Boat trips

Wow! Well its been a crazy couple of days around here. We have taken the boat out 3 times already. Its been a ton of fun already. Its fun to watch people learning to wake board and try to wake surf.


I hadn't wake boarded in about 6 years but it is a lot like riding a bike. Once you've learned to get up on the board you will be able to get up again. Since I knew how to wake board it was easier for me to wake surf. It still took about 3 tries to get up and stay up.

Right after this shot he tries to do a 360. He only made it about 90.



Today we went out and Big J was actually able to throw the rope back into the boat and ride the wake for a while. We found the "sweet spot" on the lake and he would be able to ride it, but as soon as we left that area he wouldn't be able to find it until we got back. It's crazy that we are even able to surf the wake because it is so small compared to all the videos I have seen online. But we don't have any water tanks yet to weigh the boat down any more than this. I was telling Big J that getting down over the wake onto the wave when we have the big tanks is going to be the tricky part. The other guy that we took with us was also able to find the "sweet spot" a few times too. They wanted me to try again too but I was done for the day, and didn't feel like going back out.


The kids just love going to the ends and swimming off the end of the boat. They are always bugging us to go take them to the swimming spot.

Once we have a tube and a knee board it will be a lot more fun for them I think. Although, Big J was able to get up onto the surf board with all the kids. With the exception of Little C, of course. Little D was terrified you can watch the movie here,


Sorry about the video cant figure out how to get it to rotate. Just tilt your head.


and Little A only got to try 2 times because Big J was tired by then. So far the boat has been a lot of fun and hopefully that we all will enjoy and will give the kids some fun memories. It was a lot of money but we will get a ton of fun and memories out of it.


Here are Little C's 3 moods that he has had lately...

Happy

Upset/Cranky

Asleep/ Tired

New Arrival

Big J did not survive his case of Boat Fever. We have lost him. We towed the boat home yesterday. He is so excited. He couldn't even sleep last night he was all worried that someone would steal it. kept getting me up making me go out and help him back the jeep in front of the boat so no one could take off with it. It like his little baby.

I told him that he could just sleep in the boat if he needed to. I told him that in stead of making him sleep on the couch when he is bad that now he was going to have to sleep in the boat. He said that he wouldn't listen to me. Which is no different than now. I wish that I could make him sleep on the couch when he is in trouble but he never does. Is it just on T.V. that wives can do that or do other husbands actually get banned to the couch?

Anyway, I'm sure our lives will be centered around the lake now. So if anyone wants to go to the lake just ask Big J and I'm sure he would be more than thrilled to take anyone out. He is super excited to try Wake Surfing. Click on the link to see a YouTube video of it. He says its actually easier than wake boarding. I have no balance so we will see.

He had to get this boat because it is made for wake surfing and making big wakes for wake boarding. Anyway...

Here it is our new arrival...

Out Of Town... Again.

So now that we are all caught up I will say that we will be going to Oregon soon and that should bring a lot of fun posts. We are having a family reunion up there and plan to go the beach, play minute to win it, have BBQ's and lots of other things. So it should be fun.

Little A's Birthday celebration(s)

Little A is now 5! I can't believe it. We celebrated in Montana this year. It seems like we are always traveling around her birthday. But its also fun to be able to have the extended family around to celebrate with us. This year I had planned a party at Pump It Up in Bakersfield but since we had to make an unexpected trip to Montana it didn't pan out to be there. So we decided to celebrate on July 4th.

Little D was so funny about it. He was more excited about it than Little A was I think. He came into the bedroom and told his dad that this was an exciting day because 3 exciting things were happening. There was church, A birthday party, and FIREWORKS! I thought that was cute. I loved that included church in there. So we invited Big J's Mom, Sister and Grandparents. We had a BBQ planned and then we had Cupcakes and Ice cream and presents. She was pretty excited about all her gifts and has played with all of them a lot. Here are the cupcakes that I made for the party. Keep in mind that we planned this party on Saturday and so there wasn't a ton of time to come up with too much.



First we made the cupcakes and baked them and then let them cool. Next we started on the flowers. Now this was the trickier part. I needed colored sugar but didn't have any. So my mom said we could make some. I didn't know that you could do this I just figured that if you put the food coloring into the sugar it would dissolve the sugar. But no. We had raw sugar and put a couple drops of food coloring into the bowl and mixed until it was all colored.

To make the flowers all we had to do was take mini marshmallows and cut them in half on the diagonal. After you do this it makes a petal shape. When we cut them in half we just let them fall into the sugar. Once in the sugar we mixed them around until we were sure that the sticky side of the marshmallow was covered in the sugar.


To get the flowers to stick together we took white chocolate chips and put then into a zip lock bag and melted them. Then we snipped the tip so we could squeeze a little bit out at a time. We did 3 at a time so that we would be able to assemble them before the chocolate cooled too much. So we made a circle of chocolate on the wax paper and then placed 5 petals in the chocolate. Then we took one green one and added it as a leaf.

Once they cool you just frost your cupcakes and pick off a flower and place it on top.

Here they are aren't they pretty.

I was way more excited and thought that they were way cuter than anyone else.




After the party we lit a bon fire and roasted marshmallows and waited for dark. After it was dark enough we lit a few fireworks and then just sat back and watched the rest of the valley light theirs. My parents have the best view of the valley. You could see fireworks all over. But the best show was down the street from my parents. It was awesome to get to see them so close but to not have to spend the money on them.






