But wait there's more.... Tom and the sand...

Picture doesn't do it justice, but it is the summer of black eyes. I would like to take credit, but Trev really ran into a trailer Saturday night playing tag. He has had a rough week - first the pull up bar fell while he was using it, then he was using an exercise band and it slipped and came back and slapped him in the face, then he fell out of the treehouse...I am thinking we should lock him in his room:o)

Meet Diablo II - Diablo I was quite tasty :o) Daisey visited the chicken coop and guess what happens when a chicken meets a Blue Heeler? Yup, it became a one legged chicken. I want a medal for de-feathering, dressing and frying it up :o) Move over Laura Ingalls Wilder! Did I mention Ty was so pleased to use his new BB gun to finish the poor thing off after his date with Daisey?

Hmmm, Tom is really against the picture thing....Sorry for the deluge of pictures, but I have to get caught up. Chickens, black eyes, what else did he forget, oh yeah - ballerina boy, sand box fun....



The past month has been wild, but fun. Lots of baseball, lots of rain, lots of vacuuming up sand from the sandbox. Who's idea was that anyway? What was I thinking?!?! Oh, just so it is chronicled for all time, I have to mention Tom's foray into being proactive. The sandbox sand is nearly all in the vaccum and our septic tank, so he took it upon himself to buy a few bags of play sand. I didn't even nag! First, I must mention Tom is a certified construction professional and has worked for a concrete contractor allbeit 20 years ago, but he does have experience! Needless to say, his bags of "Play Sand" were.... sanded concrete! Picture Trace's morning routine: a little breakfast, a little watching Mom exercise, Big wheel around the deck, some sand time, returns for second breakfast.... So he begins what he deems a perfectly wonderful day. One breakfast down, another coming and time for a little sand action.... Poor Trace with his little shovel hammering away at his "hard sand." I just ignored his complaints (I know poor little baby with the neglectful mom who says," I am sure it's fine. You just need to hit it with your shovel. IT's only wet. Go ride your bike and then your pancakes will be ready.") Then, Tom's face went white as he rushed passed me onto the deck....I think we won't make that mistake again. Anyway, I am looking at the fact that now there is even less sand able to make it into the house, but sad Tom's proactive moment was so short lived - at least it was entertaining!

Look he's famous....NOt sure if you can make it out, but the back of Ty's baseball teams shirts say" Turner Building and Consulting"


Ty warming up...



We never said she was a light weight

At first it was fun...( see above)

I have a feeling it will never be this clean again :o)

Don't know if Tom wrote baout our stupidity...we are raising 19 chickens...

Cute little chicken in the coop

Do you think it would be wrong to keep her in here? :o)

The treehouse finally begins..... so far only Trev has fallen out. For the record, I am NOT happy about how high it is. Tom assured me, " Kids have been building tree houses forever and very few of them die..." I appreciated that!

Isn't he precious?

Look what Tom bought for himelf for Father's day and his birthdy and Christmas and....

After much shame of having friend over for a warm - b-q ( the old grill only slightly warmed the food after an hour) Tom decided to go wild! I should have know it was bad when he walked in to the house and said,"Don't be mad, but..."

If your parents won't get you a sister ....well you have to work with what you've got :o)

Ty found a great big sphinx moth and now we know hwy she couldn't fly....lots of eggs and Ty returned them to a safe spot by the pond

almost stitches....Tian and Ty were play boxing and then it wasn't so pretend. Ty dodge the shot, but not the chair :o) Tian has proudly told everyone that she gave Ty a black eye though :o)

why go to a baseball game if you don't get to go to the conscession stand? That's Tian and Trace's motto :o)

City Museum

Sorry TJ. It is true; we went without you. Rest assured Tian on the way to the hotel that night sighed her big girlie, satisfied sigh and said in a dreamy voice," It is sad that TJ and Jinming are missing so much fun. When they get home, we will have to bring them to all the fun places we have been." It is nice to see that sweet , thoughtful side...

I still think this is the best museum ever and wish I had more pics to share, but we only brought in the camera after the....incident. This is City Museum in St Louis and we discovered it by accident, but it is incredible. It is an old shoe factory converted to interactive sculpture park/ art menagerie/musem/ aqautic center etc. We didn't even see all of it after 2 visits, but it is unbelieveable. Our favorite part is the caves...the location of the incident. THe entire section is dark and filled with concrete sculpted to look and feel like a real cave, with mystery tunnels, slides etc and water. Did I mention hidden tunnels and water? Well, Trace is with me and I encourage him to climb through into this smallish tunnel...little did I know at the end of it was a drop of with about 6 inches of water. He went in head first and every bit of him was wet. Luckily our clothes were still in the car as our hotel was about 2 hours south, but we had only brought one pair of shoes...He was a trooper and wore wet sneakers for the last hour rather than leave.

