No Bears Are Out Tonight!

Just a word of warning, this song is Jeremy's idea, so sorry.

I think this summer has been so much fun, it seems like almost every weekend we've been able to get out and do something fun! This last weekend we camped up at Mirror Lake in the Uinta Mountains with Jeremy's Family. It was quite the camping trip...while we were setting up camp we found out that 2 bears were spotted the night before down at the camp sites by the lake. That night Rangers had set some bear traps around the area to try and catch them. Lets just say that Emilee and I were total clean freaks after hearing that news! Then I found a nice clawed up cooler just down from our camp and the goose bumps never left me! But thanks to Thomi and Jeremy packin' the heat and big old Duce standing guard all night, I actually slept really good. In the morning we headed down to the lake with the canoe we stole from my dad (thanks Dad!) Luke, Jeremy, and Rice fished most of the day away. Little Luke and his good luck pole reeled in quite a few fish. So when he was done fishing Jeremy took over the lucky kiddy pole and did pretty good too. It is so beautiful up there, it's defiantly one of my favorite spots. Emilee took a great picture of the hail/rain storm that soaked us all on our way back to our camp site. The rest of the evening we all just huddled around the campfire and ate and ate and ate. You can always bet when you're with Jeremy's family that you are going to eat really really good!:) We had, lets see...steak, grilled zucchini and pineapple, cheeseburgers(with all the fixin's), hot dogs, and of course plenty of chocolate! I was sure the way that food smelled we would bring in every bear around for miles, but we never saw a one! That night all 7 of us crammed ourselves into one tent, ours was soaked with all the rain. Lucky for us Jeremy's Dad got a new HUGE tent/cottage:) for Father's day and it fit all of us! After popcorn and a movie we all hit the sack, except for me! It was still raining and it was WINDY! I cannot sleep in a tent in the wind! I don't know why that is, maybe because I can't hear the bears sneaking up on us! Anyways, I guess the storm finally blew over and I eventually fell asleep. On our way home the next day we stopped a the gorgeous Provo Falls (another favorite spot of mine). It was a very exciting camping trip and we all had a blast! Thanks so much Grandma Barker, Emmy and Rice, we love you!

Raft Trip

This last weekend Jeremy and I took off for a little get-a-way vacation up to Vernal. HUGE THANKS to Grandma Barker, Rice King, and Emmy for watching our crazy little kiddos all weekend! Can I just say that a 3 hour road trip is sooo relaxing without kids!:) We stayed with some really good friends, Alison and Morgan. Their new home is so beautiful! Anyway, we all woke up early Sat. morning and after a quick stop at Sev (that's what the Vernal folk call Seven Eleven)to grab some sweet shades and deodorant...(don't even ask!) we made our way up to the base of Flaming Gorge Dam, where we all piled into the rafts and started down the beautiful Green River. It was a blast! Except for the FREEZING COLD water fights that the guys kept getting into! Did I mention how FREEZING COLD the water was!!! I think we all got pushed in at least once.

We ate lunch at a place called Little Hole and then loaded up the rafts again and headed back for a second run down the river. There were some fun rapids and tons of beautiful scenery. We floated right by a huge heard of mountain sheep. The water was so crystal clear so you could see all the fish. It was so much fun! Thanks Alison and Morgan! I think we need to start making this a yearly tradition. Maybe next time we will bring the kids, Luke would love Vernal after all it is "Utah's Dinosaur Land", he would be in heaven! On our way out of town I took some dinosaur pictures for him, enjoy!

One Fun/Frustrating Week

So Camaron wanted me to share some of my "Pet Peeves" and after this last week I think that venting a little bit will be good for me so here it goes...

Pet Peeve #1: Moms who sit their kids up on countertops! Only bad can come of this, believe me! Like I don't know...a broken arm!
Yep, that's little Ava with a broken arm from falling off the kitchen counter, way to go Annie! Jeremy now calls her "Duck Wing" (as if she doesn't already have enough nicknames) Poor little thing she is so cute running around with her little sling on still trying to keep up with Luke...I could go crazy at the stuff she still thinks she can do! Which brings me to my next pet peeve.

Pet Peeve #2: Moms who constantly get after their kids. Which is me. Listening to me all day would drive anyone crazy... "Ava get down from there!" "No! Don't jump off the bed!" "Luke what do you think you're doing with that step stool...No, you can't use that to help Ava climb up on the dresser!" "Ava stop running, you're gonna fall down!" "Luke don't push her!" AAAHHH! See what I mean. I don't know how our moms did it! I feel like I'm raising a little pack of wild monkeys and I'm not doing a very good job. Plus Ava isn't sleeping good now, which means I'm not sleeping good now, and so I'm a little tried and a lot cranky/paranoid.

So as if things aren't bad enough here is my last pet peeve.
Pet Peeve #3: Saying goodbye to sweet little pets. Why are some of us so sensitive when it comes to animals. My sisters and I are the worst! This last Friday Karen had to put down Smokey because his feet were in really bad shape and he was in a lot of pain, darn it. It was really sad, especially for Karen because he was her horse. I think we had Smokey for over 10 years and he was always so sweet. I'll never forget him drinking soda pop out of the can when we had cookouts down at the barn. I just wish that animals lived longer! But I think maybe it was Smokey's time to go because Grandpa just needed a really good horse to ride.

OK, I know it sounds like things were pretty crappy but we did actually have some good times before everything got so...crappy. We played around on the "California Beach" at Utah Lake which the kids loved! And the 4th of July was so much fun! We spent it with the Barkers. It was a day complete with a slip'n slide, ribs and shrimp on the grill, a projector movie outside in Grandma's backyard, and of course fireworks! Tomorrow we get Ava's little cast put on and hopefully from here on out things get a little better. Life is full of ups and downs that is for sure!

Luke's Weekend "O" Fun

So Luke's weekend started out with cheeseburgers on the grill Friday night, followed by camping in the backyard. In the morning we all jumped in the car with a picnic lunch and headed up Provo Canyon for ONE hike up to see Bridal Veil Falls. (Luke loves waterfalls "water fountains" so much, so we thought this would be pretty cool for him to see.) We ended up having so much fun that we decided to spend the entire day up the canyon doing, I don't know.... THREE Hikes! What were we were thinking!! But we all such a great time. We ate our picnic up at Cascade Springs and looked at the fish and waterfalls there. And just for Papa John, we all ate some watercress, Ava said it was "spicy". Then to finish the day off we hiked up to see Timpanogos Cave. Jeremy and I almost died on the way up but it was well worth it. It was a cool 40 degrees inside and it was so pretty. It amazes me that we live right next to these gorgeous mountains full of hidden magical places just waiting be explored and enjoyed. There is nothing like seeing the looks on your kids faces as they see these places for the first time.

The Day of Hikes