A Weekend at the Cabin

This past weekend, July 16th and 17th, David and I went to the cabin. We were able to take my brother, Riley, with us. I didn't get a chance to take very many pictures on this trip but it was full of adventure and crazy happenings!!!

My little bro, Riley!

We didn't get to the cabin until about 9:30 Friday night. We hung out for a little while and played a few card games and went to bed. Very little excitement happened Friday. Saturday was the day for pain and stories.

We started Saturday morning off with a scrumptuous and VERY healthy (not) breakfast of scrambled eggs with spam on croissants. YUMMY!!!! We headed out for a ride on the motorcycles. It turned out to be a 4 1/2 hour ride with a few painful moments for me. This year has not been my year for motorcyle riding!

Everything was going good and we were having a good time. Then, I went through a puddle in the middle of the trail that apparently had a lot of sand in the bottom of it. So instead of going straight through the puddle the sand pulled my motorcycle to the right. Well, there just happened to be a huge pine tree there on the right. Now, remember, the finger that I smashed and broke in Moab just two months ago was on my right hand. The large pine tree and my broken, smashed finger met. OUCH!!! It didn't feel very good. Now I have a gross, ugly, blood blister under my new nail that is growing out. Hopefully the new nail won't fall off too.

Once most of the pain went away from my finger we were on the trail again. We rode for a little while and came to a spot in the trail where a stream runs across the trail. Someone thought they would help everyone out by putting small tree trunks across part of the stream to cross over on. Why? The stream was only about two feet across and four inches deep. Anyways, the wood was very slippery and covered with moss so when I tried to cross over it my back tire slipped and I hyperextended my left knee. OUCH again! By this time I had TBS (Tired Butt Syndrome) and I was ready to be done riding for a few hours but we were still miles away from the cabin. So again I got back on my motorcycle and started riding.

When we got back to the cabin we made lunch and relaxed for a little bit. We decided we would take the dogs for a run and go to a river that they could play in. I got on the back of David's motorcycle with him so I could carry Josie when she got tired of running. Sammy was so excited to go. She loves to chase the motorcycles. I think Josie really enjoyed it too. She ran a lot longer and faster than I thought she would with her little legs. When Josie got tired of running we picked her up and I held her while we went the rest of the way to the river.

Once we got to the river David decided that he was going to cross it...with me and Josie on the back. You might be thinking, "Whats wrong with crossing the river with a passenger and a small dog on the back?" Well, the part of the river David was going to cross was about 3 feet deep with a strong current. That didn't go so well. We're not really sure what happened but we ended up in the river with the motorcycle on its side. (You aren't suppossed to take motorcycles swimming.) Here's the funny part about this whole situation...I was wearing the backpack with our new camera, the GPS, and David's new phone in it, and we are in the river...I'm trying to get up but one of the straps on the backpack was caught on the back fender of the motorcycle...my right leg was on top of David's right leg keeping him down in the water...therefore he wasn't able to hurry and get the motorcycle out of the water...and I'm trying to keep Josie's head out of the water.

Oh man, I wish I had a video recording of this. We really weren't in the water for very long but the sequence of events to get up is quite funny now that we think about it. Riley hurried off of his motorcycle and helped David push his motorcycle to the other side of the river. Meanwhile, Sammy is playing in the river, having a great time. Good thing someone was having fun!

David took out his air filter and found it sopping wet. NOT GOOD! We sat there for a while and David decided to try and start it. Nothing...he couldn't even get the kick starter to move at all. Riley let David take his motorcycle back to the cabin to get the 4-Runner and trailer. While David was gone Riley and I were trying to keep the dogs entertained and within sight. David finally returned and we loaded his motorcycle and everything and headed back to the cabin. Good thing it was the end of the day.

We didn't get home until about 10:00 Saturday night. As soon as David got his motorcycle off the trailer he went to work to get the water out of it. He was up until about 1:00 am getting water out. Sunday afternoon he decided to hook the motorcycle to the back of the 4-Runner and have me pull him down the road. Finally we got enough water out of the motorcycle engine and the engine got warm enough that it started! It ended up not being an expensive fix that we were fearing it would be. We are so grateful for that.

By the way, the camera, GPS, and phone all ended up being ok also. Thank goodness!

