Snowmobiles and the Cabin

Did you know that it is no longer cool to call snowmobiles snowmobiles? Apparently, they are now referred to as "Snow Machines". Anyway, we just spent the greatest weekend at the Perkins Cabin in Clifton, Id. using those things. We have been planning this trip for several months, but we have been looking forward to this trip for a year, because we had to bag out at the last minute for the same trip last year due to my hectic school schedule and some illness.
We left earlyish on Saturday morning where we stopped in Logan to pick up Randy's brother, Royce's Snowmachine. We quickly loaded everything and got back on the road and arrived in Clifton around 11. We missed the turn off for the cabin so we had to go down another road and turn around. The road was completely iced over and even though we were only traveling about 10 mph, we couldn't stop at the stop sign. There was a ditch on one side and a main highway in front of us so we couldn't just slide out into the road so Randy tried his best to stop the car, but unfortunately the car jack knifed and hit the trailer! The rear bumper lost the reflector on the left side and cracked the hard plastic tire thingy, but we were thankful it wasn't any worse. After carefully freeing the car from the trailer and avoiding the ditch in the process, we put our happy faces back on and headed back to the turnoff. This lasted for about 100 yards when the car suddenly died! We pulled over and were unable to start it this time! We knew that the Perkins did not have cell service but that Dave Stout did, so we began calling him, but he was on the snowmobile and couldn't hear the ringer. This whole time, we just kept saying its Ok, everything will be fine, but with a dead car we were beginning to wonder. A nice man came along and offered to drive me up to the gate where the other families were carrying in their gear by snow mobile and then he went back and towed the Montero to his house where he said we could leave it! What a great guy Richard Ward of Clifton, Id. really is! Dave and I drove down to the car and then the three of us began unloading the snowmobile and all our gear so that we could unhook the trailer. We heave ho'd until we could push the trailer away from our car and hook it onto Dave's and then loaded up the kids. Once we got to where the other cars were parked we began shuttling everything into the Cabin. Randy stayed at the cars and called his brother Royce to see if he could bring a trailer to tow the car away. Royce has limitless connections and skills in the automotive dept. and within a couple of hours, he had come to pick up the car. He refused to let Randy come back to Logan with him to fix the car, insisting that Randy stay with us and enjoy our little vacation. This act of kindness brought tears to my eyes because Royce works out of town, and only comes home once or twice a month, and yet he was sacrificing his time with his family to fix our car. Meanwhile back at the cabin, Randy and Rob hiked up the mountain to turn on the water to the cabin. The place takes a while to heat up, so while Dave and Jonathan continued the shuttle service, Rhonda and I made lunch for the kids and played games while everyone kept their coats on. Rob and Randy were gone for a really long time and when they came back, the news was not so good. Somehow the water had frozen along the line and would never reach the cabin. No water for the weekend. A quick lesson on, " if it's pee, let it be and if it's brown flush it down ( with a bucket of creek water) became the mantra for the rest of the trip. Again, we kept saying, it is ok, we are still going to have a great time. Positive attitudes make all the difference! We played in the snow for a while and then had more games , then it was time for dinner. Rhonda and I began preparations and then we realized that the big jugs of extra water that had been stored at the cabin were frozen solid! It's Ok we said again , we'll just melt some by the fire and the furnace and it will be great! You would probably be surprised how long it takes to melt a five gallon jug of water! We just kept laughing and finally got the dinner made around 7ish. We played murder in the dark, signs, and this is a spoon with everyone in a big circle until it was time for bed. Then we hauled 13 mattresses from the upstairs, down to the main floor and set them head to head. It was so fun to sleep all together! We woke up around 8 to a beautiful view of the surrounding hillside and a gorgeous sunrise! Randy called Royce only to find out that the car was fixed, and he had driven it back to us and left it there around 2 in the morning! What a great brother! We had pancakes for breakfast and then we all got ready for a great day of snow play! When the men went out to start the snowmobiles, the pull cord broke on the one we brought to the other men took the kids to a field to sled while Randy played McGyver and used bent nails and some nylon rope off of a sled to repair our snowmobile. By the time that was fixed the kids were ready to change locations so we took the snow mobiles to a hillside to tow kids around and let them slide down the path toward the cabin! It was such a great day! Jonathan and Sawyer were the best of buddies, (Jonathan is 17 and a senior in high school) and all the other kids paired up beautifully as well! I took a tube down once and that was enough for me! They are super fast and I hated spinning around backwards so I couldn't see where I was going! Rhonda only needed one trip as well. We roasted hot dogs over the fire for lunch back at the cabin, and then the kids continued to play on the hill in the front yard and along the path! When they got cold, they would come in and play some games and then suddenly everyone would go back out! Around 4ish the grownups hopped on the machines and went trail riding above the cabin on these beautiful trails lined with pine trees and meadows. There was a great place for a lookout over the valley and we took each other's pictures there. When it began to get dark, we headed back.

