Talent in the family

Gail, Katie, Jacob and I travelled to Pocatello to Mark's senior recital which he has to do in order to graduate. He had a duo recital with another girl. Mark is a baritone. Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Doug were there and they were bursting buttons. It was pretty impressive to hear songs sung in Italian, French, and German. The first song is in German.

Shaylee Mae's shower and such

Shower for Kelli and Shaylee was given Sept. 1
(Brandon's birthday). Shaylee was born almost
3 weeks later.

I thought I'd share some pictures of the shower
Kliss gave Kelli and other things pertaining to
this precious new arrival.


What cute girls!

Nice that those sitting on the couch
color-coordinated their pants.

Letters on wall above Shaylee's crib.

Is this baby going to be a born worrier?

Ghost riders

Can you find the cowboys who look like ghosts in this picture? We went for a ride Saturday afternoon to listen to conference and to see how the cows were faring in the snow. Here are pictures of what it looks like on "the hill". On our way home, we saw some cows who had escaped and were on their way home so Jeremy and Dad and I came back. They luckily found them again in the fog, and they trailed the cows to Luthy's corral (probably about 3+ miles) while I brought the trailer.
I took pictures of how pretty it is on "The Hill" where the cattle stay during the summer. These pictures are of the Lyman Creek grazing area we have. We got more snow in the valley than we got on the hill.













There were several other pictures but I'm spending my whole day trying to figure out how to arrange these pictures and I'd really like to know how to put a caption on a picture (help, Kliss!) so I can really express myself.

This was a very relaxing day compared to a week ago Friday when I got brave enough to go ride on "The Hill" with Dad to get a bull. I figured there'd be more to it than just sitting on a horse. I rode the horse up the road with Dad for a little bit and then he went after the bull telling me to get in the trees and out of the way. I did so and Dad promptly left me to get the bull. I sat there for a little bit, not knowing really what to do. My horse was getting "yantsy" (Uncle Theron's version of the word antsy) so I decided to go back to the trailer so I wouldn't be in the way when Dad brought the bull to the corral up there. Not too long after I got off the horse, a boy from the old ward who was 4-wheeling came to tell me to take the trailer up the road cuz Dad had roped the bull. The kid, Jonathan, took the horse and off I went. Luckily he rode the horse up to where we were cuz we needed his help. Being the cowgirl I am, I was very handy at backing the trailer around to just the right spot it needed to be.....not!!! It was pretty embarassing. Dad was yelling at me with every turn of the steering wheel and I just wasn't getting it. Poor dad had the bull choked down and luckily it wasn't too feisty or we'd have really been in trouble. Jonathan helped Dad when we finally got the trailer where it needed to be. Dad had him go in the trailer to take the rope in--with the bull still attached---and the bull followed right behind trapping Jonathan inside. His vocabulary showed how scared he was and all Dad could do was coach him to "Don't move". As soon as he could, Dad opened the side door on the trailer and Jonathan bailed out. He was one shaking, traumatized kid!

Now that the mission was successful, Dad calmly told me he wasn't really yelling "at" me, he was "yelling" so I could hear him. I was instructed that I didn't need to turn the wheel as much as I had been in order to get the trailer to go where it was supposed to go. All I know is that I could hear very well and I had no sense of how to back that damn thing up. What really saved the day was being able to laugh at Jonathan's plight trapped in the back of the trailer with a huge bull. I was really grateful for Jonathan's help. I called Dad a stupid cowboy for trying to take on that kind of a job without more help than that. I haven't heard that last of that comment either.

On "Holy Cow"

Holy Cow! How many times do you hear people say that when they hear or see or do something out of the ordinary? While I don't think to say "Holy Cow" very often, it tickles me when I hear others say it. Holy Cow has its own, very literal, meaning to me. Being married to a farmer/rancher, Holy Cow means Holy Cow. While it doesn't apply to my dearly beloved husband as much as it does to other members of his family, the definition of Holy Cow in their vocabulary is: 1. you gotta have a herd of these in order to be considered anybody of importance 2. you gotta have a herd of these in order to be considered a true, real, living and breathing cowboy 3. you gotta have a herd of these to make an honest living 4. you gotta have a herd of these to be an upstanding member of the Roy McGarry family. With that definition out in the open, I have to say that my husband has moved on to bigger and better ways of thinking as have other family members, but it was pretty much the way he and his 3 brothers were raised. When we were first married, cows were pretty important. But as we entered a partnership with his oldest brother and his responsibilities went more to farm work than ranch work, he got diversified. I am glad he did because he is much more well-rounded and realizes that there's more to life than holy cows. We are on our own now, and we have close to 300 holy cows which have kept him and Jeremy (Michelle's husband) busy, busy, busy. But, Holy Cow! he enjoys what he's doing! So, keep those "Holy Cows" in your vocabularies, use them regularly, and EAT BEEF!