A Much Needed Update

So my goal of trying to post at least once a week isn't happening. My life has been consumed with one thing, Girls Camp. Last November I was called as the Girls Camp Director for our ward and you would think that would give me plenty of time to get everything done. Well I kind of... maybe, procrastinated a little on a few things so the past month has been nothing but girls camp preparation. I have loved this calling but I'm excited for girls camp to come and go. We leave next Tuesday morning! Only 5 more days to get ready. Like I said, I'm really excited to go to camp and spend the week with the girls but it will be nice to come home from work each day and be able to do what I want to do. David has been busy this summer doing yard projects. He is building a pathway on the side of our house so we don't have to walk through the dirt all the time. He only has about six more feet to go. I'll have to make sure that is on his to-do list while I am at camp. He has also been busy replacing sprinklers that the dogs chew up and break. If they find one that is still sticking up out of the ground they will chew it off and then we have a geyser next time the sprinklers come on. So we decided to replace the broken ones with new metal sprinkler heads. Lets hope they can't chew these to pieces. Oh the joys of dogs!!

Josie-6 months old. I think she was getting ready to pounce on Sammy in this picture. Sammy posing for the camera. Sammy and Josie have become best friends and neither of them know what to do without each other.

Anyways, there is a quick update on our lives. I will post more after girls camp!

Moab 2010

May 13-16 David and I went to Moab with Doug and Pam and Bryce and Audrey. We had so much fun down there. We left Kaysville at about 6:30 pm on Thursday the 13th and arrived in Moab at about 11:30, waking everyone in the campground up with Doug's diesel truck. We got ready for bed and had a great night sleep and woke up Friday morning ready to go and explore!

This is where we slept. It was awesome. Every night we unloaded the motorcycles and four wheelers out of the snowmobile trailer and laid down carpet pad and carpet and set up our beds. It was just like a house. Everyone in the campground would walk by and try to look inside.

Friday May 14th

We woke up bright and early (we being Bryce, Audrey, David and I) and were ready to go for the day. We went outside and started cooking a scrumptous breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and fresh strawberries! After breakfast we packed up all our bedding, loaded the motorcycles and four wheelers and made sack lunches. We headed out to explore the Determination Towers and 7 Mile Rim trails.

This was the view from our campsite. I love Moab. It is so beautiful.

We didn't take too many photos of the scenery on Friday but I love this picture. These rock formations are called Determination Towers. I don't know why they have that name but they are so spectacular to see. Bryce and Audrey holding up the rock. I broke my finger! This was definitely the most exciting event of the day, possibly even the whole weekend. We came to a spot in the trail that was steep and had really big boulders on one side and big boulders on the other side. I obviously didn't pick the right side to go up. My motorcycle started to tip over and my finger got squished between the end of the handle bar and a rock. IT HURT!!! I walked up the hill while David and Doug got my motorcycle up the hill. When I took off my glove I found this. I didn't know it was broken until Monday morning at work when I took and x-ray of it so I had rode the rest of the weekend with a broken finger!

When we got back to camp Friday evening we made dinner and had just finished cleaning up when it started to rain. We spent the rest of the evening in the trailer playing games and talking. Saturday May 15th We woke up, made breakfast, packed everything and loaded everything for another day of exploring. Today we rode the Poison Spider trail and Golden Spike trail. Very fun trail but extremely challenging. I'm glad we were on four wheelers today and not the motorcycles.

Cheek to Cheek! :)

Strike a pose

Who is that cute couple?

The four wheelers and the beautiful Moab rock

Overlooking Moab city. The city is the green valley. So pretty up here being able to look down on God's creations.

Don't lean over the edge too far!

Arches National Park in the distance.

Sunday May 16th Sunday morning we woke up, cooked breakfast, and loaded everything up to go home. On our way home we stopped at Dead Horse Point.

Too bad it was hazy. It is amazing that the Colorado River cut through these huge rocks. Now we have this beautiful landscape.

Whitnee, Audrey and Pam. "Audrey's Pixies"

Bryce, David and Doug. "The Manly Pose"

Just the girlies

The guys...sticking their hips out.

Doug and Pam with the Colorado River in the background.

Honey Buns David and Whitnee Cactus in blossom

View from Dead Horse Point Visitor Center

The blue ponds are used to mine some kind of mineral but I can't remember what it was. The torquoise blue water was so pretty against the red rock.

