Rattlesnake!

Tal and Anita were sitting on north side of the deck the other day when they thought the sprinklers were going on as they heard a quick chu chu chu chu chu by their feet. Low and behold about five feet from their feet a diamond back rattlesnake had slithered out from under the deck and was on its way across the lawn.

That brought everybody to the site in a hurry and before we knew it, dad had his dad’s gun in hand, had loaded it and fired as it had moved to the sagebrush outside the lawn. He hit it right through the neck on the first shot!

We were all pretty impressed, except for the rattlesnake, poor thing.  With all the kids wandering around on this 40 acres, he just had to go!  The snake of course kept moving slowly so he fired another shot but he was a gonner.

 

Dad took the snake to the pavillion where they had an immediate science lesson as they dissected it to figure out how rattlesnakes work. Saydi got a diagram of the insides of rattlesnakes on her Iphone and they learned a lot!  The reactions were everything from dry heaves to kids deciding to be veterinarians and doctors.

Too bad Aja wasn’t here to skin it and Jonah wasn’t here to barbecue it but the kids got a pretty good lesson in rattlesnake anatomy anyway. Watch Shawni’s blog for details on the dissection at 71toes.blogspot.com.

Of course our biggest concern was that there might be a nest under the deck but Cub said that they are solitary creatures in the summer and nest only in the winter in caves. So I guess we’ll live, but we’re researching what to do if someone gets bitten, just in case.

My dad would roll over in his grave if he knew this. Maybe he does. He always said the east side of the lake was full of rattlesnakes. He should know. He lived amongst these dry sagebrush hills on a homestead for three years when was a young father.

Makes for a day we’ll always remember!

Calf Catcher!

Because Aniston is such a cowgirl and Anita had never seen a rodeo, we piled in Shawni’s car and went to the Evanston rodeo. It was really a fun well organized little rodeo. The bulls were especially impressive and the cowboys were amazing.

Rodeoing is the most dangerous sport in the world.  The next to the last bull rider was taken away in an ambulance after being steeped on in the middle of the chest by one of these huge bulls! Not a happy sight!

Bare back riders were also good. High scores for many but lots of guys went home without a penny for efforts.

The barrels racing was the best we’d seen in a long time.

 

We had a lot of fun (no, I am not drunk):

But the best part was the “Chicken Chasers” and the “Calf Catchers” because Elsie and Aniston were the stars!

Tons of little kids from the audience lined up on rodeo field and then the kids 2-4 were sent out to try to catch a chicken.  Elsie of course with should have won with all her chicken catching practice at home and especially with her expertise with her little buddy Ponyo.  BUT she was competing with about fifty little kids, many of them four year olds and there were only two chickens. She was like a deer in the headlights just trying to see where those chickens were! Funny!

She was so far away that we didn’t couldn’t exactly see where she was. I’m not sure she was in this picture but you get the idea.

BUT when it was Aniston’s turn, Aja gave her a few ideas about how sheep (which she chases every day on their farm in Washington) are a little different from calves and she went for it!

You can see the light in her hair as she flew around the arena.

She was smart enough to know that instead of running behind the calf like the other kids were, she headed one off from the front and was the first kid to grab a ribbon from a calf’s tail and win the prize…a T shirt and a gift certificate at a local restaurant.  She was so excited and we were all so proud!  

Hooray for rodeos!

The Rope Swing

Once a year we travel the road that my grandparents traveled over a hundred years ago in wagons to get wood for the winter. It is also a road my Grandma urged community workers to improved in the late 1800s so that visitors could enjoy the gorgeous glacier lake at the end of the trail.

Years ago (ever since I can remember going there as a young person) someone attached a sturdy rope to a tall tree on the shore that swings out into the freezing cold lake with a person attached to the end. The flight through the air is exhilarating and the hitting the water is stunning!  It’s like diving into a big bucket of water full of ice cubes. Even at the height of summer there is water still flowing into the lake from the glacier on the other side which you will see below.
Still, the challenge of doing it never ceases to catch the imagination of the most daring. Here are a few shots of some of the people who dared.  I should mention that I am NOT one of them. BUT several grandchildren are!

Elle


Max


Noah?

Eli


Jonah

Julie

Talmadge
And here is the youngest member of Eyrealm, Oliver (5)  to jump off the swing. After five tries and not daring to let go, he finally did it!  With visions of a giant twix bar (the bribe) dancing in his head, this is the look of pure joy!


 
What a fun day!  Oh if Grandma Jacobson could only see these kids and how they are enjoying “her place”! 

Grammie Camp #2

Grammie Camp gets more and more fun as the kids get older!  With six cousins, 13, 11, 10, and three 8 year olds we can really cover a lot of territory!

We started out this year with an ancestor quiz, which they were better on than last year and received Swedish fish for the right answer! They’re going to be excited to meet those ancestors some day!

This year we had fun with a little art lesson on the impressionists. After talking about it for a while, they did their own impression of Bear Lake with watercolors. Pretty good stuff!

 

We even played a match game of impressionists so the kids could get familiar with the work of some great artists!

