Sunday, July 31, 2011

Our New Bedtime Song

Sung to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Stinky stinky diaper change
Boy, my brother smells so strange
He made something in his pants
Sure hope it won't attract ants
Stinky stinky diaper change
Boy, my brother smells so strange!

It's okay, don't hold your nose
Now he's clean and in fresh clothes
All his stuff is often stained
Can't wait til he's potty trained
He's so cute in his playpen
What's that smell? Oh . . . not again!

Both the kids get a good kick out of this one! 
Oh, how we love bed time at our house . . .
and clean diapers . . . and our brother!

Oregon Coast Camping

 We went camping with some friends to Devil's Lake in Lincoln City. On Friday night we made tin foil dinners, ate lots of treats, put the kids to bed, and stayed up waaaaaay to late and talked around the fire. We all have young kids, so it's not very often we get to sit and talk with out being interrupted! It was really nice. On Saturday morning, we headed to the beach, but not without a stop at the Candy Shop.

 They were making fresh taffy while we were there. The kids always love this part.

 
 A fun family weekend!

 Gage needed a nap and I didn't mind cuddling up with him and resting. It was freezing, so the towels and his blankie were keeping me warm!

 Maisey flying her kite. It only got away from her twice! 

 The dads got in a little snooze as well!

The kids had a great time building sand castles, playing in the water, hunting for sea shells, and getting buried.

We were going to stay for 2 nights but our kids were seriously melting down so we decided to head back home Saturday night. Plus, we had already missed three Sundays of church in July! We didn't want to be put on the inactive list! :)

Friday, July 29, 2011

Youth Conference - 2011

I wanted to write about our ward youth conference before we leave for our next adventure. . . in one hour!!!

We headed to Ashland, OR for a fun-filled two days! On Friday we worked on a service project, headed to the lake, and had a fireside. I slept on the floor in the hall on Friday night because we had heard that a couple of the girls were talking about sneaking out. Definitely not my best night sleep!

Saturday morning, we woke up super early, headed to the Medford Temple to do baptisms, then headed to the Rogue River to do some rafting. We stopped for ice cream at the famous Rice Hill on the way home.

Here is my favorite moment from the trip:
 


It has been years since I have wake boarded! I popped right up as if I just did it last week. I even got a few good jumps in (in first pic I'm landing) before face planting it pretty hard! It was AWESOME! We also rode on a 12 man banana which was way cool. I've only ever done a 6 man. This was so fun. There are pictures on someone else's camera so if I ever get them, I will add them to this!

My not so favorite moment of the whole trip:

I wanted to write about this before it was too far out of my memory. When we were dividing up who was in which boat when we went rafting on Saturday, a bunch of the young women wanted to be with me and few other female leaders. We ended up with an all girls boat that had 9 of us in it. When we started on the river it was about 11:30 am, and the water was swift and cold! Ok, cold is an understatement. It was as close to freezing as you can get with out actually having ice in it.After about ten minutes of paddling some of the young women in our boat decided they really wanted to paddle. We started switching paddles and positions and everything when we realized we were heading straight of a bridge pylon. By the time these inexperienced girls starting paddling, it was too late. We ran straight into the pylon and the current started sucking the back end of our boat under. The whole boat flipped and sent 7 of us floating down the river. 2 clung on to the raft for a while trying to get it unstuck from the pylon before a fisherman came over with his boat and rescued them. I was one of the unfortunate ones that got dumped in the freezing water and floated down the river. Our Bishop's boat was a little ways ahead of us and could hear all of us screaming. They paddled to the side of the river and we all made our way over to them. The bishop reached his hand out for mine and he was within centimeters of grabbing me. I reached my other hand toward my friend so I could pull her in as the Bishop pulled me in. Well, my friend grabbed my one hand a half second before the Bishop grabbed my other hand, and it spun me away from the Bishop's boat and back out into the COLD and SWIFT river. The Bishop's raft was able to pick up everyone else who got dumped out except for me. I was terrified. The day before we left for youth conference there was a story on the news about an 11-year old boy who drowned in the river. All I could think about was I was going to either drown or die from hypothermia! I was probably in the water for a total of 8 minutes, including a set of rapids! By the time another boat came and rescued me I was freezing. I could barely talk, and I couldn't stop shaking. Since I was one of the first out of the seven of us to make it to Bishop's boat and then got sent back into the river, I wasn't able to see if all of the other girls and leaders in the boat made it. I was really worried about them and I just wanted the new boat I was in to pull over so I could wait for them and make sure they were ok. I eventually talked them into pulling over but they missed a clearing in the shore line and we ran into several trees. One of the boys that was paddling in the front pushed a branch back so it wouldn't hit him in the face. As soon as he passed it, he let go of it and it whacked me right in the head and gave me a nice little cut. At that moment, it took everything out of me to not cry. I looked down at my watch and we had only been on the water for 45 minutes. This was supposed to be a 3-4 hour float. At that moment, all I wanted to do was be dry and warm and at home with my kids. I did not want to be rafting anymore! We eventually made it to the river bank and waited for about 45 minutes. We never saw them which worried me even more, but the boat I was in didn't want to wait anymore, so we left. I eventually hopped in another boat that wasn't into getting in water fights with every other boat that they saw. I enjoyed my ride in the third boat and made it safely to the take-out spot with no more incidents. 

