Tree House Museum

The Tree House Museum, whose name is misleading at best, features almost everything but trees. With the one exception of a giant tree house that doubles as a staircase set in the middle of the building there is almost no other reference to plant life at all. I felt very foolish (much like I did when I saw Fiddler On The Roof expecting a comedy and sat wondering at intermission when it was going to get funny) as I was expecting to become educated on the many different kinds of trees and which ones were best for building tree houses in. However, this was a more welcome turn of events than the previous mentioned mis-understanding as this meant that it would be MORE fun.

There were many different rooms, each with a different theme and complete with dress ups for young and old alike. Here are some pictures of said rooms.

What's this? The Oval Office complete with life size cardboard cut out of President Obama? Why not.

And here is the Presidential wall, recently updated with our new President's picture and the potential for one more. Who will it be? You decide. That's why they leave the question mark, so that you can decide.

The giant chess room

Turns out that Alex is only 4 inches tall, which I believe makes her a fairy rather than above averaged height human being.

Creepiest room after dark.

The royal court

The court jester (the man behind the curtain -lance - not Alex - although she seemed pretty tickled about it too)

And what would be stored in a little house with giant chicken feet sticking out the bottom? Russian dolls. Of course.

No caption, the picture really is enough.

Dress ups intended for children with Rob's best wolf face.

But everyone's favorite room was the music room. It really was fantastic and you couldn't help but want to make reckless irrational noise as seen here.

Well, that is the tree house museum, once again, not about trees. Go and have fun.

Oh and we found a turtle in the middle of the road on the way home. We rescued it from certain death and it shared a brief stay with us during which time it peed on Lance (ungrateful), scratched him to pieces, and rejected the veggies and temporary home it was provided while we searched the surrounding neighborhood for owners of a missing pet turtle, found on the internet that this turtle could be native to Utah (What? Who ever heard of flocks of wild turtles running around Utah?), and returning it again to the precise location in which we found it (off the road of course) where she was more than likely headed to lay her eggs. We also learned that turtles can also carry many types of disease. Hooray for good deeds and hand sanitizer.

4th of July Fun

My sister, who lives in Missouri, came out for the 4th of July. Since this is a rare occurrence we had to pack every second with fun. First up, a kids parade. We had the sweetest ride in town. This is the Cadillac of little red wagons complete with bucket seats, seat belts (so wiggly babies can't jump out), and an added umbrella for shade (courtesy of Emma my niece - how thoughtful). We then pimped our ride with streamers, sparklers, and a giant poster so there would be no mistaking who we were. The kids were stoked.

There was of course the Legion Hall breakfast, the renowned parade, and regular park festivities which are all Beckstrand 4th of July traditions and are not to be missed. Unfortunately, I was having far to much fun to waste time taking pictures. Sorry. Use your imaginations. I am sure what you will come up with will be sufficient.

Then of course there are fireworks, which is where Fillmore spends 98% of the annual budget. We have a firework show that rivals Times Square and is enjoyed by about 1,500 people. Our pre-firework show had an even smaller audience, but was enjoyed just as much.

On to the main event. We had staked our claim with multiple blankets, consumed our donuts, and settled in for the show. Everything was going swimmingly when we began to feel that the illusion of each fireworks flaming remnants falling down on top of our heads was no longer an illusion. We were under fire. We dodged canisters and miscellaneous bits of smoldering ash as we took shelter under the safety of our blankets, and with eyes peering out continued to watch the show. What goes great with fire? Why rain of course, which is what began to fall from the sky next. (I didn't know James Taylor had been to one of Fillmore's firework spectaculars. Make that 1,501 people) Luckily we were already under our blankets so no harm done. However, after all this it was the finale that was the real kicker. There was a problem with the last firework of the night. The problem being that it exploded on the ground rather than in the sky, shooting a terrifying but quite brilliant ring of fire out in all directions. The closest of which landed about 15 feet from our battle torn blanket. Thankfully, we didn't hear of anyone being hurt from the debacle, and all we can say is we look forward to next year!

During the rest of the week, we also managed to fit in a trip to Cherry Hill, where Alex promptly fell asleep upon arrival and remained that way for and hour and half, (thank goodness for mom's who like to sit and watch over sleeping babies) a trip to see my cousin Brianne's darling new baby, where I realized that mine no longer could be classified in that category, and the Ute Stampede.

I know, we sure know how to have a good time.

(I put this one in because my brother is so cute - he was very proud of himself for beating Emma in tetherball)

there is a big house in centerville

Yeah, it's probably not the biggest house you've ever seen, but something about where it is located and how deep it goes back just blew my mind for some reason. Also I wanted to try out the video feature on my new iphone 3gs.

"Did you just say 3gs?"

I did indeed. Suck it world.

Lance's post. No words just pictures.

figure it out yourself.

Memorial Day

Yes, this is a post about our Memorial Day adventures. I am aware this is a bit tardy, but I do have my reasons which I will elaborate a bit later. Until then, enjoy the rest of my useless information. I'll let you know when it is time.

We, of course went down to Fillmore for the holiday. This is the grave of my Grandparents, on my father's side, masterfully decorated by my brother Corbin who exclaimed proudly upon it's completion, "You see, you have your whites in the back, the reds on the sides, and your blues in the front." Brilliant. Simple and true.

This is the grave of my Great grandparents, again on my father's side. This time the real master decorator, Lance, took charge and when he was finished I seem to remember angels singing.

The excitement of Memorial Day can be too much for some people, but the fun just keeps coming with a trip out to the Farm.

This is a ditch

Mr Ed?

Fillmore horses can be tricky, and have more in common with the wild mustang, which coincidentially is our Middle School mascot (Go Mustangs!), than the tame Mares you would normally prefer. This is how we catch horses in Fillmore.

(movie coming soon - there was some problem with the import)

It is normally done much more efficiently on 4-wheelers, but we Fillmorians are also good at improvising.

Once caught they are really quite tame, especially when they are full of oats, brushed clean, and are beginning to realize that we just wanted to say hello and there is no real threat of them having to work today.

Okay, get ready. This is the part. The reason for my tardiness is because I am just beginning to be able to look at these pictures without feeling ill. What is wrong with them? Well, nothing, but what happened after was a disaster.

A cute baby and an old rusty John Deere tractor, a photo op dream. Yes, I agree the pictures are quite charming, but did you know that tractors are also dangerous? I was standing within arms reach, although you can't see it from the pictures, and she was sitting quite nicely on the seat, touching the knobs and gears within her reach. With so many new distractions she didn't have much need to move elsewhere. Lured into a false sense of security, I took my hand and eyes off of her for a split second to remove a nagging sticker from my shoe and looked up to see my baby's feet in the air as she began to fall off the opposite side of the tractor, head first toward the ground. It was like one of those bad dreams where you can't seem to move fast enough, but when I finally got to the other side of the tractor she was laying on her back in a small patch of weeds.

I still can't figure out how she missed all of the gears and shifters and fell through the 8 inch opening where the footrest used to be, the only opening on the entire tractor, and landed on her back instead of her head. I think that the angels from the cemetery must have followed us to the farm. But seriously, I am surely grateful for blessings given even when we don't deserve them.

Oh yeah, we went swimming too.