We all had so much fun on our weekend trip to Moab and can't wait to do it again next year. (Minus the broken finger)

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Today is our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. I can't believe how the time has flown by during the past 2 years. Thanks for all the you do for me Honey Buns! I love you so much and look forward to many more years together.

Goodbye Butters

Today I came home from work and found that Buttercup had died sometime during the day. It's funny how attached you get to somthing, even if it is a rodent. I had known that this was going to be coming soon because she wasn't eating or drinking or doing anything but sleeping during the past couple days but it's still a shocker. Buttercup was one of my Christmas presents in 2008 so she lived for about a year and a half, which is a pretty normal life span for a hamster.

I will miss waking up in the middle of the night and hearing you running in your wheel as fast as you can. The nights will be pretty quiet now. I'm sure David will love that. Thanks for all the adventures you led us on when you found a way to escape out of your cage and were running around somewhere in our house. You will be missed Buttercup!

Buttercup was quite the acrobat. She was always climbing up her cage and hanging like this from the top. Goodbye Butters!

Welcome Celebration!

Monday evening, April 5, the Weber State Dental Hygiene department had their annual Welcome Celebration for the incoming students. While I was at the meeting they awarded scholarships to the incoming seniors, introduced the class officers, showed a fun video of "An Ordinary Day in the Clinic," and introduced us to our very own peer pal. After all of this we went upstairs to the dental hygiene department and had dinner and got to know our peer pals and the other girls in our class. My peer pal's name is Tiauna Bates and she is so much fun. I met her a few weeks earlier when I was at my interview and I thought she was a fun girl then so when I found out she was my pal I was very happy. I am super excited to have her help me out when needed. After dinner was finished and we had a chance to talk with the people at our table and get to know the professors a little bit we ordered our very own lab coats. I was super excited for this! (Except for the cost but I better get used to it after looking over the list of expenses) My dream is finally becoming a reality and I couldn't be happier!!!!! I've only waited for this since I was five years old. This morning I was able to register for my fall classes. I could not wait to see what my schedule was like. I'm so excited to be going back to school. We'll see what I say about this in about November!

Funny Moment

Remember how in my last post I was saying how our two dogs keep finding ways to get out of our yard? Well I have a funny moment to go along with that. The other night David was at a presentation at school to get extra credit for one of his classes. I was home alone enjoying myself and watching The Biggest Loser. During one of the commercials I decided I better check on the dogs and make sure they were still in the yard. I looked out the windows and couldn't see them anywhere so I hurried and put my shoes on and walked outside. They were still no where to be seen and they didn't come running to me like they usually do when they hear the back door open and close. I checked back behind the shed and still no dogs. "Oh crap. Why don't they just stay where we put them!" I walked back to the house and noticed that they were both in the neighbors yard sniffing around. Well as soon as Josie saw me (she is our cute little chiweiner) she ran back under the fence where they had escaped and tried to run past me. I caught her and then trying to get Sammy (the black lab) to come back home was the hard part. I called her name, told her to get back over here, go around the front yard and get back here, and I called her full name, Samantha, thats when she knows she is in trouble, but she still wouldn't come. Because of this I had to walk across the back yard, then across the front yard and into the neightbors yard to finally get her to listen to me and come home. I then put both of them into the dog run so that I wouldn't have to worry about them and I could finish watching The Biggest Loser. During the next commercial I went to the laundry room window and looked into the dog run and I could tell that Josie had climbed up the chicken wire and escaped out of the dog run. UGH!! I put my shoes back on, walked outside and Josie went running past me as fast as she could. I yelled "HEY" pretty loud and she turned around and came to me. I then picked her up and held her right in front of my face and told her "Stay where I put you!" I turned around to go back into the house and put Josie in the garage and there was our neighbor standing in his backyard with a horrified look on his face. I didn't think anything of the look on his face at the time and asked him if he had found her and put her back in our yard. He said "Yes, she was just right here in our yard. I'm not sure how she got over here." I showed him the hole that the dogs had found and mentioned that we will fix it this weekend, thanked him for getting Josie, and walked back into the house. Later that night I realized why our neighbor probably had a horrified look on his face when I turned around. I'm guessing that when he found her he picked her up and put her on our side of the fence but kind of had to drop her to get her on our side. Then, here I come outside, swinging the door open and closed and yelling HEY without knowing he was out there. He probably thought I was mad at him for touching my dog! Anyways, thats my funny moment. I have been laughing about it all week.