I hate it when the pictures don’t work because they throw me off my story telling grove! For example last weeks Cannon’s phone in the toilet didn’t make the blog—for a minute there I  thought we were rid of our biggest point of contention and I was fine with it, but it still works…he was happy about that. There was something else that I thought of that didn’t make the blog but I can’t remember now. 

But gear up-I’m feeling full blown story mode today 😉

So let’s see what we were up to in Emery County…

First Seth getting on that 50 at Buck’s  house was SO GOOD for him. The 85 is way too tall for him, but he loved getting on it and as long as Isaac could catch him to stop him he was good to go! We’re so happy for that progress and the motorcycle department for Seth! 

Nathan came down to ride motorcycles, but before he got There Isaac took us out to “top of town”… I did not like it at all —the sewer ponds are  just my speed! I think Cannon had fun. I think the rest of us wondered why we got into that little adventure. 

Colt stalled his motorcycle in the middle of the main drag in Huntington on our way out so he was hating it from the beginning. 

When things are too hairy for me to drive up-we walk. 

And from the top of the hill we saw Tanner who was “just fine” wreck. I wish I had snagged a picture of Cannon Riding on the back of Isaac motorcycle so that he could get back to his so he could run and check on Tanner. I’m telling you it was a circus. 

Ethan was there by time we got back so that meant the kids were trying to swipe his hat.

Cherry shirts! 

Isaac did go riding with Nathan thankfully Nathan takes pictures!

Cannon had fun but it was pretty intense for him-or maybe one of the trails was and the other was fine…I dunno, but he bowed out a little bit early. He came home with Steven so I didn’t get any pictures of him riding but I was glad that Isaac got to ride with both Steven and Nathan and then Ethan and his girlfriend and her kids rode around behind them in the side-by-side,  it was fun to meet them too. 

Probably the best story is that there was a jump and Cannon voted no way on so he went around it, but Isaac just didn’t calculate quite right as far as how fast he was going and how long it was gonna take Cannon to go around the jump and anyways, he was gonna end up crashing into Cannon so instead he just crashed so he didn’t hit him, which I’m thankful for but that’s still pretty rough. I didn’t see it though so you’re just getting my secondhand story. 

Sadie wanted to play water balloons the weekend before when we were there and it was just too cold so Saturday we mostly we just played around the house but they were also super excited to have a little water fight once the riders got  back. Really it was just 100% mud that we had to clean up afterwards it was gross but whatever. All in the name of fun I guess. 

And back to the sewer ponds that evening, We took Aaliyah with us too

When we got back, Sadie had a little T-ball thing set up and I might not have any baseball players this summer but I think Addster will  end up playing! She’s pretty athletic, we need to work on throw’n her hand a little 😉 but the hand eye coordination was there!  

On to Sunday! No Nintendo until you’re dressed and ready for church—So they got dressed and ready for church pretty quick! And I always love pictures of us walking to church. 

It was really fun. We saw Wayne and Teresa when we were walking in and then we got to chat with Don and Paula a little bit after sacrament meeting and we saw Nato and Stephanie too. It was just fun. Nate hooked us up with some good advice and camping gear for Monday night’s adventure too so that was really nice of him! 

Sadie loves fake nails so after church Aunt Lauren hooked her and Addi up.

Thankfully they only lasted about 90 seconds! 🤣

The Huntington stake youth had been to Nauvoo so they had a Nauvoo In Review little devotional thing. I went to it with Grandma, it was pretty good. I think Isaac might’ve been gone to get the camping gear at that point or something. But it was fun and when the kids shared their testimonies of it earlier in sacrament meeting then our kids kind of realized like whoa we go to Nauvoo  the time-Maybe we shouldn’t take it for granted. 

We also ran into Isaac‘s kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Tanner at church And she totally remembered him! But Grandma Ison got digging around looking to see if she had a class pic from kindergarten-no luck but, she ended up giving me a couple file folders full of pictures and stuff so I spent some time that afternoon putting things on Family search and I’ve got lots more to do but it was really fun. (I’ve heard about his dog Pluto but this was the first time I’d seen a pic.) 

That evening Isaac and Cannon went down to Castledale to take Stephen the Fork seals he used and then bought new ones to replace or something like that anyway all I know is Cannon got to ride Stephens electric motorcycle and now as you could probably guess… They’ve been shopping. But I confess, I do love the outside toys! 1000 times over I’d rather him buy a motorcycle than a gaming console!! 

And Monday we spent all morning getting ready for Isaac’s long awaited camping trip-It’s just so much work that’s what I have against it. But we had a good time.  Backpacking got vetoed (I was so grateful I was just nervous that wasn’t going to turn out well) Nato talked  us into borrowing his tent and just going up the mountain and it was beautiful and it was fun and it was like camping is supposed to be so I really felt like it was a mission accomplished as far as Isaac just wanting the kids to have a Utah camping experience. They had so much fun! 

And the only person on the planet that’s patient enough to deal with all of Isaac’s changing plans is Grandma Ison😉 We had scooped out all the mountain house, dinners, and had it all figured out and ready to go Saturday, but then Monday morning he decided he wanted tin foil (Hobo) dinners….At least he helped to make them! 

