The Thatchers: September-October

Showing Carrie she likes the shorts she gave her.

First free dress day at school.

Anne's cross country jersey

Preschool

Anne's first cross country race. She did so awesome!

When I asked her how it was she said "It was fun!" :)

Apparently this was belt buckle day.

Camping trip with our buddies the Taylors up by Strawberry reservoir.

For future sake: Back: James, Isaac, Ian, Anne, Sarah, Front: Me, Julia, Rachel, Zac

I think this was watching BYU football. They had a great season in 2020.

Another cross country race

Cantelopes from the garden. Best I've ever tasted. So sweet.

Not my favorite yard chore.

The girls loved playing piano duets using the computer. It was like Rock Band but for piano.

Our crazy mean turkey. When he was full grown he would go around trying to peck people. It wasn't hard butchering that one.

One day they harvested all our pears. So yummy!

We discovered this cool Elk farm in Lindon.

Utah Lake

The fire on the mountain right next to the Walmart near our home. So crazy. We had so many close fires that year.

The next day.

Rachel liked the skirt Jen gave her.

We had to sell Dakota. She bucket off Zac and hurt his forearm and hamstring pretty good. He also bucked off our teenage friend. Plus she and Sally did not get along and they were both getting pretty beat up. So we sold her to this super nice family in Heber. They had yaks!!

She is so much happier in her new home. She was put in with a mule that put her in her place :)

The girls on Anne's cc team. They ended up finishing first in Regionals and

States!

Anne's Birthday! 12 years old! She opened up one of her presents before school because it was a new belt for her to wear to school.

Anne really wanted to get all dressed up and go to a fancy place to eat. Olive Garden it is!

So proud of the lady she is becoming :)

Anne's cake

Rachel helped me make it

This was often how the girls chose to dress for their free dress days. With their masks they looked like little bandits :)

There were some crazy hills for some of her races.

Apparently Mashed Potatoes wanted to go to 4H

The girls went with me up to Idaho to pick up hay. I got smaller sized bales so they could help haul and stack it.

Soccer season. Yes that's Zac laying in the goal.

Zac and I spent a day riding in our friend's Tom's beautiful property for our anniversary.

Man I love Utah.

Grandma Russell made Rachel a show shirt for States. I turned out amazing!! And yes Rachel qualified for States!

I have so many of these pics, haha. Sushi is just so pretty.

Rachel braided Sally's main after washing her to make it all crimped and pretty.

Regionals!

So proud of how hard she worked this season.

Taking Sally to States!

Our buddies Julia and Bridget got to come with us as volunteers.

Sally's pretty new halter and lead rope.

Sally had never really been in a stall so she had a LOT of energy when we got her out.

It was so nice having our friends there especially Bridget who is much more of a horse woman than I am.

Warmup area

Sally was so good.

Not all the events went how we thought. Sally struggled with barrels. We think the red color really freaked her out. She kept backing up till she hit the sensor so Rachel was disqualified. But she did great in Pleasure and Keyhole. During poles she ran back and bucked her legs up in glee it looked like, haha.

It was a long two days.

Day two the speed events. The first day were the judged events.

States was up at Golden Spike arena where there is also a race track.

Such a puppy.

She's getting so old.

The girls' buddy Sophie who was a Senior that year.

So hot and tired.

Fun times.

Rachel ended up winning 9th place for her knowledge test. She only missed one bonus question on the whole test.

Her friend Kaycee did awesome and got I think ninth in Barrels.

Beautiful end to a crazy and fun weekend.

Putting up Christmas decorations at Jennifer's.

Rachel had such an awesome soccer coach that year, Marc Allen, that really worked with the girls at improving their skills. They finished 2nd in their league.

I wish I had more pictures of this day, but this is our Fall Festival we had at our house to earn money for a new puppy. We gave horse and pony rides, had our friend's petting zoo, games, and homemade treats.

Someone's cool yard that we drove past.

We dressed up as the two main characters in the hit show we had been watching, Stranger Things. Zac is a total look-a-like for Sheriff Hopper and gets told by strangers all the time how much he looks like him.

Trick-or-treating

Left to right: Bridget, Zac, Me, Jen

Anne, Julia, Sarah, James, Rachel, Isaac

Helping put away the animals after the festival.

Our friend's elpaca Michael that we had for the petting zoo.

Yummy treats that we sold.

Halloween night at 4h

Merida :)

Dressing up for school. Merida, Mavis, Princess Wedding Ballerina

This girl makes some super tasty chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. She sold a lot at our festival.

These are just pictures of the inside of the annex. Thought it would be cool to save them.

Making signs for the festival.

Monopoly time.

They love raking up leaves and putting them in orange bags to make into pumpkins.

Anne's creation

Rachel's pumpkins she grew in her pumpkin patch. They were awesome. She planted, weeded, and watered her patch all summer.

Fixing the truck in the shop. This man sure is handy...and cute.

Godzilla turkey

The kids put on an Aladdin play for our renters Nate and Aspen and their friends. Sarah memorized a whole monologue.

Rachel played some of the songs on the pinao.

Anne was the geanie, Sarah was Jazmin, James was Aladdin, Rachel was other characters like the bad guy and some others.

New CTR rings

Hunting Trip 2020. Once again we didn't see a single buck. But boy was there a lot of beauty up in Kamas. We must've hiked at least six miles a day all over those mountains.

We did come across a very sickly moose.

And a chipmunk

Cool fossiliferous limestone

We slept in the truck.

Early mornings

The truck's heater went out so we went back to Heber to Loren's house to see if he could help us fix it. We stopped to see our old horse Dakota. She looked very happy :)

We don't know exactly what these were but they were all over the place, just piles of cut down trees.

These pictures are all backwards. This was our dinner before we headed into the wilderness.

Good name :)

Heading out

We celebrated Zac's bday before we left. He got lots of fun toys.

We went out to breakfast before we headed out. Grandma Russell was awesome and came to watch the kids while we were gone.

Rachel's "Tiniest pumpkin in the world"

Saying goodbye to my boots.

Their replacements.

Harvest from the garden

I love making and eating homemade spaghetti sauce

Testing out the guns before we left.

Making a super cool art project with some friends from church.

Cute llama cookies from our buddies.

Rachel's soccer team after their championship game at the end of the season.

Rachel had a lot of fun this season. She really improved her foot skills and became a dominant defender, and also scored a couple key goals. She loves playing!

Anne's cool death mask she made for school when they were learning about Egypt.

James got to be one of Aunt Jennifer's patients.

Rachel riding Reigna, our friend's new Shetland pony.

Their cute mini horse Odin. Olivia's horse Chief kept wanting to lick him, haha.

Anne making her death mask. Yet another thing I thought would totally freak her out and she did just fine.

James loves doing bunny zoos with me.

Blue Lake Trip 2020

Jen went diving with Zac. The water was so warm! It was a beautiful area and we were the only ones there! The horse flies and mosquitos were insane though.