Spring Branding and Roman's Baseball

Okay. So I have some catching up to do on my posts. I sometimes get distracted by a new happening and I forget to blog about a previous happening. However, I decided that these next few things were important and I needed to revisit them for you. So here goes:

BRANDING!
So this was Ryan's first year in the family and therefore his first year to come and brand the calves. For all of you non-cowboys let me tell you a little about branding. Way back in the day the different ranches would have their own specific brand that they would put on their cows so if they were stolen, they could be identified and returned to their owner. Nowadays, every spring, our modern day ranchers on the Haslem Ranch get together to brand. Although it is an archaic practice that is in no way legally/practically required (when was the last time you saw a cattle theif?) we still have branding day.
So we have to have 2 roundups before we can get started. The first is rounding up the help. Sometimes it is hard to find people that want to give up their entire saturday to go burn cows' flesh. I can't say I blame them.
Next roundup is of the cattle. This is actually the most annoying part of branding day because cows don't have a thought in their heads except to escape. And for such large, uncoordinated animals, they are actually kind of good at it. This year was especially difficult because we didn't have anyone riding a horse. Everyone was in a jeep, or on a 4-wheeler or motorcycle. Seems like it would work just the same, but man. You can not turn and kickstart a motorcycle or 4-wheeler like you can a horse. Next year, I am definitely saddling up my pony and getting out there.
So enough gibber-gabber. We get them rounded up, seperate the mommas from the calves (so they momma's don't stomp you to death when you grab their baby) and get to. We have 2 brands that we keep going, 3 shot givers and multiple teams of calf flippers. I was a shot giver. Ryan was a flipper. Here is how it goes:
1 person grabs the calf by the back leg. Sometimes you can get kicked at this point. Actually, you can get kicked at almost every point, but this one is especially dangerous. One nailed my cousin Chase in his happy place and he was out of commission for a few minutes. Proceed with caution.
Then the flipper grabs the calf and flips it. Hence the flipper. Now the calf is being held down on the back and the front ready to be given its shots and be branded.
I then run up with the shots and pull the skin up and shoot it. Pretty darn easy. Then grandpa does the brand. It really stinks. Burning hair and flesh. Gross. But in a strange way, it is one of those scents from my childhood and I kind of like it. Crazy eh?
So I think Ryan had a good time. It is hard work for the flippers. Especially when the calves are big like they were this year. Ryan was pretty sore the next couple of days but he did such a good job! He is definetely a natural. So here are some pictures of them branding the little herd (did I mention that we have 2 herds so we actually have 2 branding days?). I didn't have to help on this night so I was able to get a few pics. Happy Viewing!



Roman's Baseball Game
Okay-so my little nephew is pretty much the coolest kid ever. He prays like he is karate kid (seriously. fist to palm and everything.), calls his dad "Chief" when he is coaching baseball, and wants to be Cosmo the Cougar when he grows up. He didn't even know that there was a person inside of Cosmo. He just though he could morph into a cougar. Awesome!
So I went to his first t-ball game just a couple weeks ago. He is such a champ. Despite being one of the smaller kids on the team, he can hit the ball really good and hard, and he has one of the best throwing arms on the team. It was so fun to watch him play. He is way into it. And he loves his new baseball pants. Super proud of them:)
Okay so here are pictures of the little rascal playing:






And now I am pretty much caught up. I just got our wedding pictures back from our photographer and so I want to show you guys those and I also have pictures from our latest jeeping trip in Moab that I still need to put up. Hopefully I will get caught up soon!

P.S.-I had this guy with a super thick accent call me yesterday to tell me that I won one million doallars and a brand new Mercedes-Benz. I hung up on him. And then he called me again! And he was kind of ticked that I had hung up. He then tells me again how UPS and Walmart have teamed up for this giveaway and I am the lucky winner of a...(click). I had hung up for a 2nd time. Then he calls me again! He is really steaming now! Continuing to tell me about how I have won this great prize and all I need to do is give him my account information and for a small delivery fee of $450 they will be able to bring me my new car and my million dollars. This time, I just covered the mouthpiece on my phone and let him sit there until he hung up. Quickly silencing my phone so I couldn't hear it, I let him call twice more before he got the hint and quit. SO FREAKING ANNOYING!!! Please. A million dollars and a Mercedes-Benz and they can't hoof the bill for the delivery? Sounds ridiculous to me! So I googled it. Totally a well-known scam. There were literally thousands of people will stories similar to mine. Variations of course, but always a Jamaican dude needing your account info for a delivery of some ridiculous prize. One story said that the guy had gotten super pissed and was yelling at him about stupid rich white people (turns out, the guy was Native American. He he:)) and how it is his job to steal their money because they are too stupid. I now feel super honored to be part of this group that has heard this scam and not fallen for it. I wonder how those people feel when they are in the other group that thinks it is for real? Sad. Really sad.

