goblin valley

We love Goblin Valley. At least in my opinion, most of the red rock in Utah pretty much looks the same. But not here! I have never seen such crazy formations anywhere else. The kiddos love being able to run and climb to their hearts content. There aren't rules about what can and can't be touched, which was perfect for our group with 8 kids.

Owen loves climbing scary high with all the other kids, but he also really likes a good piggy back ride.

Ainsley loves finding little nooks for her to fit in...

What you can't tell in the right picture, is that Finley was fetching high up. This hill was huge and steep and I have no idea how she made it down without somersaulting.

I told you he really likes to climb....

Goblin Valley is a perfect location for hide-and-go-seek-tag.

Sam sitting on his beloved platypus rock...

Drew riding his space vehicle after finding out Galaxy Quest was filmed here.

This little nook was super scary high. Owen had no fear and he was one fast climber.

Do you see that little speck on the mountain. Yep, that's Owen.

More playing tag.

I love the "ha ha, you can't get me" in the left picture.

Waiting to be found....

Taking advantage of the breeze...

What do you do when you can't walk down the way you went up? Slide!

Umm...they are mimicking the formation above them...

More tag...

and more tag...

P.S. Drew made it back before Sam could tag him...

And Sam hiding. If you ever find yourself in the middle of Utah with a bunch of kids (or dogs, we saw those to) Goblin Valley is our recommendation.

capitol reef

A few months ago, we went to Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley with our friends, the Marsden's. We had tons of fun and when we found out you could pick fruit in Capitol Reef, we knew we would be coming back. We found the best hotel last time and stayed there again. So if you are ever going to stay in Bicknell, UT, check out the Acquarius Inn. The rooms are huge and very small-town-like.

This Mexican restaurant was the first stop. Yep. I have a thing for taking pictures of great signs.

In the middle picture, you can see the top of an apple picker. I didn't even know such a thing existed! They were pretty sweet. They were basically baskets with claws on 6-foot poles. Finley loved getting to try one out.

And when the nifty apple picker just wouldn't do, Sam was perfectly willing to climb.

This girlie just got bangs. Isn't she adorable?!?

While picking apples, we came across a caterpillar...

And some Canadian taffy quickly makes Dave the favorite of all the kiddos.

We had time for an impromptu photo shoot...

You can eat apples in the orchard for free, or pay $1 per pound to take some home.

Apparently some of the apples there are super rare and don't grow anywhere else in the world.

Isn't she adorable?

Once we started hiking, the boys enjoyed sticking their heads in rocks...

And Ainsley "ran" along the walls.

On every vacation, we collect heart-shaped rocks. It solves many problems. Kids want to take tons of rocks home? Sorry, you can only keep the ones shaped like hearts. Kids too tired to keep walking? Keep walking so you can find a heart rock. Got in trouble? Make it up to mom by giving her a heart rock. Drew was the winner this round. See that perfect heart?

Someone put rocks in this wall. We were quite delighted when we found it.

Pretty much on every trip in the history of ever, Bubby falls asleep on someone's back and I take a picture. There's quite a collection.

When we were picking apples, 2 deer came into the orchard. All the kids enjoyed watching them. These deer were not easily spooked. Owen, trying to be helpful, threw an apple at one. I kid you not, that deer shrugged and ate it. Like it was saying "thanks for the apple, kid."

Never a dull moment with this kid.

Note to self: force future children to be sworn in as Junior Rangers, as they should have to endure the embarrassing awkwardness that I have encountered at every National/State Park.

gotta love 4-year-olds

Today at my cousin's farewell, Owen was really in need of a trampoline buddy. I spotted a little girl about his age.Me: What about her? Owen: She already knows my name. Me: Well do you know her name? Little Girl: I'm Lily! Me: Well there you go. How about you go jump on the tramp together. ....... Lily: We're getting married. Owen: Oh no we're not. Lily: Yes we are. I chose you. Owen: Well that's too bad for you! Lily: It's time for you to go to work. Owen: Well where do you work? Lily: *scoffs* I don't go to work! I stay home and try on clothes all day. Owen: hmm. Lily: Where do you work? Owen: I don't know, but it's far away from you!

college girl

Crazy last couple of days! I had the apartment all to myself last night. (kinda creepy) My room is slowly coming together, but I refuse to take pictures until the walls aren't so bare. My bed is crazy high in the air. Like "I use my dresser as a step-stool" kind of crazy high. My closet is way bigger than I thought it would be. In case you were wondering, if you are told to walk all the way to the bottom of the street to use the cross walk, do it. If you happen to cross in the middle, campus police will literally run straight at you, blowing their whistles like crazy. Not that I did this, but I did witness a group of students get chased out of the road by men in fluorescent vests with loud whistles.

