Easter Weekend

Rooster packing up the trailer

We decided we couldn't wait any longer for summer to get here so we packed up and went camping at Antelope Island over Easter weekend. Not the best idea we've had in a long time! Although, we had a great time with everyone that went, it was sooooo cold!!!! We got there around 7:00 Friday night and the sun had already gone done and the wind had picked up so we hung out in each other's trailers until everyone went to bed.
Camp

Saturday morning, we took all of the kids on an Easter egg hunt at the ranch on the island. They had tons of stuff for the kids to do. Face painting, a fishing pond game, they could practice lassoing a "cow" and walk around the old barns.

Tater roping a "cow"

We were the first ones back to camp and found a little visitor in our campsite.

I told Twitch I wanted to get a good picture of the buffalo but I didn't have my good camera with me. He kept telling me how they are passive animals, no they wouldn't charge at me, no I wouldn't die by buffalo attack etc. He told me that morning the Boy Scouts, that were in the campsite next to us, were really close to the buffalo and they were fine. Thinking back on it these were the same Boy Scouts who came over about 11:00 the night before and asked us if they could have some of our firewood. So much for always being prepared! I was able to get really close to the buffalo and get a decent picture (but I would have loved to get one of his face) before he turned and walked away. When everyone else got back to camp, I learned that buffalo really aren't that passive and that they will charge a person and can run 40 miles per hour when they get going. Now I know why Twitch stayed behind when I went to get a picture. He said he would have been ok because he didn't need to run faster than the buffalo. He only needed to run faster than me to get away. There's some love for yah!

By Saturday night, the buffalo became really comfortable with us and spent most of the evening just a few feet from the trailers.

That afternoon we hiked down to the salt flats so the kids could launch rockets. They had so much room to run -they had a blast!

The hike down to the salt flats

The kids running to get the rocket

Tater and S building sand castles

We spent the rest of the afternoon flying kites, riding bikes and launching missiles.

Rooster launching his missile

Tater and Twitch flying kites

We had another visitor to our campsite! A dinosaur must have walked through while we were gone.

Kidding-Tater made the print

Rooster probably had the best weekend of his life. His girlfriend went camping with us. Ooh I should clarify not just her. Her parents are good friends and the whole family was there. They were inseparable. In fact, someone asked K's sister where K was and she said "I'm sure she is with Rooster. She is always with Rooster. We're lucky though because K is a really good kid and they have so much fun with each other. Rooster is like a little gentleman with her. He will offer her a chair or his jacket or whatever he thinks she may need or want. I always joke with Twitch that I'm not sure where he learned it from.

Tater was having a lot of trouble with his asthma. So I took him home Saturday night to sleep then went back Sunday morning. He was so impressed that the Easter Bunny would come to our house for him and go to the campsite for his brother. We went back Sunday afternoon and Tater found his eggs that the Easter Bunny hid for him, had a great brunch then cleaned up the campsite and headed home.

Antelope Island (would be a really nice picture without the smudge on the lens!)

Antelope Island

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The Cosmic Force Came Through

I logged on to the lottery website today to check our numbers and wouldn't you know it, we had a winning ticket! Here in a few weeks, we'll pack up and take a road trip to Idaho to proudly cash in our winning ticket and claim our $8.00. Wahoo! Oh the things I have planned for that cash, I think it might just pay for half of the gas we'll use to get up there or maybe we'll go crazy and grab some treats while we are there!

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Nado and Cane

Warning: This one is long. Grab yourself some coffee, a Pepsi, a Dew or perhaps something a little stronger and enjoy.

Our boys officially have new nicknames. First, let me say these names are given with love and came about after an especially, lets just say, trying day.

Tater was affectionately given the name Nado. Yes, it is short for tornado. He's a little bundle of energy that can't be contained. Rooster was affectionately given the name Cane. As you probably guessed its short for hurricane. Although not as destructive as his brother, Nado, he has his moments.

A little background info: A good friend of ours had a stem cell transplant in March of 2007 after beating Leukemia. Her parents organized a big get together yesterday to celebrate her "one year birthday" and to thank her brother for donating the stem cells to her. So, it was a big day with a lot of people.

The party was at our friends parents house, which is gorgeous. Her dad is a builder and custom built his home. My description wouldn't do the home justice but imagine a home with top of the line - custom everything. As we were taking off our shoes, I noticed that Tater was gone. I found him down the hallway about to enter a bedroom. It was like this home was an undiscovered island and he had to conquer every region of it. After having the "this is not our house-don't touch anything" discussion and a few times pulling him aside for a gentle reminder, Tater decided he was hungry.

I was putting together a plate for him when I noticed he was having trouble getting a drink from a BIG GLASS (key words) drink dispenser. As I'm about to ask him if he needed some help, my little Nado snapped the valve off the dispenser leaving a approx 2 inch round hole with gallons of water gushing out of it. Immediately, I went into some weird kind of protective mode where I heard nothing, saw nothing and forgot that I had the ability to move. Twitch said he heard a pop, a gush and then a little voice say "uh oh, sorry".

Before I knew it, towels were coming from everywhere and someone had moved the container to the sink (duh, all I could think was there is no way to stop this water). While I'm frantically trying to clean up the water, I feel my backside getting a little drafty and reach behind me to check, the whole time silently praying "please God, no, don't let my..." and sure enough - star wars. Star Wars is code in our family for, it appears that your pants have fallen below an acceptable level and your rear end is now hanging out for the entire room to see.

As I'm trying to quickly pull up my pants, I look over to see my son ringing his shirt out on the floor! Could it get any worse? Ah but of course. Apparently my emotional control only goes as far as having my child create a small flood in an amazing home and showing my hiney to 30+ people and tears began to pool in my eyes. Again with the praying, "please, God don't let me cry." I guess he was a little busy because I had to clean that damn floor for a good 5 minutes before the tears stopped.

We got everything cleaned up and were trying to have some casual conversation that did not involve "the accident" when Cane looks at me and says "Excuse me Mom, is there someplace where I can step out and make a few phone calls?" I promptly said to him "Excuse me Son, you are 11 years old and you don't need to step out anywhere to make some phone calls. I would prefer that you sit here and enjoy this moment like the rest of us." Well, it was something along those lines, perhaps not as polite.

We left shortly after and drove to Idaho. I'm sure as a reward for the trials of the evening, some weird cosmic force is going to step in and we'll win the lottery. Although, our numbers didn't come up today, the tickets are good for 5 weeks, so I'll keep everyone updated ;)

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