Happy 27th Birthday Chris! I love you!!

Little Baller

I think these last couple of games the kids finally got it! They have been hitting and fielding really well and they have won the last 4 games, so that has been exciting. Nick got the game ball on Tuesday night. He stopped a couple of good hits and got a couple of good hits himself. At last week's game he didn't strike out at all! he got 2 doubles and a triple. It was so awesome!!!

Writing the TRUTH

Look mom Im on the rocks. We dont have time for it. You are takeing for ever. I dont want to stand here.

Nick brought this writing home acouple of weeks ago. I just started laughing. He said, "WHAT? My teacher laughed when she read it too." It's funny, but kind of sad at the same time. I know I am always in a hurry. I guess I need to slow down a little and let my kids play in the rocks!

We have a playhouse!

Friday I came home from lunch with a friend and this is what I found. Chris decided to build the kids a playhouse. No instructions or plans. he just started building!

I am thoroughly impressed! I think that I am more excited about the playhouse than the kids!!

And tonight it is finished! The kids say that it looks like a barn, so it is their barn playhouse!

The kids had lots of fun playing in the backyard all week while dad was hard at work!

A New Do

Before

Last Friday I took Chloe with me to get my hair done. I was only going to have hers trimmed, but she talked me into cutting it off. She had almost 7 inches cut off and she was thrilled to see all of her hair on the floor. She had fun cleaning it all up! It definitely takes way longer to do it, but she does look super cute!

After

Our ADVENTURE!

Right before we started!

Amber, Jenny, Josh, Austin, Jordan, Jimmy, Chris, Me and Abe was taking the picture)

We started walking. We were on a trail/path (we could tell where we were supposed to go!).We were talking, laughing, having a good time. Austin has his GPS/watch that tells how far we have gone. It has been 30 minutes and we have already gone a mile and a half. Things are good! We have to hike 9-10 miles today, so we can get to somewhere to camp. That is no problem! We will be there in a couple of hours.

We stop for some pictures. It is B-E-A-Utiful! We are waiting for Abe to run and catch up with Jimmy, Jordan, and Austin. They went the wrong way. Still good! Just waiting and checking out the scenery.

Waiting. Having a little snack.

Still looking good.

And then Chris tell us we might as well get a head start. This is the way to go. Go where?! That is just a bunch of loose rock! No path! You are kidding! Right?!

And this is where things got a little tricky! At least for the 6 first timers!

After I fell a bunch! We made it through tons of bushes, just making our own path. And we get to this log/bridge. Pretty scary!!!! The picture doesn't do it justice. There is a canyon below it that drops down about 60ft. Balancing with a 40 lb pack is fun trick!

We climbed up this mountain and then right back down on the other side!

Getting going again! We took alot of breaks the first day. None of us knew what we were getting ourselves into!

And straight up this mountain. The guys each followed behind one of the girls, so if we did fall they were supposed to stop us from going all the way down.

We were hiking and hiking through alot of really tough spots, sliding on our butts alot beacuse it was so steep!

The guys realize that we aren't where we are supposed to be (A.K.A. We are LOST!). We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere because we are supposed to be in the canyon on the other side of this mountain (They think!!).

They were right! Luckily! And we finally make it to the Grand Staircase!! Even though it was super steep and really scary we were very excited to have finally reached it. That meant we knew where we were and they had been telling us ALL day that where we were camping wasn't much further after we reached the Grand Staircase. WOOHOO!!

See this hole/crack. Climb in. Stay close to the wall. Take your pack off. Swing down and one of the guys will catch you.

Then up those boulders and back down. Take off your pack again and one of the guys will carry you across the water.

This picture was taken after our first repel in the dark, into black water. Pretty scary!! I think Jenny is smiling because she is still in shock. That water was sooo cold!

Then we come to a part that is so steep that ONLY Abe can climb it without a rope. Lucky for us he was with us or we would have had to swim down the river. At first thought it does sound like a way better idea. I was about to do it when they finally talked some sense into me. Your pack gets wet, it is super freezing and you have to swim, it is that deep. So I opted to be pulled up the mountain and repel back down into waist deep black freezing water.

This picture is taken right before we repel down. We aren't looking so pretty. It is probably 8 or 9 at this point. We weren't supposed to do any hiking in the dark! Right after this picture is taken I cry! I am done. I am scared and am very much worrying about leaving my children parentless!

No pictures were taken after that until the next day! We got lost! AGAIN!! We were wet! We were freezing! We had 4 flashlights for 9 people! It was very slow. The guys would split up and try and find the easiest way over the mountains and boulders. We were right on the ledge of some cliffs, we didn't even know it for the longest time beacuse most of us were walking without light, just looking at our feet. There was a lot of whining, complaining, cursing...and alot more praying. We did an extra repel that we weren't planning on and we FINALLY made it to our midway destination at 2 o'clock in the morning!!! We ate dinner, it was the first meal for the day. We only snacked figuring we would eat at about 6 or 7. It was a nice sandy spot. It was lovely to be able to take off our shoes and wet clothes. We slept good!

