Sleep is overrated. Let's go camping! Part 2

Saturday morning, we left Yuba and set off on our pilgrimage to Palisade Lake. We only got lost once. Palisade Lake was actually quite enjoyable. We met our friends, Joe and Jeri and their two munchkins at the lake. We swam, canoed, rode bikes and paddle boated about in a paddle boat with feeble steering. No one got any Quagga mussels attached to them. Joe and his kids even caught a few fish.
After engaging in so many rigorous activities we fabbed up some dutch oven spare ribs, cobbler and made some real man fried potatoes in order to nourish ourselves. The kids play so hard, they exhausted themselves and were both asleep in the tent by shortly after nine. Chrissy and I decided to make a run to the restroom before climbing into bed ourselves. This proved to be an unwise decision.
While in the restroom the wind picked up and flipped our tent upside-down, with the munchkins still inside. Jeri and Joe heard Lily screaming and rescued her from the wreckage. When we returned, they asked if we had Calvin with us since they couldn't find him in the tent. I dove into the tent in search of Calvin only to find him peacefully sleeping under a pile of backpacks, clothes and sleeping bags.
We staked the tent down again and climbed inside, except Lily, who wanted nothing to do with our tent. She and Chrissy hung out in Jeri's tent until they heard both of our tent poles snap (and of course we decided to take the scout tent instead of our own this weekend). At this point the wind was still quite ferocious, so Chrissy convinced me that we should take the tent down and sleep in the truck. We stuck Calvin in Jeri's tent and he slept next to Parker. It was quite hilarious that Calvin never once awoke from his slumber while all of this was happening. Chrissy, Lily and I spent the next six hours in the truck until I couldn't stand it any longer. About five AM, I set the tent back up, broken poles and all, and tried to get a couple hours of decent sleep. I think the freak windstorm was punishment for all of us who were not at home spiritually preparing ourselves for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, but that's just my opinion. Chrissy doesn't think this is so because we did make it back to her parents house in time for the dedication. By the end of the weekend we only accomplished to get a couple hours of sleep and I had to go work a graveyard shift Sunday night.

The miracle and the out of control School Bus

Yesterday started off pretty normal. We ate breakfast, played games, cleaned up, ate lunch, put Lily down for a nap and Calvin asked to go play with Ethan. Ethan lives in our Cul-de-sac and he is Calvin's best friend. They are back and forth between the two houses ten times a day. Jon decides to wake up from his graveyard slumber and we sat at the table to chat while he had his "breakfast." It is now about 3:30 and I finally decide I have enough time to go upstairs to read my scriptures and hop in the shower. Yes, I know pathetic, afternoon showers happen more often than they should around here. I finally sit down to read when I hear the front door swing open and Calvin sobbing. I run downstairs to see what is wrong and Ethan's mom, Jill, explains what has happened.

Calvin and Ethan were playing in the front yard by the big tree and the mailbox. Jill was enjoying her piece and quiet when she felt like she should go and get the boys to come back in. She wasn't sure why, but she called them inside. Not a minute after they were in the house she heard a school bus in the cul-da-sac, so she said "Hey boys come and see the school bus," they all watched through the window as the school bus plows straight onto the sidewalk right where the boys were, and continues through the neighbors fence, shed, and two more yards and fences. Jill told the boys to stay in the house as she grabbed the phone and called 911 and ran out to see if anyone was hurt. When she got back in the house Calvin was scared and he was crying because of the accident and so she brought him home.

After calming Calvin down we went out to see the damage. And oh my, there were a ton of people in the circle. Police men, the school district people and all of the neighbors. The bus completely demolished the shed and the fences. Supposedly the bus driver took our street instead of the next one up and thought it was a through street, so he hit the gas and by the time he realized there was a house in front of him it was too late to stop OR he had a seizure? No one really knows what happened. He had just made his last stop, so there were no students on the bus thank goodness and he was okay, just very shaken up. And yes our neighborhood made the 10:00 news.

It is a miracle that no one was injured. There are always a lot of kids in our cul-de-sac and in the backyards that were hit. And everyone who would have been hit had gone in just a little while before it happened. It is amazing. It is so easy as a mom to say, oh I'll check on the boys in a minute but I am so grateful that Jill called the boys in when she was prompted. I can't even imagine what could have happened.

Other off things that happened yesterday: three people I know were in accidents, and my listing in Springville was broken into and burglarized. The night did have a good ending though, I got to go to the relief society salad social and chat while Jon put the kids to bed.

Sleep is overrated. Let's go camping! Part 1

In keeping with our usual style of trying to please everyone and cramming the most possible fun into a single weekend, we went on not just one, but two camping trips last weekend. Friday started off by waking up early at 1:00 PM (I've been working graves) and packing up the truck.

