Summer Time...Summer Time... Fun, Fun Summer Time

Hope you all had a great Fourth. We sure had fun. Kyle did make it back from North Dakota in time to help his dad bale hay for a few days, then we headed to a friend's house for a great BBQ and spectacular fireworks. They live next door to a prominent business owner in town who puts on a fabulous fireworks show each year from his house on the hill. He gives a free meal to all Veterans and anyone can come in and watch the show he pays to have professionally put on. It is rumored this year he spent $50,000! It was great, and we were right underneath it all. It was by far the best show I've seen, and Beckett slept through the whole thing! They didn't start until about 10 pm, so it was a long night and Nattie stayed up for it all. Anyway, I took the kids to a parade in Ten Sleep earlier in the day, and here are some pics...

Daddy and the munchkins...


Natalie and her friend Addison roasting marshmallows. The BBQ was at our friends Cassidy and Travis's house, and it was good so see and visit with so many people.

Natalie and Beckett waiting for the parade to start...

Sorry, this one is out of order. It's from the week before when my cousin Rene and her family came through and visited. She has three fun boys who loved our big dogs and played great with my kiddos. Spencer and Natalie are only a couple of months apart. They live in Washington and were on their way to Yellowstone.

Momma and her good friend Amanda at the fireworks

I tried to get some pics of the fiasco, but of course these don't do the event justice. It really was spectacular.




Here are some swimming pictures from this week. We've been without any rain or thunderstorms for a while now and the hot dog days of summer have set in! We've been spending early mornings at the park, swimming and on the bike path. Natalie rode 2 miles by herself on her trike this week! I had to help push her up one of the bigger hills, but for the most part she did it all on her own. I was so proud of her. I had Beckett in the stroller and did a bit of jogging behind her...she can really put the pedal to the metal on her trike! She gets to start swimming lessons next week. We've also had some fun playdates while Daddy has been gone so much. He got home again last night and is off this weekend, so we are happy about that. We have two weddings to go to tomorrow and will probably head out to Hyattville Sunday. We had more company last weekend when his good buddy Matt from college drove through with his wife Beth and son Samuel. Samuel and Beckett are only a few weeks apart, so they had a lot of fun together. They all spent the night and it was really nice to catch up and visit. Nattie was 9 months old when we went up to Montata for their wedding!

I'm trying to get as much jewelry done this week as I can for a show next Saturday, then I head straight from there (Riverton) to Pinedale to see some old friends I have not visited for a while. It will be my first weekend away from Beckett! I'll be so busy I think it will be fine. I think between Kyle, Jill and Guy they can handle it. I also have a JOB INTERVIEW next week! I hope to work online teaching English to Asian students. It would be part time and I can work late at night when the kids are in bed, which is perfect. MY ideal shift would be 10 pm - 2 am, but we'll see what they give me ( if I even get hired!). It's a great company based here in the Basin that has really expanded a lot over the last couple of years. I remember reporting about it when they first started and I worked at the paper.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell from the Tharp family! We're getting really excited about our Portland trip at the end of the month. Hopefully I will post again before then, but no guarantees!

"The best relief from life was the presence of a friend who seldom asked us for more than we could give." ~Barbara Raskin, American writer

Hello Again

Yes, We are still here, just too busy to sit inside at the computer to post on the blog! It has been a fun few weeks with lots of exciting news...Beckett got two teeth in one day right after I posted last time, and he is very close to crawling now. I thought he might go straight to walking because he stands up so well, but it looks like all that time spent crying on his tummy in crawl position may actually pay off. He's just a bit "relaxed" about the whole thing...not like his go-getter sister was. He had his 9 month checkup and is 19 pounds and only grew 1 inch in the last 2 months, so he's slowing down a bit. He is still in about the 80th percentile for height. Hard to believe he'll be a year old in not too long.

