Big long road trip

We left for Utah on June 19th.  First stop was Kaysville, UT. where we stayed at Aunt Linda's house with my mom.  We went to my cousin Shauna's son Alec's wedding reception.  The kids met several of their second cousins and really got along well.  So the girls went to Lagoon with my cousin Vicki and her kids and some other cousins.  I took Gavin shopping and to a movie on that day.  The girls had a blast at Lagoon.  Gillian played with Maile and Aiden and Drew hung out mostly with Austin.  On that Saturday aunt Joanne had a big family get together at her house.  It was so nice to see everyone.  Joanne is battling cancer right now and doesn't feel her best but she sure put on a good feast as usual.  

Emily, Levi, Vicki, me, Drew

Drew, Aiden, Gillian, and Isaac

Mom with her sisters and cousins

Darren's cousin Don met Gavin, Drew and I at the gun range the next week.  He was stunned at what a good shot Gavin is.  Drew shot very well for her first time too.  And me.... not so much.  But we had fun and learned some good tactical maneuvers.  

sharp shooter

The worst day was last Thursday.  I was going to take the girls up to Lagoon and meet up with Vicki, Sue, and their kids.  Gavin flew home that day.  As I was dropping him off at Ginger's house (she took him to the airport) Angie called from work and said that Noah called to tell her that Roxy had escaped the makeshift playpen that we left her in outside.  I didn't want to leave her locked in her crate all day so we brought out a big crate and left her outside.  I didn't happen to notice on one side that the holes in the crate were Roxy sized.  So I dropped off the girls with Vicki and rushed back down to Orem to locate Tiny Baby.  I thought that I would find her hiding in the house or yard and be able to go back to Lagoon but no such luck.  I spent the rest of the day walking the streets calling for her and knocking on doors.  I checked animal shelters and finally decided to make lost dog posters.  I was so sad and frantic.  I talked to everyone that I saw outdoors.  Finally I headed up to meet Angie at her work so that we could go to dinner and then pick up our girls.  As we were eating I got a call from a lady that I had talked to earlier and she had Roxy.  I was SO relieved!  What a crazy day!

Naughty little girl amongst her "missing" posters.

We stayed in Orem at the Goodwin's house for about 6 days.  We went swimming, went to CrossFit, and even went with Angie to Vernal to do a fitness booth for a company she works for.  I ended up doing the contest they were having.  It was hard because it was super hot, high elevation, and I had a very stiff and painful neck.  We had a blast driving up in her big green van.  

This was the temperature reading driving through Nevada

Gilly and Roxy making themselves comfy in the back seat

The Outlaw Throwdown in Vernal, Utah.  I took second place.

Now I am in Huntington Beach with the Sheldons.  I miss Darren like crazy but it is good to see my family and friends.  Alice is so funny and cute.  She has a superhero fetish.  Every day she wears her batman shirt and hat.  Her swimsuit is a Spiderman rash guard and shorts.  And of course her pjs are Superman.  The girls are having so much fun in the sun.

Alice's fine swimwear

Everyday wear

Fricke's pool

I 'm trying to be cool like Alice

The Rez

The reservation

When we first moved to our new home we called the encampment at the beginning of our dirt road "shanty town".  Then our neighbor's at the top of the road told us they call it "the rez.", short for the Reservation.  It stuck.  It is quite the eyesore.  I haven't exactly counted all of the trailers (those with wheels and those of the double-wide style).  There are several, and all of them in poor repair.  There are also broken down cars and trucks and even a few port-a-potties.  Awesome.  I have only met one of the guys who dwells there and I'm certain he was not sober.  I'm sure that people get a really nice impression when they turn down our road.  Luckily our house is a half mile up the dirt/gravel road and you can't even see it from our gate at the beginning of our property.  I tell myself this is good because it will keep prowlers away.  Between the Rez and the proximity of our house I feel pretty safe.  Plus, hey, 4 dogs let me know when anyone comes anywhere even close to the house.

