Cutting Hay

Today is Shari and Lilli's last full day here in Cokeville. They are going to Provo to spend the night tomorrow because their flight on Wednesday is early in the morning. Here is a picture of Lilli saying goodbye to her aunt Kandyce. Kandyce left for a volleyball camp in Hulett, Wyoming. Just a 10 hour drive from Cokeville.  Don't they just look wonderful?

I was down in the field cutting hay and apparently Lilli thought I wasn't doing a very good job. She convinced Ellen to take her down to the field so she could show me how it is done. Here she is getting into the swather while I was fixing something in the front.

Of course, once she got in, she immediately went to work driving the swather. She pushed many buttons and pulled lots of things. Especially changing my music.

But I finally took control of the situation and demanded that I be given another chance to prove that I can cut hay. I've only been doing it for ........ a very long time.

Once I proved that I could do it, we both left together, back on good terms with each other. She did tell me that I did a very good job and that it is now time to go have lunch.

One side note. When I went back to work, she actually changed some settings on the swather and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Stan had to come and show me what was wrong. I guess I'm not as good as I thought.

Lake, Camping, & Shopping!!

So Monday, the family went to the lake (Bear Lake for you out of towners). A fun time was had by all. Bre came up and met the family there. Of course, with my white body, I didn't go because of the fear I would cause with regards to being albino. Some of McKenzie's friends showed up. So here are some pictures to look at.

Bre and Lilli checking out places to take some pictures. Lilli of course is using her special "glasses" to help her see.

Who knows what Lilli is trying to do. I think it is just a ring toss that she thinks will help her swim in deep water.

Here is a mug shot that was taken the day a bunch of girls escaped from the insane asylum located in Evanston. Left to right is Holly Grandy, Lauren Fiscus, Hannah Dayton, Morgan Hoffman, McKenzie Thompson, Olivia Teichert, and Ana Cook. There was a reward out for their capture, but as you can see, it wasn't worth much to the people who were looking for them. For this reason, they are still out and about.

One thing that Shari forgot to tell Lilli and by the look on her face it just dawned on her too, there has to be water to go swimming. Apparently in Georgia, they don't have a lot of water.

Here is Shari, McKenzie, Lilli, Breanne, and Kennan after a long day at the lake. Kandyce was in Colorado doing a volleyball camp. What a family!!

Camping

So after the lake experience, we were suppose to go camping. That is what Shari wanted to do before she headed home. But when Mom told all of the kids to put sun screen on at the lake, nobody listened to her. Mom was the only one who did not get burned redder than a lobster. Everyone was so sore, they couldn't move. So we postponed the camping trip for a couple of days before everyone healed some what.

McKenzie had Youth Conference on Tuesday thru Thursday. The youth did a small trek in Idaho near Charleston. It is by Soda Springs. McKenzie had a good time, even though she was sore from the sunburn. When Mac got back, we went up Pine Creek to spend the night with mother nature.

This first picture shows how excited Lilli was about camping.

This next picture taken exactly five minutes later shows what Lilli really wanted to do.

When it came time to go to bed, it was nice to stay in the trailer. Everyone was asleep fast. About midnight thirty, mother nature called for Shari to come for a visit. Mom and her went for the visit. Shari got back to bed and Lilli woke up and started to cry. She was confused about where she was. An hour later after all of the wild animals migrated out of the 30 mile area, Lilli was still crying. I asked her if she wanted to go home and she kept saying, "home?, home?". So Shari took her home and they spent the night in a nice warm bed. They came up the next morning and had breakfast with us. Lilli actually had fun playing in the dirt and watching the fire, but she didn't care for the sleeping part. I had fun though.

Shopping

On July 12th, Mom took the family to Logan to go birthday shopping for McKenzie. They met up with Breanne so Bre could say goodbye to Lilli and Shari. They ate at Olive Garden, had ice cream at an ice cream place 

(that usually makes sense, ice cream at an ice cream place) and increased the economy in Cache County. It was also a time to get a family picture of all of the sisters and here it is:

If you look really close, you can almost see the similarities between them. They just look like some good looking women to me. Apparently they all had a lot of fun and came away with a lot of stuff. Good thing I stayed home to work to pay the bills.