January

Ok, ten thousand things have happened since I last posted, some of them good, some bad, and quite a few were very sad, but rather than try to catch it all up, I instead need to just move on. Maybe I will find the time and the courage to recount the hardest Autumn I can ever remember, but for now I am happy to say that things are looking better for 2010.

July 4th the alternate plan

Wow! Another month has gone by! Hard to believe! We have been very busy as usual, but have been able to do many fun things this month along with all the regular stuff! The 4th of July was such a fun day! We had orginally planned to go camping on the 3rd but the weather wasn't looking too good, so we changed our plans. The younger kids and I rode on the Lakeview Primary Float in the Hooper Parade while Randy drove the truck and Taysom watched from the sidelines with Oma, Papa, and Brady, Wendy and boys! It was really fun, especially when Randy took a wrong turn at the end of the parade back to the drop off point so we had to make a big loop honking and singing all the way! I think it really was the best part of riding in the parade. When we got home I took the cutest picture of all 4 kids on the porch and I loved it so much I blew it up into an 11x14 and matted it and everything! We then loaded up the 4 wheelers packed lunches and headed up by Monte Cristo! We all had a great time, but I think Randy had the most fun! He couldn't wait to go again! By the time we headed home, it was about 6 pm and so we BBQed out on the patio and finished dinner just in time to turn our chairs and watch the fireworks! It is truly the best thing in the world to have front row seats to a great fireworks show without leaving your backyard. The word must be out about that because our neighborhood was jam packed with friends at every house! My cute little two year old nephew Wyatt was pretty afraid when the fireworks started and when I said, "Are you scared?" he said, "Yes, lets go hide!" But his dad and mom talked him through them and kept saying this is fun and aren't they pretty? He was not totally convinced, but he wasn't running away anymore. Wendy's sister Crystal and her husband Russ and son Logan also came to the BBQ and it was great to have them with us! All in all a fabulous 4th!

June is in fast forward mode!

I can't believe that June is almost ending! I feel like I can hardly catch my breath! We had a great boating trip two weeks ago, but it feels like yesterday. Addison wakeboarded for her first time and she was amazing! I need to get the video footage on here so everyone can see. Sawyer, Zoe and I were mainly beach people, but our trip on the boat was great also. Taysom attended her first girls camp and lived to tell the tale, (too bad for her it was in Sacrament meeting). Randy and I have been getting the yard and garden all ready for the summer and I just finished another class toward college graduation. We haven't done any camping like we planned, but we are going to make up for it in July. Addison and I attended an Activity Day Girls Day Camp last Monday and it was just fantastic! My counselor in the primary Devri Mickelson did an amazing job planning and executing a wonderful experience for the girls. I was so glad that we decided to take the initiative as a ward to provide this day for the girls and I am so glad we invited the two other wards, it really was great! We are looking forward to Robby and Nicole's wedding on friday and their dinner on thursday. We have some wonderful friends who are helping us prepare this dinner for 70+ people and we couldn't have done it with out them. Although things have been busy, everyone is happy and healthy and what more could you really ask for than that!

Ahh, Summer is here!

Today is the 2nd official day of Summer for our family and we couldn't be happier! This week is a little more hectic than the next few will be I hope, but still it is much better than last week. We had family home evening out in our woodland area (the trees need to grow faster so it will really be a wooded area) and Randy started a fire week had to bring it inside a little early because a rainstorm kicked up, but you can make smores in the microwave even faster than on a stick. We had the Tenney Family over and I think everyone had a good time. Today, the kids did their house work really quickly and then we really did school work for an hour thanks to Addison. Sawyer is reading so well now, I am adamant that he not loose any of his progress over the summer and Zoe is on a roll also. Addison is 3 weeks ahead on her summer packets and Taysom is attending an accelerated learning science day camp this week and is loving it! Randy and I have most of the yard work done and I am currently on schedule with my school work. Life really is good. Maybe we will sleep in next week! That would be great!

The crazy days of May!

