July 26, 2010: The Round-Up

I love the three weeks of the summer that my cousins come from Fargo to visit. I spent five years of college hanging out with the people in the first picture below, except that Ellen was a baby. We spent every Sunday dinner together, and Eric and Kristen and I hung out on campus at BYU almost daily during lunch in my Uncle Jack's graduate student lab. The first time I met Kristen was at my cousin Mark's funeral almost 20 years ago. A week later she got engaged to my cousin, Sean. But the first time I really talked to her was on a street corner in front of Heritage Halls shortly after school started my Freshman year at BYU. I saw her from about 10 feet away and said, "Um....are you....Kristen?" We stood there on that corner talking for three hours. I'm pretty sure I missed class. We haven't stopped talking since.

When I heard that today was going to be the Round-Up when they bring the cows out to Strawberry to graze, I said, "I'm THERE!" I haven't been out there often, but my kids, especially Clara, are nuts about horses and cows. We packed up a picnic lunch and headed up after saying bye to Ben (we will miss him). It was a gorgeous day, a beautiful drive up the canyon, with cool breezes and sunny skies.

After eating, the kids all hopped in the back of the trucks and headed down to the corral to see the cows. Then they went up to the lake, to the meadow, to the top of the mountain, etc. I didn't want to go, so I made up an excuse that I had to stay behind and keep Kristen company. Kristen made up the excuse that she had to stay behind to keep me company. As a result, Kristen and I had about two solid hours of uninterrupted time to sit and talk....in a grove of aspen trees. If that isn't heaven, I don't know what is. With 9 kids between us, that hasn't happened in years. It was peaceful, and made better by the fact that we were left with half a pan of texas sheet cake in our midst.

Kristen, Rachel, Ellen and Eric

Karen and Mason - this was a funny moment. Karen was quizzing Mason on all things Geography. It was quite astonishing how brilliant he was. Ellen made the comment that she is the dumb one of the family and I said, "Well, I've always been that myself so we can hang out together and be the dumb ones."

Clara, Lucy, and Ava sit in their diva chairs and watch the horses in the corral

I can't believe I got this shot of Charlotte between Erin's legs. Too cute.

Ethan and Charlotte - I remember vividly when Ethan was Charlotte's age

Erin and Maile (who reminded me of Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Lovely grown up Ellen

The boys - and by that I mean, literally, the THREE boy cousins. The rest of the kids there were girls and there were 13 of them.

Watching the cows

The crazy kids - notice the one boy

Charlotte fell asleep on the blanket in the sun

I don't know this horse's name, but he/she was sure gorgeous

The old cabin - my cousins, Sean and Mark, lived here during the summers when they were teenagers and worked on the ranch. It's an ideal spot with beautiful views for a picnic.