Fun at the Badlands!

Yes! I am still here. I apologize for the long hiatus. I haven't been any busier than usual, just a bad case of the "BLAHS"! I would sit down to write & NOTHING would come to my mind. Creativity is a funny thing. At least it is for me. I'm either really feeling "it" or I'm not. So this morning I'm kinda feeling "it", but these are fun pictures so if the writing isn't good you can just enjoy the photos.

The Badlands are a favorite pass time for us here in Joe City. Many, many memories. My mother-in-law told me once that years ago it was the thing to do on Sundays after church. Families would take a picnic out to the Badlands & play after church. That sort of thing would be frowned on these days. I guess we have progressed in our "sainthoood" & strive to keep the Sabbath Day a little holier. Now we stay home & play card games & eat peach cobbler. Some of us have even gone door to door on the Sabbath & "peddled our wares". All for a good cause of course. So good, we got even the staunchest of Sabbath Day keepers to break out there check books! Now I've drifted from my topic, anyway...the Badlands are a great playground. The kids love to run around climbing the hills & then sliding down .

This is what happens if you slide down without a sled.

If you check out Chompie's knee you'll see what happens if you don't stay on the sled. This sled is our favorite. It is made from a piece of dump truck liner given to us by Diamond S. Julie & I bent the front up using a welding torch to heat the plastic. It is super durable . Any traditional sled wouldn't stand a chance.
Popcorn anyone? Julie is quite proud of her vintage popcorn popper. She even uses it at home over the burner on the stove. Where there is flame she will pop the corn. What a true Hansen, Pumpa would be so proud.
Here is "Sparky" one of Auntie Julie's minions. Doesn't he look entranced? He's thinking "Ju Ju, Popcorn, Ju Ju, Popcorn". She's got him wrapped around her finger.
I do have to tell the story behind this "Popper" & I don't mean Julie. It was found at the local goodwill on one of mine & Julie's many treasure hunts. We were looking for "pioneer" memorabilia to give away for door prizes at a "Pioneer day" party. Now we have been known to give away such items as prairie rings forged from nails found on the trail, wooden toys widdled by Brigham Young himself en route to the Salt Lake Valley, the frying pan that fried the first egg in Joe City, even an oil painting of a prize winning bull owned by pioneer rancher Joseph Christian Hansen, which, the last I heard was hanging in the office of our beloved Bishop & Seminary teacher Alan Palmer. Julie found this popper & asked me if I thought we should put it in our cart so I did. But it was five dollars & I just didn't think we should spend that much for a door prize so she suggested I buy it for myself, it would be "so fun" to have she said, so I thought about it & after a while I took it out of the cart & put it back on the shelf. When she saw that, she grabbed it & decided to buy it for herself instead. It has turned out to be, as she says"One of my most favorite treasures I've ever found!" And she loves to remind me that it could have been mine & I just didn't have the "vision" that day.

After the running around & eating popcorn, we roasted marshmallows for smores & then ended the evening with the one thing that we Joe City people just love, we "rolled tires!" Outsiders might ask what is so fun about hefting tires & a can of gasoline up a steep hill of loose dirt, filling the tire with fuel, lighting it up & sending it down the hill? All I can say is, we just do, I don't know why, it's just a "Joe City Thang."