Today's guest reader

My girls LOVE story time at the library. What's not to like about it? They get to hear fun stories, they occasionally get to make a craft, sometimes they get to wear Halloween costumes and sometimes they get to sit on Santa's lap! But today, Bekah was very wary of the special guest reader.

When the man came and sat down in front of the kids, Bekah cast a concerned look in my direction. This person was not her beloved Miss-a-LaDawn! And it wasn't the other lady who has done story time during the summer!

He started talking to some of the kids. "What is your name? I like the bow in your hair. Do you like to read stories? How old are you?"

The little girl he was chatting with told him she was 5 years old. Ever-helpful Ana piped up, "My sister is 5!"

Bekah whipped her head around and silenced her little sister. "Shhhhh! Don't talk to that man!"

Gratefully, he either didn't hear her or chose not to respond to her.

Who was the scary man sitting in the reader's chair? None other than our little city's mayor, Jared Fuhriman.

(By the way, Bekah warmed up to him by the end of story time. She even told him her name!)

Seth's gig

Seth provided half of the musical entertainment at our stake's pioneer day celebration last night at our church. When the invitation was first extended to him, Seth was a little confused. "I don't know any pioneer music," he said. "Play some hymns," I said. But the invitee told him, "We don't want hymns. We don't want pioneer music. Just play what you like to play."

So Seth's set list included three of his own songs, a Neil Young song, an Ed Haynes song, a Decemberists song and a Bob Dylan song. I recorded the whole thing so his absent parents could view it later. I also took a few pictures of his biggest fans.

Bekah had to run up by the stage/picnic shelter and jump up and down in the air and show Seth her ice cream sandwich. Not sure why ...

Analee enjoying her ice cream with Bekah in the background (and in the way of the video camera, as you can see on the right) and Seth in the back-background.

When the girls started to venture this close, I called them back. I didn't want them touching any dials on the amp. By the way, there were lots and lots of people there; we just got a seat in the front for viewing/recording purposes. It wasn't as empty as these photos make it look like.

Cress Creek

The girls hardly remembered our trip to Cress Creek two years ago, so we thought it was about time to revisit the trail.

With our AWESOME new stroller, we were able to do the entire loop. Miri enjoyed the first half of the hike in the mei tai, and the second in the stroller. Ana tried out the stroller on the first half, then she held my hand while we walked down the trail back to the van.

We had fun, but we realized that we are nowhere near ready to take the girls up Tablerock (not that we were considering it, anyway). We heard a lot of, "My feet are tired!" and "When will we be back to the van?" before the morning was over.

Analee checking out the creek.

Bekah doing a little jig with a cattail.

Analee, Seth and Bekah headed up the trail.

Miriam managed to fall asleep in the mei tai.

All our girls at the lookout point.

Bekah, Andrea and Analee next to the creek on our way back down. Ana was trying to run away from the picture, so I picked her up and subjected her to photographic torture.

Just like our trip two years ago, we found a lizard friend. Bekah was close to catching the critter this time.

Ana-ism #9

Seth and Ana are sitting at the table at Chuck-A-Rama while Bekah and Andrea are off getting dessert...

Seth: Ana, you are my brown-eyed girl. Did you know you have the prettiest brown eyes?
Ana: (shoulders slump, dejectedly) Yeah, but if I had purple eyes, or pink eyes, or one pink eye and one purple eye, then I would be even prettier. Or, if I had purple hair and purple eyes, or purple hair and one pink eye and one purple eye, then I would match.

Beautiful baby

I just posted this on my photo blog, but I can't help but post it here too. I finally got around to shooting Miriam in her blessing dress (made by my talented mother) even though her blessing was June 6. Good thing it still fits.


Isn't she gorgeous?

Poor goat

It's not unusual for us to find random animals in our yard. So yesterday when I went outside to set the sprinklers in the morning, I wasn't too shocked to find a little black goat eating my pansies. I got the broom and tried shooing the animal away from my flowers, but it was being stubborn, so I ended up pushing it with the broom about 15 feet before it fell over.

"Darn lazy goat," I thought as I readied the hose and sprayed the thing down while it made some feeble attempts at standing back up. I finally gave up and packed up the girls for a quick run to town.

When we got home, the goat hadn't moved. And when I checked on it an hour later, it still hadn't moved. That's when I realized that this goat wasn't merely being obstinate.

