Labor Day Post

OK, I have been away for a week or two. Just too many things to keep up with to post, but here we are again (smile).

Today we (all but Nick) loaded up the horses and went down to the Johnsons to ride. Rebecca leaves to BYU-Idaho on Wednesday morning. Laurie has wanted to go ride with her pretty much all summer. We borrowed Leon Baker’s 3-horse slant trailer so we could take Ozzie, Blackie and Tootsie (maybe mom's new soon to be re-named horse, this is her in the pic). Tootsie is what she was trained to be—a barrel race horse. And is Laurie trained to be a race horse jockie? Uh...maybe not...Gee whiz—she is fast!!! Her stride is 50% longer than Blackie’s. Rebecca was on her and me on Blackie. She took off and left us in the dust.

Dustin & Robbie, me on Tootsie in the pond...

Bro. West’s funeral is this Wednesday. We are all very heavy hearted about this. I have felt this way: he has a very important work to do that he can’t do on this mortal earth. How do I conclude that? Well, he has 3 beautiful daughters under 3 years old. The most important work he can do on this earth is to raise them and be a worthy husband. If he, being a good and righteous man, was called away from work that important here, think how more important the work is that he is being called out of this mortality to do! That is clear to me. I don’t even doubt or wonder about it.

We had a really good sacrament meeting yesterday. Stephanie Weber (Zac's age) gave her first ever talk. She talked about integrity, quoted from Job, and told stories about keeping one’s integrity notwithstanding peer pressure. Although she was shaking with her nerves, she gave a great talk. Sister Weber spoke next on faith. Wow! She is a giant I didn’t really know. Her great-great grandmother came from England in 1856, joined the Martin Handcart Company, and lost all of her family including a step son whose valiance saved her life while trekking to SLC. She told the entire story of her ancestry from that woman. That was wonderful faith. Brother Davidson (you may not remember them, but they moved here from Roseville where BJ’s mission was) spoke on missionary work and it was great, not your run-of-the mill talk.

Well, we had lots of animals visit this weekend. First, Dusting screamed like he was being attacked Saturday morning. Mom had him washing the sliding window in the kitchen, he was standing outside, when a large snake slithered across his foot into the house! They came and got me, I caught the rascal. He was in the kitchen by the dishwasher and smelled like skunk! He was about 4 ½ feet long and fat. And mean! He kept striking so much that he ended up with his fang stuck in his own side! I let him go in the neighbors’ pond...

Saturday night Dustin couldn't sleep in his room so he slept in between mom and me, too many bad snake dreams. I finally retreated to his room to sleep once he crashed, which is much cooler anyway.

What was funny is that we were running after the snake just as Scott & Julie drove up to visit us for the day. I think they thought we were going to hide from them, or that I had forgotten to tell Laurie they were coming. We had a great "just hang out" day. We built some target holders then went shooting. Here are the newest NRA members:

We had lots of laughs doing just about nothing. It's been too long!

So last night, Cosmo is barking his head off. A small skunk is evading him and ends up in the garage at my office. Oh boy! Then he finds two more of them under the pool deck and crawls under to get them. He comes out yelping and rolls in the grass trying to get the smell off his nose! It was hilarious to watch.

Finally, we found a 2 pound bullfrog in the pool and scooped him out. Laurie kissed him and voila, her prince charming appeared!

(gag me, like that's ever gonna happen (flushing toilet in background)). So charming went and threw him on Carrie (who is visiting with Kai). She did an imitation of the exploding bird (Shrek) (just before exploding).

So there you have it—no dull moments here. Audrie and Amber Skyped me from Denver—it was great to see everyone. Except for the large vertical crack I was exposed to!!! My eyes will never be the same. Kinsey and Chance were there as well as Travis, Conner and Kenedi. Oh, and I can’t forget Figuero, Chance’s new victim, I mean kitten.

Since Bop posted some Galveston pics, I won't put too many, except she did NOT look like a cow, so here she is with JALEI:

And here she is with me!

Here are a couple more:

1st solids video:

About 100 mph...

Here's the responsible (haha) driver!
Isn't she beautiful! I did good when I married this one!

Here's Dustin and me at Six Flags for his birthday outing (about 3 months late)

And here's Zac and me, same place about a week later!

Finally, we did our annual (Craig & Chance, you were with us last year) Ranger's game where we have personalized seats at 1st base thanks to our SIZEABLE contribution to Clay Ellis' orthodontist business...

So there you have it—a week in the life of the Youngs. Aren't we blessed!!!

Hope all is going well. Just keep swimming!