cowboys, snakes and scooters

since chris and i had not been out to eastern utah to visit his grandparents since we were engaged, we thought mother's day weekend would be a great time. we got up early saturday and drove the 2 hours to altamont, ut where the people talk slow and the grass fields strecth far. we arrived at grandma and grandpa lamb's just in time to start the cattle branding. each year the new calves are vaccinated, castrated {yikes!}, and branded. i'm no stranger to farming...well not a complete stranger at least, but i had never really seen that side of cattle ranching before. i was a little taken back as i watched the calves being forced into this little cage and watching the branding iron burn a big L/L into each one. since this process took up most of the day, grandma lamb and i weeded her flower garden to get it ready for flowers in a couple of weeks. we had spent some of the morning talking about how she had a little problem with garden snakes and was terrified of them. as i was weeding in between these two plants, a little gray garden snake slithered out from where i had just been rummaging. i jumped back and shrieked, probably scaring grandma. i grabbed the shovel and started stirring around in the bushes where i thought i saw it go. after a couple minutes i got him to move and i took a big swing at it with my shovel. i missed. a few more failed attempts at whacking its head off followed until i finally managed to slow him down with a good blow about mid body. yuck. "throw him out into the street, i don't want a dead snake in my garden". we finished weeding the garden but grandma wasn't nearly as into it after i disposed of the snake. after all the cows had been successfully tended to, chris and his uncle glen came speeding into the lamb driveway on two scooters--a pink one and an orange one. i ran outside and admired them both. they were fast scooters that could go up to 75 mph! i have wanted a scooter for as long as i've lived in provo but my chances of ever getting one have been squelched since i was married. chris served his mission in spain and swears he didn't teach or talk to one family on his entire mission {may be a bit of exaggeration in my opinion} who did not have a relative who was killed or brutally injured in a scooter accident. he always says that he doesn't want to be a widower at 26. so i was ecstatic when i saw them. we got to drive them all around for that afternoon and i enjoyed every minute of it. thanks uncle glen for the best time i've had in awhile.