Father's Day

We took a relaxing stroll along the river trail and golf course for Father's Day.

Ian started off by finding a shed garter snake skin.

Then he caught a live garter snake that he found later on!

 

Proud Father With Offspring

The story behind Ian's black eye will be recounted in a later post.

Stay tuned!

Summerfest Plein Air Adventure

Megan was supposed to write about her plein air experience for Logan's annual Summerfest arts fair. 

Email her at salamanderbinks@gmail.com to encourage her to do so.

Yet Another Fried Squirrel...

Remember our annual 4th of July squirrel bbq?

It happened again this year, a little prematurely, as it's not quite Independence Day yet.

We were sitting in the living room, playing a board game, when suddenly we heard,

"BANG!"

and the power instantly went out.

We all ran outside to look at the transformer on our utility pole and saw this:

 

 We looked at the base of the pole and saw this:

We called the after hours utility emergency number (since it was after 8:00 p.m.) and asked the nice gentleman if he would please send someone to restore our power. There are only 3 houses served by this particular pole, and the other 2 are currently vacant rentals. Thus, we are the only ones who care about blown transformers on our pole.

Meanwhile, our budding biologist daughter was examining the electrocuted squirrel close up.

She was not one bit squeamish and felt empowered when her older sister expressed dire disgust over the deceased rodent.

Overnight Webelos Camp 2010

Ian got to attend an overnight Webelos camp this year at Camp Fife. Dad came along too. Here is their account :

When we got to the campsite it was rainy and windy and cold. Once we got the tent set up, we went under a tarp that some other people had set up. We talked because there were not that many interesting things to do yet. We ate dinner--it was spaghetti and some other stuff.

      

Then it finally got interesting and we waited in line to ride the zip line. 

But before that we did rock stuff.

and we played soccer...

and rode bikes...

and did archery.

Then Dad forgot the tent so he and Mom drove back later in the afternoon to pick it up.

Summer Finally Arrived!

Dallin likes to be outside and he likes to play in this tree in our front yard. He is still too small to climb up it (fortunately for us), but he was proud that he could stand in the middle of the branches near the base.

Dancing in the Sprinklers

We had a sleep over at Grandma's and Grandpa's, and Erin awoke to the sprinklers the following morning. This girl cannot resist water. She was completely soaked within a matter of minutes and continued running around the yard for the duration of the sprinkler cycle.

 

Days of 47 Challenge

Back in Logan, our new ward issued a fitness challenge for everyone: walk 2 miles a day or exercise at least 30 minutes a day for the 47 days prior to July 24 (Pioneer Day). If we do the walking, we will have walked 1/10 of the distance of the pioneers' trek from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. The children were excited to participate (they have been promised some kind of "prize" for their efforts), and we have been diligently walking each day.

In an attempt to vary the scenery of our walks, we visited the Logan River Trail. Western tanagers were abundant the first couple of times we walked the path. Ian counted 25 individuals in one mile! Sadly we did not get any good photographs of the colorful birds. (They moved on up to the mountains within a couple of weeks, and we miss seeing them everywhere.)

Dallin decided that he liked getting out of his stroller 

to pick and throw the dandelions and rocks that were abundant.

Having fun along the trail...

 

We also saw ducks, geese, and pheasants.

Erin loved these little ducklings:

End of School Year Recital

Megan and Ian performed in another recital before taking a bit of a break for the summer. Their teacher, Brooke, will be returning to New Jersey one last year to work at a summer music camp, so they will have intermittent lessons over the next few months with some substitutes.

We were impressed that they were both able to get new pieces learned and memorized so soon after the piano festival.

Ian performed Clowns by Dmitri Kabalevsky:

Later in the program, Megan performed Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.

Here is an excerpt from hers:

We all love Brooke. She is such a wonderful teacher and friend to the children, adapting  each lesson to their individual needs. We really appreciate the time she spends with Megan and Ian each week.