Seven Days to Due Date

Please join us on a photo journal entry of our day while we anxiously await the impending birth of our fourth child. No, we are not posting any photos of April's belly which has been contracting painfully for about a week now, but without any regularity.

More Fish

Kevin, Megan, and Ian went fishing again early yesterday morning. Megan caught one large trout, and another fisherman gave them his fish. Kevin cooked them for lunch today. We enjoyed a tasty meal of trout, garden crookneck squash, and rice.

Manna from Heaven?

It has become more challenging for us to keep the hawk fed these days. It has quickly worked its way through our surplus mice. We still have the meatball mixture from the vet clinic we can feed it, but we like to give it other food when possible. While we were eating our fish lunch, an unfortunate robin happened to slam into our kitchen window and break its neck. Needless to say, we knew exactly what to do with it. Observe one happy hawk enjoying its robin for lunch.

More Creative Napping

Apparently there is so much excitement going on while we wait for this baby to be born that Erin needs some extra sleep. This is her chosen napping position for today.

Nature Walk

For Outdoor Education 101, Megan and April went for a walk up Green Canyon while Kevin and Erin accompanied Ian to his Karate class. Here are Megan and Yuki on the dirt road.

We observed many insects along the walk: grasshoppers, stinkbugs, dragonflies, paper wasps, other yellow & black stinging insects which we don't know the name of, and a strange insect that appeared to be feeding on a paper wasp.

Megan was hoping to catch a snake along the way, but the only snake we saw was this long-dead yellow-bellied racer that Yuki happened to find. If you enlarge the photo you can see the cool ribs exposed down one section.

How to spell "RELIEF" after a nature walk up the canyon--at least for a 39-week pregnant person...

Megan Catches Another Snake!!!

As we were driving past the parking area for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail on our way home, we saw a huge, fat gopher snake stretched out on the gravel. Megan jumped out and grabbed it, whereupon it instantly turned to bite her--it was extremely nasty-tempered. She let it go, then grabbed it again, then let it go, then finally got it after it had nearly slithered away into the grass. Here is video footage of the captured snake once April had the chance to get the camera out of its case.

Grasshoppers, Horses, Fish, but No Baby

We went out to the marsh and some fields to catch large grasshoppers (2-3 inch size) for the hawk. Unfortunately, the grasshoppers flew away too fast for the children and April to snag in nets, so Kevin was left to run and swipe, run and swipe, run and swipe. He felt like a child again and wondered if there is a job available for professional bug catcher!

Horseback riding lessons continue for Megan and Ian. Flash got a bit too feisty for Megan, so she is now riding Chief.

For Activity Day, Megan's group went fishing at First Dam this week. Families were invited along, so the rest of us came as well. Another girl and her dad figured out that the trout were in the mood for worms (everyone else had been using power bait), and eventually several fish were caught. Kevin hooked a nice rainbow trout (which became part of dinner) and Ian caught a tiny little sculpin (which became part of the hawk's dinner). Megan didn't catch a fish, but she said she had a fun time.

Erin did her best to try to induce labor for her mother. She was having a fun time too, but had lost interest in fishing after a while. She then decided to start climbing on things. She had already received parental warnings to stay off the pipe pictured below. However, exercising her three-year-old agency, she climbed out on the pipe to the first cross-beam and yelled "Dad, look at me!" Dad looked (he was tying on a hook) and said "Get down NOW!" since she was far enough out that a fall might land her in the water. April looked just in time to see Erin turning towards shore and losing her balance! Erin fell, April yelled, and Kevin jumped over to the pipe in time to catch Erin dangling from the bottom of the structure. It turns out there was a concrete pad beneath her (not visible to the parents from where they were sitting) so she would not have actually gone in the water. We all had an adrenaline rush and Erin screamed "I don't feel good. I want to go home now!" Luckily the only injury was a small cut to the lip. By the time Erin stopped crying, April had finally stopped shaking too. Unfortunately, the momentary trauma did not set off labor.

County Fair

**Note: This post was started weeks ago and never completed because we were hoping to include some video. For now, we're giving up on the video editing and just posting photos.

