Camping Disasters

This past weekend we went camping with our brother and sister in law and their cute son, Lincoln. We went to Canyon Road which is past Heber and close to Strawberry Lake. There's lots of 4-wheeling to do there and nice, large camp spots-plus it's free :). There were a few disasters. Not everything went wrong, just a few things.

First off, Spencer got his first bee sting. Not too terrible, but super sad for him!

Second, we went four wheeling. Darrin and I went first while Brady and Melissa watched our kids. It was delightful! We drove out to see the sunset and it was gorgeous! We also saw some cows and beautiful forest along the way. When we got back we traded places and we watched Lincoln while they went 4-wheeliing. A while later Brady came back to camp yelling that he needed Darrin's help and that Melissa had fallen off the ATV. He said she was ok but I was freaking out. It got reeeeallly dark and our battery in our camper had died. I was left with the 3 young kids and the only light we had was the fire. They all got pretty tired pretty fast and I was just so so worried about Melissa. They were gone for about 1.5 hours in the pitch black. I had no idea what was going on. They all made it back safely thank goodness! Melissa was really sore but ok and they were working that whole time on getting the 4 wheeler out. It had fallen down the hill a ways and got stuck between two trees. Pretty scary! I am just so grateful Melissa is ok!

Third, that nights sleep was terrible! I usually don't get a great nights sleep with Parker and Spencer in the camper. There's something about being in a camper that makes them wake up a lot. I was up at least 7 times putting Spencer back down, helping Parker to go potty or telling him to go back to sleep.

Fourth, on the way back home we heard a pop! It was the tire of the camper that blew out. We pulled over to take a look. The tire was shredded even though we immediately pulled over. The boys were both sleeping in the truck which normally would be a good thing but all the tire changing equipment was under their seat. So, we had to wake them up, remove car seats and get the stuff out to change the tires. All things considering the kids were well behaved while we got to work in the blazing hot sun on the side of the road. Luckily we had WD-40 to help losen the rusted lugnuts. Darrin and I worked well together as a team and finished replacing the destroyed tire with the spare. Back on the road again until Darrin noticed something flapping on the camper. We pulled over again. The thing flapping wasn't a big deal but Darrin noticed the new space tire looked low. So we gauged it. 2psi. Practically no air. Luckily we had an air compressor that hooks up to the cigarette lighter. But the cord was too short to reach. So we had to unhook the truck from the trailer, pull it close to the camper, fill the tire, and re-hook everything back up. On the road again. Two hours later. I will say though, it could have been A LOT worse. The blessings in this trial were our kids were pretty good, we had all the tools we needed (miracle!), Darrin is awesome, and we didn't have anywhere to be :). So, an adventure.

Honestly though, overall, it was still a lot of fun! I love being in the wilderness for a day or two. The pure peace found there is exquisite.

Bad Blogger

Well, I feel like it's been forever since I've blogged. Partly because I feel like I've been so busy, and partly because nothing super exciting has gone on the last month and a half. Life has been fairily normal. So, I'll blog now about my normal for me life :). Here's what's been going on:

-Our whole family got sick with the stomach flu mid July. It started with Spencer in the movie theatre. He just started throwing up everywhere all of the sudden. Then a full day passed and Parker was complaining his tummy hurt. He says this often. I told him to lay down to see if that'd help or go potty. He said he needed to go potty and the next thing I know-WABAM!-Vomit all over every nook and cranny of our bathroom. Yum. Poor Parker! I spent 1.5 hours cleaning our bathroom while Darrin bathed the boys. At the end of that 1.5 hours I didn't feel so good. I didn't know if that's because of what I just cleaned or if I was really coming down with something...about 30 minutes later I was throwing up. Sweet Darrin was taking care of Parker and I so well until about 1.5 hours later and Darrin said, "I'm not feeling so well..." and the rest is history. All 3 of us (Spencer had already passed through the awfulness of it) were throwing up about every half hour ALL NIGHT LONG. It was SO terribly miserable. Especailly because none of us could take care of any of us because we were all so sick and fatigued :(. Recovery was long and rough but we made it out alive. I PRAY it never happens like that again!

-We have been working hard on our yard this summer. We had quite a bit of curbing installed in our front yard. We put mulch down in all our flower beds/around trees (this was a FULL day Saturday project), and I sanded and painted our playground. Not to mention the hours of weeding and mowing we've been working on. Having a large yard is A LOT of work. Fun, but a lot of work! It's funny because at our last house we never really did all that much in the yard and kind of let it go. But here, we are working hard to keep up on it and it feels like a huge accomplishment!

-I went fishing with the boys (first time) in our friends parents fishing pond IN THEIR YARD. Super cool! The rainbow trout we caught was HUGE! I ended up taking it home at cooking it for Darrin and the boys (I hate fish) and since it was so fresh I ventured to try some and it wasn't too bad! BUT, in my brain I still couldn't get past the whole texture/fact that it was just swimming. I have no idea why it's so different than chicken or any other meat for me. It just is.

-My friend Lindsay from my new ward and I started doing preschool 2 days a week together 2 hours per preschool day. Her son is only two weeks older than Parker so they get along great and are doing really well! We trade off weeks and it's going really well. I'm amazing at how fast Parker picks things up and how smart he is! I might just be prejudice because I'm his mother but I'm so proud of him and I'm really enjoying doing pre-school with him!

-We are going on a CRUISE to the western carribbean in 15 days! WITH the kids! This will be our first long trip (11 days!) with kids! I'm nervous but also super excited. It'll be the first time the kids will have been on a plane, or a ship, or DISNEY WORLD! When I told Parker we were going to go on an airplane his face just lit up! Then his face became confused looking and he asked, "Do you we have to JUMP to get up there?!" hahahaha. I explained how we actually get on the plane :). He's going to LOVE this trip! Spencer will probably not care as much but I'm thrilled to be sharing the experience of travel with my boys and get to show them part of the world and use all the teaching experiences I can while doing so.

-The July holidays were a blast and we enjoyed going to Idaho for some wake boarding/tubing, fireworks, bbq's and more! Love the summer!

-We recently got back from our family reunion trip to Cedar City where my sister Heidi lives with her beautiful 3 girls and sweet husband. They were so hospitable and we loved every minute of being with the family. While in Cedar we went to the Shakespear festival, played games, watched movies, stayed up talking, went swimming, went to a man made lake, I took my sister Tiffany's maternity photos (more experience-yay!), and we had A LOT of really good food!

Here's some pictures from lately: