Smaug's New Home

Sometime in June or maybe even May, I saw this entertainment stand on the side of the road a street over for free, so I made Sebastian come load it in the SUV with me, and we brought it home.  And then Sebastian went to work, making the ultimate bearded dragon habitat.  

I also made a trip to the local furniture store where they gave me a bunch of styrofoam.  We lined it with styrofoam for insulation and then used it to sculpt our own Delicate Arch and Goblin Valley hoodoo as well as a nice little cave and steps.  We added the hammock that we already had too. 

Then we covered it all with grout.  

Then glued it in with this foamy stuff.  

Once that dried, we could carve it away. And then we grouted over that.  

And then Smaug had to try it out.

He approved.

We added some foliage, and since this was Utah themed, we added some Great Gallery Wall pictographs.

Sebastian worked on this all summer long, I think he actually finished it in July or August.  We also installed a light in the back that provides the correct amount of UV for a beardie of course.  We left the top open for a screen and heat lamps on the one end, so the habitat has a graded temp where it's hottest (roughly 108 usually on the basking spot) and then much cooler in the cave.

And then inserted a plexiglass sliding front and voila--it was done.  It was a ton of work and not as inexpensive as we first thought, because even stuff like glue and the grout coloring (we had grout on hand) added up.  But it was totally worth it!  Sebastian did soooooo amazing on it!!!  And it's super fun to see Smaug crawl across Delicate arch, although mostly he chills in his cave.  He loves that cave.  

Leo came to visit me when I was helping Sebas with the grout one day.  My forehead may be orange from it.  
 

Idaho and the Barneys are AWESOME!

Towards the middle of June, we went to the Barney's property up in Idaho to help install a zipline.  Well, Leo helped with the zipline, and I helped plant some flowers and help place things artistically. And Ana came!!!  Yay!!!  Then after spending a day hard at work, we spent much more time playing!   

Ana looks like a pro.

Lynnaea napping on the job.    

Leo took me on a little ride.   I think this is the time that one of my kids (cough*Isabel*cough) accidentally put Jared and Megan's side by side in neutral and it rolled down the hill behind us.  Not cool.  It gave me a bit of a heart attack.

 

I think I made poutine one meal for everyone.  I wish I remembered what was in the dutch oven that we were singing happy birthday to Chad over, but I no longer remember.  

So the next day we went boating and it was beautiful at Bear Lake, like usual.  I love it there so much!!  

I was so proud of myself because I managed to salom ski!!!!  I literally had not done that since I was 13.  It hurt my back and made me realize how old I am.  BUT I DID IT!!!  So yes, it warrants two pictures.

AND Elena got up on skis for the first time ever!!! Woot!! Woot!!!

Then on a different day, we went to Lava Hot Springs.  It was so much fun!!!  Seriously, I don't know if it's just not having itty bitty babies to take care of or what, but it was a blast.  Plus, it was crazy the difference between these hot springs and the one in Ouray, Colorado.  In Colorado, they were like, "Any kid under the age of 8 has to be in arms length of an adult." And then they wouldn't even let most of the kids do any of the fun stuff.  In Idaho, I didn't even see any of my kids except Efraim for hours (they were with cousins).  First, we tubed down the river.  It was overcast and chilly with a little bit of rain, so all my kids were a bit too cold to enjoy it much, but I loved it. Super fun. Then we  went to the pool with waterslides.  Sebastian went down the one slide and Megan said he practically didn't even touch the slide, it was like lift off--he's so light! And the high jump at this place is 30 feet up.  Devaney went off it and I think she's in the one video.  And I think it's Sebastian's jumping in the other video off the lowest platform, but honestly, I'm not sure.  None of my kids went highest one though.  Anyway, it was so much fun at that pool with the slides and high jumps and the climbing walls.  And then we went to the actual fancy hot springs and they were way chill there too about the kids playing in them. The hottest hot spring was super hot, none of us could handle it, although I think Isabel, Devaney, and Sebastian managed for a little bit.  And there was this cool garden that we hiked through with a cave.  

Other random bits from back in June of 2021

 Driving back from Colorado there was tons of smoke in the air.  You can't really tell well from the picture, but it was pretty crazy.  We actually could see the forest fires burning at points along the way.

Efraim cut his own hair so he got a nice, short buzz cut.  Good thing he's so darn cute no matter what.

I forgot who made this, but I'm sure they INSISTED on a picture.

Probably it was this kid.

Sterling cracks me up.  But seriously, that's the truth!

My beautiful irises bloomed!!!  I planted so many there.  I think like 16 different varieties.  I LOVE irises.  All the ones I planted were orangey-peachy-pink.

Curated closet outfit. I made that skirt and dyed the fabric myself after deciding at 4 PM on Saturday that I really wanted a new skirt to wear to church the next morning.  Good times.  I really like long skirts, then you don't have to worry about shaving your legs.  Also, it's linen and despite being long, it's really airy to wear even in summer.

Crazy little gnome.  

I installed blinds in our kitchen all by myself.  I loved them!!  They were bamboo and went so well with our house.

I made an 1840s corset for Elena.  That looks far more impressive than I remember it being.  Gosh, I should sew more.

Cute little Arwen. She'd always stretch her legs out like a starfish when you rubbed her belly.  What a weird cat.

Cute little Efraim.

Latorre Family Pictures

 Picking up from where I left off years ago, here's the family pictures we took.  Martha bought us all shirts and then I took most of them except for my own family pictures. For the whole family we just used a timer and I ran back and forth.  Turned out pretty good considering we had a lot of uncooperative kids.

Martha and Orlando

Cesar and Aliesha and Elijah

Amy and Alex and Leander and Santiago