For one thing, the goat's ... um, output was unlike the other little goat pebbles we've found in our yard from time to time. And, at one point, I went outside and saw that magpies had flocked to the goat. After chasing them away, I checked on our visitor and saw that the tip of its ear had been pecked at by the pesky birds.

At this point, I started to panic. The people who own the goat have a farm across the ditch from us. They don't live in our neighborhood. They come by every day to feed the animals and check on their crops, but no cars had been parked at the gate that day, and I have no prior experience in nursing sick/dying goats. I thought about calling one of our other neighbors over to help me, but I wasn't sure what I needed help with. "Help me put this goat out of its misery"? "Help me bottle-feed this goat antibiotics"? "Help me pick up this goat and deposit it across the ditch so that it can die comfortably in its own home"?

In the end, I kept checking on the goat on an hourly basis, updated Seth at work via IM and my mom via the telephone, and tried giving the little guy some water (which it never drank).

I can't believe how much this little goat's welfare consumed me yesterday. When I realized that something was really wrong with the guy and I remembered my attempts at getting rid of it, I actually started to tear up.

Finally around 4:30, I spotted a white car at the gate. I literally ran along our side of the ditch until I was directly across the ditch from one of the farmers. "I think one of your goats is in our yard," I shouted to him. "I tried shooing it away, but it just lay down and has been there ever since."

"Is it the little black one?" he asked. "Yes," I said. As he approached the goat, I told him, "I don't know anything about goats, but I think it's sick." He picked it up by its horns, looked it over and said, "Oh, yeah. It looks like it is sick. We'll get it some medicine. Sorry about that."

He hauled it up into his arms and carried it back through the gate onto their farm. I heaved the biggest sigh of relief.

Seth has speculated that the "medicine" of which our neighbor spoke was merely a kind way of saying that he'd be putting the goat down. I don't know either way, but I honestly hope that dumb goat can get better.

And the next time I have a stray animal in my yard, I'll have second thoughts before I hose it down.

The great salty south

The girls wanted to see the "giraffe zoo" again. My dear cousin Sam would be speaking in church before his mission in South Jordan. We thought those two things were reason enough to take a short trip to Utah. So trip we did.

Friday morning (July 16 ... my lovely mother's birthday ... don't worry, we visited her the day before and dropped off presents) we were in the car by 8 a.m. and on our way. The girls listened to/looked at the picture books with accompanying read-along CDs that we had chosen from the library the day before, then they watched a movie on the laptop. We stopped in Tremonton to feed Miri and chanced upon the city park. So the big girls ran and played while I fed the baby, and then we loaded back up and drove to Ogden.

We had considered going to Lagoon, but thought our little girls wouldn't fully appreciate or enjoy the rides, so we opted for a few substitutes instead.

In Ogden, we visited the Treehouse Museum. It's a very hands-on children's museum, and the girls LOVED it. Check it out:

Analee and Rebekah dressed up as firefighters and raced off to save the day.

Ana and Seth fulfilled teacher Rebekah's assignment to draw their favorite animal in the one-room schoolhouse.

Rebekah dressed up as a princess and presented a play.

After the museum, we continued on to Salt Lake and went to Temple Square so we could tour the Conference Center. If you'll recall, we tried this seven months ago. But as was the case in December, the Center was closed due to a performance later in the evening. Since we had already shelled out the $6 for parking, we decided to enjoy the Square for a while.

Bekah, Miriam (in the stroller), Ana and Seth at the reflection pool outside the Salt Lake Temple.

This is how Miriam spent our time at Temple Square.

The Grover family chooses to take everything to the extreme. When we looked at the lights on Temple Square in December, it was the coldest day in Salt Lake that year. We were ducking into visitors' centers just to escape the bitter cold. When we enjoyed the flowers and fountains in July, we were traipsing around on the hottest day of the year (104 degrees). We had to duck into visitors' centers just to enjoy the air conditioning.

After a long day of traveling and heat, we drove to my aunt's house in South Jordan, put the girls to bed and visited for a while. We knew we would have a long day ahead of us, and we wanted to be well-rested.

On Saturday, we packed a picnic lunch and some water bottles and went to Hogle Zoo. We were surprised to see my cousin Becca there with her husband and three kids (we knew they would be there that day, but we didn't really expect to bump into them), and we enjoyed a train ride together. Then we went our separate ways, and the girls made sure to see all their favorite animals and attractions. (Bekah's favorite is still the giraffes. Ana loved seeing Zuri, the new baby elephant.)