Little A actually had about 3 parties/celebrations. One on the 4th and then after we had done the placing of ashes for Rob we went to Aunt Sue's house and had a BBQ there. This was on Wednesday, and she had gotten a cake that said Happy Birthday Audrey on it. This was her actual birthday. The 7th. So we sang and had cake and ice cream. Then later that night we went to Rob's other sisters house and she had made birthday brownies and so we sang again and had brownies and ice cream. So much ice cream and treats that day!

I think that between them all she had a great 5th birthday. Not to mention that when we got home she had 3 presents from friends. So nice, Thanks everyone.

In Montana they had a 4th of July parade on the 3rd since the 4th fell on a Sunday. We took the kids and they had fun collecting all the candy that was thrown at us. And seeing all the horses and other animals.

Grandpa Rob

Rob rarely smiled in pictures.

On our way home from Big Meadow I checked my messages and found one from Jeremy's Aunt. She never calls and so immediately I knew that it wouldn't be good news. We pulled over and Big J called her to find out that his Father had passed away that morning. We were about an hour away from home, tired from working all day and hadn't had much sleep from the night of camping. The rest of the drive was hard. When we got home there was a lot of phone calls. All while trying to figure out what we should do. His dad had said that we shouldn't come home and disrupt our lives there was to be no funeral. But in talking with Aunt Sue, it sounded like she was overwhelmed and needed some help. Rob was no longer married and Sue had no one to help her.

So we unpacked the car of camping stuff and repacked with suitcases and at about 9:30 pm we were on the road. That was about the longest car ride ever. I'm sure that it was longer for Big J. We drove 22 hours non stop. We stopped only for food and gas. We arrived in Montana at about 7 pm on Sunday. While it was nice to see everyone it was bittersweet.


Rob was always sitting in this La-Z-Boy Recliner

The first week was all about getting things taken care of. Big J's sister wasn't able to come until a week after we had gotten there, So the second week was all about cleaning out his home and dividing up things we wanted to keep.

We were very blessed while we were there. Things were worked out with little effort. When we thought that getting his bank accounts and things switched was going to be a long battle it just worked out. And when we were worried about selling his home he had which was a 2 bedroom trailer, we were able to sell it to the owner of the trailer court. We were able to get everything done so that we could come home and Big J could get back to work. Big J is the only member in his family, and I know that Big J was able to have some missionary experiences with his Aunt and I know that it was good for him to be able to explain to her what we believe happens in these situations.



Rob had chosen for no funeral and wanted to be cremated. He had specified a spot that we were to place his ashes. So we did that, and Big J said that he felt like a pioneer, when they had to bury their loved ones. He was able to dedicate and site and that was a neat experience and his Aunt and Great Aunt who was there thanked him so much for doing it. It was a beautiful day, following days of clouds and rain. We were a little worried about people stumbling upon our little service and ruining the spirit as to the popularity of the spot to the locals, but none came. We were able to do it uninterrupted. Little D acted as a pallbearer and took the job very seriously. He was so responsible and picked up all the things we had used and placed them back into the backpack without even being asked. Afterward we all went to Aunt Sue's and had a BBQ. It also happened to be Little A's birthday and so she had gotten a cake and some Ice cream. That was nice for Little A.

Everyone we would talk to in his neighborhood would tell us how much they loved him and that he was always so kind and would help everyone. He practically built everyone's porch in the place. He was always willing to help. He had a great sense of humor and had some bets going about the Vikings and another team. He was obviously for the vikings.

Rob when the Vikings would win!


When the Vikings Lost

He was a great Father and Grandpa. As well as brother, friend, and in-law.
We will all miss him terribly.

Rob was very good at wood working. He made this rocking motorcycle for one of his grandsons.
He was smart, much like the boy he raised.
How he always cried when he said Goodbye. I remember when he told me that and I told him I was the same way.
He would laugh at the dumbest stuff. He had a funny laugh too. More of a Ho Ho Ho actually.
He hated to be called Donald or any form of the name. (Donald was his given name) We asked his sister why everyone called him "Rob" and she said that she didn't know and maybe he got it when he was in the Military. Who knows why.
He usually had a beard all winter and would shave it off in the spring.

Catch Up

Well its almost been one month since my last post, and a lot has happened since. The next couple of blogs will be catch up posts. We will start with Camping!

We went camping for the first time in 3 years! Our ward had a ward activity up at the Stake Camp site Big Meadow. (It really is BIG) Big J was able to Take that Friday off. It was a lot of fun there were only 2 other families there but it was still fun! I was like, now this is camping!
Last time we went camping it was bad there wasn't any grass or anything in the campsites it was all just 3 inches of dust. But this was nice it was a lot like Montana. We realized on this trip that we needed to be more prepared and should beef up our camping supplies. And perhaps more fully think out our meals.


It was a little chilly but not too bad. We mostly hung out at the campfire Friday night and then during the day on Saturday the men chopped all the trees that were down and stacked it at the campsite so the girls would have fire wood for girls camp. The men (and all the kids) worked really hard while the women mostly talked around the fire! The kids were all a great help.

For breakfast Big J made chocolate chip pancakes and another family had made scrambled eggs. So we all had pancakes and eggs. It was yummy.

Little C's favorite part was sitting by the fire, drinking Hot Chocolate, and throwing things into the fire.

The kids' favorite part was probably riding on the trailer! Here they all are getting on to have a ride.


Here is where they were cutting the trees into big stumps and then splitting it into smaller logs and then they would load them onto the trailer behind the jeep. The yellow thing is the splitter. It was pretty cool. I had never seen one before and thought that it would be nice to have if you lived somewhere that you had to cut firewood. Like Montana.



Here is Big J and all the kids riding in the Jeep to take a load to a campsite. It was good to see all the kids helping unload at just about every campsite! In all it was a good trip. I'm glad we went and look forward to next year.