We took both and it actually turned out really well because that mountain house stuff cooks up so fast so they could eat that while the dinners were cooking. 

Anyways, lots of fun and lots of pictures! 

First stop a drink out of a spring on the way up the mountain…the pipe wasn’t there so they just had to go for it. Tanner loved it. 

After we picked a camp spot they unloaded the bikes and picked stumps to sit on! (Whoops didn’t realize Tan’s head got cut off in the pic) 

Addi and Isaac promptly took the water melon down to the stream! And then we set up the tent (I feel like that’s always an adventure the first time you do it) 

We saw a couple trout when he was putting it in too but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera—

The best part about this was when grandma Ison told me “He must’ve done that with scouts because I never did that” But he was determined for the kids to get to have a stream cooled Watermelon as part of this camping adventure. Grandma  doesn’t even eat watermelon but she bought one last week and this week for such a purpose. Good grief. (Thankfully, I’m confident she finds joy in spoiling her kids 😊)  

The kids played around while Grandma and Isaac scouted out our hike. 

(Not pictured is Cannon who was driving around like a crazy man on the side by side and he came back FILTHY! Covered with dust everywhere “hey mom, did you bring me an extra work shirt?” Nope. So Mr Clean had to tough it out) 

I got asked so many times “did you bring…” no I didn’t bring anything I feel like you’re already camping when your traveling and then camping on top of that—we weren’t very prepared. Oh well. 

But the hike was maybe my favorite hike in a long time! So pretty-perfect weather-perfect company, all down hill, we had a good time. 

The kids loved hiding in these plants 

It was a good thing I wore my glasses because everything was at a distance but we saw deer and elk and heard the birds. The smells were awesome too-definitely some sage-but just good mountains air. 

Back at camp to get the fire started-

Hopefully it was everything they dreamed of! 

And when dad offered $5 to get in the creek-Sethy went for it, crazy! (He didn’t get quite as “in” as Isaac was going for, but I’ll still give  kid $5! The kids typically come to me to pay up on dad’s bets  anyway 🤣) 

There’s probably more but that’s already a lot of pics oh wait—Addi spotted this deer herself! 

But I better wrap it up. We went to bed (A little too early because we decided to put the fire out and then they were cold) But the next morning, I don’t know what time we got packed up and out of there, but we were probably home by 9:00. We didn’t  worry about eating breakfast until we got back to grandmas house. About those changing plans 😬 sometimes I’m grateful. 😉

Tuesday we got home we unpacked (We reset the water heater- Poor Cannon had a luke cold shower)  But we got showered and packed up to head back to Missouri. Then Isaac and I had a nap while the kids played Nintendo and then we hit the road! 

We left when we wanted to things were going good until there was a sign on the freeway in Colorado that the freeway was closed 😩😩😩  (it was for a fire) 

So we pulled into a little park another nice little family that was waiting. We were there for about an hour when we decided we better just go around the other way even though it added 2 1/2 hours so we left and we’re driving down the freeway and we pulled up the website that the other family had showed us that had cameras and showed the cars stopped but it was open again!!! So we turned around! We had driven about 10 minutes in the wrong direction but ultimately we were back going again. We definitely had to deal with a lot of traffic from the freeway being closed but it wasn’t 2 1/2 hours out of the way. 

Isaac Does most of the driving but I started driving at midnight and drove till 5:00  I always get a least part of the heart of the night -this time I would say all of it- but I do get some good listening in. And  I’m telling you what though after a night of camping and then that night Tuesday night it’s taking me longer than usual to get back to normal! 

Isaac picked up the knuckle boom truck in KC …and we had to stop for Tanner to puke by Jamesport because I let them do tablets 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

We  got home and thankfully found our animals were fine (And a lot of of the plants survived too) 

Just in time for the tornadoes—yikes—

Wednesday we got down to activities and they  said were we’re gonna cancel since the sirens are going off —then we were driving back it was pretty stormy. I found a couple pics of what it looked like, even though I didn’t take them:

This is exactly what it looked like when we looked south before turning on the bypass! 

Then I don’t know who took this I found it on the internet when I searched tornado in Kirksville but this is totally what our drive home looked like but without the cleared up section off to the left 😳

I’m really glad we were here for when there was water in the basement! 

(I’m really self conscious of pics like this because…well…the mess…we really live like this!!… but we don’t usually put this part on display 😩 maybe it will help you feel better about your mess)   Anyway we had water “peeing” —Isaac’s word not mine— into the basement because the window well had filled with water. 

It was a mess! 

Then yesterday the storms came through more in the middle of daytime , but it washed a ton of fish out of Kilmer‘s pond  into the overflow pipe and then out onto the gravel so the kids had a blast, saving the fish and then we just put them in a bucket and put them back in Kilmer‘s other pond🤷🏻‍♀️ And they put a few in our water trough too. 

Today Cannon went to youth conference and we went to the lake. I only took one pic and I’m not even posting it because even I am all pictured out. But the pictures posted easily today — yay—I have no idea what the difference is.  The  lake was SUPER high, those storms rose the water level several feet! It’s was a nightmare though because there was also TONS of debris in the lake and we’ve already bent 2 props hitting crud in that lake so we didn’t want to do it again.

And I think that’s about it!