Thursday, August 15, 2019

On a scale from 1 to Pioneer, how was your family trip this summer? Yellowstone 2019



     We stayed at 5 different places, saw cousins and friends, ate fancy pizza with Rachel, got a personal tour of the BYUI Farm by cowgirl Darcy, got surrounded (insert movie quote here) by a herd of buffalo, ate great hot food cooked in our car oven, saw a bear, burned our fingers in a "hot spot" in a cold river, laughed a lot, listened to U2 LOUD across the dessert AAAND left our daughters and drove home.


Reenactment of a classic Lawrence pic.

We took A LOT of pictures
Rachels place was just like her- lovely, classy, and cozy.

A beautiful  section of Yellowstone River


Salt flats album cover

When Eric asked if he could stick his head our the sunroof and take a picture.. "Sure!  Its Wyoming!  Here you can kill yourself if you want to."

Also Eric was annoyed Mom wouldn't let him spank a buffalo OR a bear.  Lame.

Hilarious "Who Done Its" over dissapearing Oreos.

Eric- "Every pillow has a purpose.. and it's under my head."

Milkshakes at that famous place in Loomis.
Funny Jack, running away from encroaching buffalo.. "No no no!  I have a fragile body!!

Darcy in her element.  She was amazing working that farm tour.

Number of mosquitos in our camp site - 20,000
Number of mosquitos it takes to send Jack into a full emotional tail-spin - 1

Items used the most- DVDs, Ice, Bug spray, gasoline, and Mountain Dew



Calming Jackson down after mosquito attack
Colin and Darcy are a lot alike and missed eachother
Tim thought he'd rather face mosquitos than us in a tent all night.




A River Trip in Pictures.

Salmon River

The whole Gregory crew. Are our eyes open? Who's to say.
Me in the Lil' Debbie with my birthday paddle.
Me disappearing into Vinegar Rapid
Alllmost going over but not quite.















Theo with squirtgun and no willing targets.

Chris and Lucy coming up on some big water...

..and safely through.
Enjoying safety and a sandwich.
Lucy had a sick day.
But she recovered nicely.

Lunchtime.



Thursday, August 8, 2019

A Survey


Which sister would you be most likely to drunk dial?

Cl - Carrie
S - maybe beth because she's the first one in my phone
Ca - Claire. She doesn't judge and I always have weird impulses to confess stuff to her.
B - Rachel.
Th - Rachel
Lu - Beth
V - Rachel. And if you looked back over our gchats, you'd be convinced I already have.
R - her majesty, Carrie
J- it's a good thing I don't drink, because I think I would call all of you.
G- Clo (I don't remember why she's listed that way in my contacts other than that it's the name of the cow mascot of a dairy, but it makes for easy dialing)

Name a song that sounds good played loud?

Cl - Muse: Time is Running Out
S - ?
Ca - Muse is a good answer. Supermassive Black Hole is my choice.
B - U2 In God's Country
Th - Dancing Queen
Lu - All music should be played loud
V - Whatever it Takes. Imagine Dragons
R - Iron by Woodkid, or the 1812 Overture
J- Can't Hold Us, Macklemore
G- Kylä voutti uutta kuuta, Värttinä (but you have to give it a minute)

Song lyric that you like

Cl - There were 87 Advil in the bottle now there's 30 left
        I ate 47 so what happened to the other 10?
        Why do you suspiciously change the subject and break my concentration
        As I dump the bottle out and I count the Advil up again?
S - "If I'm louder would you see me?"
Ca - "and if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth, north and south, yes if I ever lose my mouth, I won't have to talk...."
B - "He's got a watch with a minute hand,..Millennium hand and an eon hand...When they meet it's a happy land...Powerful man, universe man"
Th - "Hear the beat from the tambourines, oh yeah"
Lu - "When the day has come
        But I've lost my way around
        And the seasons stop and hide beneath the ground
        When the sky turns gray
        And everything is screaming
        I will reach inside
        Just to find my heart is beating"
V - There ain't no party like my nana's tea party. Hey! Ho!
R - “All the rowboats in the oil paintings, They keep trying to row away, row away. First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up; Masterpieces serving maximum sentences.”
J- Hold on little girl, hmm mmm huh huh nuh nuh. Yeah I can't hear lyrics.
G- Othello told Desdemona, “I’m cold, cover me with a blanket
     By the way, what happened to that poison wine?”
     She says, “I gave it to you, you drank it”

Have you ever had a bad pizza?