Chris and I slept in the little tent with 1 sleeping bag! He fell into one of the water spots and his sleeping bag got wet. Luckily it wasn't nearly as cold as the first night. Jenny, Josh, and Amber slept in the other tent and everybody else just slept in the sand. Luckily for me, Chris doesn't like sleeping with creepy crawly things either!

This is what we woke upto. It was a pretty little canyon to camp, fresh water running right through.

Everybody drank all their water on our 17 hour "hike" the day before so we had to purify and refill all our bottles before we could get started again.

We started off right away with 3 repels in a row. I love repelling in the day! I love to see where I am going and it was nice not to have to repel into anymore water.

The second repel was kind of tricky. Half of us ended up flipping completely upside down. I had a harness, so I thought it was so much fun!! The rest of them only had nylon, so when they flipped they had to spread their legs quick so they didn't fall right out onto their heads. Josh was the most hilarious! Words will never be able to explain. You just had to be there!!

The last repel was down the side of a waterfall. It was fun!

And then it got tricky again! We had to follow the river down. It was so nice being dry, but it didn't last very long!

In the water, trying to avoid the moss covered rocks. Out of the water around the boulders. Climbing up the mountain to avoid the waterfalls that had major drop offs.

Everything is okay. Not great, but okay. They tell us that we will be to the car around 1 or 2. It is just around this mountain. Not too much further! I can't tell you how many times I heard that!

It sucks now!! I fell off a small water fall into the water. Chris is behind me and jumps down to help me. He slips and lands on my ankle. I am crying! I am SOOOO done!! I race off. I don't care that my ankle is throbbing. I am done!! I want to go home!

Me: You know me! WHY would you think I would want to do this?!?

Chris: You had a such a good time at Girl's Camp I thought you would have fun.

Me: Yeah beacuse YOU weren't there!!!

And then I slip and fall on my face. I guess that is what I get for saying that! Chris snaps a picture and we both start laughing.

I was miserable. Only looking down to try and avoid falling as much as possible. It sucked to not be able to see all the scenery, but these little frogs cheered me up. And then I got delerious enough that I started catching them. It was fun to watch ALL of them hop away as we walked by.

And then the picture taking stopped again. I didn't stop again. I was on a mission! I was going home!! It is just up here. A little more. Don't worry. When we get there it will be a "real trail" up to the car they say.

Not really! At all! Can you see a trail? I can't. I guess it is kind of a goat trail. Do I look like a goat?!! Don't answer that!! But just when I thought we were almost there we would reach another ledge and the mountain would continue up, and up, and up, and up....

But we made it! At about 6ish. While we were on the hike I said I would NEVER do that again! But now that I have feeling in my feet again, and my memory of my misery is fading, I think I would do it again. It was alot of fun! VERY, VERy tiring, both physically & mentally. But I am proud to say that I did it. 18+ miles (we don't know exactly how much extra hiking we did when we were lost the numerous times!) of hard hiking in 2 days!

GO US!!!

A little Bribery

Nick started baseball in August. He is playing with his cousin, Ben, and they are on a coach pitch team. He has never played baseball before , but he took to it really quickly. He is getting better all the time. He is so fast that his coach nick-named him, "Nick the Quick". They had their 1st game a couple of weeks ago and did okay. He struck out a couple of times, and I just didn't get it! He did so well at the batting cages. But WHATEVER! He is trying and having FUN, so that is all I really care about! Chris and I missed his 2nd game when we were on our trip to Zion. He got 2 hits and did really well fielding. What?? Is mom bad luck? So we go to the next game, me thinking he is going to hit, but no he strikes out every time he is at bat.
Meanwhile... the ice cream truck is at the game and my kids are begging me for some. Nick was at bat, so to get them to leave me alone, so I could focus on Nick I told them we all get ice cream if Nick gets a hit. No luck! We go home and the kids tell Nick that everyone gets ice cream when he gets a hit. This makes him happy! Chris went and bought him his own bat, so he could practice with it and use it at games, and hopefully that would make a difference.
Also while we were in Zion Chloe had 3 purple days in a row, which means she was excellent! So she got to have a surprise. Nick was upset that that wasn't fair, so I told him during the week that if he got a hit I would get him the transformer toy that he wanted.
Now it is Saturday morning. We are getting ready for the game. The kids want donuts for breakfast, but we run out of time t go before the game, so on the way to the field I tell them we can get dinuts after IF Nick gets a hit. He said, " soooo, I get donuts, ice cream, and a transformer!!". Me, having totally forgot about the other bribes agreed. And what do you know!! He was the second one up to hit and smacked it good and got to 1st base! I was so proud! And then he got another hit too. It was a good game!

NEW bat- $54.11

transformer toy- $11.94

trip to the ice cream truck for 4 kids- $4.25

half a dozen Winchell's donuts- $4.59

Seeing your son get a hit- PRICELESS!

I get so nervous when I am just watching Nick up to bat that I can't even speak. I am just totally focusing on him. When he doesn't get a hit, my heart just melts and tears come to my eyes. And then my boy walks to the dugout with the biggest grin on his face and everything is okay again. I am so glad that he is able to deal with life's little disappointments so well. And I absolutely love that smile that my boys gives!