Hooray for the Hopi!

Last week, the boys and I went to the world cultures and peoples museum down at Byu to learn about the Hopi Indians and their Kachina dolls. Each Kachina had a specific purpose and personality traits. I had the boys pick out their favorite one, and I took their picture with it.

James liked the white bear Kachina. The bear Kachina is important because of his knowledge of plants and roots. Jesse loved the sheep herder Kachina. The Hopi believed that if they did sacred dances acting as the sheep herder they would have a good hunt. He looks pretty fierce to me.

I loved this Kachina...he is the Ogre Kachina. If he looks creepy to you, then he is doing his job. The intent of this Kachina is to scare all misbehaving Hopi children into listening to their parents. If there was a wide spread problem of naughty children in a village, he would actually appear in the spring time and scare them all straight. There was definitely a scary aura around this particular doll, because neither of my boys would stand in front of him for a picture! The museum also had on display an amazing amount of beautiful pottery found in four mile canyon. It was a fun day!

How Do Pirates Eat Dinner?

We always know we are in for some good entertainment when Jesse comes to the dinner table shirtless and wearing his skull cap...

Rainy Day

What can I say? I love the rain...and we have been getting plenty of it. This has been my first week out of work for the summer, and it has been nice being stuck indoors and finding things to appreciate inside the house. It has given me the opportunity to catch up on the deep cleaning stuff that I just could not find the time to do while I was working full time. So, the pantry has been cleaned out and sorted through and it looks amazing. The decorative nick-nacks up above my kitchen cabinets have all been washed and dusted. The cobwebs that clung to my lights and created cotton-like highways to my walls have all been destroyed and wiped away...so I'm feeling satisfied with myself at this moment. Today was a great day because the boys and I decided to stay in our "jamamas" (as Jesse calls them) all day long. We had waffles for breakfast with lots of butter and sticky syrup. We watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and played with our magic wands...we even played the Forbidden Forest game on Disc 2. We got Lizzy out and gave her a warm bath. Then she spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on top of us, climbing away from Jesse as fast as she could, and she even sat and looked out the window and watched the dark rain clouds roll in.

When Danny got home I changed from pj's to running clothes and we ran in the rain together. It smells so fresh and clean after the rain. The air is crisp and cool, and it seems to make breathing easier. When we got home there was a beautiful rainbow. Jesse started to sing the rainbow song that he learned at school. So, I ran and got my camera and took a picture of him with the rainbow in the background.

My yard has never looked so green. I feel like I'm living on the Olympic peninsula...not the dry great basin! The only trouble is, the slugs and snails are loving this dark, wet weather pattern, and they are having a celebration feast on my poor petunias. It's time to get out the cheap beer and pie tins...although I really don't relish in drowning little creatures. I'll just tell them that it's nothing personal...just business.