"City Boys & Girls Gettin' Down on the Farm"

We came to visit Uncle Joel, Aunt Renee, and the kids in Ephrata (central Washington) for a few days. The kids have had a blast playing on the farm...4-wheelers, tractors, trampoline, horses, cows, chickens, pigs, acres and acres of corn, and swimming pool.

Jourdan has taken well to driving all kinds of vehicles.  He is especially fond of the 4-wheeler.  He has learned how to drive the John Deere lawn mower, a tractor, and a Dodge truck.

Julia and Makayla spent a morning collecting ALL the tadpoles from a pond behind the shop.  They had nearly a hundred of those little things...although they collected nearly as much mud as they did amphibians.  The girls are holding only a small collection of their tadpoles.

Julia and Makayla drove around on the 4-wheeler back and forth between the animals' pens and the house.  They have tried to find time each day to swim in the pool too.

Uncle Joel arranged for the kids to ride in a combine harvester.  All three of the kids climbed into the cab with the 17 year-old combine driver and helped finish harvesting the wheat.

The combine empties its load of wheat while still harvesting another area.  It's kind of like a military jet that refuels during flight.

Jourdan is using the tractor to "mow" the edge of Joels corn field.

While we were here, Joel helped Jourdan and Dillon work on their Farm Mechanics merit badge for Boy Scouts.  The boys refurbished tools, changed the air filter and oil in the tractor, and learned about farm safety.  Dillon really helped Jourdan learn how to do all these things.  Dillon didn't know that Farm Mechanics was a merit badge....he just thought that was "life".  (Now he's almost done with the badge.)

We drove about an hour and a half to see Grand Coulee Dam with Joel and his family. We took a tour of the inner part of the dam and then stayed and watched the lazer light show ON the dam that night. They let water over the spill-way to make a white surface on which to project the lazers. It's really a fun thing to see; and the dam is interesting.  We also got to enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower above our heads.