Forever Family

Last Saturday we were able to be with my sister and her family in the Logan Temple as they had their ten month old twin boys sealed to them. It was such a wonderful day and one that many people have been praying and hoping for for several years, especially my sister and her husband and daughter. I can't even describe the feelings of being there in the temple with them and how special a day it was. I know that my children are sealed to me, but their is something very special about actually getting to witness a sealing happening. We are so happy for Erin and Brian that they were able to add more children to their family! Brock and Isaac are the cutest little boys and as different from each other as can be. They are both so cute is such different ways. It has been so fun to have them in our family! Congratulations, Erin and Brian! We are so happy for you and your wonderful little family!!

Brock, Brian, Ellie, Erin, and Isaac coming out of the temple after the sealing

I love Isaac's little face in this picture with that cute little smile and finger at his mouth. He always gives such shy, sweet smiles!

Brock was being a little fussy about having to be still for so many pictures, so Brian tried a few with him upside down. He still wasn't very happy.

I have to brag a little about Ellie's dress that I made for the temple because it turned out so beautiful. I am always so happy when something turns out like I envision it, and this dress definitely turned out great. Now I'm trying to find an excuse to make one for Emily.

I love that we were able to be at the Logan Temple for a sealing right around our anniversary. It's so neat to remember that seven years ago Jeff and I were sealed in this same beautiful temple.

We had some problems with Emily "wandering" into the pictures. I guess she really wants to be a part of Erin and Brian's family.

And of course, Jeff with our own sweet Baby Jane. I'm so grateful for my own little Forever Family!

The Driller

Yesterday Max got a Halloween pencil in a goody bag at a party so that afternoon I showed him how to use the pencil sharpener to sharpen his pencil. Later in the day he was digging through our junk drawer and found all of our non sharpened pencils.

First thing this morning when he come's in my room he asks, "Now where's Dad's driller? I need to drill those pencils!"

Magic Grandma's Carnival

The theme for this years Halloween party was magic. The kids got to make wands, get tattoos, and have their fortunes told. Then they got to watch Magic Grandma's magic show.

Max went as a pirate this year and Emily decided she wanted to be Belle.

And of course, it is always fun to hang out with cousin Ellie. I'm sure it will be even funner when Brock and Isaac are big enough to play, too.

Jane isn't big enough to participate yet, but she's a cutie anyway. I can't believe how big she is getting and how lucky I am to have such a sweet baby!

Thanks for such a fun night, Dad and Sharon!!

*Erin - I hope you don't mind that I "borrowed" some of the photos off your post!*

The Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weeks ago we were able to go to a local pumpkin patch with some of the neighbors. They had the cutest little maze, the perfect size for little kids.

The kids had fun looking at all the different types of squash, gourds, and pumpkins

They also loved jumping across the hale bales.

After all the running and jumping, we got one of the little carts they have on the farm and loaded up some pumpkins for our little family. Hopefully we can get them carved before Halloween.

Spittin' Image

The other day at the fabric store I ran into an old neighbor. We said hi and she commented on us having a new baby and right before we moved on she told Emily, "You are just the spitting image of your dad!". As we were walking away, Emily yelled, "I'm not spittin!!" I explained, "She's just saying you look like Daddy." To which Emily replied, "I don't look like Daddy, I look like Mommy!" I guess Emily is sick of getting told how much she looks like Jeff.

Day - 7 The Exchange

I knew that we were camped close to Phantom Ranch the night before, but I had no idea how close. The boater’s beach was just around the bend. Brian and Seth had done an early morning float down to the boaters beach so that those hiking out could get an early start. We thought we would have to wait for the people hiking in, but that did not prove a problem. The kayakers were so excited that they started hiking early. That made it easy for us. We were able to make the quick hike from boaters beach to Phantom Ranch without having to wait. It was kind of interesting to see buildings and people. Going to an actual bathroom was kind of nice to.

From Phantom I was able to make my call home. It was nice to be able to talk to Adrienne and the kids. It is hard to describe how nice it was to talk to someone who was so excited to talk to me. It also touched my heart when Adrienne told me how well the ward was taking care of her. Honestly, being in the dark as I was, I thought maybe they were going a little overboard. Adrienne almost let it slip, but she made sure not to tell me why she was being taken care of so well. A few days earlier our baby had spent a night in the hospital. Under the circumstances I appreciate her keeping it from me. Jane was okay, and at that point the only thing that I would have been able to do would be to worry. It was so nice to talk to Adrienne that I was really sad when we had to hang up.