Aunt Karrie and Madison came back last week for Grandma and Grandpa Tharp's 60th anniversary party, which was a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of family from near and far and we had a big BBQ at the hot springs park in Thermopolis. I had my first double-header softball game Tuesday, and Karrie and Grandpa Guy came in to watch the kids since Kyle was one of our umpires! We are a pretty inexperienced team, but we had a blast...though I'm a little sore. It is definitely a game I wish I had gotten into earlier. I even made it to second base! I wasn't quite sure what to do when I got there, but luckily you're allowed to have people yell at you from the sidelines to tell me when to run! I've had 4 games now and haven't struck out yet! Anyway, here are some snapshots of the last 3 weeks...


Our attempt at having a family photo of grandparents with the grandkids at the anniversary party. Little Madison didn't really think it was a good idea at the time...

Here are Phyllis and Eddie with their five children (Pam, Jeff, Steve, Guy, Terry)

Adorable baby boy...

And adventurous big sister...notice how high the river is. It was all the way into the parking lot and grass lawn at the park.

Aunt Karrie and Aunt Teresa (Jeff's wife. They live in Colorado)

Our little family photo...

And I just love this one!


For Father's Day we headed to the lake after church to do some fishing and a BBQ. It was a great day to be outside and we all had a lot of fun. This one is definitely a framer of Daddy and Nattie in our new boat. Yes, we've been storing a boat for more than 7 years for a friend of Kyle's who ended up not moving back here. He signed over the title to us last week! Needless to say, Kyle is pretty excited.


Our little fisherwoman...she caught quite a few that day. She just loves it and wants to do it all herself. It was fun to have Madison join in this time. I took Beckett home after a few pictures...too much fun in the sun and he was ready to be done.

Kyle got some new weed spray this week to take care of our "jungle," and some of the dye is still there with the morning dew, which of course makes Bella look like a complete freak! It doesn't show on Katie nearly as much, and it is harmless at this point.


Nattie and her waffle this morning. She was jellous that I took a picture of the dog and wanted one of her.

She and Beckett will head to a sitter's house tonight while we go to the Big and Ritch concert! It's our anniversary celebration, and it should be a lot of fun. We're gonig with Guy, Jill and Karrie. Not much else is new...Natalie is done with her music class and will start swimming in a few weeks, and I'm trying to get some more jewelry done for a show in mid July. I had one a few weeks ago that didn't go very well. Kyle was gone so I had both kids, which was not ideal. I wasn't selling much so I packed up early and headed home. That was good because I missed the downpour about an hour later! We'll see how the next one goes. I'm doing some custom jewelry for a wedding that Mandy is in next month, and I'm really excited about that.

My cousin Rene and her family are driving through this weekend, so we'll have dinner and visit for a while Sunday. We have not seen them in a few years and are looking forward to catching up. I may try to make a trip to Pinedale to see a sick friend sometime next week, which I desperately need to do. He has been sick for a long time and I didn't make it down there last summer. I also have to congratulate my dear friend Emi in Pinedale who just got engaged! We've been friends/penpals for 20 years now. Another congrats to my beautiful friends Karen and Seth on the news they are expecting a baby girl in November! Karen and I went to high school together and she is one of the few that I still keep in touch with! Can't wait to see all of you Portland crowd when we visit next month!!! We are also very proud of Auntie Hannah and her STELLAR test scores to end her first year of nursing school. I know you will be a fabulous nurse.

Hope you all have had a great June and are planning a fun 4th of July! Hugs to all.

Lots of Firsts

Well, sorry for being a bad updater lately, but we've had a lot going on! We've had a few weeks of firsts in the Tharp Clan...Beckett's first Cowboy Carnival, Cousin Madison's first horse ride, Natalie's first music class, my first night away from Beckett and our first pony just arrived yesterday! Kyle was gone in Rock Springs last week, was home for 2 days then left again for North Dakota, so it's just we three amigos again for a while. Hopefully he'll be home by this weekend. The weather has been icky (yes, we do need the rain), so we're going to try and hit a matine movie this afternoon just to get out of the house! We'll see how long Beckett lasts. We're all finally (mostly) over the colds we've had for a few weeks, and Karrie and Madison left just yesterday again and we miss them already! Here is a recap of our "Life Way Out Yonder..."


