Bizzie and Minnie!

Here’s the amazing duo…

Forgive me, I’ve got to ramble here for a second – one of the things I LOVE about being married to Don is how different we are (funny how it can be the most challenging thing too – but for the most part it is incredibly positive). One of our differences is our family backgrounds, where I grew up with an appreciation for the outdoors and the animals in it I did not have the experience of a daily hands-on that Don had growing up on the farm. I see the confidence that Don has from the experiences he received young - mastering fears of animals larger than himself (I’ll figure out how to post a picture of him showing steer several times larger than himself later), time alone to ponder-work-and figure things out on his own…Anyway, I’ve loved giving the girls a taste of a similar experience by showing lambs in the Mini-4H portion of the Benjamin Stock Show. They get to work closely with an animal, face the scariness of controlling a scared animal in front of a judge, and receive a trophy for their hard work!

Don and I are also grateful for Uncle Kip for providing Minnie to work with in the first place, he was her “coach” and was so kind and patient with her. We gathered at the Brown’s Barn in Payson on a Saturday morning and patiently waited for the pigs, steer and cakes (see previous post) to have their turns and with us was a lot of family support!

The Raymers… (my family)

The Olsens… (Heidi – Don’s sister and his mom, Kathleen)

(Blair and Kathleen again, Don’s parents)

(And of course, the sisterly support – I could tell Autumn was having a case of green envy, but she did an amazing job of being happy for and helping Bizzie)

  

(Liberty was just having fun…)

We had a bit of time before Bizzie needed to take Minnie in before the judge so Don worked with her a bit more to make sure she felt comfortable. He was pretending to be the judge while she had to make sure the lamb was always between the judge and herself, with her leg square in front of her neck so she couldn’t jump forward – she had it nailed!

The time came for her to lead Minnie into the arena - it was a madhouse! There were 20 little kids pulling around jumpy lambs of various ages and there were so many adult helpers that the kids had a hard time figuring out who the judge was! How did Bizzie do? AMAZING! And I’m not just saying that because I’m her mom! She led her lamb in, and in the chaos Minnie got skittish and jumped forward, flattening Bizzie on the ground! She promptly got up, grabbed Minnie’s rope, got control of her and kept pulling her in the direction the judge was directing her!!! No tears, no break in concentration – WOW.  She got to the spot she was directed to and with more chaos and loose lambs around her, she and Minnie did what they had trained to do – check out this perfect stance -

And here is the video of her receiving a trophy for her hardwork – while holding Minnie still – I’m telling you – amazing.

It can be hard to read Bizzie, she keeps her emotions fairly close. But I think she was pretty happy with herself…

It’s a bit fuzzy, but I love that Kip took the time to give Bizzie a “well done” pep-talk afterward too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bizzie’s part was done but her cousins’ turn was still coming. Kelly and Ashlynn have been doing this for a couple of years now and are pros! To help Ashlynn control her sheep she has the willing and gentle help from her friends and family (her sheep is being shown by a friend next to her and her dad, while Kelly watches protectively on…)

And here is Pro Kelly! Here are her skills in action, winning her the Senior Showmanship Award.

 

And finally, the day came to a satisfying end when Kelly’s sheep received the “Grand Champion Award” and Ashlynn’s sheep received the “Reserve Champion Award”!!!!

 

I know I’ve used the word a lot – but, what an AMAZING day!

Aunts+Cousins+Cakes+Lambs=Crazy Fun!