We hung around Phantom Ranch for awhile. One of there biggest sellers there is lemonade. Once they are done with the lemonade they fill the bottles with water and freeze them. Then they sell the ice to boaters that are coming through. It is quite the business they have going. We bought all of their lemonade bottles and a few bags of ice, which then had to be carried to the boat. As hot as the day was, I think the bag of ice I had was one of the most pleasant loads I have ever carried.

Once back at the boats we met our new members of the group and had lunch. There were two kayakers, Curtis and Jon, as well as Mark who would spend most of the rest of the trip on my boat. The group was not lacking in enthusiasm. That first day the kayakers were practically giddy with excitement. I don’t think they could have wiped the grins off their faces if they had wanted to.

After lunch we made our way down river. There was only one big rapid for the day but it was a dozy. Horn Creek is one of the big six. It is easier at higher water so we had planned to go when the water would be at its peak. There really is not a good scout for this one. There are two rocks on this one called the horns. One was more in the center than I was expecting, the other is on the left. The run is right between them. For some reason Craig was in front of me when we went through. He ended up taking a run that went over the right horn. Because of the drop I could not see his run well, but it looked like a crazy ride. He made it through all right though. There was a funny moment afterward when Curtis paddled up next to him and yelled, “Nice Run.” At first Craig thought he was being made fun of, but kayakers are different breed. Curtis saw the run and though it just looked fun.

We arrived at camp a short time later. Monument Creek camp offers a great view of Granite rapid. The first thing we did when we got there was to watch a commercial group run the rapid. It was kind of scary to see the rapid at high water. It was like the whole stretch of river left to right top to bottom was full of gigantic waves. There was so much big water I did not really see a path that I wanted to take.

We went back to camp, where I tried not to think about the next day. Granite would be the first of three big rapids the next day. In addition to those there would be several other rapids that are big in their own right. Luckily that afternoon I found a nice spot to set up my cot for the afternoon. It was a spot nestled under a tree at the bottom of a cliff. I do not think the spot gets hardly any sun. I was able to curl up and take a fantastic nap. It was good to get some rest. The next day would be the biggest water day of the trip.

Silly Goose

Our little Goosey Girl is getting so funny! (And, on a side note, can also be such a STINKER - she is two after all.) Last night I was quizzing Max to see if he knew his full name. His reply, "Circus Maximus?" I explained that this was actually his nickname. We talked a little more about his name and then I asked Emily what her name was, to which she replied, "Circus Goosey!" She also frequently refers to herself as Crockett Goosey, or Goose Crockett.

Then this afternoon I was changing Jane out of her church dress and Emily found a jumper of Jane's that she thinks is a dress and she exclaimed, "Da-Da-Dada! Super Dress!" And then she "flew" the dress around the room while making flying noises. How could we not love this cute little stink?

Ornery Mom

I had a bad mom day today. One of those days where I'm tired, so I'm impatient with my children, they act out, I don't react in the calmest way and we go in this cycle ALL DAY LONG. I must have said, "You guys aren't listening to me!" 599,325 times today. These are the days I wonder if I deserve to have one child, let alone three. The days I wonder what I am doing as a mother. The days I feel like everyone around me is thinking what a bad mom I am because I feel like my children are out of control. I'm sure we all have these days, at least I hope all moms have these days. I just always think that at least I can start over tomorrow.

Escape!

After asking me repeatedly if he could go to his friends house, (I was on the phone with my sister and kept putting him off) Max decided to take matters into his own hands and took off out the front door with Emily in tow. I quickly ended my phone call and grabbed some shoes and took off down the street after them. And while I was mad that Max hadn't listened and followed my directions, the sight of him and Emily running down the sidewalk, hand in hand, as fast as their little legs could take them, was so cute I couldn't help smiling. Apparently Max said to my neighbor when she told him he should show me where they were going, "No! She's trying to catch us!"

Day 6 - Swiming Sockdolager

Our sixth day was in a lot of ways similar to our second day on the river. It rained on us just a little bit and it was another big water day. After packing up for the day our first stop was on the Unkar Delta. It is a nice little spot on the river that is full of Anasazi ruins. In this area you can see the foundations of houses, along with pieces of pottery. There were self guided tour maps to explain what everything is. The maps would give details to the ruins, which were marked with numbered posts. It is interesting to see the remnants of centuries ago, and wonder what life must have been like back then. I especially wonder what they thought of the river and the rapids.