Kyle and Nattie found the first water snakes of the season, which Natalie wanted to keep and name. However, Daddy convinced her that they did not want to live in the house (nor did Mommy want them to live in the house) so they let them go in the irrigation canal.

Cowboy Carnival was a wet one again, so our numbers were not that great. It was a good time, though, and here is a picture of Guy and Aunt Pam riding his two three-year-olds in the horse race. We were shocked that Buford beat JJ because he's such a lazy little guy sometimes, but he proved himself! In the later race Pam was neck and neck for first place and they called it that she got second. We all thought differently, of course!

Here is Natalie on a pony at the Cowboy Carnival. This is pretty much what Chocolate looks like, or will look like once we get her broke to ride next year...

Madison petting a little calf...

And Beckett hanging out with a cracker waiting for the races to start.

The lovely cousins dressed up and ready to dance to our new favorite band that Grandpa Guy discovered...Michael Franti.

I went on a little retreat with some of my MOPS mommy friends this past Friday for one night. We stayed at the Circle J Ranch in Ten Sleep, right along the Ten Sleep Creek. It was so high and fast with all the spring runoff...but very beautiful. I was OK with that first night away (wondering how Kyle was doing) but was itching to get back the next morning! We stayed up late chatting, and I went on a walk to get some pictures and did some reading the next morning before our late breakfast. It was really nice.

And the kids and I went to get Chocolate yesterday. It took a little bit to get her in the trailer, but once the was in she was fine. She seemed pretty calm when we unloaded her and she and Momma Stormy are now pasture mates. Here they are taking a nap...

And here's one a little closer. She's only one year old and not broke yet, but once it dries up outside we'll go out and start grooming her and getting her used to us. She's never once whinnied for her old friends and seems right at home here. NAtalie keeps opening the back door to yell hello to her. On the way out there yesterday she kept singing "we're getting my pony...we're getting my pony today!" It was too cute. She's definitely a horse lover at heart.

And here's our not-so-baby Beckett. He'll be 9 months old tomorrow! I just can't believe it. He still has no teeth yet, is eating lots of baby food and mushy bananas and loving to play with big sister. They laugh a lot together now, which is really fun to see.

Natalie had her first music class yesterday and had a blast. Parents awre encouraged NOT to watch so the kids can do their own thing, but that's OK because my friend Amber's girls are doing it too, so we get a little mommy chat time! She came out saying she had so much fun and can now say the word "instruments" perfectly! She got to play the cymbals. I think it's so important to encourage music and arts for kids. I can't wait for the December concert. In other news, Kyle is now fully recovered from his surgery and much more comfortable now! We're so excited to have a date night the 25th to go to a Big and Ritch concert with Guy and Jill. We even have a sitter all lined up. That's about it for all of us. Hope you all have had a great few weeks and a good start to the summer vacation! Hugs to all.

"Let your children observe you being generous to those in need." ~Unknown

Going...going...going...back, but still going

The last two weeks have been very busy but equally fun! We went to see Cousin Madison and Aunt Karrie and Uncle Chad for a few days, then headed over to Colorado from Nebraska to see Kyle's cousin Austin graduate and spend a few days there for a family reunion of sorts. The only ones missing from the Tharp clan were Grandpa Eddie and Uncle Steve. We even got to see Austin's last baseball game. He's very good and hasn't yet decided which college scholarship to take, but he has a lot of offers. It was a lot of fun to visit with everyone...and I decided Holyoke would be a great town to move to if we had to! Uncle Jeff is on the school board and an arts council. They have an arts center, indoor pool, great children's park, fun coffee shop and a Methodist church. We'd be all set! I even heard they have a decent vet in the area...(Uncle Jeff is a vet). It's a beautiful little town about 90 minutes out of Denver, so if Schlumberger falls through...it's a long shot, but I did find my dream log home for sale on 40 acres. Just enough to build an arena...oh the dreams.