Cl - Oh my, yes. South Dakota
S - No? I don't think so.
Ca - only once, in Colorado springs. There were ice crystals in the tomato sauce.
B - While trying to learn, I made bad pizza for 8 years..
Th - School lunch pizza
Lu - Yes. Yes. Yes
V - the one 4 yr. old Levi puked up in a hotel room in Boston. Almost ruined me on pizza forever.
R - Oh my, yes. South Dakota.
J- anything with pineapple
G- Yes, the second time I ordered a corn and jalapeno pizza at Capitan Tortuga's.

What is the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?

Cl - Guppy from the creek, I guess. Swallowed whole.
S - I don't eat weird things
Ca - grasshopper, in Thailand. Not the head though. I mean, there are limits.
B - A camp bullfrog frog that Eric killed. Tasted good, but couldn't shake the heepies.
Th - Maggot in Thailand
Lu - Same as Theo
V - Slim Jim
R - Rabbit lung
J- monkey
G- Zapote fruit I shared with a monkey

Name one place you would like to go to right now

Cl - Antarctica
S - Greece
Ca - home, to bed. Or Istanbul.
B - Sydney's apartment. Or Spain.
Th - Beth's house
Lu - Gondor
V - Shaver Lake
R - Spain, with Beth
J- anywhere in South America
G- the bakery in Vienna that makes the Edgar.

If you went to prison, what would you use your phone call for?

Cl - The Thomases. Either one of those guys can get things done on the phone.
S - to call claire. She knows things.
Ca - apparently calling the RS president. Or drunk dialing Claire.
B - I'm with Claire. Time to call in the big guns.
Th - Some type of food establishment. All I'm going to be eating for the rest of my
life is prison food
Lu - Carrie
V - I'd call dad, not that he would help, but he would be proud.
R - Yeah, Viv and Jerry.
J- I'd call Comcast and convince them to pay the prison to get me out.
G- I'd say Evan, but you'd know that I was lying.

What's the most embarrassing thing that happened to you at church?

Cl - This isn't that bad, but one time I was accompanying the choir, and the person helping to turn my pages turned one a whole line too soon.
S - I left to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting when I came back to the front where we were sitting a note was passed to me that my skirt was tucked in my underwear. I was 12 or 13.
Ca - fainting, when I was pregnant with Lucy. Out cold on the floor with a whole crowd of people standing over me.
B - I was teaching gospel doctrine and I made a claim, rough-quoting a scripture. A woman argued with me in front of the whole class and was pretty rude about it. I fumbled for a sec, couldn't find it to prove my side. Found it after church and really really wanted to send out a ward wide email...
Also I have totally embarrassed myself in front of our stake pres 4 times now.. solidifying no major stake callings in the near future.
Th - Once I didn't know the lyrics to a song for the primary program, so I just hid behind the podium. It didn't work.
Lu - Crying. Doesn't sound that embarrassing because everyone cries in church, but I have never happy cried. I only angry cry. And it tends to be pretty obvious that it's angry crying.
V - Once I had to leave sacrament meeting with a screaming kid. Just as I exited the doors, I put the child down. The thing is, my skirt was a little big for me, and as the kid slid down me, so did my skirt. Both all the way to the floor. There were 3 or 4 people in the foyer at the time.
R - This was more funny than embarrassing, but in a talk I once said, “and then, once the disciples had been eaten…”
J- As a 12 year old, I passed out and fell over  during a performance of "I never stand alone".  No one caught me.
G- I once mocked the hot chocolate at a youth activity without realizing the person who made it was right behind me.