The main staircase and the colrs on the left are the bars to a 3 story slide . Yes we went multiple times. It was quite a work out
A view of the outside courtyard and the roof....we have never been on the roof, but are told it sports the overhanging bus, a ferris wheel and a water park...

Tian climbing into the caves The Swiss Family Robinson area - this is where we started and Tian and Trace stared at me with their little mouths hanging open that I would dare climb on the trees. It was awesome. It took about 3 minutes before they believed it was for real - a touch and climb on everything kind of place! The only rule is you must wear shoes :o)

This is right after Tian's sandal slipped through the bars and splashed into the pond below ( yes, there were fish in it too) In this area we are about 15 ft up in the air with only bars to climb on. We had to climb up to get to a metal tube and climb out a tree. This is where Tian lost it and I am sure when people heard my "pep talk" they were ready to help the poor helpless little Chinese girl with the drill sargent mom :o) Hey, she did lookup, squared her shoulders and made it the rest of the way :o)
the floors made we want to redo my bathroom.... and the kitchen and...

millions of shells

Tom escaping the whale

Ty's is in a tunnel that runs the length of the room

Trace in the tunnel

PArt of the sealife section - yup you can climb on everything

interactive sculptures?!?

Tian and Trace refused to climb up this - Tian told me she thought I wouldn't fit! I guess I need to exercise more...

a roller slide - it was a lot of fun until the lip at the bottom...

The outside section. My heart couldn't take going out with Tian and Trace, so Tom headed out with Ty and Trev. Trev even got Tom into the cockpit. It is a pretty scary climb

more outside

Pictures

Hmm - make up your own story as to what Tom is doing...
Chinese super twins

Well it has been awhile since I had a turn to add the blog... So I am getting caught up on pictures and

Tian and Trace-isms:

Saturday we were able to go to an A&W for a real frosty mug. Everyone had the choice of a cone, a rootbeer or a float. Tian chose a 32 oz rootbeer and Trace a cone. When the cone came Trace complained," Where's my pop." I explained about the whole ordering thing that you get what you order and he can either have the cone or nothing. He mutters and sits back to eat his cone with a nasty scowl on his face. Ty has the unfortunate pleasure of sitting next to him and added a few gibes abou how good his rootbeer is. Trace slowly takes his cone a rubs it on Ty's elbow. Ty immediately shouts,

" WHat you do that for."

Trace meekly answers," I'm sorry." Of course he repeats with an immediate apolgy.

I said," Trace."

He looks me square in the eye and says," But, I said I was sorry."

Hmm guess we nee to revisit apology 101.... Bythe way Tian downed the entire rootbeer at the thought of having to leave behind what she didn't drink. I didn't even know she cold hold 32 oz

Summer has hit Iowa and we are GRATEFUL that our AC is working again. ( Yes, it is true our was down again this year!!) Anyway, we were talking about weather or not to eat lunch outside, to which Trace piped up: " Let's eat in the shade not the hotness." I agree the hotness is not so much fun. I am very tired of sleeping slumber party style in the basement, although Tian and Trace think we should never sleep any other way....

After spending Friday morning hitting the garage sales, Trace got up Saturday morning and over breakfast said," Mom, lets go to that place where I went in lots of doors and saw stuff." At this point I am baffled as to what he talking about; he sighs at my stupidity," Mom, you know all the cool toys, lots of garage doors and I buy stuff." Then he adds with the devilish grin so like TJ's, "He could sell Ty and buy a new one today." Gotta love little brothers!

Sad when you have to go a tourist attraction to see a phone booth

The town we stayed in for Trev's dive was called Metropolis and boy did they cash in on the name :o)

Something is wrong when the town grocery has a bigger mascot that the main tourist attraction

Okay - so now you know cupcakes do not travel well in Iowa a the end of May

Trace and his shirt filled with his latest rock collection. Some people may call it gravel, but he calls them beautiful :o) No, they all miraculously did not make it home.

Trev sweating to death waiting for the final call to dive
Still sweating

Tian and Trace loving their new friend... guess why Tian loves her? You got it - Tian put it best, "I really, realy want to wear a shirt like that." Hmmm...think Trace was pretty mesmerized too.

