Our Ultimate Life: Burley Beal Time

Beckham turned 10 months old! Oh my cute baby boy.

Last week Keaton and Amanda came to visit! We made plans to meet up with Chase in Burley so the three of us could hang while he was in Idaho and all our kids could have some cousin fun. We left for Burley after school on Wednesday and got in around 7:00; just in time for the kids to play for a bit before bedtime. Thursday was originally going to be spent at Baby Animal Days but they were canceled because of the yucky weather so we went bowling instead! It was so fun - Emmett got a strike and a spare, I did not get a single strike or spare, and much to Chase's dismay Keaton destroyed us all. That afternoon the men took over the children duties and we gals went shopping. I copied Rachel and got a home décor piece that's basically exactly like hers. I was even lucky enough to find some exercise and Sunday dress clothes and some outfits for the boys. It was so fun! When we got home we took the kids for a walk on the green belt while Justin stayed behind to set up an Easter egg hunt. We timed it perfectly between the walk and the hunt getting the only good 30-minute window of the day. As soon as the kids finished it started snowing! We had fun chatting until midnight until we finally crashed for the day. We left the next morning after Rachel let Amanda and me raid her clothes she was ready to donate. We loved spending time at their house - it was perfect for hosting all of us. Rachel has it all remodeled so modern and cute compared to how they bought it.

Saturday was our Easter egg hunt! Keaton and Amanda's extra help made a difference in the set up time. Again we absolutely lucked out with the weather and our timing. We woke up to snow but by the time we were setting things up it was melted off. We had our hunt at 1:00 and at 2:00 it started raining! So so lucky! We had a great turnout and as long as we do I think we will keep throwing it. Keaton and Amanda came over so Keaton could shoot some guns and Amanda helped me make lemon-raspberry cheesecake for Easter dinner. From there we went to Mom and Dad's and played games - even Mom and Dad played! We played Timeline, Slapzi, and Mom even lasted a few rounds into Rage before tuckering out.

Sunday morning the primary sang for Sacrament meeting. We sang Peace in Christ and they did great! I did an Easter review singing time by putting names of songs in Easter eggs and selecting kids to come up and pick one to open to see what song we'd sing. I also had a puzzle I made of Mary seeing Jesus resurrected and picked a kid each round to come pick a piece and work on the puzzle. Mom had us all for Easter dinner with funeral potatoes - my favorite! Sunday was pretty slow but the kids enjoyed playing with each other while they could. Emmett didn't feel well so we kept him to himself. We said goodbye to Keaton and Amanda that night since they would take off early the next morning. Amanda is due with baby girl #3 in June - so fun that we have three boys and Keaton will have three girls.

We had some predator trouble while the chickens were free ranging and our flock diminished down from eight hens to three! We looked for laying hens all over but people were only selling pullets or chicks. I had to go to Idaho Falls two days in a row for my braces and then to adjust a poky wire so I was totally burned out on driving and did NOT want to go to Blackfoot or Idaho Falls again to get birds. Well I was thrown a tender mercy because in class on Thursday one of my students Randy off-handedly said he was going to sell his already laying chickens to make room for his 4H chicks. I was walking by when he said it and pounced on him immediately: "You're selling chickens? Already laying? I want all of them!" I got his mom's number and texted her right then and there asking about how to proceed. Randy gave us his price that night and I took the three kiddos on Friday into Arco with our dog kennel to pick them all up! Catching them proved to be a challenge - they are much more wily than our chickens! But we are integrating them to our flock now and hopefully we have a successful merge. The internet says to quarantine birds for 30 days after purchasing them (too lazy) and then to have a "see, don't touch" period of two weeks where they get used to seeing each other without the ability to interact yet. I'm too lazy to wait that long so we're giving it the weekend for "see, don't touch" and depending on the weather tomorrow we might let them out to free range while we supervise to see how it goes. The pecking order will need to be reestablished which can get quite rowdy with the pecking and fighting. We are only supposed to intervene if blood is shed...oh my. We'll see!