Tractors and Horses and My Little Farmer

My Uncle Danny took us out to the farm to see the horses and ride in some of his tractors! The horses were beautiful, and Jacob loved them. They were very sweet, gentle horses. Sherri told Jacob so many things about horses that I never knew - she is so much fun!
Jacob heading out from the lot in the tractor! Danny plowed a few rows with him. Jacob was so happy and excited to "farm with Uncle Danny".
Danny, Thad and Jacob in the big red tractor. They had a blast in this one - it also has radio, and Jacob told me they listened to "cool rock n'roll" while they worked :).They also had a little grumpy goat there. It was trying to ram into just about anything, and Jacob didn't like that very much. It took a few minutes before he would pet it...and a quick touch with one finger was quite enough for him, haha.
Thad is my cousin Aurie's little boy. He is the same age as Jacob and they had such a blast playing together on our trip. They still ask us if they can play together - its hard to explain a 700 mile distance to a kid. Hopefully we will get to see them soon!
King of the hay!
The boys took off together exploring and having fun...and of course - getting incredibly dirty! :)
After the farm, we drove over to see the new LDS temple they are building in Gilbert, about 10 minutes from where my Dad grew up. Its wonderful to see a temple there!
After all the fun, it was time for dinner and a bath. Jacob sure loves Arizona! :)

Great Grandpa's Barn

After a lazy morning we went to see my Grandpa's barn and some of his fields. My great aunt lives across the street from them, so we got to see her as well. She had this crazy collection of deer antlers that soon turned into swords and blasters. :)
Jacob has never been to a real farmers barn and field before. He was so excited! He ran all around checking everything out. My grandpa farmed mostly cotton, and there was plenty of machinery to play with.
Uncle Joseph explaining how all the strange looking machines work. I'm so glad he was there, I would have had no clue what most of them were for.
He almost jumped into the silo...but there were some little critters in the bottom that soon ended his curiosity.
My grandpa's fields and Mount Gram in the background - beautiful! Its strange to think that yards from here there are also palm trees.
Purple cotton seeds. :) Jacob thought they were cool.Tractor inspection #1...
Inspection #2...
And the winner is...good 'ol John Deer! :)
My great aunt has huge pecan trees around her home that have not been harvested. She gave Jacob a big stick and told us to whack off the pecans and take them home...we gladly obliged!

Arizona

My wonderful Grandfather, Walter Elijah Clifford passed away March 28th, 2010.

He was my only living grandparent. He left a wonderful legacy of service and love.

We miss you Grandpa!

Jacob and I packed up and headed to Safford Arizona for the funeral. Jacob and I love road trips...and it was a lot of fun! My mom rode with us, and we followed my dad and 2 brothers in another car. When we got there we were stir crazy and hungry, so we headed to a small local Mexican restaurant Casa for some dinner. After running into several relatives we have not seen in years (its a small town - only 2 hotels, so its pretty easy to run into people) we made it back to the hotel for some sleep.

I think Jacob was sleep deprived all weekend, but with a 12/13 hour drive home, I hoped he would make up for it...and besides, we were having too much fun!

The next morning Jacob had his first Denny's breakfast: a pancake "bigger than my whole head!" We ran into more relatives there and had a great time talking.

We had some time, so we went back to the hotel for some swimming! Uncle Joseph was a ton of fun! It was freezing back home, so it was so nice to be in the sunshine and cool water!

Jacob loved seeing the palm trees. He thought we were in Florida for the first few hours. :)