Anyway, we made it back last Monday and Kyle had his "snip snip" surgery Tuesday and has been home recovering for the last week. It all went well and he can now say he's in the elite group who MAY understand a bit about childbirth, although the 9 months of crud before the actual birth is deleted for them. At any rate, he was a trooper and is recovering well and will be back to work tomorrow. I've been going like mad getting ready for the Cowboy Carnival next weekend. The weather has been beautiful, so we hope it stays for a while. It has been great to have the kids outside to run off some energy, and Beckett still has no teeth! He did have one poke through a couple of months ago, but it went back and we haven't seen any since. Here are a few pictures from our travels and a few of the kiddos...

Beckett finally fits into the hat the Forshee's gave him, but he has figured out how to flip it off his head. If he's distracted he'll leave it on, but he sure does look cute in it!

Natalie and Beckett getting silly on the couch. She loves to play rough with him and can't seem to remember that he doesn't always like to "be messed with." He'll put up with it for a while and then just let out a horrible scream like his right arm is coming off. Just wait a few more months until he's mobile, then the fun will really begin!

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Teresa were wonderful hosts and loved visiting with the kids. We don't get to see them much, so it was special to have that time. They have a great trampoline in their yard that Natalie could NOT stay off of. I think she spent a few hours straight out there.

Grandma Jill with Nattie and Maddie

Beckett with Cousin Austin, the graduate. We were all so proud of him when he was surprised with a Citizenship Award from the VFW. He was the only one to receive it, which was an honor. If I was this proud of my husband's cousin, I can only imagine the tears that will come at my own kids' graduation down the road! I know it's a ways away, but I just kept thinking how young Austin was at our wedding and now he's off to college! Time just goes by too fast. Jeff and Teresa have done a great job with their boys. All of them are great people. All three of them who were there loved to play with the kids and were happy so have us there...gentlemen. Dylan (sorry, I don't know if that's spelled right!) held Beckett for the whole graduation, and Logan loved to play with him on the floor.

Natalie and Madison getting crazy in the motel room

Our "date" pictue...all dressed up for graduation

Guy and Jill with their whole family...Karrie, Chad, Madison and us with our kids

Grandma Phyllis with Austin

Dylan, Kyle, Jill and Beckett

Hope you all have had a great last few weeks and are getting ready for the end of school and summer vacation...Auntie Hannah, I know you are! Natalie has her last day of preschool this Thursday, then she's doing dance and swim classes this summer. She's so excited. Hugs to everyone!

Too Much Fun!!!

Well, we had such a great time with Karrie and Madison this past week. We're really going to miss them, but we're headed to their house in just a few weeks, so I guess we can hold out until then! Saturday we spent all day in Hyattville and Natalie caught a big trout. She was so proud and had no problem gobbling him up for dinner tonight. We then headed to Powell to help Grandpa Chauncey dock his lambs Sunday, and I called up Lauren and Blake to see if they wanted to "meet half way" and visit a bit. It was a great time. Just a bit windy, but otherwise fun. Here are some pictures...


Nattie with her prize trout...she is such her daddy's girl! Maybe Beckett will like to go to horse shows with me...he he he

I just thought this little guy was so cute...right before I grabed him for his docking!

Here's part of the crew: Great-Grandpa Chauncey, Kyle, Grandpa Guy and Aunt Karrie

A shot of most of the herd...

Blake and Beckett hanging out to watch the action. Brune and I got to help for the first bit, then the kiddos were done being outside in the wind. It was so fun to see Blake and Beckett play together since they're only a month apart. By the way, since Beckett has been dubbed "Spike" we all got a good laugh realizing since his middle name is Lee he's now Spike Lee.

Momma holding a lamb for Nattie to pet. She just loves being out in the thick of things and will be a good hand in a few years.

Here's little Blake getting her first look at a lamb up close and personal...I don't think she was very impressed!

We're headed out to help some other friends brand tomorrow (well, I think I'm on kid duty, so I won't be much help this time). I love spring! I really do look forward to these yearly traditions. We hope you all had a fun weekend and are looking forward to a fabulous week. Hugs to all.