I decided to check the engine oil on the truck since we would have a long weekend ahead of us and discovered, to my limitless delight, that it had no oil in it. My lovely Ford had used five quarts of oil since the last oil change, which wasn't that long ago. Even black folk who eat nothing but fried chicken don't consume that much oil in that short of time. A quick trip to AutoZone and an oil change later and we were off like a prom dress. We headed to Yuba Lake for the Pontious family reunion. When we arrive in the arid wasteland known as Painted Rock, it was easily over one hundred degrees and there were no trees in sight. But that's ok, right? We were, after all, at a lake were we could swim about and escape the summer's heat. To our dismay, Yuba Lake was in the middle of some sort of algal bloom rendering the water green, slimy and stinky.

The high note of the evening was a scrumptious meal of cheeseburgers and corn-on-the-cob. I would have gone to sleep feeling satsfied with a belly full of corn and cow, but Lily decided that sleep was not an acceptable activity. She woke constantly throughout the night and made sure Chrissy and I were acutely aware of it. She slept for a little while nestled between Chrissy and me, but then ruptured her diaper and soaked our sleeping bag. Mmm. I love urine, but not at much as Calvin and Grandma Nancy do.

That morning, after we exited the tent (I won't say woke up, since we never really slept,) Calvin and Lily went to visit Grandma Nancy in her camper. Calvin found a SoBe bottle on the table and asked if he could have a drink. After he reported that it tasted funny, Grandma Nancy also tasted it to confirm its unpleasantness. Only then was it discovered that during the night, Papa Coach had found the journey to the out house far too daunting and, in a moment of environmentally friendly thought, opted to refill the SoBe bottle with used SoBe. We have not told Calvin what it was he ingested and would prefer that you also refrain from doing so.

Shooting

Every August my family along with my dad's brothers and sisters and their kids go to Fairview for a fun camp out. This year we decided to just wake up early on Saturday and head up there for the day. We took Jon's new 10/22 rifle to try it out. The scope was really accurate and it was a lot of fun to shoot. Calvin loved shooting while sitting on dad's lap. We also got to try out some other cool guns.

After shooting I took Calvin back to camp to hang out with Grandma Nielson, Lily, Carla Garner and the cousins. All the little kids drove Calvin's battery powered green 4-wheeler around until the batteries wore down. We played card games in the trailer and made dinner.

All the while, Jon, my dad and Travis were out fly fishing. They hiked 8 miles and were gone about 8 hours. This was Jon's first experience with fly fishing. I think he thought that was too long of a trip for his first time.

We sat around the campfire for a little while and then headed home. It was a fun day.

Friends

We love having friends over and a couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of visiting with our friends from Texas. Jon grew up with Scott aka Jimmy (Jon told me that was his name and I never thought twice about it until I heard someone else call him Scott). We spent time with him and his wife Julie when we were all dating. And Julie's roommate was Marybeth who married Jon's cousin Josh. Are we confused yet? Josh and Marybeth live in Santaquin and have 3 kids and Scott and Julie live in Texas where Scott graduated from law school and they have 2 kids. Anyways we all got together for some yummy Cafe Rio food and a party in the backyard. It was fun to see how everyone has changed. We all have kids and different careers and we live in different cities but of course we are all still friends.

Beautiful

Lily looked so adorable this day that I had to take her picture. I can't believe how grown up she looks and her hair has gotten so long.

Lily loves to sing lately.

I don't know why, but they both love to lay on the stairs.Calvin is so handsome.

Salsa, salsa, salsa

We have had a lot of ripe tomatoes coming from our garden since about the second week of July. And of course, being the salsa lover that I am, we have also had peppers and onions. I have made salsa just about every other day for a month and a half. We half given away a lot of tomatoes and we always have plenty for my salsa pleasure. If they keep coming this way I will have plenty of tomatoes to can for my winter salsa cravings. Our garden has also produced cucumbers the size of baseball bats and sweet corn on the cob. We have sweet potatoes coming and they should be done in about a month. I love reaping the benefits of having a garden.


Jon's Boss gave us a bunch of plums from his plum tree and so I made plum freezer jam.

Tables

Our Kitchen table is quite old. Jon's mom got it from Uncle David as a Christmas present. He made it for her to fill the empty void in the dining room at the American Fork house. When we got married, Jon's mom gave it to us. It is a very solid, oak table but over the years the finish has worn off and it has gotten a few bumps and scratches. We decided that it was time to do something to make it look fresh and new again. My neighbor Trent Thornton refinishes furniture. And so we had him refinish this kitchen table and a little table that Grandpa (Frank) Sudar made that we were given. Both of them look beautiful.

Before

After

After