Bekah, Seth and Ana just monkeying around. Bad pun, I know. And not entirely accurate. Gorillas aren't technically monkeys, anyhow.

Ana riding an elephant on the carousel.

Bekah riding a frog.

After we had had our fill of the zoo, we headed back YET AGAIN to Temple Square to tour the Conference Center and finally enjoyed success! Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of it/us there. The girls liked the water both inside and outside the building, and Seth and I enjoyed the art--especially the Walter Rane paintings.

At the end of our long, hot day, we cooled off at the Magna Fitness and Recreation Center's outdoor pool and splash pad. This was probably our favorite part of the whole trip. (Again, no pictures. It's impossible to shoot some when you're clad in a swimming suit and all wet and holding a slippery baby who is also swimsuit-clad.) The big girls enjoyed the kiddie pool, and Miriam just enjoyed the water. Seth and I were extra-protective of our baby since we ran out of sunscreen before we could spray her down; we relied on our shadows to keep her out of the sun.

Again, we retired to Aunt Susan's house for the night.

Sunday, the girls played with all of the toys they could find while Seth and I packed up. We attended church with the Clements and watched/listened to Sam's talk. Then we basked in the company of the Ahlstroms (and everyone else who had come to support Sam) during lunch before we made the long trip back home.

It was definitely a worthwhile trip that created many memories and much laundry (which I have yet to finish). To see more pictures of our adventures, click here.

Bekahism #31

(While performing my duty as Primary Chorister. To introduce our pioneer-themed singing time, I was telling the story of when the seagulls saved the early saints' harvest.)

Me: The pioneers knew they had to have grain in order to feed all the people who had come from Nauvoo. But first, their plants suffered from a late frost. Then a drought killed off more of their crops. Then they had an infestation. Does anybody know what came to eat their grain?
(Bekah raises her hand.)
Me: Yes, Bekah?
Bekah: Book of Mormon crickets.

Bekahism #30

(While Seth is brushing Bekah's hair.)

Seth: Hold Still, Bekah. There are knots in your hair.
Bekah: Oh, no! Did the knot-zis put them there?

(Seth and Andrea stifle laughs as they imagine Hitler's troops tangling their daughter's hair.)

T-ball

Bekah participated in the Ucon T-ball league this summer for the first time. Before the first game, I had visions of my child learning to field grounders and catch pop flies and hitting the ball clear into left field. That may still come ... in time. But when you round up a group of 4- and 5-year-olds for a team, it's just not going to happen during a 12-game season. In fact, you're lucky if your kid remembers to run from first to second base when the ball is hit.

However, Bekah did grasp a lot of the basics of the game. She learned to:

Field the ball (which NEVER made it past the baseline, no matter how athletically gifted the child was),

call for the ball to be thrown back to the catcher (which turned out to be her favorite position),

place it on the tee (when playing the coveted catcher position) and warily eye the runners from the other team,

swing the bat without knocking the tee over (most of the time),

and hustle around the bases. (By the way, she picked out her outfit for the last game ALL BY HERSELF. A pink skirt and the mismatched socks she got for her birthday totally go with her over-sized team shirt.)

And, last but not least, Bekah learned a little bit of what it's like to be part of a team.

(Thanks, Grandma Susan and Grandpa Dennis, for getting her to the pictures and her game this day while we were here making this.)

Some of my favorite moments from the season include:

• The baseman who got confused and ran the bases with the runner.
• One child who threw his bat after hitting the ball. It was not the typical bat throw ... he deliberately chucked it straight up into the air.
• Bekah catching a roly poly bug while playing third base and showing it to every kid on the other team who stopped by.
• The wide array of nose-picking and grass-plucking we witnessed.
• Bekah proudly declaring, "First strike!" while playing catcher and watching a kid whiff it, and telling another kid, "I got you out!" after fielding the ball and touching first base. (There are no runs, strikes or outs in the 4- and 5-year-old league.)
• The coach's kid who sat down in the field and when his mom told him to stand back up, he told her, "I just fell down!"
• The repeated questioning of the children: "When is the game over? When do we get treats? How much longer?"
• Bekah knocking bills with every kid who came to her base when she was wearing her hat and they were wearing their helmets.