Denny Cabin and Hammock Accidents

A few weeks ago some friends from our ward invited us to stay at their cabin in Timberlakes, in Heber.  The kids we so excited to go!  Their cabin is in such a beautiful setting and does not get cell service which to me is heaven on earth to me.  The kids were in heaven any time they got to be on the 4 wheeler!

I was simply in love with the beauty of the surroundings.

We had an encounter with a moose and a doe and her fawn

We played board games late into the night.  Sue showed the kids a trap door to a cellar that the boys promptly used to torture Claire by calling her name and laughing when she couldn't find them.  There is a bridge inside the cabin on the top floor that connects the two sides of the cabin and my kids thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen.  

In the morning our friends had to leave and they said we could hang out as long as we wanted.  I took a turn taking the kids on the four wheeler and when I got back Luke and I decided to get into the hammock together.  Gage stood to the side and started swinging us really hard.  This is where the accident part came in.  I started to hear the wood crack and right as I said to Gage, "I don't think you should swing us this hard!" The bolt at the top of the hammock came out of the post and Luke and I went flying about 5 feet to land on the rocks.  Well, I landed on the rocks, Luke half landed on me.  I hit my head and I laid there dazed for moments.  After Gage stopped laughing he ran to get Tim. (I'm not kidding Gage's brain is scrambled as a teenager) Tim ran and helped me up and once the shock wore off  I knew that I had hurt myself badly.  My torso on one side was on fire.  It's been more than 3 weeks now and I'm still sore. The doc was concerned that I dislocated my ribs but thankfully they were just cracked.  Luke made a rapid and full recovery in about two days. Being young is awesome!

Here is the offending hammock!  

Back to School 2017

There's not much to say about Back to School this year.  The kids were happy with their teachers and all of them were comfortable with where they're at.  It is the calm before the storm.  Next year Gage will start High School, Luke will begin Middle school and Claire will be alone at elementary school.

Thankful for this year of calm.  They are growing so fast.  I'm so proud of the people they're becoming.

8th grade

5th grade

3rd grade

Eclipse Mania

We had a severe case of Eclipse Mania at our house.  Tim and I are both fascinated with Space and we had been looking forward to the Eclipse for about a year.  By some miracle our friend found us a camping sight in the Idaho in the path of totality.  We were so excited.

The news started reporting about a lot of problems that they expected with overcrowding and traffic. As much as I love space I equally hate crowds.  We thought we would be OK at our camp site.  About a week before the eclipse we found out that our "camp site" wasn't so much as a site as it was a piece of grass with no water or fire pit.  That was just a tad too rough for me so we canceled.  Then two days before the eclipse I found out from Amazon that the glasses I had ordered were recalled and considered unsafe by NASA.  I was so annoyed.  We had already been looking at the sun with them so we used them anyway.  We were careful to only look for a short time and doubled up two pairs of glasses.  Thankfully no one lost their vision from it.  Phew!  

I was sad we didn't make it to Idaho but we did get a good view here in SLC.  Tim stayed home from work and we went and got a load of snacks.  My Dad and Pam came over and we watched together.  I could not believe how dark it got and the feeling was quite eerie.  The sun didn't warm you the way it usually does.  It was chilly and it made me hungry to see a full eclipse.  One will be over our house in 2045.  I will be 66 by then.  I can't wait!

I was tickled to see that Claire wanted to make sure all her favorite animals got a view.  She was so caring to protect Slush's eyes. 

Luke is my little scientist.  He was on fire over the eclipse.  It was so fun to see his reaction.  It made me so sad we didn't make it to Idaho.  

Tim is so funny!  We had the colander so we could observe the shadows but it also made a great hat.  Tim really like looking through our cereal box viewers.  They were fun to make with the kids.   

  

Watching the shadows through the trees change as the eclipse got deeper was my favorite part!

Random Crap We Did This Summer That I Want To Write About

It seems that every summer I just have a load of stuff that I want to remember but I'm too lazy to make multiple posts.  So I'm just going to dump the pictures here in no particular order...

Gage spent $80 on this Lord of the Rings puzzle.  The thing is a monster!  He has been working on it for months with Tim and they have loved it.  It is slow going but something they like to do together. 

This picture just makes me smile.  These two are such good friends and I love it!  

I used to love to play Badminton and I don't mean to brag or anything but I was quite good at it.  My kids had never played and we have the perfect spot for it so we introduced the kids to badminton.  They love it!  I discovered I haven't lost my skill.  The kids loved watching Tim and I face off.  Tim won, dang him.  It was a close match!  