About 45 minutes later, I start to see all of the girls from my boat! I was so happy to see that they were ok.

{There was a ton more to the story here, but when I pushed "publish post" it disappeared. We are now leaving in 17 minutes and our car is not packed, so I will have to redo it when we get back! Boo.}

It was quite an adventure. At first I said that I'm not sure I would ever get on a raft again! But I'm pretty sure I will as long as we are more organized and smart about who is paddling and when we switch paddlers. It is definitely an experience I will never forget!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

A Few Random Things

* Maisey loves to look her calendar and ask about everything that is written on all the days. This used to take forever, until we limited the calendar to one month a night. Tonight, it was May's turn. So we flipped open to May and we started with May day, then Cinco de Mayo, then Mother's day, then Luke's birthday, etc, etc, etc, until the end of the month. The final thing written in May was Maisey's last day of preschool. With out missing a beat she said, "Oh, tear!" She makes me laugh.

* We were matching the DVD that I made from our video camera in December of 2010. It had Maisey's gymnastic performance on it, as well as Christmas with Grammy, and real Christmas. Gage thought it was so funny to watch himself on TV and on the section of Christmas with Grammy he opened a dino flashlight from her. In real life, he got so excited and went and found the dino flashlight and starting copying everything he was doing with it on the TV. It was pretty funny to watch him. We may be breaking out the home videos more often.

* Maisey is STILL obsessed with death. Tonight she was talking about it with Shaun and I and she said that on time someone told her that when you lay in a hospital bed you go to heaven. I asked her who told her that and she said she wouldn't tell me. Then she asked us if there was a tunnel that leads from the hospital to heaven. I told her that her Papa who lives in heaven was very proud of her for singing his favorite hymn today. She said she already knew. I think she must have a special relationship with her Papa who lives in heaven.

* I survived our ward youth conference. More to come on that later, I just wanted to get these little memories down tonight.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

What I've done since we've been back!

I am still EXHAUSTED from our trip! I haven't been to the gym once since I've been home, and my to-do list just keeps getting longer and longer. Next week, I'm getting back into routine.

But this is what I've done in between the almost daily naps.


 Made freezer jam with 30 lbs of strawberries and 15 lbs of raspberries.

Picked another 15 lbs of strawberries to make strawberry bread for home teaching and visiting teaching families. Delivered said bread.

Made homemade strawberry syrup! Can't wait to try it out tomorrow night for dinner!

I also took Maisey to the hospital to have some testing done that her pediatrician recommended (too many uti's). That was entertaining!

They did an ultrasound on her kidneys and bladder and then they gave her some sedation before the next procedure. I sat her up on the bed and got my camera out to take her picture and as soon as I snapped the picture she started falling off the bed! Haha! I didn't know the medicine would work so fast. Let's just say I put the camera away for the rest of our visit at the hospital.
 