Since Gillian gets off the bus alone this year she has to walk by the Rez alone unless I'm there to pick her up.  She once told me that when she starts walking she sings a song to make herself feel better.  Then she began to sing it to illustrate.  I figured she'd sing a primary song to comfort herself so I wasn't surprised when she started singing "I am... (and here's where I thought she was going to sing '...a child of God).  She paused and started again and sang "I am Ironman!"  An Ozzy Osborne song.  Of course. I guess that's way more comforting than I am a Child of God.

All I know is that the people on the Rez better watch out.  My daughter is Ironman.

Super awesome tansy time

I'm not quite sure why the kids all seem so distraught that it's that time of year again-- time to pull, poison, and kill all the Tansy Ragwort on the property.  So far I have pretty much been the only person who has done anything about the dreaded weed so far.  I've been having PTSD and flashbacks of last year.  I think I developed arthritis last year from pulling so many weeds.  This year I'm determined not to let any of the tansy go to seed.  I got a 4 gallon backpack weed sprayer and made the rounds on a lot of the weeds.  I've been trying several concoctions.  So far the diesel fuel I sprayed seems to have worked the best.  Unfortunately it has been raining for several days which is not conducive to poisoning these devilish weeds.  So today I went out and pulled all the really big ones.  I will succeed!  They will die!!!

I often feel like there are eyes watching me.  Then I turn around and voila, dogs, dogs, dogs.  They are literally everywhere.  Shadow has developed a skin condition.  She has lost a lot of hair and has very itchy and bumpy skin.  Darren took her to the vet.  She was so stinky.  Beyond any kind of dog stink I've smelled.  It has been three days of steroid and antibiotic pills and special shampoo and she finally smells normal.  Normal for a dog, just the normal stink.  She's such a sweet dog but I didn't want to pet her because I had to immediately wash my hands.  

The good news is that Roxy seems to be completely healed.  She's running around again and even ran out with the big dogs to chase away a coyote that was out by the fire pit.  I hope that she doesn't get herself into trouble again.  

I'm getting really excited for lacrosse to be done.  Between both girls there is practice every day and Saturday games.  Which means a lot of driving for me.  A lot.  Then Drew decided to do track too, which I'm happy about.  It adds in a Wednesday track meet every week.  Drew has made it to finals.  I'm so proud.  She runs the mile in 6:23.  Pretty darn good!  I could never do that at her age.  Or at any other age.  I can, however, do a workout with 100 pull-ups in it.  Which is how I trashed my hands and had painful open blisters for days.  I know that it doesn't make sense to many people to put myself through this kind of torture but for some reason I love it.  

On Saturday night we went to go see Star Trek with Rebecca and Tyler.  The movie theater was full so we had a couple of hours to kill before the next movie.  We could hear the NASCAR race at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.  Darren just couldn't resist.  We went to watch the races.  Afterwards the girls ran down to the front because they wanted to get a picture with the winner.  They got a picture with the second place winner.  Then Gillian said that she wants to be a race car driver when she grows up.  We are truly a redneck family now!

All eyes on Cyn.  All day long.

A skillet full of Roxy

Kids with a race car driver

I never knew how loud the races are.  I guess if I can hear it from my house....

Me, Chuck, Roxy, and my lilac tree

The workout was: 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats

Mother's Day

I really enjoy Mother's Day because I get to sleep in.  Then Darren and the girls bring me breakfast in bed.  After church I get a nap.  Ok, so this usually happens every Sunday, but on Mother's Day I don't help clean up at all.  So nice.

I wish I lived closer to Patsy.  She's such a great mama.  I try to be as good as she is but I fall short.  I'm not sure how she survived through six kids.  She did everything.  She drove 14 hours to Utah with six kids by herself in the summers.  And one fun time Johnny puked over her shoulder and into her purse.  She always just keeps trucking on.  And whenever I need anything she is always there.  Just a few months ago she flew out when she found out that I was sick.  She has a sixth sense when it comes to her kids.  I'd like to be as tough as her.  She always has a way of turning everything into something positive, even when it's pretty much crap.

I am grateful to be a mom.  It's a tough job.  Tougher than I ever thought it would be.  But so worth it.

Happy Mother's Day Patsy !