Tim and I try to take Sarge on a walk every night.  The sunsets always take my breath away.  

We had fun with Tim's family having dinner at Brighton.  The kids played, "Never Have I Ever" for the first time.  Fun!

It's become a tradition to go to Sue's Farm in Wales UT with the Wright cousins. The kids love it there so much.  The pace is quiet and it's cooler down there.  This year we went into Manti and had dinner.  We found a place with yummy Gluten-free Pizza!  The kids loved getting soaked at the splash pad.  Kids don't mind wet clothes.  The last day we were there we went to the Manti swimming pool.  The Manti temple looks over the pool and it was such a spectacular view.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture!  We went to Maple Canyon to do some hiking but the ranger wouldn't let us because a big brown bear had been in the canyon about 10 minutes before we showed up and had approached people.  That was a rather exciting 30 minutes.       

Such goof-balls

They played some game that sent waves of giggles into the air.  

The boys were quite adamant about sleeping outside and setting up the tent by themselves.  Thankfully they had some cousins to rough it out with them.  

In early June we went camping outside of Midway with our close friends the Trionfos.  They have two daughters that find our boys to be quite the peculiarity.

These two were off on so many adventures in the woods.  We hardly saw them.  Their favorite adventure was spying on the girls.  This rock was their favorite viewing spot.  

Don't you love how when you're camping you're sure you've slept all morning and it turns out it's like 5 am.  

Someone is proud of his work helping Dad with the tent!

Claire and Bella are the cutest friends.  They invented a game where they were solving mysteries.  They have quite the imagination!  

One day we went into Midway and these nerds were thrilled to find this enormous chess board!  

We spent so much time this summer hiking and biking.  I love that the kids are big enough that we can go for longer distances.  I love Utah for all it's natural beauty.  Seriously so spoiled here!

Crestwood Trail.  We biked 4 miles!

This is the trail head to Twin Lakes Reservoir.  The first part of the hike overlooks Silver Lake.  So stunning!   

We made it to Twin Lakes

The wildflowers were out.  Swoon!

Claire learned to crochet with these cute girls.  

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The hike to Timpanogos Cave is a bit brutal at the end but SO worth it!  We've hiked this before but the kids didn't remember it.  They were captivated by the cave.    

She was a trooper!

Hard to beat these views!

Gage's Sunday School teacher has an amazing wood shop in his garage.  He challenged the kids to learn about Joseph Smith's First Vision and when they completed it the reward was that he would help them make a wood pen.  The wood came from the sacred grove and Gage will cherish it forever!  

This is Gage texting a girl!  So not ready for that!  He started going to his first boy/girl parties this year.  Freaked me out!

And last, a sad note about my poor Daddy saying goodbye to his dog and cat in the same month.  It was a sad goodbye.  

Visits From Family

I love love love visits from my family in the summer.  Rachel stayed with us for a week in early July.  

There are always tears when these girls go home.  They are growing older now and things will change as they head off to college and such.  The summers we have spent together though will last a lifetime!  

Todd and his family came in early August.  We met downtown for dinner and had the world's most amazing gluten free Neapolitan Pizza that makes my mouth water just thinking about.  After dinner we went to the Gallivan center and Cute Brynn someone finagled Luke out on the dance floor.  It was about the cutest thing ever!    

Claire asked her Dad to dance....he said "yes!"

We went horseback riding at This Is The Place State Park.  It was so fun.  I haven't been on a horse for years. Every time I go I always seem to get the stubborn horse that they want me to whip.  I don't like whipping a horse.  I got to the point where Aurora would obey me.....sort of.  I did whip her a few times.  

I was so impressed with Luke.  He is quite the horseman.  He seemed to have a connection with his horse.  Her name was Ariel and even though this was Luke's first time trail riding he looked and acted like a pro.  Ariel did everything he wanted.  It was amazing.

Such a stud!

This little lady loved her horse, Pegasus.  She was also so comfortable on her horse.  

Todd got stuck with a mule that was more interested in eating that actually keeping up.  It was pretty funny.  I was impressed with my skills to capture this shot while on a horse.  Cute Marissa knew what she was doing.  

Claire loves being with her girl cousins.  They are such cuties!

I may or may not have been tickling Dawn behind Todd's back.

I think she's onto me.  

Cousin time is the best time.  Love these people.