hooked it to his coat with a carabiner. You can see it in this picture hanging off his left side. He kept us on the right path more than once. Being the country bumpkins we are and only being used to skiing at Magic (one lift, a handful of runs). It was a beautiful day and we were so glad to have Grandpa Harrison with us. Even at 60 he is tearing up the slopes like a native Wyomingite should. Justin said when I got to ride the lift with him, "Mom, Granpda is a lot, lot better than I thought he'd be!"

I'm so glad I bought Paige a helmet Monday. Tuesday I would have paid $500 bucks to get her into one. She was all over the place! The only thing she is afraid of is Cat tracks.
At the top with Utah Lake in the background. Justin had set a goal to ski Bishop's Bowl. It is a black diamond and a favorite at Sundance. He REALLY wanted to know if I would ski it with him. Once I saw it, I REALLY did not want to. But out of pure love for Justin, plus it was his birthday, I did it, and was stupid enough to do it twice! As I was peering over the edge deciding where to make my entry (and take my final breath), Brady hadn't even stopped to check it out, just dropped over the edge and onto the moguls. Where did I get these kids? Oh yeah, Darren is their dad. My dad dropped over and was down in no time. We skiied until we could ski no more, even Brady was ready to go home. My mom was kind enough to come up at 1:00 and take Paige home so we could ski the bigger stuff. Plus she was tired out. Boy are we grateful for these two buddies.

Justin snuck up and took this picture of Brady. He wanted me to say that this is what Brady would do ALL day if we let him!
Ryan and Julianna at Justin's birthday party. She is the sweetest baby ever!
Clayton and Lauren - due in 2 + weeks. No fair looking so cute. Some one at the bank where she works told her she was the hottest pregnant lady they'd ever seen! Notice my dad in the background, doing what he has always done best - dishes!

An eventful Saturday - all small animals beware!

It must be close to spring becuase the ground squirrels are coming out and starting to dig holes! I dont' think they stand a chance at our house. This was the excitement for the morning. They have also set traps for them. We've caught two so far. One trap was set by Justin's friend, Hank Davey Crockett Hansen, who upon hearing the squirrel wasn't dead, didn't want Justin to shoot it but to let him hurry over so he could do it. This is the world of Kimberly that we have moved into. Justin and Hank go hunting with their pellet guns everyday after school. They take off by the canyon and have a blast. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. Hank has a job this summer getting rid of our neighbors squirrels and rock chucks so they don't ruin his garden and trees. Justin wants this job too! Brady quickly asked Darren if he would pay him to do it too.

I'll just say we've had better luck with the traps..... We hear the coyotes often. The other night they were right past our deck at about 3:00am. They were LOUD! We went out on the deck to listen and went back in to get a flashlight, when Paige (who had come flying up the stairs about 15 min prior) ran back in and slammed the door shut scaring away the coyotes. She was afraid they would get in the house! I'm almost postive their howling is what had woken her up. At this rate she will never sleep in her own bed all night.

We had to clean Frontier on Saturday. Just like the good old days. (YUCK). While the rest of us were cleaning, Justin was sneaking up on pigeons to shoot them with his pellet gun.

Love cleaning the men's bathroom toilet. Nothing like cleaning up after truck drivers.

Brady vaccuumed.

Paige and Darren mopped. Good times.

Music Festival

Today was the Twin Falls Music Festival. Brady and Justin each memorized two songs for it. They go and perform them in front of a judge and get rated on their performance. They were SOOOOO excited about it. It wasn't a fight AT ALL to get them to go. I am such GOOD mother to have such happy, obedient children. Justin got 47/50, (a gift, he admits) and Brady got 49/50, he really deserved it (I stood outside the door and listened to each of them play).

bonfire

Darren and the kids burned our pile of weeds and garbage Thursday night. It was quite a sight . Of course they did it while I was having book club at my house. It all went well until Justin put a metal rod into the fire and hit Brady's hand with it. Can you say 2nd degree burn?

10 years

Steven Joel Harrison Sept. 20, 1973 - March 7,1998. 10 years. Now if that doesn't feel like an elephant just stepped on your chest. Wow. I just wanted to share some photos of him and remember him today. Steve wrote a paper for a class at Dixie College a few months before his death. You can really get an insight into the kind of person he was. It starts, " 'Where I live and what I live for' is not only a statement of Thoreau's but also a purpose of my existence. This statement and other thoughts from Thoreau's writings ring close to home for me. One of the passages that parallel my life very closely is 'for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he an afford to let alone.'" Boy was that ever true for Steve! Some of the things that are important to us just didn't make sense or matter to him. I think it is a good statement for all of us to ponder and think about in our own lives.

This is the last picture we have of all of us all together. Sept. 1997
I love this picture. I can see his happiness and peacefulness through the back of his head. It reminds me that he's moving on somewhere else. And that somehwere else is beautiful.
On top of Mt. Shasta (or Wheeler?) His goal was to climb the highest peaks in the US. Pretty lofty for an asthmatic. This brought him purpose and joy.

My favorite picture of Steve. Handsome! Summit of Mt. Timpanogos.
By Lake Couerd'alene when he helped us move to Kellogg.
With Justin in fall of 1996. Enjoy the music today. These are some songs that remind me of that kind of music he liked. The past ten years are a testimony of my family's strength and courage. I feel so tender toward my parents and my brothers when I think of their faith and tenacity to look forward and keep going. It is an example to me and lets me know that in hard times that there is strength there to do things you never thought you could. As my mom would say, "you just pick yourself up by the boot straps". (what does that really mean? But she says it and it makes sense to me). There are many things that remind me of him, music is a big one. When Clayton walks up and puts his arm around my mom's shoulder with a "Hey Ma" I can see Steve doing it as plain as if it were yesterday. Looking at a picture of Ryan and Clayton in their tuxes at Ryan's wedding I see two handsome men, I then notice the one who isn't there. In the faces of the two men I see a lifetime of baseballs thrown, games played, fights fought, adventures survived, a relationship with Steve, not visible, but enduring. When I see the red cliffs of Southern Utah - I see Steve, when I hear Alan Jackson's voice - I hear Steve's, and when I sit still and appreciate the peace nature brings - I know Steve feels it too.

Yard clean up

Does this look like work to you? Actually they worked really hard picking up garbage and rocks. Boy was it ever an " in like a lion" first day of March! BRRRR! We now have a huge pile of debris and garbage for a bonfire! We borrowed the 4 wheeler and trailer from Scott Lyman. Amazing how easy it was to get the kids to help this time. Darren burmed up more dirt and Justin drug around some sort of piece of metal to looosen the surface and pull up rocks. Grass may actually be in our future.

Wrestling

Today was Brady's first wrestling match for the year. He hasn't gone to any of the practices because of the hole in his lip from the laser. (He had a growth lasered off the inside of his lip this week, weird, but true). He got there late and wrestled basically 4 right after one another. He was 3 - 1! It is so fun to watch, I never thought I would enjoy wrestling. When it is your child down there - wow, watch out for mom! Darren is pretty into it, being the wrestler he was in high school. We posted the videos so Grandpa Harrison could see Brady "wrastle."