Taylor Swift and Coldplay

Check out this fantastic video from You Tube:

Jon Schmidt is awesome!!!

They're back!

They are back and in full force.

Senior Night

Tonight was Senior Night at the high school. Mara was responisble for the planning and did a fantastic job. Soda Pops sang, Mara did the intro, Jim spoke, Mara showed the powerpoint presentation she has been working on for weeks, and the choir sang, the valedictorians gave and opening and closing. It was a smashing success! I thought I would post Mara's graduation announcements that she designed and sent out. I'll say it again - I can't believe we are here already. Graduation on Friday!

She is amazing!

Jim & I attended honors night at the high school tonight with Mara Mae. She was called up quite a few times - here is the list of the awards:

Ms. Soda High
Senior Class President 2008-2009
Yearbook Editor
United States Government
Accounting
Academic Letter(with 2 bars & 2 stars)
High Honors Graduate

She has worked hard over the past 4 years, and it is nice to see that the faculty and administration have noticed her and recognized her for the efforts. Ms. Soda High is pretty cool - that is voted on by the entire faculty. They pick one outstanding girl and boy from the senior class for that honor. It is hard to believe graduation is next week. I'm so proud of our beautiful grown up girl!

Elk

Mara snapped this shot on the way home earlier this week - we've seen quite a few elk in the past little while. I guess summer is really coming. A little closer to fall, I love sitting outside and listening to them bugle at night.

Branding Day 2009

Saturday was branding day again - I just can't believe another year has gone by, seems like I just did a post on branding. It was a beautiful day - sun was shinning, but stayed cool. Seth was a little under the weather, but worked hard anyway. We had quite a crew - Buster & Pat, of course, Jim and all of our bunch, Jim's sister Ruth with Mike and Raleigh, and the neighbor Gerald Jensen. We started the day by sorting off the calves and feeding - then ran all the cows through the shute and replaced eartags. That was a great project - the tags were getting hard to read. We then had a little break before starting the calves - got busy and worked a little over half the calves. Pat fixed a delicious lunch and we all had a little break. We finished up in the afternoon, and got back in the house around 7 that night. Everyone was exhausted, but at the same time, it is one of the more enjoyable days each year. Like usual, I had the camera out a time or two:

Gerald & Buster discussing something

Seth finds time to grin while a bull becomes a steer??!!

Shelby, Raleigh, Megan & Gerald spent the afternoon pushing calves to the shute.

Freckles and her new bunch - 7 cute little ones!

Mara, Jim & Gerald taking a break on the porch - Look @ those begging dogs - Mara was feeding them Jalapeno Cheetos!

This is our neighbor Gerald - Mara says she is weird - she is the only tenager with 80 year old friends.

the onery look?

those pose - then a real smile (he's awful cute!) - my kids would roll their eyes

Pat & Ruth - Megan & Me

Megan waiting patiently - Shelby waiting to push cows in the alley.