The BYU Bookstore really should pay this girl I met today for being walking advertising. BYU flip flops, shorts, shirt, headband, earrings, hair clip, and bracelet. I just think that kind of dedication should be rewarded.

bad news

This week I've felt plain crummy. Kinda flu-ish with absolutely no energy. My mom dragged me to the doctor on Thursday, once we suspected it was my gall bladder. 2 years ago, when I first started having issues with my gall bladder, I had a scan that basically said my gall bladder wasn't performing ideally, but that surgery wasn't emergent. When we went to the doctor this week, they couldn't find the report for the scan, and the hospital was being super slow about sending it. Once the report came in, we headed to our general surgeon. (Yes. We have our very own designated general surgeon. 4 appendectomies in 2 years necessitates that kind of relationship :) The surgeon said that I had classic symptoms and that he was comfortable performing surgery without any extra testing. After discussing all the options, we decided extra tests weren't really going to change anything, so I decided to bite the bullet and schedule surgery for the next day, to give myself more recovery time before I move.

I strongly despise anything hospital related, so I was less than pleased that immediately had to head to the hospital for pre-op labs. I have terrible veins that are hard to draw from. Typically I drink about a gallon of water to make it possible to get a vein. I was at the point where eating or drinking anything, even water, caused pain, so I hadn't really had any water that day. Plus I wasn't anticipating this blood draw, so instead of putting me through heck, the nurses decided to hold off and draw blood when I got my IV the next day. I was so grateful for that.

We got to the hospital Friday morning, I got all prepped, and then we waited for ever for the surgical team to be ready. I don't know that anyone has laughed as hard as I did while waiting for surgery. We were having a good time.

See how much I just love IVs?

I was super calm all the way up until the anesthesiologist gave me something to "calm me down." I swear it made me more nervous and I was mentally freaking out as I got wheeled to the OR. For every other surgery I've had, I've been asleep before entering the OR. This time I was wide awake and had to climb on the surgical table.

I woke up doing super well. I had an appetite right away and didn't have any nausea. The nurses said I could hang out for a few hours, but I opted to go straight home, and walked out to the car before they could even bring a wheelchair.

I was worried that Day 2 would be more painful, but I'm still doing super great. So much less pain than before surgery. The surgeon said that my gall bladder was definitely chronically inflamed, but that he didn't see any problems in the surrounding areas. This news was so much better than if he had come to report that my gall bladder was perfectly healthy.

I'm so glad this surgeon was willing to listen to me and take a chance on surgery without making me get thousands of dollars of testing done first. I'm extremely happy to be recovering so well, without hardly any pain. I'm super glad to have Netflix to entertain me when I wake up at 4 in the morning because I rested so much.

party, party

Today we left our lovely hotel. Sadly, I did not get pictures. You'll just have to visit to see it for yourself. Really. Those fire hydrant red accent walls are worth the drive. The place was very clean, but extremely well, um, eclectic. We liked it. It had plenty of room for all of us, not usually the case with our clan, and I was really jealous of the owl clock and porcelain decorative silverware. We packed up and left for a DI trip. The whole purpose was to get a dictionary for a wedding present. My cousin is going to school to become an English professor so the plan was to get a dictionary, highlight random wedding-ish words and leave dollar bills on each page with a highlighted word. We got tons of blow up toys for the lake next week and made my grandma and grandpa meet us so they could drive up a game table the boys found. And of course we forgot to even look for a dictionary so we had to make a second trip.

Last week I saw pictures of a splash pad on Main Street, so the whole trip I was pushing for a visit. Owen loved it. Everyone else, not so much. It really was meant for small children. Plus it was insanely hot. Everyone was begging to leave, but we forced them to play in the water until 2:00 so we could hit up Sonic for a drink for the ride home. Everyone got a 44 oz. slush and we made it all the way to the reception in Provo without a single pit stop. Pretty remarkable, I think.

The reception was great. It was in my aunt and uncle's backyard and it was gorgeous. Everything looked great and the frozen yogurt was a big hit. We partied it up for hours. We made it home after midnight. 9:00 church was not very welcome the next morning. Congrats Taylor and Julie!

He was really bored. So he pretty much laid here and made annoyed faces.

this could be my favorite picture of all time. it is just so him.

we are a little bit redneck. we stuck my phone in the sunglasses holder so everyone could watch Grownups. favorite. movie. ever.

when finley gets ahold of the camera...