In preparation for Bizzie and her cousins entering their lambs in the Benjamin Livestock Show Aunt Heidi and I got together the night before to create a cake, with Bizzie’s and Ashlynn’s help, to enter in the kids Cake Auction! Heidi was the mastermind and had developed a terrific plan of a barn cake with sheep cupcakes surrounding it. So while sweet Don watched sick Liberty at home Autumn, Bizzie and I made our way to American Fork to decorate! After a scrumptious meal of Papa Murphy Pizzas, we began mixing the various colors of icing we needed, and here is where our only glitch occurred…we were going for a “true red” barn, but our food coloring refused to cooperate! Half-way through mixing the colors into the icing Heidi asked Bizzie and Ashlynn how the red icing was coming along – Bizzie looked up at me concerned and said quietly, “Mom. It’s pink.” Hmmm. Over the next 45 minutes we got bright pink, salmon, rust, brown, everything but – red. So we let it go and went for a rustic, weathered brownish-red color – I thought it looked great! (Heidi, I could tell, was bucking-up and making do, but she was making me laugh with her disgruntled look every time she looked at the barn!)

Here it is from the top getting it’s shingles put on…

My job, after some experimentation and brainstorming with Heidi, was to assemble the sheep. At one point I emailed a picture of them to Don and he texted back, “Wallace and Gromit.” They did look like the sheep off that show! I, again, thought they looked pretty cute!

As the night wore on the girls found entertainment watching Charlotte’s Web (SUPER appropriate for the livestock show the next day I thought). Aunt Heidi is such a good mom and aunt - she is very patient and makes it super easy for kids to want to be around her as she gently helps them accomplish even the most challenging tasks. Here is a video of her and Bizzie putting grass around the sheep…

The finished product!

The next day at the Stock Show they had the Cake Auction in-between the showing of the pigs and the steer. Each child brought out their cake and the auctioneer started the bidding process with farmers and grandparents, uncles and neighbors trying to outbid each other and help the kids feel supported. “$25? Do I hear $30? $30? $30 to the man in the Dickies. Going once… going twice…SOLD! Give that man a hand!” And on it goes. Well every year the Olsen Clan pools their resources and drives the bid up until it reaches the amount they’ve collectively decided on – which means where a cake might normally go for $30-$40, the Olsen Cake’s end up going for… well, a little more…

Here is Kelly, Ashlynn, Bizzie and Autumn holding the cake up for the bidders…

And here’s the bidding… poor Kelly was holding that heavy cake all by herself, but she kept smiling and was grateful when one of the auctioneers helped her out at the end!

Yep. $200. Maybe it’s the hormones going through pregnant me, but I tear up in gratitude for family, who above all else, are doing their best to make the kids memories so wonderful! FYI: It was  the highest bid that day… So - Go Rustic, Weathered Brownish-Red Barn Cake!!! Keep watching the blog and I’ll post the rest of the events at the Livestock Show soon!

Easter Sunday

It was Christmas morning at our house as the girls got up EARLY to see what the Easter Bunny had left them. Again, I found myself grateful that we had taken so many measures to tip the scale heavily towards the spiritual side of Easter early because the bunny was definitely a major hit! The girls got the yummy candies (that I love to munch on in secret afterward…) along with some other fun things. Probably the biggest hits was the Anne of Green Gables DVDs (we had been reading them and loving them and I was looking forward to sharing the movie version with the girls – as were they), Tangled Rapunzel dolls, and umbrellas (had no idea they would love the umbrellas as much as they did…)

We are getting ready to start up swim lessons again and so swimsuits were a part of the bundle too. Liberty LOVED hers because of her passion of “bubbles” and there were bubbles on her swimsuit…

And of course, Don was busy playing with the toys too...Here is a video he was doing with the toys, and as funny as it is, the really funny thing to me was watching how un-phased the girls were by a talking Rapunzel – if you were to ask any of them if  they found it odd that Rapunzel was talking I’m sure the response would have been something matter-of-fact like, “All of our toys talk around daddy, don’t yours?”

And as a final video, I just thought it was cute to see Bizzie discover “Easter” ways to use her moon-sand and wanted to share…

Easter on the Farm

Spring officially kicks-off when it’s finally time for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Olsen Farm! And though it was drizzling a bit and overcast, things were blooming and the excitement of the kids echoed the anticipation of the warmer days Spring promised.