How is it that this month is mostly over? I can't quite fathom it except to say that no other month barring December gets so much packed into it! Let's begin with May 1st which was Women' s Conference. The next day Saturday May 2nd always makes me feel like I should have the garden planted immediately! So the frantic yard work begins... We edge beds, shop for plants, go buy more plants, then start planting. Pots first, then hanging baskets. Back to Walmart for more potting soil. Back to nursery for more plants. One more trip to Walmart for more more potting soil. Now mind you these baskets pots and flowerbeds get done over several days, but my brain is clogged up thinking about them the whole 2 weeks! Today I will finally plant the rest of the garden (some of the plants were just too tiny two weeks ago when I bought them so I have been growing them on the porch). Besides all this planting there is the never ending grass issues. Dog pee has burned up twenty spots, two days later dog pee has burned up 23 spots. Randy spends most of monday cutting out dog pee spots and replacing with chunks of sod from the beds he is edging. Now there are only 8 spots but more new ones coming every day. Time to up the sprinkling system to help combat pee concentration, then it rains for several days so its hard to get any yard work done. Now it is time for the million trips to the Waste management facility ( the dump, only the other name sounds better) for loads of compost! My first trip this year was a doozey! I had Rhonda Perkins and her boys with me because we were taking a load of their stuff to drop off and then pick up the compost. The brakes kept squeaking all the way there so Christian age 14 can't stop laughing but the real comedy was yet to come. As we pull into the property there is a huge sign that says, "Beware of Signs" what does that mean? Are they attack signs? Then there are like 6 more signs posted one after another every 10 feet or so, that say things like no scavenging, speed limit 15, assorted other messages, none of them seem very threatening, but whatever. Then we get to the place where you're supposed to back up to the edge and unload the stuff. Only too bad for me because they want us to pull in between two other trucks and the edge is uphill from where I am. I pull up to the guy and tell him that space isn't big enough and he says " Are you serious?" No, I just like to make silly conversation with the dump workers! So I say ok, that will be fine and I try to concetrate,but Christian is really laughing now and I hate backing up, up hill especially when there is a light load. So I pull way forward to make sure I start out straight, but this was a mistake because now I have farther to go! I start out, but I'm nervous and the dump guy is watching so I go to fast and just about jackknife it so I pull forward again and then curve the trailer the other way! Christian is now nearly hysterical and so I make about 3 more attempts before getting it semi close and Rhonda says, thats good enough we'll just throw it from here! Bless her, I was mortified and shamed. Once we got unloaded it should have been smooth sailing, but we go to get the compost and I drive the loop that they had us drive last year which is behind all the trees they are shredding and suddenly there is a man chasing us and so I stop and wait for him and he says where are you going? So I calmly explain and he says ,"not this year you should have pulled over here"! Well where are the signs now I ask you? Beware of LACK of signs when you need them it should say! So we pull up to get the stuff and the huge front loader just about runs us down, I guess to prove the point that I was in the wrong area, anyway we get the load and head for home with the brakes really squealing now! Christian still laughing all the way. Need I mention that Randy went for the next few loads!?
Enough about the endless yard work! In May we also get to celebrate Sawyer's birthday, Mother's Day, Randy's Dad's Birthday and cousins Daphne, Benson, Isaac and Karleigh's birthdays! We also have Memorial Day, preschool programs, field trips, recitals, and year end school parties, and Field Day(twice if your in kindergarten). All of these things packed into one regular month! I realize we can't change bdays but what about field trips and programs, do they all have to be the last three weeks of may? Oh, and did I mention that summer semester began on May 11? We are a smidge overscheduled here and I am really hoping that June will at least be a little slower! Or at least I won't have any trips to the dump, or at least there will be no school programs right! No wonder we spend the first three weeks of summer just getting up when we want and eating dinner at 8:30pm instead of the lovely schedule I always envision of everyone up at 7 for scriptures then weeding for a 1/2 hour as a family then a healthy breakfast some quick house cleaning then little school workbooks for Sawyer and Zoe and piano practice for the girls then a picnic lunch to the park back home for naps for Zoe and reading time for the other three. What's next you ask? Well then we would prepare a lovely dinner to eat on the patio and then spend the evening playing baseball together as a family or going for a bike ride! This is really what I want to have happen during the summer, but we are lucky if 1 or 2 of those things happen per week! I have a hard time making my dreams a reality! I think I set my expectations a little high! Instead I should make plans for days when we will stay in jammies and watch 13 episodes of Monk in one day or we will go to the park but the house will be trashed before we go and will remain so after we come home. I need to accept that piano practice will rarely happen, that reading will probably be done in spurts like 3 hours one day and none for the next week ( that still averages 20 min. per day, right?) and that dinner at 8:30 on the patio is almost as nice as dinner on the patio at 6pm. Either way I am really looking forward to June!

A new family member?

No! Don't get the wrong idea! We are definitely not having another baby, but we do get to have another dog for just over a week! Yesterday sweet Bree came to stay with us! She is a wonderful well mannered dog and we are loving having her around! Especially Hunter! He was so pooped out last night from running around with her during the day that he could hardly walk. We think that's a good thing... Anyway, she is full of life since she is just over a year and it is so fun for us. She runs after the kids and is so curious about everything in our house since it is all new to her. It was pretty funny last night when Randy got home from work about 8:30 and came in through the garage door, Bree was asleep next to me and 4 nieces plus our kids and when she suddenly saw a strange man standing there she freeeakkked out! Her hair stood up on end, she barked like a maniac and growled too. I was holding the baby so I couldn't really grab her, so she headed toward Randy and he was smart and just stood still and started calling to her and she crept up to him growling all the way and then sniffed him a little and then started wagging her tail! Good dog, Bree! Nice to know she'd actually protect us if someone broke in! Randy said it scared the crap out of him, his heart was pounding, but now they are best friends. She wouldn't go to bed until he did and she followed him around all the rest of the evening. Maybe they aren't friends, maybe she was just keeping an eye on him! Either way we're glad the Mills Family asked us to babysit.