 

We piled into the car for our 2nd annual trip to Pickleville Playhouse production of El Bandito Rides Again and just as we pulled up to the raspberry shake stand, I realized to my horror that in our rush to leave, I had forgotten my purse! 

As I announced the disaster, cute Aniston piped up from the back that she had $45 that we could use. A miracle! We all rejoiced and really enjoyed that money!  Luckily I had bought the theatre tickets online.  Hoorah for Ana!

The play was hilarious. So fun to just laugh with those cute kids and watch to see which jokes the “got”!  They loved the hissing and booing and were repeating lines from the play all the way home.

It was a 5:00 show so it was still light when we got out. We drove the rest of the way around the lake and right on back to our cabin where I snatched my purse and we went back to the Bear Cave for dinner. After buying a $10 can of mosquito spray so we would be eaten alive and a game of Red Rover while we waited for our dinner, we chowed down on those good hamburgers and fries!

Whilst driving around the lake, they talked about their best and worst experiences of the year and their favorite books and movies.  Very telling!

We settled down in the sleeping bags at the Lighthouse (always a challenging experience to get them to go to sleep) and were treated to crepes made by Elle in the morning. 

At breakfast they learned the first part of my favorite scripture in Heleman 5:12 and it was fun to hear them zip it off in no time at all! Grandfather came to have a short session on “Grandfather’s Secrets”, a new idea for this year which they loved. It includes a secret rock that they each will carry with them this year to help them remember certain principles that are “secrets”.  He helped with an  unexpected lesson on honesty too.

 

We reviewed what we had learned, sang the Grammie Camp song and played the fun “Penny in the Flour” game which the kids love!

 

 

And last we headed for the grand finale’ which is always a part of Grammie Camp:  WORK! 

We pulled weeks for a while at the tennis house which is desperate need of care. Some lasted longer than others, but it was actually fun (at least for me) to work together.

Another Grammie camp down….a lot to look forward to in the years to come. What a great blessing these GRAND kids are!

MFME

The day after the reunion closed, MFME opened!  It was so fun to go down to Park City with the nine remarkable Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm. We filled two cars because we had three of Shawni’s kids to drop off too. Our journey through Logan, on to Park City was already stimulating as we talked about everything from labor and delivery to politics!

 

First we went to Robert Redford’s restaurant in Park City called Zoom!  We were starving so the food  probably tasted even better than it really was!

 

 

We then leisurely strolled through Park City feasting on art galleries.

We started at the Kimball Arts Center where we saw an amazing quilt show and some creative art (Jacobson who was our little traveling buddy may have like this best).

 

the

The photography galleries were simply amazing!  I loved this quote by one of the artists whose wife was “manning the shop”.  I should have taken time to get this in focus but I think you can read it. This is especially meaningful as we were surrounded by incredible photography of the wonders of nature.

 

 

On to the very important…ice cream shop!

 

 

AND the famous….alpine slide!  We went in shifts so Jacobson wouldn’t have to be scared.

Aja and Julie swooped in for a great ending.

Kristi showed me the scars on her legs left from the last ride down on an alpine slide so she was, and rightly so, very cautious this time around!

 

Saydi and Saren tried the new zip line and had a great time swinging down through the trees.

No injuries. Lots of laughing!

Home to change and we headed for Log Haven for a great quiet evening to talk. We shared our best and worst experiences of the past year and created a book list from the best books we’ve read.   The food was pretty good too!  (note cute Jacobson at the end of the table)

 

Aja ordered buffalo! I know it doesn’t look very great but it was DE-lish!

And Aja was the last to tell her “best and worst” and at the end of her last sentence without even taking a breath she said….”and I’m pregnant”! It almost knocked us out of our seats with joy!  Number 4 coming in December!

The next morning we had our official Welcome to Eyrealm Ceremony for Anita out on the deck at Baliwood. She will be such a great addition to MFME and we are deeply delighted to have her!  We filled out the traditional questionnaires which we do about every five years to see how much our perspectives have changed and how much has remained the same since our last writing. Always interesting!

No pictures there, but Shawni got some great ones on the short hike that followed just a few steps from our house.

 

For the finale we jumped in the cars and rushed to the new Tony Burgers owned by Chris and Nickie Carver on 4th south where we met some of our beloved Carver family.  It was so great to see them..and enjoy those great burgers, salads and shakes! 

Another year. Another fun MFME with my favorite women on earth!

Blessing Baby Jacobson

In the closing hours of our reunion, just before Josh left for Ethiopia and Tal left for a job interview, we had the wonderful privilege of giving a baby blessing to our our newest member of Eyrealm Jacobson Scott Eyre. Of course all the Jacobson side of the family is thrilled at the name, but no one more than me!  What a joy and a privilege for that little guy to carry my maiden name with him forever!

Can you believe this baby isn’t even three months old yet and he already knows how to smile for the camera?

We had fifty people for the festivities including Kevan and Grandma who we always love having. Grandma is about to turn 89! 

 

Ben and Ashley came from California and Chelsia and Sam came from North Dakota with their families!

SUPER mom Kristi was busy snapping pictures of the momentous event.

What an amazing group of Priesthood holders for this one beautiful little child and big brother McKay on a day we’ll never forget!