Nothing says Happy Easter like SHEEP!

Since we didn’t have anything too urgent going on Saturday….. (hopefully Fred finished his homework between classes today) we decided to go to the Desert to help with the annual shearing of the family herd.
Friday night we rushed to get what we needed to done & woke up early Saturday morning to venture out to the Desert. With our trusty directions provided by Aunt Waneta & Fred’s new GPS we knew we could find it. It took us a little longer than we remembered (we had only been out once before a couple of years ago), but we love just driving together. The weather was perfect in the morning and we were able to see some wildlife on our way. One antelope was standing right by the road and I pointed it out to Fred thinking it would jump in front of us any second. Nope, it just stood there and watched us pass.
Of course they had already started by the time we got there, but it worked out perfect.
The shearers work for 2 hours, take a 15 minute break, 2 more hours, 1 hour lunch, 2 hours of shearing, 15 minute break and finally 2 more hours. We just have to help out keeping the sheep running through the shutes onto their little truck / shack. They have 5 shearers inside that hold the sheep, shear them, wrestle them into another position, shear more- then you see wool pushed out the front where 2 women are standing to grade the wool and separate it into different bags. The sheep is sent out the back of the shack into a pen where my cousin re-brands them & counts them (each shearer is paid per sheep, but we count & split the difference if the count is off). It’s insane how fast they go! I get nervous about the nicks the sheep get – you can see them bleeding, but I was reassured that if they get cut too deep they’re stitched up.
The bags of wool weigh about 400+ pounds and it takes at least 2-3 guys to roll them up onto the trucks. They managed to shear a little over 800 sheep Saturday, it'll still take Sunday & Monday to get all 2100 sheep done. In just one day the wool filled 16 bags! The whole process is amazing to me.
It sprinkled a little, but not too bad until we quit at 6pm. Fred & I headed home and got home by about 9:15pm – tired, but honestly, being out in the fresh air and doing something was probably the best I’ve felt in the past 5 months!

Sunday morning we made some Easter treats to take to Grams’ for dinner. After church Fred wanted to eat some hardboiled eggs but I told him he couldn’t until he colored them. He asked if he could just use crayons instead of dye. “Sure, as long as they’re colored.” He thought about it for a minute, then asked “Do you have crayons I could borrow?” :} He ended up dying 3 so we could hurry and eat them, then we dyed the rest after lunch.
At Gram’s we had Hawaiian Haystacks, laughed at the Aunt’s Easter Egg hunt, and the traditional game of Bingo. It took me FOREVER to get a single Bingo!
Of course Fred’s mom couldn’t pass up a chance to buy the baby a present……. A new stuffed sheep to match the Nursery. Very fitting for our Easter weekend.

We love Easter... CANDY!

Every year each person buys a bag of their favorite Easter candy. Either Crystal or I fill the eggs and make a list of how many eggs & color for each person. This year I made Fred help me fill them… man is he a good sport lately! :} Then we convince my parents to hide all 150+ plastic eggs around their house and let their adult children find them.
This year mom got up early and made us a Quiche & muffin breakfast – one of my favorites!
Then we were off on our hunt! We used to find only what was on our own list, now we just search for all of the eggs and divide them at the end.

This is a picture of Kaysen (Chris’s baby) in egg heaven!

Of course the best part is that we’re still missing 3 eggs – thus the reason we don’t hide real ones! How is it possible that 7 adults can’t find Easter eggs?


I wanted to be able to eat my candy during Conference, as you can see Fred was very pleased with this idea!

(No, he didn’t go into a sugar coma & yes, he still has some of his candy left….. but he won’t even share a single m&m, he makes me get my own bag!)

"Chalk Chucking"

My sister got this bright idea that she wanted to go down to Spanish Fork for a Colors Festival where people throw chalk at each other. It took her awhile to help me understand that it wasn't pieces of chalk, it was chalk dust. I knew I didn't want to be in the middle of the mess, but I figured it could be fun to watch. It took me a few days to convince Fred to go with us.

Two of my sisters, Fred & I drove to Spanish Fork (actually Benjamin) - that in itself was an adventure, it seemed like everyone was on the roads (probably headed to missionary reunions as it was the weekend before conference) - Dumb drivers are probably one of Fred's biggest irritations so I wondered how he was going to do with the thousands of people that were expected to show up as big crowds ranks a close 2nd in his irritations.

We made it and didn't have to walk very far to get to the temple. There were already hundreds of people and the "chalk chucking" wasn't supposed to start for another 2 hours. We wandered around and took our shoes off to see the inside of the temple (Fred irritation #3- walking around without shoes). The temple was packed with people & a little group playing music & chanting. Downstairs they had a gift shop & some Indian Food. We got in line and paid $6 for a container of food & drink. It was awful! I'd finally gotten Fred to agree to come by telling him we'd find some Indian food for him. :} Luckily he half enjoyed it - the other 3 of us could have split one and still not finished it.

We put our shoes back on and wandered around the animals they had. They had a cool albino peacock!

I couldn't believe how many people were trying to get the llamas to eat hay out of their mouths- do they not know llamas spit?! They had advertised at BYU so that explained alot. :}

The crowds continued to file in and as it got closer to "time" Fred and I went up to the balcony of the temple in the "safe zone" so we wouldn't get covered in chalk.

We got a great spot where we could see all the crazy people. If we ever went again, we'd stand in front of the crowd, not only to be able to see their faces, but also because the dust blew up right in our faces. We were covered in a fine coat, nothing terrible, but it was also Jasmine scented making it even harder to breathe.

(My little sister covered in chalk- even in her ears! And Fred trying not to get any on him.)

We left right after the chalk fight - but there were so many people & cars trying to get in & out that we couldn't move for a few minutes. Fred looks thrilled huh?

We made it to our car and started to drive out slowly. I couldn't believe how far away people parked and were still walking in with how many cars were leaving.

I don't know that we're in a hurry to make it a tradition, but it was definitely entertaining for a Saturday afternoon!

The new chef

Everyday when I'm driving home from work I call Fred to let him know I'm on my way. The past few months he's been focusing on school & not working - I have to say I'm going to have a REALLY hard time when he does go back to work. He's been amazingly helpful while I've gotten (mostly) past the sick part of being pregnant. Everyday he asks what he can start for dinner.
One day last week I was talking to him on the phone and he says "did you hear that?" "No, what was it?" "It was an explosion! I bet it was loud enough the neighbors heard it." he says. I asked what he was doing and he wouldn't really say. Then he says urgently "I've gotta go!... Everything's okay, I've just have to go." So we hung up.
When I arrived home all of the windows were open and the fans were on. Nothing smelled charred. :} I went to the kitchen, he had the rice cooker going, beans (w/onions & tomatoes) on the stove, and in the oven my dear husband had cooked a whole chicken!


He was so proud & I was even more impressed that everything was perfectly done!
(The explosion had been the chicken juice splattering in the oven, so he covered it with tinfoil to reduce the mess. It set off the smoke detector the next day as we baked cookies and the day after that while cooked porkchops. The third day he was baking a pan of enchiladas and he commented on how good his dinner was starting to smell - then realized part of the smell was leftover from the chicken.)