After leaving Unkar it was time to get ready for the big day of rapids. The first scout of the day was Unkar rapid. We kind of scouted it by default because it is visible from the delta. Next we made our way toward Hance the first of the big six rapids on our trip. To be honest it was a little daunting to actually be there. I have heard about this rapid so many times over the years. Invariably if you have heard stories about a rapid, the stories are about what can go wrong.

There are really two ways to go down Hance Rapid. On river left there is a rocky left hand cheat. River right is known as the land of the giants. It is not a place that boats our size usually like to be. I have a little bit of ritual when we scout. I try to look at the river by myself first. I find what I think is the best plan. Then I discuss with the group, and make a decision about which route I will take. Most of the time my original route, or a pretty close variation ends up being the group consensus. After we are done I will take off my hat and shove it inside my PFD, while my sunglasses are stowed in a zipped pocket. I think of it as being a way to show the rapid respect. I also feel like I am not going to flip when I am ready for it, so I try to be ready for it. The more nervous I am about a rapid the sooner my hat goes into the PFD. For this rapid the hat came of pretty quickly.

I had a good run through Hance. I started out left of Muffin rock went down river a little bit until we were past some bigger rocks. On the left run the main thing is to avoid the rocks by shore That proved not to be a problem as I drifted out toward center, and actually caught some of the big waves at the tail end of the rapid.

The next big rapid is Sockdolager. This rapid was named by John Wesley Powell himself. If you are up on your 1860’s slang you will know that sockdolager means knock out punch. The run on this rapid is river left. It is a big rapid, but there is not really a place to scout so we went in blind. Starting out I realized that I did not set up very well. I was too far right, and I knew I would not be able to make the necessary push to the left. I quickly brought the stern around and went into the rapid backwards. On the plus side I have a lot of power rowing backwards. I made the initial pull and started out fairly well. The bad thing is that you cannot see nearly as well going backwards. I could see well enough to know that there was a giant wave at the bottom. I could not see well enough to make a good move around. I knew I could only take it straight with as much power as possible. I kept looking back trying to get good strokes and brace against the wave.

We hit the wall of water, and our back end went pretty high up. Then the water came over the stern. The first wave washed me mostly out of the boat. Rodney, one of my passengers, tried to grab my leg to hold me in. The second wave finished me off. Once in the water I first verified that my hat and sun glasses were still attached to me. I guess I should have shown more respect to this rapid. Fortunately they were there. The next thing I knew Rodney had moved the oar right in front of me. Meanwhile Stu, my other passenger, blew his whistle to alert the other boats. Before I knew it I was pulled to the side of the boat and Stu was helping me in. Both my passengers handled themselves like pros in a chaotic situation.

Probably the most distinct memory of the whole episode was looking into the front of my raft. It looked like a giant bowl full of chocolate milk. My boat is a self-bailing boat, which means that the floor is inflatable and there are holes between the tubes and the floor. This lets the water drain out of the bottom of the boat. I was back in the boat so quickly that it did not even have time to drain. All in all I would guess that I was in the water for less than ten seconds. A few people were confused by the whistle. By the time they could see us there were three people in the boat. One of the funny things to me was that the water felt fine. Though it is very cold water, it felt like a dip in the rec center pool.

There were still a lot of big rapids that day, but our trip through was uneventful. Though we covered a lot of ground we made it to our camp site in good time. Cremation is a nice camp spot, but unfortunately I think it is aptly named. By the time we got to camp it was burning hot. The camp site is specifically for boaters who are doing exchanges at Phantom Ranch. That night we said goodbye to our three group members that were leaving. It was sad to see them go. I had really enjoyed our time together.

I love how little children sleep with such abandon. Don't be fooled by how sweet and precious they look! They both make mischief with the best of them!!

Baby Milestones

Little Jane is just growing so fast and just gets cuter and cuter every day. She has gotten to that age where I really start to enjoy my babies. (I'm sorry, but I just don't love the newborn phase.) In the last couple of weeks Jane has started sleeping through the night (no more night feeding - yippee!!), found her thumb (what is up with our kids and their thumbs!?!), and today she laughed for the first time. She is just such a sweet and happy baby. She really only cries when she is hungry or tired. She is such a great third child who is happy even though I don't get to hold her as much as I would like and she is constantly having to take naps on the go. We love you baby Jane!