Poppa and Grandma had gone all out creating a fun Easter Saturday for their grandchildren. A lunch of sloppy joes, deviled eggs, fruit and yumminess got us warmed up for the incredible Easter Egg Hunt of over 200 eggs for 4 grandchildren!!!! Poppa had worked hard to get the front grass the perfect length - short enough to walk through, long enough to hide all those brightly colored eggs! The kids grabbed their baskets, Poppa gave the count off and off all the grandchildren took, according to their various degrees of experience, to find their eggs. Ashlynn was content to meander with her parents and discover the eggs along the house, Autumn raced to the far side of the field to go “where-no-child-had-gone-before,” Bizzie went for the obvious finds along the flower beds, and Liberty, with successive looks of confusement-astonishment-delight, learned the joys of finding colored eggs in grass!

Even the adults were looking hard to make sure we recovered all 200+ eggs so Poppa didn’t have to mow over them! (FYI: we were still finding eggs the next day…)

Rhett and Ashlynn searching high…

Olsen girls searching low…

And where were the wonderful Easter Egg Hiding Fiends? Enjoying the show from their favorite bench… (this is Poppa’s usual farmer-look, inside he’s having a blast watching his grandkids)!

The bounty was RICH -

EVERYONE had full baskets, to the point that they were sharing (kids sharing?!) with each other to lighten the load – I can hear Grandma’s feathers ruffling as she reads that last part – she’s thinking, “My grandchildren are examples of pure altruism!” – and I’ll let her, because every kid needs someone in their life that thinks they’re absolutely perfect:)!

Liberty loved her “eggs” (a favorite word all month) so much that she refused to let her dragging basket be carried by anyone else!

Did the festivities end there, you ask?! Ha! Poppa had gotten a cute little Easter Bunny Pinata that Grandma was reluctant to let the kids whack – but, love for her grandchildren came in first…

Poppa was able to hook it up one more time for Ashlynn who gave it some solid whacks before the candy came pouring out. And then, out of love for his wife, Poppa gave her the bunny’s remains to carry reverently inside… and thus was the sad end of the cute little Easter Bunny Pinata…

She looks teary eyed but she’s really just giving us one more shot of the many photos of Grandma with her eyes closed:)

We headed inside to settle down, warm up and enjoy the tradition of opening the “special” Easter Eggs that contained the story of Christ. This ritual always ends with Grandma and Poppa giving each of the grandchildren a special picture of the Savior with a message written out to them on the back to put in their scriptures – a priceless keepsake. Here is a video of the very last egg being read by Aunt Heidi and our family discussion on who the angel might have been who announced that Christ’s tomb was empty.

And, just in case the grandchildren may still be wondering if their grandparents loved them…they handed out little toy Easter prizes!!!!! One of the many perks to being a grandparent is the joy of spoiling your grandchildren I guess:)

It was a WONDERFUL time of being loved, and sharing both the fun and spiritual joys of the Easter holiday with family!

Celebrating Passover

I looked forward to this Easter Season with excitement! One of the main reasons was being able to take another go at celebrating the Passover from a LDS perspective. We used this book again to walk us through recipes and ceremony procedures:

 

And we invited the Wolfe Family to join us! I love Passover, it falls a week before Easter giving Don and I a chance to introduce the crucial spiritual side of Easter before the Easter Bunny excitement takes over. Having the Wolfe’s with us did amazing things for the attention span of the kids too! We kept dinner simple (non-kosher pizza, unfortunately) while we watched a portion of the, Prince of Egypt, to refresh everyone’s memories on the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. And then we gathered around the table, set with extreme care to impress on the kids that what we were about to do was more reverent than casual:

The long plate in the middle would hold the “matzah” (unleavened bread) that we would later hide a portion of for the kids to find by candlelight – cool parable of finding the gospel/truth with the Light of Christ! The little glass jar has toys in it for each of the kids as a prize for finding the hidden matzah – obviously, their favorite part:) On the other end of the table is the Seder Plate, which held the various foods we would introduce to the kids that hold symbolic meaning:

A LOT of grape juice was consumed as we moved from one symbolic food to another we would end with a toast of gratitude/ remembrance of our Savior. One of my favorite parts was remembering the plagues by dipping our fingers in the grape juice for each of the plagues and dripping it on our napkins to count them – I think Liberty made up an additional 20 plagues because I couldn’t get her to stop, she just kept on dipping!

