Jacobson Family Reunion

The day I got home from girls camp (next post will update you on that!) I headed right to my parents for the annual Jacobson Family Reunion. Every summer at some point or another my parents gather all my siblings together and we just enjoy being with each other. Every year we do something different..........no matter what it is it is ALWAYS a good time! This year the girls did some Jacobson Cheerleading! :)
We also did some "tenting!"

If you look really close you should be able to see 2 little heads. Dallin on the left, and Laiklie in the middle. Rhett's head is there also - but you can't see him. They LOVED sleeping in the tent. My kids and I ended up sleeping in our 4 man tent because one of the poles for our larger tent got stuck in with another ladies tent bag at girls camp. We actually slept nice and cozy all squished together!

Saturday we hit the splash park. All kids enjoyed!

We also rode the carousel.

We infact filled the ENTIRE carousel with just my parents grandkids. We had almost every horse filled and it was seriously ONLY Jacobsons on it! SO MUCH FUN!! Where ever we go we are a CROWD!

We stopped to feed the ducks. We actually scared them all away....so, we weren't there long.

Then we hit the sanddunes for a bbq and a good time. YES....WE WENT HOME WITH SAND IN ALL THE CRACKS AND CREVASSES! :)

I love the sanddunes and made all my sisters and a brother and a couple adult cousins climb to the top of the HUGE dune and do some hand-holding-jumping of our own. Of course there are no pictures to prove this, but it was a BLAST and made me feel young again!

It is always so nice to gather with my family. We love getting together and look forward to many more fun summers to come!

Girls Camp

And....once again I had the opportunity to go to girls camp. This year was a little different than other years, but good all the same. (I don't know how girls camp can't be good!) It was ward camp so we took our girls to a Boy Scout Camp for the week. All I am going to say is 'THOSE ARE SOME LUCK BOY SCOUT TROOPS!" The girls had a BLAST!! I got to go to this same camp as a teenager and LOVED it, so I knew the girls would love it too!

There was rock climging. By the time I got to the top my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly stand-up. Ah!! And repelling! This is me on the left and Madison (little Miss No Fear!) on the right. We were racing - I WON!! only because I had longer legs! :) I braided and braided and braided hair! I swear every girl left there with cornrows THANKS TO ME!! They all looked SO SUPER CUTE!! We also got to do something called High Cope. It is an obstacle course 35 ft in the air. It was INSANE!! All the girls learned alot about themselves and things that they are capable of. I was SO PROUD of each one of them. We had 11 girls there and they all did it without complaining or "freaking out!" The way to get off the High Cope course was a zipline. SUPER FUN!! This is me in the picture - I PROMISE! Ah!! This is me, Madison and Haylie. I LOVE getting to know the YW in a different way thanks to girls camp. We had a blast and I can't wait til next year when my sweet little Oakley gets to go. (DRYING TEARS THINKING ABOUT HOW OLD SHE IS GETTING)

Fourth of July 2011

This 4th of July we spent at the parade in the morning and then the ranch in the afternoon. The kids LOVE going to the ranch and especially with cousins.

We spent hours on the peddle boat. By the end of the afternoon my legs were burning from so much peddling. We had SO MUCH FUN! We watched fireworks with my parents because the kids spent the night at their house because I left for girls camp early the next morning. The fireworks were REALLY GOOD! The kids LOVED them!!

4H Camp

I got to take Oakley, a couple cousins and a few friends to 4H Camp last week. OH MY WORD!! I was glad I survived. The girls were all 10 - 12 years old and SO MUCH FUN!! They kept me going all day and all night long! :)

Cousin Ali, Oakley, Clogging friend Whitney, Kyla (in front), Clogging friend Brooklyn (in back), Ciara, Cousin Macady and her friend Jessica. This was infront of our 1st cabin. Thats right 1st cabin.....on night #2 as we got back from the square dance and ready to tuck in I headed to the bathroom with a couple of the girls and a few minutes later the rest of the girls came busting through the door with the announcement of "A MOUSE IN THE CABIN!!" For those of you who know me you know I DO NOT DO MICE!! I seriously was ready to check into a hotel or drive my bum home. I was brave though and we moved cabins at about 11 pm. The girls were WIRED after all the craziness and didn't go to sleep until sometime around 1 am. I am still exhausted!!This is on the hike. Brooklyn (in pink) had some issues with lightheadedness and so her and I only made it 3/4 of the way there. The other girls all did fine and made it to the top and back. It was a pretty steep hike. We had fun even if I didn't get to the top.These are 4 of the cute girlies at the gun shooting range. Oakley is the closest to the camera. Oakley was the best shooter for the girls in her group. She was pretty excited about it. I was pretty proud. Getting a 22 for Christmas this past year sure helped with that! Here she is showing her shooting skills! The last night we were there they had a carnival/rodeo for the kids and their new stick horses. I also took t-shirts for the girls in our cabin to decorate. The girls came home with stick horses, picture frames they decorated, candles they made and a ton of little things from the carnival. They also got to make homemade ice cream, learn a square dance and do archery and rifles. They had a great time and we are already planning to go back next year!