Anyway! Happy Postings!

Missionary Homecoming!

Kent is home from his mission! It was so exciting to be able to go pick him up from the airport. But wait! I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.....
So 2 years ago Kent left from the Vernal, Utah airport to travel across the pond and enter the MTC in Preston, England. Talk about anti-climactic (spelling?). He just went through the little gate and boarded the plane and he was off. That was kind of it. We didn't even get to take him to a goodbye breakfast or anything (his flight left at 5:00 am so it was a bit early for anything to be open...).
Continuing on....the two years went by pretty quickly. There were some good times (when he and his companion had something like 10+ investigators at church) and some bad times (everytime he saw an English person's nasty teeth a.k.a. every day) and some downright wierd times (when their cute little Chinese investigator confessed her love to Kent-she was golden. Just not as far as the church was concerned!) and pretty soon, all the times were gone and he was headed home. He was able to fly into the Salt Lake International Airport and actually get home faster, so we decided we would go out there to pick him up. We left pretty early on Wednesday the 5th of May and stopped in Provo to do a little shopping. While we were there, we got to say good-bye to our cousin Nate before he was dropped off to enter the Provo, Utah MTC. He will be serving in Texas.
Moving on.
We traveled up to Salt Lake and got to the airport with plenty of time. Everyone in my car wanted to be let out at the international terminal so I pulled over to the curb and booted them out. I then pulled around to find a parking place. This is where everything started to go wrong. I pulled around the little parking area and pulled in at the sign that said, “Parking/Rental Return”. Turns out it should have just said “Rental Return” because there isn’t any parking. So I had to find my way out of that. Just then, my dad calls me to ask where I am. He tells me that I’m going to miss Kent coming through the gate.
“He just touched down and he is going to be here in 15 minutes!” says dad.
“I can’t find how to get to the parking garage!” I cry.
“It is just that big tall covered parking place!” He responds.
“I know WHAT it is! I just can’t find the way to GET THERE!” I counter-respond.
I think I then mumbled something and hung up. Sometimes, talking to my dad and trying to do something at the same time just don’t mix. He isn’t a very calm reassuring person (quite the opposite-frantically worried is his personality.) and I could only focus on 1 crisis at a time. So by this time I have literally driven around the parking garage/rental return about 3 times. It has been 15 minutes from the time dad said that Kent would be here and I am having a meltdown. I am thinking things like, “Why in the crap did they send the only person that hasn’t been to the airport to park the car?” “Why has everyone abandoned me?!” and “I hate this airport!” So I’m getting more and more frustrated when suddenly these 2 parking attendants stop me. Luckily they spoke English (I stopped to ask 3 people how to get to the parking garage and none of them spoke English. It was ridiculous.) and were able to kind of direct me to the parking garage. Turns out there are 2 signs for the parking garage. You have to pass the first one by and then take the 2nd turn. Weird eh? Just then, I get a call on my phone from Benson. I don’t really want to talk to anyone right now (cuz I am crying at this point.) but I picked up. He started by asking me if I was alright and if I needed help. He then told me that I had plenty of time and we were not in a rush (keep in mind I am figuring that Kent has already come out by now.) and he can come park the car for me. I was already in the parking garage at this point so he ran across the road and found me so that I would have someone to show me where the terminal was. Thank heavens for brothers!
And that is about it. We only had one more crisis involving my mother and her phone and me needing to run all the way back to the car to get it. Turns out, if they leave their phone in your car, it is your responsibility to gather everything up and bring it to the terminal while they just relax and wait….!
Anyway. We survived. Oh-ps. We still had to wait almost 45 minutes while Kent got off the plane and through customs and everything. Thank you Dad for that little bit of added stress in my day.
And now Kent is home! There were 18 missionaries coming home that day and it was funny to wait there with all the families and getting excited every time you could see a suit coming out of the door. But he finally did and we were so excited! Hugs and kisses all around!
P.S. I think he looks skinnier and taller than when he left. So we measured. He isn’t taller at all. Weird.