Recently my husband went on an overnight trip with our 17-year-old and some of the other teenage boys in our church to southern Nevada to have a real Western experience:  castrating bull calves. They drove down (5 hours one way) on Friday night and camped on the ranch near the 81 calves who had been separated from their mothers that afternoon.  The mothers and the calves bellowed and complained all night long, which did not make for a good night's rest! In the morning, the calves were herded into a fenced yard.  The real cowboys would single out a calf, lasso him by the back legs and drag him out to the middle.  One of the boys would run out and tackle him and hold him while he got branded, got his ear clipped, got his shots, and then got castrated by the rancher. There was a lot of dust and somewhere along the way the calf emptied the contents of his intestines.  Poor calf. Later, the boys got to try the raw "Rocky Mountain oysters" as they are euphemistically call

Last weekend my parents returned from their mission in the Boston Massachusetts Mission.  They spent 23 months in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, helping people there to improve their lives and helping to strengthen the local leaders. They arrived home on Saturday where they were greeted by quite a few of their children and grandchildren:  all the local relatives plus my sister's family came from Idaho and my brother's family came from Kansas. They spoke in church the next day.  Following the meetings, our family sponsored a dinner at our house for 54 people.  My children especially enjoyed seeing their cousins. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Last month, we got a great present shortly after Valentine's Day.  Our daughter-in-law gave birth to our second grandchild!  He weighed in at 9 lbs. and was 22" long.  Recently, I got to go visit them for a few days down in Louisiana and took a few pictures.  It was a fun visit for me and I got to hang out a lot with Katie while Mom and Dad looked for a new house because they are moving.  I also got to hold the baby sometimes which was great.  He's a sweet baby and very hungry.  No worries about him growing. Here is my son and his family standing in their new house, in the doorway of their new kitchen. Here I am standing in front of the rental we stayed in.  I loved that the azaleas were blooming.