Some Firsts

I have NO PROOF that any of these things happened, because I haven't pulled my camera out all week.....But

THIS WEEK:

For the 1st time all summer we put the sprinkler under the trampoline. It is the 1st time it has been warm enough.

For the 1st time all summer we ALMOST hit 80 degrees! We got to 78 and it felt SO GOOD!

For the 1st time this summer we went to the movies. I took the kids to see Yogi Bear. It was a good clean film....no bad words or bad guys. It wasn't my favorite movie, but my kids REALLY liked it!

For the 1st time Oakley and I tried Advanced Clogging. Oakley had her clog camp this week and her teacher thought her group was good enough last year to start advanced. When I got there there were a few ladies that I clogged with a year ago (I had to quit because clogging + young womens = too much!) that were going to try it. So, I paid the money and joined in. I have to say.....my brain DOES NOT remember clogging steps like it use to. I can do the steps fine, it is remembering what comes next that gets me! :) Oakley did great though and it was alot of fun to do it together. She would help me remember the steps to practice at home. I have to admit though.....I AM SOOO SORE!!

Another 1st that isn't this week, but we have been preparing for it this week is 4H Camp. Oakley has never been and gets to go next week. I decided to tag along as a leader (someone has to check her blood in the night.....I didn't figure anyone else wanted to do it!). We are taking a couple cousins and a few friends and are SO EXCITED!! Plenty of pictures to follow I promise!

This is My Life

So, 12 years ago when I signed-up to marry Ryan Hawkins there were ALOT of thing I signed-up for that I didn't realize I was GETTING MYSELF INTO!! Hauling cows every spring is one of those things! This it the type of thing though that over the years has become part of my life. The "Men" having JUST ONE MORE MEETING to talk about what we are doing around here. This is one of those things that I think we could TOTALLY AVOID if a girl ran this place!:)
Three of the kids waiting VERY PATIENTLY in the bed of the semi for their daddy! They LOVE hauling cows to the ranch because of the ride in the semi. Dallin has turned into "one of the men" and is ALL BUSINESS....so, he rode to the ranch this year with his uncle Chase.

This is Dale - just being Dale - riding on the ropes of the semi trailer after unloading this truck. Dale is Ryan's right-hand man. I can't even imagine doing this whole "Ranch/Farming" occupation without Dale by our side.
This is my tough and rugged cowboy! He was doing the "pour on" (if you know cow language you will understand...if not....no biggie...you really aren't missing out by not knowing!) and I was doing the counting. That is why there are no pictures of actual cows....I can't take pictures of them and count them at the same time. :) I wonder if Ryan would have known that if he still would have married me! :) Ha, ha!!


After the semi ride this is their 2nd favorite part of hauling cows. They LOVE to run free out here in all this wide open space. They would disappear and I would yell for them to come back and they would have been makin' an outdoor potty or picking wildflowers, etc. They LOVE the ranch! This is one of the parts I am SO GLAD I signed-up for!!

How can you NOT love this life?? Culverts, creeks and my 4 year old!!

Another part of ranch life is the opportunities my kids get to learn and grow. This is my little D standing next to uncle Chase's work truck. Dallin has been working his little guts out since the day school got out. He has been fencing, water changing, spraying weeds and branding cows. This day was the 1st time he got to drive uncle Chase's truck all by himself. I sat next to him on the seat, but that was it....he did great for a little 8 year old driver.

So, THIS IS MY LIFE - AND - I AM LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.....THE PARTS I SIGNED-UP FOR - AND - THE PARTS I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT!!

This is one of two posts for today, so make sure and read on!

Parade Day

We had one of our local parades on Saturday and Oakley and Rhett participated in it with their clogging teams.

It took the parade FOREVER to start.....so, this is Laiklie and I, just chillin'!
This is Oakley (in the middle with bandanna) dancing on the float. I was yelling her name and she obviously couldn't see me! :)

Afterwards their dance groups got to dance at the park as part of the afternoon entertainment. This is Rhett (cow) and Laiklie's group doing their Old McDonald dance. It was perfect for a small town parade and rodeo.

This is our shy little sheepy, Laiklie. She is the one on the left.

That night I took the kids to the rodeo. I am just sayin'.....it was the most lame rodeo we have been to yet!! The speaker system didn't work, so they were almost 2 hours late starting.....then we had to sit an hour through all the Rodeo Queen announcements because they were suppose to do that an hour before the rodeo started. There were NO bull riders.....only one saddle bronc rider and only two bareback riders....and one of them had the horse he ride break its leg. So, the highlight of the rodeo was the little mutton busters! We may have to try to hit another - hopefully better - rodeo before too long.