Our summer has consisted of........

BUILDING A PARADE FLOAT!!!

Yep. I suggested to my sister Kaylene a few years ago that I thought it would be fun to build a parade float for her husband's business. And this year she decided to take me up on that. So in March, we started the planning process: deciding on the layout and colors and then trying to find out where to order supplies and, well, what to order. It's way more involved than we ever imagined! We entered into three separate celebrations: 4th of July in Alamosa, Pioneer Days in Manassa, and Stampede in Monte Vista. Stampede's theme was "Land of Cool Sunshine" so we based our float on that theme, which also fit the 4th of July theme of "American Heroes." The land of cool sunshine is the nickname for the San Luis Valley, so we used three of the things our valley is well known for: The Mountains, The Sandhill Cranes, and High Desert Farming. Perfect since we were building it for the John Deere tractor companies in the area.

Luckily, we had Bailey (and Sariah) there to help with Karly, Kaylene's baby. They are already excellent babysitters!!!

We started out building our tractor at Christopher's office, then moving it to Kaylene's house to add the foil and paint. Here, Jaelyn is adding foil to the tractor's body while Marissa watches.



Our cranes are made of paper mache, then propped onto iron legs and bases. My dad was so much help. He tried to convince us that he didn't think we could build a float and that our cranes wouldn't stand, but with his welding skills, our cranes were built to not go anywhere! And he loved every minute of helping us!

Once the tractor was completely covered with foil, we had to spray paint it John Deere green. We weren't able to find any companies that carried the right color of green, and it wouldn't have been right to make our tractor any other color!

Each piece of foil had to be crinkled before it was stapled to the platform. And on the floor we used gausimer over the top to give it more depth. The gausimer also had to be bunched and stapled into place.

The Mountains. *SIGH* They were a beast to build. It took is all day one day just to build the mountains and get them foiled. But they turned out awesome!

Almost done. Since we had never done this before, and weren't sure if we had enough foil and what we'd cover the edges with, we saved them for last. Turns out we had plenty of white, which turned out to be the best color for that area anyway.

PARADE TIME!!!

We had silver foil underneath the green gausimer, which made our "grass" sparkle. We used GOLD foil underneath the brown 'dirt' gausimer, implying the 'money' in the soil.

OOPS!

A minor accident after the second parade turned out to be deadly for our mountains. Our driver (accidently) didn't open the garage door far enough, and backed our mountains right into the door. It loosened the bolts that anchored our mountains just enough to make the whole thing wobbly. We had to drive the float from Manassa to Monte Vista, about 45 miles. We did fine until we got just 8 miles outside of Monte Vista, and it started pouring rain, and our mountains blew completely off the float!!! So Kaylene and I were out on the highway picking up bolts and mountains off the road.....lovely sight! I should mention that we went no faster than 20 miles per hour, so that 45 miles went REALLY SLOW!!!!! No worries....we spent the next two days repairing (aka rebuilding) our mountains to have it ready in time for Stampede.

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We ended up winning "Best of Show" in the 4th of July Parade, which is the highest award, and we also won the "Stampede Award" in the Stampede Parade, which we believe is 2nd place. Not bad for our first float.....just watch out next year. We learned a ton and we're coming back armed with experience!

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That's a BIG tree!

Last Saturday we loaded up the 4-wheelers and headed up to the mountains. We've read about the biggest tree in the Rio Grande Forest and we wanted to find it. We get there, unload, eat lunch and take off on what we believe to be the trail that leads to the tree. It's a steep one, otherwise I may have stopped to take pictures. I was too busy trying to stay on the trail and keep us alive! We passed through two gates and got quite a way into the forest and it started pouring rain! So we turned around and headed back as quick as we could (or I dared) to get back to the pickup. By the time we got back we were soaked. (We may as well have kept going.) So we waited in the pickup for a bit, until the rain let up a little, and drove over to use the restrooms. It was then that we noticed a little sign (I should have taken a picture of it!) that points to the trail to the tree. It's not an ATV trail.....it's a hiking trail. So we started up and finally found the tree. I believe it's more than the 1/3 mile hike the sign claims it to be, and it's VERY uphill! But here it is: The Largest Douglas Fir Tree in the Rio Grande Forest!!!

Poor Dallin was so tired! Christopher carried most of the way back down, and it rained most of the way down too! We LOVE the Colorado Mountains!

Track and Field Day

It's been nearly a month since school got out, but it has super busy so I haven't kept up with everything, or anything! The last day of school is always a track and field day, and I love it! All the kids get ribbons just for participating. This year, Bailey took third in the softball throw, Sariah took second in the frisbee toss, and Ryan took third in the shoe kick. All of the events are totally fair because they don't require much, if any athletic ability. But it's fun to watch the kids play and get so excited and to feel the excitement in the air to start summer break.

As requested....the after...

Many have asked when I'm going to post pictures of the new paint in our house. Sorry, there's alot of pictures and this is probably pretty boring to most, but I worked hard for three months to get it all done....and I didn't have any help (cause I'm kind of a perfectionist and prefer to do it all) so I'm giving you pics of everything.