This last picture is a picture of all of the important women in my life. I couldn't ask the Lord for anything better or any better family. Lilli didn't want to show her face. She told me that there is enough pictures of her on this blog. Thanks to Kennan for taking the picture. Till later.

Fourth of July

So it was the Fourth of July in Cokeville.  A friend of Kandyce's from school wanted to come up and see what Cokeville was all about and of course to see the Thompson Fireworks. The day was spent just cleaning the house and making sure things were okay. Mom and Shari ran over to Montpelier to get some food to eat. For me, after being on the road, a home cooked meal was great.

In the afternoon Lilli wanted to make sure the lambs were fed, so she took it upon herself to go and feed the lambs. Sure, only one or two came to eat, but she wanted to make sure they were fed.

When she was done, she would give the lamb a little kiss on the nose to let them know they are loved.

As Lilli was heading home after a hard days work,

she realized that nobody had ever fed the llama, so she decided to give the llama a little flower (weed). She got really close to the llama and nobody has ever gotten that close to it, so Ellen kind of stepped in and grabbed Lilli. Ellen didn't know what the llama would do. After all, llamas have been known to spit on people.

After contemplating life as a llama, it dawned on Lilli that Phineas and Ferb (the other lambs) had not been fed.

Now our little slave has taken care of all of the animals on the farm.

Once the chores have been taken care of, it was time to go in to great-grandma's house and get ready for the "Football Field of Fire". Kandyce's friend Landon and Kennan had a ball setting off the firecrackers and "bees" and roman candles. Landon is a Utah boy, so anything that shot in the air or was like a small stick of dynamite, was a thrilling experience to him.

Of course the main crew was out on the field setting things up. Without the help of Brady and Trevor, the bosses of the crew (Zane, Mike, and Jim) had to pick up some others to help. Mike Johnson and Sullivan Teichert were the ones chosen.

Here is a shot of the fireworks in the air.

The last shot is what it looked like watching the finale. Notice in the lower right, two of the crew laying on the football field to get a better view of the presentation. 

It was another successful "Football Field of Fire". Just look at the excited faces of Lilli, Maliyah, and Cael.

Here are some pics!!

So I've been gone doing volleyball camps and attending coaching clinics and Ellen doesn't know how to do all of this stuff. I guess I should show her how to update things. Kandyce and I just got back from Roosevelt Utah doing a camp at Union High School. It was a blast. The girls who were there worked hard and the coach really wanted to learn the system. The week before I attended a Gold Medal coaching clinic in Provo, Utah. I stayed with my nephew Derrick and his wife Sheila. It was a very good clinic. I learned a lot and hope to be able to apply what I've learned to help the team do well this coming year.

Having Shari and Lilli here has been GREAT!! Of course Lilli just loves grandpa. Brady is doing well on his mission. He will have been gone exactly one year tomorrow. He is now a district leader and he has a new mission president. He is still in Jelgava and is having some good experiences. McKenzie and Kennan are sort of busy taking care of the lambs. This next week McKenzie has Youth Conference. They are doing a trek. Tonight is the annual fireworks show. I'll take some pictures of the Thompson fireworks show and put them on later.

While I was gone, mom took everybody up Pine Creek to take some pictures and I thought I would share them with you. If you want to see more pictures of Lilli, go to Shari's blog and she made a slide show of Lilli.

These next two pictures of McKenzie and Lilli going to feed the lambs. As you can see by the second picture, apparently Lilli actually came away with an empty bucket, so she must have fed the lambs.

The next pictures are of the kids up Pine Creek. I like the looks that McKenzie and Lilli are showing while watching the water race past them.

I also like the next picture of all three sitting by the creek.

This last picture is in front of the lilac bush by Gram's house. With the wet spring, the lilacs were out in force. We haven't had this many lilacs forever. Of course I just had to have the other two flowers in there.