She was HILARIOUS on this medication! She told me that she wanted to name a baby Crayon. She was saying all sorts of silly things. She also made up and sang/yelled a crazy song about stickers! She also told me to take her pictures making silly faces. I just grabbed my phone and snapped a few.


 She was soooo loopy and I'm glad she doesn't really remember anything. Having a catheter is NOT fun, especially for a 3-year old. 








We stopped for a doughnut on the way home because she couldn't eat after dinner the night before. She scarfed the doughnut down and was asleep within minutes. I moved her to her bed when we got home and she was out!

The doctor called a few days later and said everything looked good! I'm glad everything is fine, but it is still puzzling why she gets so many uti's.

We have also been busy planning this little girl's birthday!
August is always a busy month for us so it's hard to fit a party in, but this little girl has been planning every detail, so we will make sure to fit one in for her!

I also completed 2/3 of the triathlon that I will be doing in 6 WEEKS!!!!!! I rode 12 miles on my bike then ran 3.1 miles. It went better than I expected and I am so pumped about this race!

Maisey had a sleepover with Grammy this week! They painted nails, played games, and watched Chihuahua the Movie (which btw, is NOT a kid movie!!!). When Grammy was driving her home, this was their conversation:

Maisey: Grammy, when you have a sleep over at my house?
Grammy: I have slept at your house.
Maisey (in a very serious voice): You slept in Gagey's room. His room smells like pee. You should sleep in my room. It smells like cake balls!

I guess it hasn't been too bad of a week! My house just looks like I haven't done anything since we've been home! It will have to stay like that until next week because I'm heading to Southern Oregon for the weekend for our ward youth conference. This is going to be such a great experience for our youth. I'm way excited!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Family Vacation 2011

Whew!
We made it home all in one piece -- barely!
It was a long 2 1/2 weeks, but we had a great time and created some wonderful memories.

I stayed up waaaay too late tonight and got all of my posts done.
20 of them to be exact!
I posted them by their real dates, so they will all be backward to you. If you care, you can go to June 25 for the first post and work forward!
I seperated them by Week 1 (Shaun's fam) and Week 2 (My fam)
We were sure busy!

Now I know why people say they need a vacation from their vacation!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Week 2: EXHAUSTED!

By the ride home on Sunday, everyone was in the Don't talk to me, Don't touch me, Don't even look at me mood!


Week 2: St. George Randoms

Some left over pics from St. George that didn't really belong in their own post!

4 generations!

Grandma Smore and her girls!

The kids had fun going on rides on Grandma's walker!


Celebrating Brian and Grammy's birthdays at Pasta Factory


Grammy had a sleep over with the girls. They watched Tangled and had a great time!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Week 2: Rhodehouse Pictures

These pics are out of order, but I don't want to go back and fix them. So here you have them. The new family of 3: Blair, Katelyn, and Brock Rhodehouse.




I threw this one in there because Gage was helping get baby Brock ready and decided to brush his own hair. He just looks really mischevious.


What a cute little family!

Week 2: Lightning Storm = A CRAZY morning!

Friday night, St. George got a huge lightning storm. Well, it was huge to us because we never get them like this! I was standing out on our balcony snapping these pictures  . . .





. . . when Shaun told me I should probably head inside. I argued with him and he teased that his wife was a storm chaser. So I reluctantly came inside and we started some games. A little while later I wanted to go back out front and check out the action again. I went to open the front door and it blew open so hard that it took three of us to close it. I decided that I would watch it from inside for the rest of the night.

About 30 minutes later, lightning struck our building. The whole building jolted and we could see sparks flying off our back deck. The power went out and the phone line was also out. We called the front desk from a cell phone and they walked us through where the circuit box was and how to flip the breaker. We were a little freaked out but we all went to bed.

