Flashback Friday: Bullfighting

I am so excited about Flashback Friday today. I love these photos. I love this story. So, when I had the opportunity to scan these photos the other day, I knew exactly where I was going to put them. This story is near legend in our family and I am so grateful that these photos have survived all these years and that I now have a digital copy of my very own. So, in honor of my Mother for Mother's Day this weekend, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I was so young when this happened and although I have heard this story numerous times, it has been years since the last retelling. So, the other night when my Dad was over visiting I cornered him and had him refresh my memory on how it all went down.

My parents were on a trip to Mexico back in the early 80's, I think, when my Mom and Dad had the opportunity to participate in a bullfight. For those of you who know my Mom well, you know that she is classy, a real lady, and a city girl, who at the time was married to an Idaho farmboy. Talk about two worlds colliding. Well, as the story goes, they signed up to participate. Mom went first of the two. She got a bull that had been through 4 or 5 people prior to her, so he was tired and ornery. What a great combination. Tired AND ornery. As my Dad tells it she stood there shaking the bullfighting cape (is that what it is?) out in front of her, yelling, "Come On! Come On!" Well, the bull stood there a minute and then started kicking up dirt with his hind right leg. She kept yelling, "Come on! Come on!", while the bull was preparing to charge. Apparently the second he took off for her, instead of holding the cape off to the side like she had been instructed to do, she clenched her fists together in front of her with the cape in hand, tightening her muscles and screaming.



Here is a close-up of said clenched muscles and screaming. Classic. I love it.


As you can see it didn't take much to take her down.


I would give almost anything to have been there and seen this first hand. But, oh how grateful I am that it was captured on film! I love you Mom. I think you are amzing and I love that you are brave enough to do fun and crazy stuff like this. Thanks for all that you do and for who you are! Happy Mother's Day!

In the Orchard

(april 2010)

Wordless Wednesday: Sassy

(february 2009)

I Finally Figured Out Why I Love Blogging So Much

I recently had an epiphany as to why I LOVE blogging so much. It is mine. Now, lots of things are "mine". What I mean is, that no one else puts their hands on it, or their touch, it is simply, mine. Also, literally, NO ONE ELSE PUTS THEIR HANDS ON IT, OR TOUCHES IT, it is simply mine. When I come back to it, it is EXACTLY the way that I left it. No one has moved it, or ripped it, or spilled it, do you see where I am going with this? I don't consider myself a major control freak, I see myself as pretty easy going. But yeah, at times, I do have a pretty strong control freak current running through me. At times. Now I have a place for me to channel it, that as a bonus, keeps my family alive. So, yes, THAT is why I LOVE blogging.

In The Garden: Waking Up

Everything is waking up quite nicely in my neck of the woods, and I am loving every minute of it.

Did you notice the spider on the Daffodil? I didn't even notice it until I downloaded the photos. Crazy.
















I have plenty of these bad boys waking up too! Stinkers!

(april 2010)

Photo Shoot Sunday: April Showers

Alright, I know that it is technically May now, but I couldn't resist these photos for todays Photo Shoot Sunday. I remember this photo shoot. Isn't it funny how well we remember moments when we were the one behind the camera. I love how those moments are engrained in our memories once we start taking pictures.
Anyhow, I remember picking these super cute rain coats up at Sam's Club that spring and how the kids and I couldn't wait for it to be warm enough (no snow) and wet enough, to wear them. I think this was one of the first rainy days of spring. We all jumped at the chance to get them out and give them a test run. I remember taking a whole slew of photos of them on the stairs and how impatient they were with me to get them over with. They were just sure that the rain was going to stop before they got a chance to go outside and be wild in the rain while being protected by their uber-cool rain slickers.
The thing I remember that happened next? I barely managed to get a photo of each kid out in the rain. "It was too cold!" and "Too wet!" to last long. It felt very anti-climactic. Ah, such is life.
Here they are, back in the safe, warm, dry house. Victorious that they were able to brave the elements and live to tell about it.
(april 2006, ethan knocking on 7, ally 4 and a 1/2, and ryland 2 and a 1/2)

100th Post and a 5K to Celebrate

Well, today is my 100th post and I thought it was fitting that I ran my first 5k race in over 15 years to celebrate it. It was a family affair today. With 6 and a half family members participating. Unfortunately, not everyone was captured on film. The adults running were Jen and Ryan Skidmore and myself. All four Skidlets ran/walked as well. Shaylen pushed one year old Cole (he is the "half") in the stroller, and Sawyer and Ridge came along for the ride too. We also had a great cheering section made up of my Dad and his wife Fran, and of course my hubby Nate. The race was sponsored by the Skidmores elementary as their annual fundraiser. It looked like a success to me.

This is at the beginning of the race, you can see me, Jen and Ryan.

Here I am rounding the corner towards the finish line.

Jen and I after we cooled off a bit. Ryan was MIA for this photo as he had heaed back out to finish up with the Skidlets.

Here is Sawyer (Bean) 9, with her buddy. She did awesome and finished strong at the end. I don't know her official time but she came in at around 51 minutes.

I came in under what I hoped, but I still felt like I could have done a smidge better. Overall though, I feel good about it. I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked, but it is the first one of the season for me and the first one I have ran since high school. So, it's all good. Jen came in at 29:54 and I don't have an official time on Ryan, he was around 30. The first half mile was a decent uphill, then it kind of peaked and valleyed a bit, I mean we are talking upper South Ogden here, and then we finished off on a downhill. I prefered the downhill, Ryan's knees preferred the uphill. Shaylen 11, Ridge 5, and Cole came in at around an hour and Ridgie boy (1 hr and 3 minutes) won the award for youngest racer. He received 3 free
Chick-fil-A sandwiches and I won 3 free smoothies from Jamba Juice during the raffle. There were around 145 runners in all. It was a fun morning.