Pioneer Days...Part 4...

Wednesday -- July 23rd

We were ready to head home after some fun filled days. I thought I would take some pictures of my mom & dad's new "Outdoor Themed" guest bedroom. They have been planning and working on it for months so I was super excited to finally see it. It's clearly my dad's new favorite room in the house! :D

This is the Fishing Wall. The fishing poles are old ones from my Grandpa Loe that my mom used to use when she was a little girl. There are lots of fun family pictures of everyone fishing and several fishing lures attached to the net on the wall. They were ones that my dad had been saving.


Here's a close up of the fish line with little pictures of us all fishing over the years. Cute idea!!


This is half of the Hunting Wall, the other half can be seen in the above fishing wall picture. :P Lots of fun deer and elk hunting pictures and some cool, antique rifles from my Grandpa.


Here is the Archery Wall, kind of. A few more pictures plus my Grandpa's old Bow and Arrows that he used to hunt with. The kids favorite part was the bear skin rug hanging on the wall. It's not a real bear, but the kids were sure hoping it was! Make sure and notice the camo outlet covers. My dad is so proud!


Here's an overview of the room. Jillen likes to call this wall the Cabin Wall because she thinks it looks like a cabin. :) Also notice on this wall the deer antlers that are holding up the garland over the window. ;)


And maybe you noticed in that last picture the spiffy camo ceiling fan. If not then here's a close up! Who knew you could buy so many camo things for your interiors? I guess I probably should have... Maybe those will come in handy for some school assignments this fall... :)


One of the fun things we did over the weekend was to go through old pictures. It was fun to see how things used to be, but it was more fun looking for new Birthday Post pictures. Brett, Bri and Blake had best beware... :D I found this old newpaper picture of me when I was 4 years old and was the 4th runner up in the Little Miss Gilbert pagent. I'm the tallest one, 2nd from the right.


All weekend Jensen had a little shadow. Ellee became attached to Jensen's side and wanted to do everything Jensen did. She even wanted her hair fixed like Jensen's. What cute little girls they are!


As we got ready to leave (we even had the car all packed) it started to rain. Not just any rain storm -- not like the rain storms we had had all week -- it RAINED! It started about 4:45pm and didn't end until around 9:30pm. Streets all over town were flooded and so I decided that we should probably stay another night. There was tons of thunder and lightning and even some hail. The power went out for a while so we decided what better than to get some ice cream and enjoy the evening. We drove around to see the water and it was flowing everywhere. Reports said there was about 3 inches of rain that fell that evening. It was sure exciting!


So as we sat out on the back porch and enjoyed the weather the kids played and ate Oreos. Here is Ellee with Brett's cat, Gremlin. He is sure a sweet little kitty and is obviously the object of Ellee's affection. He might be cute but he's not nearly as cute as little Ellee. Oh, we love this girl! We had so much fun getting to play with her and trying to teach her what different animals say. And Jorden's goal for the weekend was to teach her what Buckwheat says. Remember that old Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live skit -- "Buckwheat say O-Tay!!" Yeah, we're still working on it.


Here's cute little Jensen still chomping away on her Oreo's. Silly girl!


Jorden waiting for the rain to stop...


Thursday -- July 24th


Since we got to stay an extra night I made sure that we went by the cemetary before heading home. Tim and I both have ancestors buried there and a couple of graves that I hadn't seen yet. I didn't realized until too late that my camera batteries were almost dead, yet again, and I hadn't recharged them. So I guess we will have to get more pictures next time we are there.

This is the headstone for my Great-Great Grandpa, William Henry Oliver.


And the headstone for his wife, my Great-Great Grandma, Maud Vileta Cooper Oliver.


Tim's Grandma and Grandpa Church are buried here so we finally got to see their graves. I loved the piano and horses engraved on the headstone. Anyone who knew them would know how much Grandma Church loved to play the piano. Even well into her late 80's when she was living in an assisted living center she would go down to the common room and play the piano. People would gather around to listen and some would even come and sing along. And the horses on the headstone are Grandpa Church's beloved Brigham T and Daybreak. Everytime we would go to see Tim's Grandparents we would see the picture of them sitting on the table near the television. They sure loved those horses.


Another ancestors' headstone we got to see was Jesse N. Smith, Tim's Great-Great Grandpa. I used to see this headstone when growing up in Snowflake and think "Wow! What would it be like to be related to that guy?!" Now I know!! :D What a wonderful heritage my kids have with pioneering ancestors from both sides of their family!


And here is Tim's Great-Great Grandma, Augusta Maria Outzen Smith, the 4th wife of Jesse N. Smith. She came from Denmark as a young woman and we always love seeing her room in the Jesse N. Smith Memorial House. I remember seeing that room as a teenager and thinking how hard it must have been for her to leave her family and come to America to be the 4th wife of someone. Now that I'm kinda related to her it's even more fun for me to see. Hopefully I can continue learning about all of these great ancestors my kids have so that I can teach them all about their lives.


And as it was time to head home I had to get a couple of pictures of Ellee in her cute little hat. How many girls do you know that have camo hats with lace and sparkly deer on them? Yeah, I didn't think you knew any. :D


Well, that was our trip. It was lots of fun and we had a really good time. Thanks Mom & Dad and Brooke & Ellee and Brianna & Britt & Justin and Blake & Laurissa and Brett for entertaining us!!