On August 9th, we spent Saturday morning/early afternoon at the annual Cache County Fair. One highlight this year included Erin getting a pony ride! Each week when we drop off Megan and Ian for their riding lessons, Erin asks how much longer before she can ride a horse too. The ponies at the fair were the perfect size for her, and she had a great time riding around the corral 3 times! We all enjoyed looking at the animals, including the funny-looking silkie chickens. Ian and Megan decided they now need a pet rabbit. Hmmm... where would we put another pet? The tractor/farm equipment display is always popular with the children, and even Kevin found a riding lawn mower he was tempted to get! (NOT!) We ended our visit in the Home Arts and Crafts building (April's favorite) where we admired many crafts, numerous quilts, baked and canned goods, garden produce, etc. and wondered why we keep forgetting to enter some of our home projects each year.

Second Chance

We have a new rehab hawk! This time it is a Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni), or at least the vet thinks (being a juvenile, it is rather difficult to identify). Someone found it in a very emaciated state along the side of a road in Mendon. Its personality is quite different from Squawker's and it is less excited about food. It is also very quiet compared to Squawker, but perhaps it is still getting adjusted to living at our place. It is another absolutely beautiful raptor, however, and I could sit and watch it for hours if we weren't supposed to limit human contact.

It didn't eat very well for the first couple of days, so we were getting a bit concerned. Yesterday and today it has done much better. In fact, this morning is the first time it has pounced on a live mouse and eaten it (Kevin had to slow the movements of the previous mice we tried to feed it and set them up on the perch before it would take them).

We are being extremely cautious about not allowing it to self release! We do plan on giving it actual flight practice before letting it go.

Life Continues to Change

After 5 months of intensive teenage anthropological observations, April had reached the conclusion that Hannah Montana has nothing to do with American Idol (or even Guitar Hero). Having ventured deep within the Young Women's organization, she had learned about the nuances of popular hair styles, body waxing, and pedicures.

Then suddenly...the Bishop called her into his office and invited her to once again change the course of her life. This time she is moving back to her comfort zone of the Primary organization but way out of her comfort zone as Primary President. Fortunately, she has wonderful and supportive counselors who will keep things running smoothly when she and her secretary will be temporarily homebound with newborn babies in just a matter of weeks (and with the annual Primary Program scheduled for September 21st!!!). Stresses aside, she is excited for this new challenge and responsibility and to be back with the children she loves.

At times like these, she is grateful for ice cream. Time to indulge in a late-night craving!

Sixteen Years

Kevin & April
8 August 1992
Salt Lake Temple



April & Kevin
8 August 2008
Dream Farm, Logan

Thoughts from the day:

• One can expect amazing anniversary treats even when the wife is 36 weeks pregnant. (Kevin was lucky to get his favorite homemade applesauce cake!)
  

• One can expect creative anniversary dinners when the husband has to spend the entire day doing final grades for summer term Anatomy classes. (April was lucky to get some take-out from Indian Oven!)
  

• One can expect quiet anniversary celebrations when 36-week pregnant wife has to keep 3 children entertained all day so that they don't bother husband while he is trying to work from home. (It's almost 10:30 and the children are finally in bed!) Now the tired couple can crash and get some much-needed sleep!
  

Even after 16 years, we're hopeless romantics when it comes to celebrating anniversaries (we can't expect a trip to Australia every year)! It's a good thing we like each other so much.

'Tis the Season

We missed the cherry crop in June, so apricot season heralds the start of our home food preservation for 2008. (Oh, I guess we made strawberry jam, but that was a few months ago.) Our apricot tree was negatively affected by a late storm and only gave us a handful of fruit. Fortunately, we applied our optimal foraging skills again and found some alternate sources. We thank Aunt Nancy in SLC for allowing us to pick her tree, which was abundant with beautiful big apricots. We also thank the Living Hope Christian Fellowship of Brigham City for letting Kevin pick in their orchard. We've been able to share with friends who also needed apricots as well as restock our pantry shelves (Ian was worried because his supply of syrup was nearly depleted).

Erin is our little fruit advocate for the second year in a row. She has been chowing down on fresh apricots, licking off spoons and scraping bowls from making syrup and jam, drinking our nectar (otherwise known as the "ambrosia of the Gods"), and devouring the leather. Her vitamin A and potassium levels should be pretty optimal at the moment.

2008 Apricot Food Storage Yield

(made over a two week period--April can only work on it in the mornings these days)

Jam: 1 batch

Syrup: 27 pints

Fruit Leather: 26 trays

Dried Halves: 3 trays

Nectar: 13 quarts