The preparation is consuming, the clean-up is extensive, but the satisfaction of the parents is priceless! As we sat around afterward discussing the deeper meaning of scriptural symbols with the kids running around with their matzah toys, I felt very content knowing we had made the effort to fortify our children a little more with the gospel and it’s hope…

FYI: To answer the question of why Don and I enjoy celebrating this Jewish holiday I’ll use this small excerpt from the above book: “In a very real sense, Passover and Easter are the same holiday. Passover simply looked forward in anticipation of the Atonement, while Easter looks back in commemoration. President Howard W. Hunter said, ‘I believe it is safe to say Passover is with out equal in the Jewish calendar of celebrations. It commemorates the passage of a people from subjection and bondage to freedom and deliverance. Passover in the Old Testament and Easter in the New Testament testify of the great gift God has given and of the sacrifice that was involved in its bestowal.’”

Spring Break

Don was up to his neck in work this week, but I was happy with the surprising amounts of times he was able to make room for us! In an attempt to go to the Copper Mines with the girls in South Jordan we got side-tracked by heavy winds which would have made for a miserable trip. So we headed to Don’s work which was nearby for a quick “Hi!” before seeing if the Mayan Restaurant was open for an alternate plan. While I waited for Don to come down from his office I sent the girls off with the camera to take pictures of the “infamous” pasture (Don can’t talk a lot about work, for legal reasons, so he tells us all about the local habitants of the pasture land outside his window. We’ve heard tells of a fox and the untimely death of a negligent goose, the birthing of a calf – which had Don determining at what point he would need to get some baling twine to help pull the calf out – that would have been a sight for his co-workers to see…). Well, they got pictures and videos of ALL the animals they could find…too many to show here, but here is my favorite video (it’s quick, to the point, and adds the charm of oblivious comments about cows giving “piggy-back” rides…):

Don surprised us when he came down by joining us for a “quick” lunch…which turned out to be not so quick. The Mayan was closed so we drove around Salt Lake looking for the Chuck-a-Rama we ate at when Sarah came to visit. I’m glad we found it because it led to another adventure – The Gilgal Gardens.

It is right behind the Chuck-A-Rama in SLC, tucked away among neighborhood houses and for a little adventure we decided to stroll through it. It is an LDS-themed rock sculpture garden, done many years ago in a very modern style, the girls had a lot of fun trying to figure out what they were looking at, and I was constantly looking at the explanatory pamphlet trying to understand what I was looking at too:)  Amazingly, Bizzie couldn’t stop talking about it days later, “Mom? When can we go back to the ‘dead-heads’ garden?”

 

Huge rocks were everywhere and Autumn kept looking for the perfect “sitting/relaxing” rock. this was her favorite:

Liberty was more content to explore and Bizzie loved pouncing on un-suspecting prey (usually me…need to work on being more alert for blue tigers…):

Many of the sculptures are meant to be looked at – with clearly marked “No climbing or touching” signs, which I was proud of my family for respecting. And you can see the beginnings of a beautiful rambling garden sprouting forth with weaving paths to admire the blooms from. It was a nice, quick, cultural exploration trip! Here is my favorite “Don Photo” (he is an excellent photographer and is constantly looking for interesting shots):

Our big outing for Spring Break occurred at the end of the week when Don was unexpectedly able to pull off getting all of Friday off! We have been wanting to revisit the Lehman Caves on the border of Nevada and Utah in the Great Basin National Park, so we packed the girls in with lots of treats and surprises and headed off! (I love our spur of the moment trips!) The drive took us out to Delta where we stopped at the cheese factory and a little park while Don filled the car with more gas and brought back lunch. The girls and I enjoyed the sunshine and chance to wiggle and play. Don captured this moment at the end of our little lunch-break:

One of the many things I love about Don is his desire to encourage the girls imaginations and sense of wonder, it’s no surprise that they cling to their childhood make-believe worlds, ‘cuz Dad makes it so real and fun! Liberty had no interest in her McDonald toy, and it’s hilarious watching Don trying to peak her interest in this video:

Another stop along the way was at Fort Deseret, which has a fascinating history. It was amazing to see some of the remains of the walls and talk about what that would have been like to be there in those walls at that time. Right after explaining how brave and resourceful these settlers would have to be I got this shot of the family…even Liberty was feeling the “pioneering spirit”!:

We had paid for advance tickets at the Lehman Caves and had to be there at a specified time, which gave Don only 30 minutes to find the last detour he wanted to take – the Great Stone Face, dun, dun, dun! Every now and then Don becomes fixated on seeing or doing something that I can’t match his enthusiasm for…and for whatever reason it tickles my funny bone watching his excitement pursuing it, this was one of those times. He was determined to find – in 30 minutes – petro glyphs, but more importantly a rock that supposingly looked like the silhouette of Joseph Smith…yeah, I know, you're asking “Rachel! Come-on, a rock that looks like Joseph Smith! How can you not get excited?!” I admit that I’m missing some crucial matter in my cultural make-up, but in my defense, I found great “joy” (humor is a form of joy, isn’t it?) in Don’s excitement! And with 6 minutes to spare he found it!! I was impressed – my pregnant bladder was getting a bit full so I let the kids get out and do the whirlwind hike to “the rock”:

Can you see it? I couldn’t, though I pretended to – not wanting to dampen Don’s hard-work and enthusiasm. If you are like me, this site helps you see it more clearly with these pictures:

Okay. At long last we were on our way to Lehman Caves! To get there you had to drive this…

The “Loneliest Highway in America” (seriously, that is it’s name) and Don got a big kick out of filming me saying that every 15 minutes for an hour and a half. Which is what makes this sign so funny, it is at the end of a long, turn-off from that highway, just over the Nevada Border. Placed there to stop hypnotized, dreary-eyed travelers I’m sure:)

But it was worth it! We made it:

Here is an interesting, little known, Olsen Factoid. Each of our children has had the prenatal experience of visiting a National Park!  We didn’t realize it ourselves until we remembered past trips to the Lehman Caves… (Autumn, Bizzie and Elias have visited the Great National Park and Liberty has visited Zion’s National Park – weird).

The tours can be done in 60 minutes or 90 minutes, since Liberty would be walking on her own we chose the 60 minute walk, which was perfect. The ranger was funny and made it interesting for the kids. Getting the camera to cooperate in the darkness was a little difficult but Don was able to get a few that worked:

Trying to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time has always been the bane of Olsen Family photos…but usually it’s the kids that are the tricky subjects…

The tour ended with the Ranger turning out all the lights and giving us a taste of what an earthquake would sound like in the caves – amazing!!! He also assured us that it is very unlikely that harm would come to us if an earthquake were to occur which I thought was interesting but made sense, considering the formations have been there for hundreds of years without breaking.

True to Don’s parenting-style he did a video of each child afterward to get their take on the experience. If you are interested in their responses, watch the following videos (Liberty didn’t go into any depth on her experience but seemed to enjoy the rock walls and was very brave in the caves.)

 

What a fun trip! On our way back out and home, we got a good glimpse of Don’s favorite spot. Doesn’t look like much but contains beautiful oasis's and rock formations within it, along with wonderful experiences for Don and our family:

2 0r 3 movies later we were grateful to be home but equally grateful for the memories we were able to create. Thanks for sharing them with us! And good job hanging in there to the end of an incredibly long post!