Two birthdays and a mauling

On April 24th Gavin turned 17.  I can hardly believe it.  He is quite the redneck kid.  His favorite thing to talk about is anything anti-Obama.  Ugh.  Not a topic that I love talking about.  Not sure where he gets his angst from. 

Then on May 7th Gillian turned 11.  And she's finally starting to sleep in her own bed.  She wanted dresses for her birthday.  And headphones.  She's growing up so fast.  Too fast.  It's all going too fast.

Then, a week ago Roxy got attacked by the neighbor's black Lab.  I was walking over to Aaron and Ashley's house to see if they had jumper cables to jump my dead car.  Roxy followed me over and started barking at their two dogs.  It all happened so quickly.  Their dog Bailey turned into Cujo and pounced on Roxy, grabbed her in her mouth and shook her around. I ran over and picked her up as quick as I could.  She was crying and bleeding all over me.  We ended up taking her to the emergency vet that evening.  She has fractured ribs and a big open bite wound that just now is starting to heal.  She developed quite an infection and has been on three different antibiotics to clear up the infection.  Poor little thing.  She has lost almost a pound, now down to 3.5 pounds.  She needed to lose weight but I think this was the wrong way of going about it.  

Roxy's compression wrap

Baywatch

Today we just hung out at the beach.  First we snorkeled at Turtle Bay then we headed to the North Shore at Ke Iki beach.  Darren sought out the shade and read and slept.  It's a good thing that I don't live here anymore because I would probably die of skin cancer.  I'm trying to make up for the years of no sun and I'm soaking up as much as possible.  

The shore break was huge today.  There were orange flags out warning people not to go in the water.  After a little while we could hear some girls screaming.  Right then a lifeguard drove up on a quad and jumped off running toward the water.  We ran over and he yelled at us to call on his radio for backup.  Darren got on the radio and called to the other lifeguards.  We watched as this woman got swept out over the ledge and into the heavy surf.  She was being dragged towards some very sharp rocks.  It was a helpless feeling but if we had gone in without any floatation devices we would have been swept out too.  Within about three minutes we could hear sirens and even more lifeguards came on quads and a jet ski. By the time the lifeguard got the lady out of the water she could barely breathe.  She couldn't stand up.  They took her up to a beach chair and the EMT's put an oxygen mask on her and after a little while she was doing ok.  That made our lazy beach day into an exciting but kind of scary beach day.  Then we went down to Pipeline and watched the surfers.  Big waves today.

Can't get enough of the sun!

Darren seeking shade whenever possible.  Smart boy

And when he left the shade of the trees he had his umbrella

Shore break.  It is way bigger in person

Lots of EMS showed up for this lucky lady

Watching the surf at Pipeline

Sunset at Turtle Bay

Friends in faraway places

We have been very lucky with the weather this week.  I was dismayed earlier this week with the forecast of rain, rain, rain.  But I now see that it is just an estimation.  We have had a little rain.  And on that rainy day (Monday) we went to the other side of the island.  Other than that Darren has liked that it's not super hot.  It has been perfect.  Warm and breezy.  

Yesterday we met up with Beau and Adam.  Beau was in my ward 21 years ago here.  He took our engagement photo on Laie Point, which we tried to recreate (see pictures following) but I think we need to retry.  Maybe if we have him do the photo instead of a stranger he would be able to recreate the moment.  

 

We all went on a hike to Kahana.  Adam brought his kids and his niece Noelle, who was a little kid when we were here.  Now she's a return missionary.  It's been fun to see old friends.  We jumped off the bridge and did a small hike up to what they called the lower pool.  The kids wanted no part of hiking up to the upper pool and waterfall so we played on the rope swing and played sharks and minnows in the lower pool.  The water was cool and refreshing.  Afterwards we kayaked and had a barbecue.  I love how laid back the lifestyle is here.  Of course I was not so laid back when I lived here and was in school and working as a massage therapist in town.  But it is nice to be back and just go with the flow.  

Adam used a small pillow and boogie board as a roof rack.  

Karate Kid jump.  That's as fancy as I could get

D's jump

Adam got some serious height for a gainer

Beau and Darren.  D trying to be a girl

Looks like Beau is walking on water but he just let go of the rope

Laie Point.  There were whales jumping off shore