So this picture doesn't really capture the adventure we had a couple weeks ago. It was a beautiful day and I decided to take the girls up to Loyd's Lake. By the time we were all ready I noticed a few grey clouds but no worries, if it rains here it's normally just a sprinkle. So we headed out. When we got there I decided to take the bike down the somewhat steep dirt road and take the girls on the trail that goes around the lake. The minute I got down to the lake it started to rain... hard. I immediately grabbed one of the plastic doggie poop bags that are provided at the beginning of the trail and tied it around my head. The girls were all cozy in their weather proofed trailer so I decided to try to make it to the pavilion on the other side to wait out the rain. Needless to say I didn't make it that far, we stopped at the first bench tucked away in the trees, I grabbed the girls and our blanket and huddled up to wait the rain out. It was really quite a beautiful view and the trees and blanket were keeping us surprisingly dry. So we sat and waited....and waited. There were no signs of it stopping and Marah was beginning to want to get down and explore. I decided we better just book it home. We set back out with girls tucked away, dry in the trailer. I struggled to even peddle the bike through the rocky mud. Mud was just splattering all over the bike trailer. You can't tell from the picture cuz all of it fell off when I got the girls out but it was truly caked. Meanwhile I'm wearing flip flops and a white shirt. The bike is flipping mud up in my face and it is just raining harder and harder. Just as I was thinking things couldn't get any worse, it began to hail! It hasn't hailed all summer, but today would be the day. I just peddled harder which just made me spin out more and spit more mud all over the place. Things can get worse and things did get worse because when I finally reached the steep hill that leads to the road, muddy water was flowing down my way out. I had no choice but to try to push our way up. There was just no traction and the girls in back were just a lot of dead weight to be pulled up the muddy hill. I was slipping, the bike was slipping and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it, just then what seemed to be a glowing grey truck drove slowly by. I really wanted to wave for help but was way too embarrassed. My hope drove on by but a couple minutes later, probably feeling pretty sorry for the sad sight he just witnessed, came back to the rescue. I was very relieved to see that I didn't know the person getting out of the truck considering I was drenched with a white muddy shirt, shorts and flip flops practically on my knees trying to push my two innocent little girls up the hill in a rain storm. We had no problem pushing it out and we were home free. The minute we coasted into town the rain stopped and Lily immediately asked if we could go play in the lake now that the rain stopped. All I could do was laugh. I'll take little grey clouds a little more seriously now. Anyway, sorry about the long story.
Lily was getting impatient with me and she figured her own way to reach the DVDs.
We had a late night visit from Kyle and Anna to introduce their new baby, Reggie. Immediately nicnamed 'Weggie' by Sam and Lily. Lily just can't say her 'r' very well, I don't know what Sam's excuse was. Anyway, they are already very cute parents. I love labs and I found myself being a tiny bit jealous.
Syd was staying at our house while mom and dad were up north. It was crazy hair day at school, so I had a lot of fun doing her hair. Kinda hard to tell, but it was cute and crazy.
Lily had school that day as well, so we decided to do her hair crazy too. Don't think anyone else in her preschool did but oh well.
Marah is already growing out of this funny laugh. Glad I caught a little of it on video. I doubt her 'pretty smile' will ever leave us though.
The other day during bath time Marah kept looking up the spout and saying ‘hello’. I asked her who was in there and without any hesitation she told me dad was in there. I couldn’t stop laughing, she must have remembered when he was under the house fixing the drain. He would yell up at us every once in a while, Marah must have thought he was in the drains. I love the way little children experience the world, Lily thinking her foot was on fire because she experienced it falling asleep for the first time, now Marah is sure her plumber dad is in the pipes. Dad is never really gone, he just lives in the pipes. I love it! This video doesn't catch the moment very well. She was too interested in the camera. She kept looking up there, saying hello, and yelling for dad.
Well, we had our final campout a few weeks ago. It was a little chilly and way windy but we all had a blast. This pic is me bro Jeremy being king of the arch that we camped by. It was a gorgeous camp site.
My little family under the arch. In the slideshow at the end, it shows one of us all on top of the arch and if you look closely you'll see both Marah and Lily screaming their heads off. Gotta love my girls. Granted it was a little windy and we could've blown off... but still.
We went on a very long trek to try to reach Lake Powell and of course we had to stop at all the mines along the way.
After about 3 hours of driving and stopping at all the mines, we came to the end of the nice road. We had a picnic and mom, dad, Sydney, and the little ones all turned around, us big kids decided to try to reach the lake. It was going to be dark soon so we had to hurry. I basically just held on for dear life as Sam just flew off ledges and weaved through rocks. I actually had a lot of fun. Sam really knows his way around all of that stuff and I completely trusted him. We just kept going around one bend after another just sure Lake Powell was on the other side. We came to the end of the trail as springs started showing up. Turns out they were hot springs! We were so excited. None of us had ever just run into hot springs before. We all started taking our shoes off to get in. Justin went to step in first. Before any of us knew what was happening, he let out quite the girly scream as his whole leg was sucked in. In the middle of all his screaming and our laughing, he is grabbing for Sarah to save him. We could not stop laughing. If you look at the picture above you'll see that his whole right leg is wet.
One of the springs was so cool, it was just warm water pouring out between two huge rocks. You could sit on the ledge and just dangle your feet in the warm water. The pictures are pretty funny since we were all bundled up in coats, hats, and gloves and yet we were wading in the water. It was such a blast and we didn’t want to leave but it was getting dark and we had a very very long way back. We didn’t find the lake but we all agreed that finding the hot springs was way better. The ride home was speeding through rocks and washed out roads in the dark. Just trying to find the road in and out of the wash was a huge challenge. We froze on the main road and I was petrified riding along the bare edge of shear drop offs. I’m a lot more afraid of heights then I ever used to be. I visualized my death a million times that night. We made it back a little before nine. Sam and I got off the four wheeler and we both couldn’t walk since we were frozen in the sitting position. I sure do love my tough husband though. I was freezing sitting behind him, I couldn’t imagine how cold he must have been, but I never hear him complain. I love that he is always there to keep me safe and warm at the expense of his own comfort. 
The whole trip was quite the season finale and is one of those trips I will never forget. Earlier that trip we were all talking about saving up and going and doing something fun like stay on the beach and go to magic mountain or something. But really, who needs to spend all that money, fight traffic, spend more money, wait in long lines, fight crowds and spend more money when you can just go in your own back yard and have memories like these? I love it!