Isn't he HOT?!?! I especially like his lips...

Tian and Trace watching from above. Tom kept the off the dock ( I wonder why) I offered to switch places and couldn't figure out why he was being so magnaminous...until the dive was complete. He let me stay in ignorance on the dock, up where he was standing the staff had set a crash cart and other equipment in case someone didn't make it !!!!! I am glad I had my stomac hache without that added info or I may have passed out.

Just a few bubbles - they are down 100 ft.

Beginning descent - Ty think Trev may have...well, released gas. (Too much Taco Bell)

The dive was a success. Trev was one of 4 students to complete the 100 foot dive and no one died:o) Trevor, however, managed to run out of air during his ascent. Once again ignorance was a good thing for a mother. It was a good experience and an instructor was close by and he actually got to use all the stuff he learned in class and is a proud member of the 100 ft Club and the "I had to buddy breath becaaue I ran out of air club"

The Winterset crew getting the WEIRD school bus ready to reurn home. Did I mention this is a re-outfitted bas with car seat attached inside to 2x4's, and a toilet in the back....I am glad we were mean parents and made Trev drive with us.

Making pizzas at the dance pre party. The missionaries came and demonstrated how to throw pizza dough-

Ty's big day

Last weekend was Trev's diving class & Ty's birthday. This weekend was pretty crazy as well. The youth had a dance in Ankeny, but held a pre-dance party at our house. Elder Widdison & Elder Stockdale taught the kids to throw pizza dough. Things went pretty well - no pizza dough on the ceiling or on anyones head:( As a quick aside we did finally get our A/C back late Thursday evening.

Ty graduated from Primary today, was recognized for completing his Faith-in-God requirements, confired and ordained to the Office of Deacon! He gave a talk in sacramant to boot! He is looking forward to passing next week.

This week only 45 people were in Church, probably due to the holiday weekend. We really felt the absence in the Branch today. Over 15 families that normally attend were not in attendance! Was a crazy Church weekend.

Grant heads for Utah this week. We are expecting the Germaines to stop by this afternoon so we can see Grant off.

Our chickens are pretty huge. We already had to eat one, ask Daisy why. She is chinese not Australian. She pulled a chicken out of the hut by its leg and ate is off. Ty and Trev finished the Chicken off - Mom gutted and prepared the chicken and served it for lunch. Yep - no typo - Mom gutted and de-feathered the chicken and fryed it up in a pan!!!!! I feel fortunate to have been out on a jobsite at the time the deed was done. I could not have done it! I do however have to admit that Diablo, aka dead chicken, was very tasty. Having a chicken hut has shown us all just how raccoon like daisy is. She is very creative in her schemes to get those nasty chickens.

We have all finished 2 weeks of our P90X excercise program. We have all been working pretty hard. It really seems pretty good and is definately intense. Tian and Trace have even tried to do a little.

Will post pic.s later

Dad

Father / Son Camp-out

What a wild weekend....( to say the least ). Ty had a baseball game Friday night. He hit an amazing double off one of the best pitchers in the league! Ty fought off several pitches and hit a double to start-off an inning for us. He stole 3rd base on a passed ball and later tried to steel home but was tagged out in a wild play at the plate!

Following the game, we had a Branch Father/Son camp-out on Lot #1 @ 3 Buck Ridge. We had 6 boys camp-out, no fathers but me. The camp-out was fun and uneventful. The evening was cool but Ty, Trev, James Rasmussen and I slept out under the stars, it was a beautiful clear night. We got up at 5am the next morning to the sound of a huge deer breathing in the woods. We went to Truro to complete a scout fund raiser event. Brian Arzani arranged for the scouts to pick-up and haul-off all of the trash ( like city clean-up in Clear Lake ).

