IKE

While visiting family last weekend, I saw some of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. On Friday we went to Kemah. It's a way cute little town that has a fun carnival-type place and pretty little beach houses. Most people just drive their little golf carts around town. Way fun place. It makes you want to grow old and move there. Here are some pictures of damage around the Kemah area. Very sad...
on the back side of one of the boats up on land it read, "WE'RE OK". It made my heart just ache for all of the loss those people went through.Well, I thought that was bad. My brother in law and neice are both ham-radio operators (sorry if that's not what you guys are called...??) They were asked to help in Galveston after Ike. The whole family volunteered for so many hours cleaning up. My sister made food for so many families. I can't believe the strength their family has! Never thinking of themselves...just helping, no matter what. The Galveston area is in their stake and over 100 people in their stake completely lost their homes. They actually lived in the ward building for weeks. I cannot even imagine.

On Monday we went to Moody Gardens in Galveston. Only part of the attraction was open because so much of it was damaged from the hurricane. As we drove through the streets I was amazed at how much trash, sheet rock and debris was piled up on the road sides. And even more amazing was the BIG boats that were up on land. Heartwrenching. And to think so many people did not evacuate! My neice told us about when they were on their way to Galveston to help with hurricane clean up, there was boats in the middle of the freeway. What a scary thought!

As we left Galveston for the day, there was a gas station. (not the one pictured above...it was a ton worse!) It was completely mangled. The rain was so bad I couldn't get a good picture of it.(I am not used to sheets of rain falling down. My sister said it was not that bad! I'm used to UT rain!) Anyway, it would have been a perfect description of all of the damage they endured.

Seeing all of that damage made me so sick inside. It made me feel safe and grateful that I live where I live. (Although I do wish I lived closer to my sis...)

So to anyone out there still dealing with loss from recent natural disasters, please know that I will think of you and pray for you.

last minute trip

Well as most of you know, the stress level in my house is like 10 + most of the time.

Last week my parents were on their way down south to visit my sister's family. Nephew was having a birthday & getting the priesthood. I was quite jealous because I totally miss my sis and just wish we lived closer to eachother. (Tara - that does not mean I am moving...) I also really miss her kids. They are TONS-O-FUN!
Last weekend was Justin's weekend with the girls so I thought it might be fun just to look at ticket prices. They ranged in price from $500 - $2,100. So for a couple day trip, that was NOT worth it to me. Then my best friend told me that I should check out priceline & name my price for a ticket. So I listened to her. I went on priceline and named my price at $120. The computer pretty much rolled off the desk laughing at me. I just raised my price $10 at a time and finally at $225 it accepted my offer! WaHOO!! It was WAY last minute, but everything worked out. The next morning I was on my way to the airport. There is always something fun to do at my sister's house.

Here is some of what I did on my last minute trip!...
(and a few pictures to prove it!!)

• I played Guitar Hero
• I ate BBQ
• I ate down home cookin'
• I took a REALLY deep sleeping nap
• I cried
• I laughed
• I went potty a few times
• I went sailing on the ocean
• I was involved in a sailboat crash
• I saw Hurricane Ike damage
• I was a FUN AUNTIE
• I went to a museum type place
• I went on a movie-ride that made me feel like I was going to VOMIT
• I played the game LIFE
• I was a cool Auntie
• I did some laundry
• I made a joke
• I ate at Red Lobster
• I was a dental assistant
• I watched neice paint liahona
• I took lots of pictures
• I was a fun daughter
• I played with magnets on a wall
• I did the dishes
• I played Pit
• I took a few showers
• I went to Wal*Mart
• I watched nephew eat 55 shrimp scampi
• I ate Malt-O-Meal & Ice Cream....mmmm
• I cried
• I listened to neice sing songs
• I vented
• I played
• I met some really fun & amazing people
• I talked to my kids every day
• I painted a mug
• I played with and sang to some dogs
• I saw penguins
• I slept in
• I met a weirdo or two
• I played on the laptop w/ photo booth...SO entertaining
• I ate Malt-O-Meal & Ice Cream again!! mmmmmm
• I watched movies
• I relaxed
• I did not swim in the beautiful pool
• I thought
• I totally missed my kids
• I was a fun sister
• I played at a birthday party
• I ate some of TomTurkeys feathers
• I ate a half-quart rootbeer float over a 4 day period
• I saw a trash can full of trophies
• I watched my sister cover a snake cake with individually cut pieces of fruit leather scales
• I looked at a house remodel
• I called my house
• I had my flight cancelled & got to stay an extra night because of tornadoes

I HAD AN AMAZING TIME!!!

THANK a VETRAN!

Happy Vetrans Day!
To all of you who have served or who are serving in the military...THANK YOU FOR DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM! It is so sad that there are so many people I saw in the airport today who did not even know that today was Vetran's Day.
Our country should be PROUD and thank our Vetran's. We all have FREEDOM because of what they do every day...So even though there are only 63 minutes left in 'today' THANK A MILITARY SERVICEMAN or WOMAN!
Thank you father-in-law, Richard
Thank you sister-in-law, Melinda
Thank you brother-in-law, Rod
Thank you nephew-in-law, Casey
THANK YOU VETRANS near and far!!!!
(and hey everyone...Pass on the American Spirit!)

End-of-October-Fun!!

Now that I am back home and back into blogging... let me take a couple minutes to give y'all an update...

October was a way busy month at our house.

Our annual 'fam & friends' pumpkin carving extravaganza was a hit...as usual, right? We had excellent food & company!

Pumpkin carving is one of my favorite things to do right before halloween. It's fun to see what everyone comes up with for their jack-o-lanterns.