The entire house was what I'm calling "smoker's yellow" before. There's not a huge difference now in the living room and dining room, except it's not yellowish anymore. This color is called Tinder Box with Malted Silk accent walls. I plan to do a "family tree" wall above the chair at the end of the room...but that's still in progress.

I actually painted the kitchen twice because I thought I knew what I wanted and then decided I was wrong. This green matches the pillows and throws in the living room and the rugs in the dining room.

Yes, that is a lovely propane heater right there in the dining room wall. I really don't like where it is and how it looks, but I've grown pretty fond of it on the cold mornings. It's instant heat! And Christopher built the awesome shelves.

The master bedroom. I love it! All except the fact that the bedding doesn't fit...it's much too small. I got this room painted the day before our new bedroom set was delivered!

The master bathroom. I used the Malted Silk in both bathrooms and love how it turned out!

This is looking down the hallway. I love how the trim stands out against the walls. I originally had painted the trim white, but after a few days decided that wouldn't be a good idea with four kids rubbing on it all the time. So I started again with the dark brown.

The kids/main bathroom. The only window is in the shower, so I made a white shower curtain that would filter the light in but still allow the privacy in the shower.

The boys' room. I ended up making their comforters because I couldn't find any I liked that was reasonably affordable and matched. The star was moved in from the living room and the accent pillows also. This room just sort of fell together and ended up perfect!

And the girls' room. They argued about what color: Sariah loves pink and Bailey is all blue. So I decided on this color....it's a dark pink and matched the bedding set perfectly. The "lovely" pink chest will eventually match the rest of the furniture, but they love it no matter what. It was given to them by Grandpa Teem.

So that's it. I may not look like much, but I still can't believe the difference it has made. The old walls were soooooo dirty and they had been painted with flat paint in smoker's yellow. I think this is definately in improvement!

Dallin.....in heaven

Spring is such a fun time of year. I love taking the kids over to my parent's house to see the baby lambs. So a few weeks ago I went to help with testing at the school and couldn't take Dallin. I left him with my dad and brother, farming. I was totally expecting to come back and he'd be ready to go right away and not even look back. But I was pleasantly surprised. Dallin is a little animal lover. He especially loved this little white orphan lamb. There were others that he would pet, but he kept going back to this one. There was even one that jumped out of its pen and ran to him, and he put it right back in the pen. He was a bit scared of the black lambs though.

And boy did he feel so big when he got to help Grandpa bottle feed one of the lambs. I thought it was so cute how he helped hold the bottle with one hand, and petted the lamb's ear with the other hand. I kept asking if he was ready to go, and he would just ignore me and walk the other way. Finally, something Dallin is willing to do without me right there!

Poor Ryan!!!

Ryan has had breathing problems pretty much since he was born, I think. And multiple ear infections. And he catches every bug that goes around. Anyway, about 4 months ago we noticed that he stopped breathing at night while asleep. So his pediatrician set him up for a sleep exam at St. Mary Corwin Hospital in Pueblo. We took the family over, and Chris and the other three kids spent the night in a hotel while Ryan and I spent the night in the hospital. It took the nurse about 1 1/2 hours to get him all hooked up to the wires and machines before she turned off the lights and said goodnight. Serious business....no T.V. or anything. Their study showed that Ryan stopped breathing four times that night, and that he snored very loud. And when he was asleep, he was thrashing his legs around alot. So they sent us to an Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist.

I can't remember the exact number, but the nurse said she would be attaching over 50 wires to various places on his body to monitor his sleep.

You can't really see it, but he has a clamp on his right finger that monitored his heartbeat. He will keep that clamp forever!

So we went to the E.N.T. Specialist, and she recommended that we have his tonsils and adenoids removed. This past Monday and Tuesday, Ryan, Dallin and I along with Grandma and Grandpa Teem, went to Pueblo and Ryan went into surgery.

Ryan was bugged when they handed him his little gown. He said "Oh great! Now I'm gonna look like a little girl in these purple and blue stars!"

And this is the face I got when I first saw him after surgery. He was upset because when asked, he had requested orange tape for his I.V. But they used purple. The Dr. said that his tonsils were slightly enlarged, his adenoids were huge, and that they drained fluid from his ears but he didn't need tubes in his ears. All went well.

He's doing well now. The medicine keeps him pretty drowzy, but if you know Ryan, nothing keeps him from playing the Wii. He's pretty sore and emotional and quiet, but I'm looking forward to having little busy Ryan back. We love you Ryan!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Each year I walk through the store looking at Valentines, and each year I decide that we can come up with something better. This year's idea came from http://www.familyfun.com/. Little mp3 players with playlists that include songs of our choice. It was perfect. This is how we spent our entire afternoon last Sunday....putting them together. I'm glad I let the kids help and didn't do it all myself as I had originally planned. If you'd like to have the material list and more info, check out my other blog at http://www.glennaclayton.blogspot.com/.