The Matheson Fam: Happy Father's Day! & A trip to St. David

Happy Father's Day to our Dad & Grandpas! That would, of course, be the Amazing Alex Matheson, Grandpa Paul Kartchner, Grandpa Rod Matheson, Grandpa Joe Blanchard and Grandpa Mac Matheson. We're so grateful for you & all of our other Grandpas that have passed on. This was a fun week for the kids. Brad & Carter got to have a much anticipated sleep-over in St. David on Tuesday. They discovered that they love goat milk (especially the chocolate variety). They also had fun working with Uncle Devon on the ranch, riding Lynx (the horse), playing at the pond, etc. Lydia, Eve & I went down on Wednesday afternoon & stayed the night. Then we all came home on Thursday. As soon as I got to St. David Carter couldn't wait to show his new-found skill of getting on Lynx by himself.

We got home from St. David on Thursday. That night Alex's brother Monte surprised us all by returning from his deployment to Iraq unannounced. What a great surprise! One of the many wonderful things about Uncle Monte is that he's usually up for wrestling matches, Celtic Pancreas Punches, sword fights, etc.

Tonight we had a Father's Day dinner with the Stephenson's & our Great Grandparents Mac & Ouida May Matheson. Monte entertained the cousins with a sword fight (the kids claim victory). The evening ended with Grandma Ouida May playing the piano while we danced the Virginia Reel, the Hokey Pokey and even an attempt at the Mexican Hat Dance. It was a fun evening.

Step 1: Put on the hackamore (with a little help from Uncle Devon)

Step 2: Lead Lynx to the fence and climb up and on

Step 3: Somehow manage to retrieve the reins (sticking out your tongue seems to really help)

Step 4: Happy Trails Cowboy Carter!

Lynx, Eve & Uncle Devon

Devon showed us some of his cool tricks. Ready . . .

Set . . .

Go!

He made it to the top but wouldn't stop to wave for the camera when he got there.

Brad & Lydia at the marsh formerly known as the pond.

Lydia trying out the artesian water. I remember (and yes, I realize that my memory is suspect) a much smaller pipe with a lot more moss to work around when getting a drink back in the day.

Brad shows off a squirt gun with the intials "AJK" written all over it found at the pond. Hmmmm . . . wonder where that came from.

Carter shows off his climbing skills in the sideways cottonwood. At the risk of inserting too much of the 'good old days' -- the branch he is sitting on used to stand nearly straight up and was a whole lot skinnier back when we used to use this tree as a bridge across the pond.

Can you find the man in the tree root? Also, you can't see it but at the end of the left-hand leg is a root that we used to use as our bench when we would pretend to go fishing back in the 'lets play house by the pond' days.