July

Color in Motion 5K
Justin, Kimber, Daymia, Levi
Michelle Ray with her children Carsen, Mady and Ethan
Terra Sargeant with her friend

Even with our late night 4th of July Celebration, we were up bright and early groggy and at the "butt-crack of dawn" to walk a 5K.  It took some coaxing to get my tired body out of bed and threats to get the others to roll out of theirs. Levi and Justin were grumbling and complaining that I had forced them to sign up and made it clear that they were only there for me but when the color started flying they lightened up and joined in the fun.  The music playing throughout the park also helped.

LeRoy was our photographer.

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We bought a donkey!

Our family has been following the Dando Amor organization created in Rexburg as they have built orphanages in Ecuador and Africa.  We also keep tabs on a family that is adopting a teen boy from Ecuador and have included them in our prayers. I dream of taking my kids on a trip with Dando Amor but for now the best we can do is spy on them, watch and encourage friends as they make the trips, help in the shoe drives, help put together hygiene kits and now, buy a donkey.

Nathan and Hyrum were looking at Dando Amor pictures with me and I read to them the reasons that people buy donkeys to donate to the families and orphanage in Africa.  They ran off and I assumed were going to play.  They both came back to the computer with their spending jars and said they wanted to buy a donkey. I was more than a little surprised since they had been saving their spending money for our big trip to Arizona and by the time they pay tithing and set money aside for their long term savings, their spending money doesn't add up very fast.  They dumped their banks out onto the floor and started counting.

Later that night, which happened to be Monday night FHE, we invited the rest of the family to join us and with our combined coins, dollars and Paypal account we purchased a donkey. Two days later we were sent pictures from our friends who were in Africa helping with the donkey purchases.  The little boys now have a framed picture of their donkey, that they named Jesse, hanging in their room.  That souvenir is much better than anything they would have purchased in Arizona.

P.S. Nathan was reading a book about animals and during the quiet time he asked, "mom, what's an ass?"

I tried to hide the giggle in my voice, "that's another name for donkey".

"Oh," he replied, "so we bought an ass for that family in Africa!"

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The latest in acrobatics at our house is the 1-2-UP! that the boys invented.  Justin holds hands with them while they bounce together and when they have a good even bounce Justin hollers out 1-2 and on the UP! he gives them an extra bounce to boost them high above him.  The idea is for them to be one straight line and they get pretty darn close.

One of the boys snuck the water hose over to the trampoline while they were jumping with Levi.

They laughed and squealed and took turns being in charge of the hose.  After taking turns jumping over the water spray, Hyrum insisted on washing Levi's pits.

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I often ponder at how different Derek and Justin are and how Nathan and Hyrum seem so much like them.  They each have their own skills, talents, preferences and personalities but there is an obvious pattern among the four of them.

Justin does like to spend time outside, usually on the trampoline or flipping around in the yard but he does not necessarily like camping, gardening or yardwork. He does mow the lawn without complaint because he can sit on the mower and listen to music without getting dirty.  He does not like physical labor work with LeRoy or getting his hands and clothes dirty in the shop.  He would rather be learning and doing computer programming, working up 3D projects in Blender on the computer or watching TV series through Netflix.

Nathan is practically his twin.  He spends adequate time outside but prefers to be indoors playing the Wii or watching shows.  Rarely is he in the dirt piles or rummaging through Dad's treasures (aka, junk pile) and though he goes camping with us, he is usually grumbling that he is bored.

Derek on the other hand only does computer stuff when it's required for school or necessary for work.  He would much rather be outside building and creating, usually pulling his materials from the junk pile.  His pants always look dirty;  his pockets are always full of nails, screws and sawdust; his hands are smashed up from hammers, scarred from burns and cuts and he thrives on the great outdoors.  Winter is hard for him because he gets bored inside so he'll bundle up and go create outside until he is freezing.

Having a cast on did not slow Derek down at all. That thing was filthy and smelly!

Hyrum has shadowed Derek enough that now he wanders out to the trash pile on his own to "build stuff".  He seldom makes it through a full TV episode or movie before he is acting it out playing "magination" and he isn't at all afraid to go hang out all alone in the shed.  He easily gets restless when stuck in a vehicle for long and church is practical torture in his mind.

Derek's latest shields are built from old water heaters that he and LeRoy replaced.  He removed the insulation, cut the heavy steel bladder into thirds, attached handles onto the back, cut the shape he wanted and drew the design.

 These are HEAVY, 17.4 pounds to be exact, and very large.  That is a cello next to his shield, not a violin.  With the sword that Derek built (pictured above), he, Jacob and Chris have battles where they actually swing the long, heavy, deadly sword  and protect themselves with the equally heavy, bulky shields.  The marks on the shields are actual battle wounds (as are the bruises from misplaced hits).


Some of Hyrum's newest creations are his "Thinking Cap" and "Something Cool." For nearly two weeks he would put his thinking cap on before doing his workbook pages each morning. How does it work?

"Well, this long screw pokes into your brain and your thoughts suck up the screw into the hat part and then go down the hooks so that you can see them.  It really works!  I promise!  But sometimes it can hurt a little." - Hryum, age 6

His "Something Cool" bordered on dangerous.  I wasn't home when he finished it and brought it to the house to show Justin.  He had taken an rusty can and damaged motor fan, some plugs and odd objects and hooked them all together.  When he plugged it in the fan sparked and started running.  The sparks scared the heebie jeebies out of Justin and he wouldn't let Hyrum touch it again until LeRoy got home.  He was then given a simplified version of how electricity works and promised not to plug things in again until Dad checked them out first.