I woke up around 4 am and smelled something weird. I thought it was the popcorn that we had burnt the night before when we were playing games. So I went back to sleep. When I woke up around 7 am I could smell it again, and it was a lot worse. I texted my mom and told her to come in our room because it smelled weird. She had also smelled it during the night, and agreed that it was much stronger in the morning. As I walked down the hall in our condo, I could smell it even worse. I opened the door to the laundry area, and almost fell backward it smelled so bad. It was definitely not the burnt popcorn, so we called the front desk right away. With in minutes, around 7:30 am, someone was knocking on our door telling us that we needed to evacuate the building and the fire department was on their way.

Well, one small problem. Shaun was in the shower. I went and knocked on his door and told him he needed to take the fastest shower of his life because there was a fire!

A fire truck arrived, hooked up the hose to the hydrant and sent fire fighters up the three flights of stairs to the condo directly above ours. Then two more trucks came. All the while, Shaun is still in our condo. The firemen start spraying and we can see smoke billowing out of the roof. Where the crap is Shaun? He comes strutting out a few minutes after! He almost killed me!

We were evacuated for 3 hours. After the second hour we decided to call my Aunt Sue to come and pick my mom, the kids, and me up. The fire trucks were parked right behind our van so we couldn't even get in there to get out the carseats. We rode to my Grandma's where the kids got to play for a while. Shaun finally called me around 11:30 am and said the fire department was letting people back in.

We weren't sure what we were going to find when we got back in there. Our condo was directly below where the fire was and they had sprayed water up in there for about 2 hours!

Luckily, water leaked through the ceiling of our condo in pretty much every place, except where our stuff was. All of our swim suits and towels that were laying out drying got smoke damage, but the rest of our stuff that was packed away in suitcases didn't smell.

One of the firemen was talking to Shaun and told him that lightning struck one of the little pipes sticking out of the roof last night. The unit above us was running their dryer and the lighning was attracted to the static electricity being put off by the dryer. It caught the tressels and insulation in the roof on fire. They smoldered all night and that was what was causing the burning smell. The people in that condo left in the middle of the night because they couldn't sleep and they never alerted anyone.

All in all, there were 6 fire trucks, 4 police cars, 1 ambulance, and several other fire vehicles. It was quite the scene that morning!

That is the 3rd story unit where the fire was.

Here is the truck attached to the hydrant. Shaun was still in our room at this point.

Gage was taking this whole thing in. He kept making a siren noise and totally loved every minute of it.

This is the view from the back. Our condo is the second unit, and the fire was in the unit with all of the furniture on the patio.

It sure was a scary morning, but we are glad everything turned out ok!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Week 2: Zion National Park

On Friday, we headed to Zion National Park to hike around. We were only planning on being there for an hour or two but ended up staying longer. It was soooo beautiful and our kids were surprisingly very good.
View from the Grotto Trail

We saw lots of squirrels on our hikes.

And we saw a deer. It's kinda hard to see in the picture though.

Dad was a trooper and carried Gage all the way up!
And Maisey was a fantastic hiker! She stayed with me the whole time, even when Dad dragged us on an advanced hike! She was AWESOME! All of the other hikers commented on how well she did.

This was the water fall we hiked to. Maisey was a little disappointed when we got there because the other falls we've hiked to in Oregon and Idaho have had a ton more water coming off of them. But it was still beautiful for the desert.

Gage enjoyed the Lower Emerald Pools trail the most because we let him out of the backpack when we got there. He ended up sitting right in the middle of the pool and then sat on the red sand. Dad wasn't too happy when Gage had to get back in the backpack and got red sand all over him.

 Maisey liked to stop and make handprints in the sand. We also enjoyed searching for "Bigfoot" footprints while we were hiking.

Look at these amazing red rock walls. We were completely surrounded by them.

We brought 3 of my cousins with us! The kids had fun throwing rocks into the Upper Emerald Pool which was much bigger than the lower and middle that we had hiked to.

Gage got red, sandy mud all over his face!

I took a turn with Gage on the way down! That was sure a workout!

This picture should be at the top  but I'm not going to move it all the way up there! We are riding the shuttle to the beginning ouf our trail. They were so excited to set out on this adventure.

We are so glad that we made time for this activity. We can't wait to go back again, and we also really want to go to Arches sometime!