Little Patch O' Heaven: Homecomings, Runnings, and Harvestings

The past couple of weeks have been full of activities. The girls celebrated homecoming for their high school. They had a color fest and came home looking like this:

There was a cross country meet at the American West Heritage Center that week as well. Here is a shot of the Wellsvilles which can be seen from the Heritage Center. The kids had to run a crazy course. They ran over a small bridge, dodged a big tree, under another bridge, up a couple of hills, around a corn patch two times, and finally finished. It was a warm day and the kids were all just whipped. LL did great. Sammy didn't go because she was busy setting up the Freshman officer's float for the homecoming parade that night.

I noticed that most of the teams start with a team prayer before they begin.

Here is Laura Lee laughing with her coach who is (also her FFA advisor from this summer.) He is pretty funny. Her friends nicknamed her LoLa and so he put her on the cross country roster as LoLa. The other day her name was in the paper and it came up as LoLa Olsen.

Over the bridge:

Dodging the big tree. One of the runners cracked her head on the tree and had to leave the race. Ouch!

Under the bridge:

With Jerica and Dantzel, two of her good friends from Cross Country.

With more of the team:

Johannes over the bridge and getting ready to dodge the tree.

LL and her homecoming date, Johannes.

Right after the meet, we raced clear across the valley to the high school and caught Sammy in the Homecoming parade. She was on a large boat dancing with the class officers from the school.

Saturday, LL went on the daytime date with Johannes and her group. They had a race against the other couple to see who could complete most of the items on the list. My friend Shauna made a huge list of things for them to take photos of them doing all over downtown Logan. Here are LL and Johannes in front the of Yoga class building doing Yoga. LL split her pants. But the sacrifice was worth it because they won the race.

Tradition for dances stays a while. Just like when I was a teen, they raced home from the day date to get ready. We have a friend, Kim, in town who does hair. We rushed to her house. She was doing their German exchange student's hair (Sarah) and we waited in line. As soon as Sarah was done, LL was up. After LL, Chandler. After Chandler, Savannah. Kim was fixing hair nonstop. I'm sure this was a challenge for her because she has a reputation for taking a really long time doing hair-- she loves to chat. This must have been a record for her to be so quick. Although, while Savannah was getting her hair done, Chandler's date came. Chandler is Kim's daughter, so they had to put Savannah's hairdo on hold while Kim took pictures and saw Chandler off. I was getting panicked texts from my friend Kelli saying, "We aren't going to make it back in time! Have LL call the boys and stall them!" Fortunately, it all turned out. Savannah got home just in time!

LL got ready and we took a few pics before her date arrived.

Johannes arrived and we quickly taught him the American flower exchange for dances. He was so sweet. He told LL on the date: "This is the best homecoming date ever! And my first! And my last since I live in Austria......"

The other boy, Cael, borrowed his grandpa's Mustang. The kids were thrilled to get a ride. The boys promised not to take the top down right away, because as we know, the girls just had their hair done!

Here is a photo of the prize for the winners of the Scavenger hunt! Doritos and a rose!

They arrived at Savannah's and took photos there.

Sometimes it takes two to pin on a flower.

A candid shot of Sammy after LL and her group left. She really wanted to go to Homecoming. Sorry! One more year..... (your parents need time to get ready and brace themselves for when you start dating!)

The week before homecoming at Green Canyon, was the Ag week at USU. We always try and go to the dinner put on by the college of Agriculture. You buy a ticket, then you can get a plate and go to each booth and get their specialty. The onion growers pass out delicious onion rings, there are mushroom growers that pass out sauted mushrooms, the beef, port and lamb booths, the apple growers, the dairy farmers (ice cream, cheese, and milk galore), the cherry growers, all pass out their wares. By the end, we are stuffed. I am always amazed at what our state produces. It has become more crowded every year.

Luke and Rich.

Spencer and Uncle Ron.

Rich, Suzanne, and Matt.

Allie and Sammy.

Spencer, Matt, and Luke.

Sadie, Sammy, LL, and Allie.

Oh how can I forget the "Decade Day" for homecoming week at Green Canyon. Sammy dressed for the 80s if you couldn't tell.

Let's see how many ducklips pics we can rack up for Sammy to look at in 20 years and say "Why??"

We will end this week's post with apples. We have them coming out our ears. We also have plums coming out our ears as well. I hate the plums so much right now they don't deserve recognition on the blog. We have been picking them off the ground for the last month. I have put them on my front porch in buckets and boxes and invited anyone in town to come and get them. I am surpised how many people have come to get them. They are the zuchinni of the fruit world, in my opinion. You have to beg people to take them. They are sweet, but you just can't snack a lot on them-- for obvious reasons. My neighbor across the street has a professional freeze dryer. She let me freeze dry four trays of plums, and they were great!

However, back to the apples. They have boomed this year. Last year was an okay harvest, this year they are big and juicy. The boys helped to peel and cut them. We place them in to large 5 gallon buckets, let them sit and the juices come out. Then we pour out the juice, boil it, put the apple slices in jars, pour the juice back over the slices and can them. They are delicious.