P.S. This is Theo. I found this partial survey and added to it

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

(Not) Getting the Chickens Drunk

Rachel came to visit us awhile ago and I really didn't have anything planned to entertain her. I kept thinking about Vivian (what would Vivian do?), and how she always comes up with just the perfect outing. Rocky Mtn National Park? Too crowded. Horseback riding? Kinda expensive. I guess we could just go on a bike ride, or...maybe we could get the chickens drunk? Yes. Perfect.

After a truly fantastic lack of protest from Rachel the game was afoot. Chris supported the idea, but not to the point of actually being willing to go purchase the alcohol, which left Rachel and I in the chilled beverages section of Safeway, feeling a little in over our heads. What kind of beer do chickens drink? Cheep beer, right? So we chose the least expensive one, felt exposed and awkward getting carded at the checkout counter and ran guiltily out to the car clutching our beer in a little brown paper bag.

Back at home some questions remained. How much beer does it take to intoxicate a chicken? How do you even get them to drink the beer? How do you know when the chicken is drunk- does it just get snuggly? Or sad? We poured some beer in their water dish but they seemed uninterested. I mixed up a slurry with some oatmeal but they abandoned it after a few pecks. Finally we soaked some bread in the beer and they ate a reasonable amount...before wandering off, still appearing remarkably (and disappointingly) coordinated. These chickens would absolutely have passed a roadside sobriety test.

We looked at each other, perplexed, until Chris took a better look at the beer we were using. "That stuff is basically water, you know," he said. "The cheap stuff is about 2% alcohol."

"Can we go back to the store and get whiskey this time?!" asked a still-motivated Theo.

But the thrill had gone out of the game. We ate our dinner, watched a movie, went to bed, and mostly forgot about it until the next day when Lucy, ever noble, told me she'd brought it up in her annual bishopric interview:

"Is there anything you need to confess to the bishop?"
"Well, is it a sin to try to get your chickens drunk on beer?"
-Long Pause-
"Um. Hmmm. OK, maybe just don't do it again."

No promises, Brother Walker, no promises.


(I thought about including a picture of a not drunk chicken on here, but it would have just looked like a regular chicken, so...just use your imagination.)


Summer 2019

San Diego! Cayucos! Yellowstone! Salt Lake City! Cousins Camp! Harry Potter World! Madera! Salmon, Riggins, and Rexburg Idaho!

Summer 2019 ranged far and wide, and a good time was had by all. What are your memories from the last few months? Pictures needed.

Carrie and the kids spent a week hanging out in San Diego. We slept in a tent in the garage and watched Women's World Cup games every day. We scoured the city for 40 dark chocolate bars for Jerry's birthday.

The Rees Family had fun taking visitors to the beach, enjoying their best blackberry harvest to date, and trying out new skills at the local track and fields meets.

Highlights of Cousins Camp: the Flinch game. The story of Carolyn capturing a bullfrog shirtless at 2am for the Flinch game. The Great Ashby Family Baking Show. The lip sync battle, with Hal as Bon Jovi. The weather. Building the raft that actually floated. Gail, Mere, and Carolyn reenacting the road trip with Grandma. Rachel was casually informed that the bed she slept in was "the one Cousin Leslie was conceived in".

We floated the Salmon river for 90 miles.
Theo enjoys safety, and a sandwich.


Couch time at the beach cabin.



Wizarding World. Just what you'd expect, but somehow even more expensive.
Memorable CC Lip Sync
Beat boxing sale open




Beth and Sarah saved Rachel from 4 hours of waiting in the Fresno airport

Lawrences were orphans for the Beach this year, but had their first whole family vacation in years.  Yellowstone, Rexburg, SLC - dropping Darcy and Sydney off at college. 


Sydney comes to live with Rachel!