Visiting Verdure

On the weekend of the 24th holiday, we spent a few days visiting Verdure, a.k.a. Papa Joe's, a.k.a. the home of Britt's parents, Joe and Carol Barton. There is always fun to be had at Verdure, as you saw from the trampoline pics. Our trampoline, by the way, is dead. The stitching around part of it had been gradually unraveling for the last year, and in succession, the springs would pop off. 2/3rds of it was still hanging on for dear life, but the recent rainstorms were more than it could take, and it finally gave up altogether. It was funny to watch our kids trying to play on the tramp, even when it was barely intact. It was looking pretty white trash in our back yard, which everyone can see from the highway, so it is probably all for the best.

A moment of silence, please.

This is the cage of Garrett's chinchilla

Happy birthday, Garrett!

Um yeah, his birthday was in April. One of his gifts was a gift certificate to purchase a pet at the Pet Hideout in Monticello. For several weeks after his birthday, we promised we would get up there, but we never made it. Finally, we visited the store, but Britt and I were not ready to commit to getting a ferret, his first choice. We made all the kids promise to clean the house and their rooms, and keep them clean for an extended period of time.

Well, there we were in Monticello, and Garrett was reminding me we still owed him. He had cleaned his room, cleaned the whole basement and kept it clean. He had also been really helpful about getting the girls to do their chores while I was gone to work. He was done being patient, waiting for us to get back to the pet store and buy him a pet.

Well, we called the pet store several times that Saturday (the 23rd) and no one ever answered. But since we had promised him, and we were already that close, we drove into town to see if anyone was there at the pet store. We just caught the owner closing up for the day.

No ferrets in the store. But an adorable beige chinchilla all by his lonesome and on sale. So we went ahead and purchased all the necessary items, a cage, food, chinchilla bath, etc. Garrett finally had his pet. I promise we will post a better picture when we have one. The chinchilla is an escape artist and he is still getting used to us.

The following pictures show Kaiden's chinchilla. His is grey. He got his from the Pet Hideout also, and he has had it a while. He is taking his chinchilla to Alaska.

We brought our kitten to visit for the day; I don't know why. We lost track of it for several hours. The girls said it was inside, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Finally, we found it behind the dryer. After that, we made it stay inside its cat carrier.

Yes, the wall in Grandma's dining room is a chalk board, with an entertainment area, TV, gaming system, VCR also. It is a fun little place for the kids

Saturday the day I took all the trampoline pictures, we intended to roast marshmallows either before or after we watched the fireworks in Monticello, but it didn't happen. So, we figured we would do it Monday evening, but the rain put a damper on those plans when it drowned our fire. Some of us decided to roast marshmallows on the burners and make s'mores that way.

Rachel is just goofing off with that silly face

Yummy!

Good stuff

"Is somebody going to help me here, or are you just going to keep taking pictures?"

We love visiting Verdure. Most of the Barton/Hall kids have lived here (some of us with our little families) at some point in the past. Britt and I stayed in the little apartment above the garage when Garrett and Cole were little, while we were "building" our first house (the manufactured home Brooke and Travis Pehrson live in now). I know several others have stayed there for various reasons over the years. I am sure James and Becky will utilize the space when they visit Blanding/Monticello in the future.

Just so you are not confused, some of these pictures are from Saturday, July 23th and some were taken Monday, the 25th. We all had a great time together there visiting with family and just being lazy. Verdure is a great place to visit.