Quirks Meme

Ok Julie this is for you:

1. I enjoy mowing the lawn-it's my meditation/me time.
2. I have a fear of birds-they are quite scary when they are loose in your house!
3. My favorite color has been purple since I was born-don't see it changing anytime soon.
4. I have only been in 8 states (most of them with your family!)
5. I have never had a broken bone or stitches-other than surgery(knock on wood).
6. I am so boring, I put myselfto sleep with this tag!!!

Boys are still boys...

Ok I know this is a little crude and I hope it doesn't offend anyone-if it does, I am sorry. But you have to admit this is kind of funny! This is what Riley spelled on his word whammer:

Happy 30th Wes

For Wes' 30th birthday, he and I took a bike ride down to St. George. It was a very LONG and painful ride for me since the longest I have ridden before that was to Orem!! It took us about six hours to get there with all the breaks I needed, not to mention the rain storm we encountered in Fillmore. We pulled over there and waited that out for about 45 minutes. We ran into some more rain down by Parowan and rode through it. It was cold, and I'll tell you what, those nice little rain drops are not so nice when you are going through them at 75 mph! Anyway we finally made it and thank goodness for spa tubs! Our purpose in going all that way was this trailer. We found it online and it was a steal. Our intention was for Wes to take it to Kansas and live in it, now he will live in it in Evanston. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Trip to Evanston

A few days after Wes got laid off the first round from Wyoming, we went back up. It was a spur of the moment trip and we weren't planning on staying, so we were not prepared. A quick stop at Walmart and the clearance rack covered us for the next day. Wes took us out to Fort Bridger and the wind farm he had been working on. It was very overwhelming. Those things are HUGE. You have no idea how big they are until you are underneath one. We also stopped by the state park in Evanston and checked out the large buffalo, "Spike" and the giant eight-point elk. The kids' favorite part was staying in the motel. We came home through the Uintas, Mirror Lake Highway and out through Kamas. I had no idea these places existed, I have taken Utah for granted! We stopped at Mirror Lake for a few minutes to stretch and let the kids run around for a minute. There were a lot of people there, so we didn't stay long. We also stopped at the Upper Provo River Falls. Didn't know they existed either-but I am glad I know now. They were beautiful.

Some entertainment is all you need for a quiet ride!
"Spike" the buffalo, all you see is his head

MonstrousEight-point elk
Fort Bridger Wind Farm
320 ft tall each blade is 150 ft across
Nuh-night

Mirror Lake



Upper Provo River Falls

She kept slipping, so her behind is dirty

Family Reunion July 11-12

This was for my mom's side of the family-the Garrett's. Friday the 11th, we spent a while at Seven Peaks getting sunburned and waterlogged. It was a lot of fun and Hailey and Riley really enjoyed all the cousins and new kids to play with. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures while we were there-it is kind of hard to do when you are surrounded by water! We spent most of our time in the wave pool, it is easy to watch kids on the "shore", and it's not too deep. On Saturday, we went up the canyon for games and crafts for the kids-hence the neat hats!! It was a lot of fun there too. As the kids played games, they earned "Garrett Bucks" and got to spend them at the store they had set up. There were a ton of things for them to buy, and they REALLY liked that part. Hailey keeps asking when we can go back to that store! What a crazy, fun gang of people.

Jumping over waves

He bought suckers and gummy bears with his bucks!

Always something in his face

Waassssuuuppp!!!

My cousin's little girl (right) is six weeks younger than Riley. BIG BOY!!

Getting a pretty flower painted.

First Lily of the Season

About July 9th-now a month later they are gone :(

Let July begin...and end!!

Ok here goes some more catching up. I am going to make these next few entries as short as possible since the month has been gone for awhile. Of course we start with July 4th...
Katie had us all over to her house for food and fireworks. Jared also had a whole bunch of water balloons for the kids. Too bad the wind wasn't working well with the fireworks...hmmm.

Halelujah!!!!

Good News everyone-Wes is NOT going to Kansas. He was hired on permanently with the company he has been apprenticing with. He will now remain in Evanston. He will be close enough to still visit and he will have weekends off. Yeah :)

Fire: Awesome & Frightening

Before I blog our July let me tell you how our August began. There are two kinds of fire: the first obviously is the kind that keeps you warm on a cold winters day. Or the kind that you roast marshmallows or hot dogs in while you are camping. The giver of heat and light, in a way life. The second is the opposite of the first. It is the taker of life. The kind that only has death and destruction on its mind and will stop for nobody, if it has its way. The kind that is mean and nasty. Now keep in mind that the first can quickly become the second if you are not careful. Last night we were very close to meeting the second. Accidentally a fire was started on the mountains behind our house. It started around three yesterday afternoon and is still going in some areas. As is human nature, we watched. We had ring-side seats from our backyard and for awhile we were just voyeurs, but then it became personal. The water helicopters and the fire-retardant dropping plane kept it in line for a little while, but it soon got dark and the wind kept changing direction. As soon as they were gone, all hell broke loose (excuse the language). The back fire the fighters had started, was now part of the problem instead of the solution. Police and other rescue people were evacuating our neighborhood. Of course that is when the panic sets in. What do you grab when you only have ten minutes to get out? How do you decide what is more important than anything else? As the neighborhood south of us quickly became a ghost town, we waited. By this point it was about 11:00 at night and we were exhausted and scared. Then the neighborhood to the east of us was gone too. We waited some more. The wind had shifted too again and it was heading North toward "P" mountain. At around one o'clock a.m., we finally got word that we were safe, and were not going to have to leave. YEAH!! Relief was never more welcome. We were one out of 20ish houses that got to stay home. Let me put it this way, our whole ward was gone except for 6 families. So next time you are mesmerized by fire, remember how evil and personal it can get if you are not nice to it.

Just after it started

Dropping fire retardant

Getting bigger

The wind is starting to shift

A view from Main Street

From my back porch/not zoomed

Panic is setting in...

Saturday, huge water helicopter refilling in reservoir by our house

We estimate this puppy could hold 22 passengers or so, not bad for a chopper!!

This is video of the huge chopper refilling its tank-very cool!!