Later on in the week, Tara, the girls and I had a pizza & pumpkin party and Domino's didn't even charge us for the hair that was BAKED INTO OUR PIZZA!!! Yucky!!
Check out our mini pumpkins that grandma & grandpa grew in their garden. They were fun (and hard) to carve. The girls & Tara did faces and I did little stick figures...Tika, me, Carsy and even a little Genevieve!!

And of course, trick-or-treating. We have our usual stops of family and friends and this year Tara, and one of her sisters' & her family came over and we all trick-or-treated around our neighborhood.
This year Tika was a 'death eater' off of Harry Potter and Carsun was a Clown. Genevieve was NOT a bat like she has been for 3 years. (We couldn't find her costume, or she would have been!) This year she was a Candy Corn Witch...so cute, and me? I wore the same thing I have worn since my sophomore year in HS. A T-Shirt that says, 'this is my costume'!

The neighbors came over after trick-or-treating-- they ate candy, watched TV and hung out for a late night. What FUN!!
I made a slide show (above) of some of our October highlighted events!!! :)

an apple afternoon

My Uncle Kenneth, dad's brother is in town this week. Yesterday he wanted to hang out with the girls.


We went up to Midway to a historical place called the John Huber Home. It is a beautiful old home with apple trees galore. It is actually one of the places that the girls & I got some of our pictures done 2 weeks ago. There is a stream that runs through the property and gives the whole place an awesome fall feel. The weather was beautiful, and that made the afternoon even better. The girls climbed up into the trees and shook the branches. We filled up a duffle bag full of apples.


Genevieve even got in in the fun. We thought it would be fun to see if she'd chase a small apple like she would normally chase a wugga....guess what? She did! It was actually pretty funny to watch. Uncle Kenneth would throw an apple through the orchard and she would dart after it. She'd catch it, bring it back, and lick her lips! yummy fetch!

Deer Creek Day

This past Sunday was so nice. Justin & his dad went out in the fishin' boat in the morning and the girls & I slept in. Later on in the afternoon we decided to go out to rainbow bay and put our toes in the water. The weather was beautiful and sunny. As soon as we pulled into a parking spot, the wind started to blow, HARD and the clouds started to roll in! We decided we'd tough it out. I put my feet in, and the girls used the little floaty things. Justin decided it would be fun to just jump in. The girls wanted me to get all of the way in, but I tell you what, that water made my legs burn so bad! Besides, who would take pictures for the blog if I had gotten all wet?? After being in the water for about an hour and a half, we decided to go home and get the boat & drown some worms. We spent about 2 hours out on the lake later that evening. It was really nice. Not much luck in the fishing department though. Justin caught a big walleye, and right as he got it up to the boat it got off of the hook. Shucks!! Then a few minutes later he got a huge hit. His pole was just about bent in half. As he got it closer to the boat, it was a big stick AND a fishing pole all tangled up together. Nice catch! As we were heading in for the night Tika got a big trout. Once again, right as we got it to the boat to put it in the net, off into the water he plopped. It was his lucky day! Tika was a bit disappointed! Carsun didn't get any bites at all. That always makes for a "boring" trip! Me? I read my book. (and took a few pictures... I would have taken more, but it was starting to bug my husband!)

Camping...Take ONE

The above slide show is of our weekend camping trip! (way too many pictures to put in one post!)

A couple weeks ago my bestest friend in the whole entire world, Tara, called and asked if we wanted to go camping. "Of course!"I said. Anyway, we got online to reserve a site at the most excellent campground, Currant Creek. If you've never been, I highly recommend it. It has running water AND flushing toilets! It's like roughin' it, with 2 comforts of home! It is an absolutely beautiful place and it is not too far away.

We decided to leave Heber about 3:00 Friday. Well Tara got here @ 3:30 and Eric & Brittany got here at 4:00. Justin was fiddling with the boat and we finally rolled out of the driveway at 6:00. Yeah, that's pretty normal when it comes to us and camping. We never leave on time!

We decided to go up over Lake Creek, cause it's a lot faster than going around by Strawberry. We got all the way to the summit (only 14 miles further to Currant Creek) and there we stared at 2 feet of drifted, mushy SNOW! May I say that I am done with snow? Anyway, There were a couple trucks with camp trailers on them trying to turn around, so we waited and then Justin thought he had to give his "good ol' Ford" a try at it! Him & this other guy in a Chevy kept goofing around and pulling each other out of the snow and finally Justin got stuck. The guy helped us out and Tara said "that was enough and we needed to get going". Justin was trying to get the boat loaded back onto the truck , Tara & I started to tease him and CRASH!! He lost control of everything and smashed his pinkie in-between the truck and the boat trailer thing. I heard a crunching noise and then Justin's fowl-mouth blurt out a few choice words that I will edit out for the sake of young readers! Ouch! Tara, Tika & Carsun were the Medical Staff as I sat to the side trying not to puke! (thank heavens for First-Aid Kits in all of our vehicles!)By the time he was all fixed up and we were headed back down the hill, we were all starving. We had planned on having Hobo - Dinners that night but since it was 8:45 when we got back into Heber, we stopped at SubWay...the weirdest tasting Hobo-Dinners I've ever had! By 9:15 we were headed the long way to Currant Creek! We actually made really good time. We pulled into the campground at 10:20. As we drove down to our "RESERVED" campsite, there was a family headed to bed. We ended up talking to them about how we had reserved that spot and blah, blah, blah. Anyway- we went to find an empty spot for the night. We figured that we could work it all out in the morning. By that time it was almost 11:00. We decided to sleep in the cars rather than set up for the night. Uncomfortable fun! (the girls thought it was great...Tara, Eric & Brittany on the other hand, did not! They were squished!) The weekend turned out being super nice. The weather was beautiful and the campground was not very busy. Fishin' was AWESOME and the company was much needed! For not camping once all last summer, we did a great job getting back into the groove!