We get to Truro and meet up with a few more boys to complete the project, Bro Arzani arranged for several trucks and trailers to haul the trash from truro to the dump in Winterset. All went fairly well them we all met up and started for our first trip to the dump. Brian led the way but just outside of town pulled over to tie down his load better. He waved the rest of us on. To make a long story short my truck and Steve Cox's truck went to the dump on a different route than the others. We got going and missed our turn off so we had to turn around. Not being expert trailer drivers Steve and I had a few issues. I led and picked a driveway to turn around in. The drive was tight and I could not back the trailer up to turn the rig completely around. ( Keep in mind it has rained over 3" in the last few days ). With limited options and time I elected to drive off the driveway and hug the edge of the road embankment to get back to the road. I put the truck in 4X and charged right on through looking at the flat portion of the ditch noticing all the water. I pulled up the road and waited for Steve to follow. He had a similar proble, that he could not manuever his vehicle back to the road either. He also charged down the embankment but took it too wide and went into the flat of the ditch and got STUCK! He buried the truck hauling a 2 ton fully loaded trailer..... 2 hours, and 2 tractor pulls later - he finally got out. We had another truck issue prior to even starting that morning! Keep in mind the dump closes on Saturdays @ 11:00am.

We finally get to the dump and I at this point am sick of driving a vehicle with a massive trailer attached. I get to the dump and need to turn the rig around to dump the load in the pile. The dump has a CAT ( bulldozer ) operator working at the pile pushing the new trash into the existing mound. Austin Hensley offers to back the truck up to the dump pile for me.... I looked at him and said why not..... He did an awesome job and that went off without issues. We unload and hurry back to Truro at this point its almost 10am. ( @ 4 hours from start to finish ) We needed to get at least 1 more load so that the job could be completed. We hurried through town collecting trash. we had a couple pay us an additional $10 to get a mattress and box spring from their garage for them! We met up with the others in town - all vehicles are back and working the streets again + Brian's wife got another vehicle and was loading up as well. @ 10:50 we meet up and Brian made a call and the dump agreed to stay open for our second load! We hurried to collect the trash and get to the dump. We get their third in line to cross the scale going into the dump. The lady working there was oh so happy to be collecting overtime $ (NOT). She yelled at all of us going in ( "you guys from Truro had better plan better for this - I should be home by now!!!!" ) After I cross the scales and get to the pile where we unload, I notice smoke. The dump's CAT was on fire!!!!!! We scramble to assist the driver to find an extinguisher. After several minutes and lots of flames the fire is put out but I'm sure the rig is ruined. We finally unload and meet at the dump entry to go home. 1 truck is out of gas ( running on E ), Brian's Expedition ( vehicle Steve Cox is driving now ) is having serious alternator issues and dies right there in the lot. We charge it via a jump and get it going. Brian goes to Winterset to gas up the truck on E, I lead Steve back to Truro to unload trailers and take boys home ( now @ 1pm ) Entire event supposed to have been over @ noon. I get to cruising home taking a fast gravel route to make up for some lost time.... Great idea! My phone rings - Steve's vehilcle is dead behind me @ 1/2 mile on a hill. Great - now I have to turn my rig around , go back, and jump start Steve's truck.... I struggle and find a place and manage to turn around, get back to Steve and get his truck started. Thjis process happened 2 more times and we decided that then Steve would lead. the truck would died at hills where the power aspect of the truck would cause it to stall and die. After the new method the truck continued this process a total of 11 jumps. We got back to Truro in about 40 minutes should have been a 20 minute trip at the worst.

No boys died, we completed the project, and have silly, funny and crazy stories to share. All finally got home a little after 2pm! Was a crazy unbelievable string of events! We can't wait to do it again next year. I really don't think there is a prayer that we could ever get steve to participate in an event like this again......

Tom

Mother's Day

Mom, Tian, Trace & Kassie Trimble

Our garden on lot #1

Tian & Trace haul'in the trash! Ty did not even have to train them.

We are becoming regular Iowa farmers. Have a big garden plot - we've planted several bean varieties, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, watermelons, and even some sweet corn. We have 19 chicken roasters we are raising - Ty, Tian and Trace and I spent yesterday trying to build a chicken hut!

Last week Trev, Ty and the Arzani boys struck gold.... A bumper crop of yellow morel mushrooms. They found over 16#s and put an add on craiglist and sold them all for $25/lb. The boys all thought we were going to be rich! Trace is our very own morel mushroom pig. He can sniff them out and find them faster than all of us. He has a real knack - maybe he can finally earn his keep......

Ty has trained his little helpers to haul the trash up to our house as well as the Gwinners. Tian does not like to be helped - she strains and makes some really cool faces as she struggles to get the "Empty" can up our driveway.

Baseball season has started. I'm coaching Ty's team, aka the bad news bears.... We have had two games rained out and have lost one game and won one that was rain shortened! We have a young team and a good group of boys.

Soccer is still going pretty well for Trev.. He seems to like it and has gotten pretty good playing time.

This catches you up with the Turner's