While Travis was home we had quite the interesting assortment of activities. On Wednesday, we took Brookelyn & Caleb to story time at the Historical Farm. They really do a good job out there. The lady that does all of it is really great with the kids. They always read 2 stories and then have some kind of activity to go along with the book. This week they read two books about gardening. So, naturally, the kids got to plant some seeds. My kids planted peas. I noticed last night they are already sprouting!
My cousin that lives in Oregon came down for awhile. Our other cousin was getting married on Friday but we snuck out on Thursday to see her and her cute kiddos. We even got a bonus cousin to see as well!
We ventured over to the Aquatic Center again. Brookelyn loves it! I put a life jacket on her and she thinks she can go anywhere & do anything! Unfortunately, since she doesn't walk, her poor little legs look like road rash from crawling on the cement so much!
Little Sister loves her Capri Suns too.
The kids climbed on Travis in the pool & dunked him so many times he finally decided he'd return the favor & rode poor Nash like a pony!
Nash went down the "fast slide" twice while we were there. He learned that he can in fact touch the bottom of the pool in this pool & the water doesn't go over his head. Good to know!
We didn't even make it 2 blocks from the Aquatic Center before these 2 were out cold! I mean out. Brookelyn was snoring!
On Friday Travis & I left the kids with his parents & went to my cousin, Aleisha's, wedding. It was at the Riverwoods & was absolutely beautiful. The bride & groom looked pretty good too!
This was adorable. Everyone "oh & awed" when Parker came down with his "Here comes the bride" sign. Such a cute idea!
Aleisha's dress was gorgeous!
This was at the wedding dinner. I can't believe we've been married for 13 years next month! While watching the wedding ceremony it made me think about our wedding. Crazy to think about all the adventures we've had since then!
And the most interesting part of the week. The part where my boys try (nearly successfully) to burn down all of Newton Dam campground.
I only got 1 picture on Saturday while we were at the lake because the batteries in my camera died. Now normally I carry a back up set in my camera case. Unfortunately, when we went fishing on Tuesday, I took out the extra batteries & stuck my fishing license in my camera bag. I never took out my fishing license & put my batteries back in. Lesson learned: buy a bigger camera bag!
Brookelyn loved the big jet ski. Travis took her out & just let it idle & let her steer. He said she went nuts over it. She'll be just as much of a water baby as the other ones! Unlike the other kids, she did not take a single boat nap or fall asleep on the jet ski! Heaven forbid she miss some excitement!
On Saturday we got off the lake about 9:30 pm. We headed back to our camp spot & I got all the kids in their pajamas & sprayed with bug spray. I sent the boys outside & they helped Travis build a campfire. Yes, we had heard there were fire restrictions. Travis thought they were only for National Forrests though & thus they lit a campfire. Travis later told me that he told Nash, "Do you see all this cotton? We can't leave this campfire unattended. Someone has to be near it at all times." He told me that he picked up some cotton & tossed it in the fire for the boys to see how fast it would go up in flames. I was in the trailer with the girls & trying to get Brookelyn to go to sleep. Suddenly the boys start yelling & Travis looks out the door - he had come in the trailer to get stuff to start making dinner. After a few colorful words from Travis Sam runs over to see what's going on & then screams, "Mom! Come! QUICK!" I'm thinking one of the boys has fallen & gotten hurt near the fire or something. I look out the trailer door & we are SURROUNDED by flames. I grab the boys & get them in the trailer. I start moving stuff to keep it from catching on fire. Meanwhile, Travis is stomping out all the flames he can. The fire starts spreading toward the trailer. Travis has the sense to shut off the propane to the trailer & move the propane from the camp chef. I move the kids from the trailer to the truck - which was still hooked up to my in law's jet skis. I head back to the trailer & tell Travis there is no way he's going to put this fire out it's spreading too fast. I grabbed his phone & called 9-1-1. I tell the dispatcher what's going on and where we are. He told me that he's got someone on the way & I tell him "QUICK!" I went back to the trailer & grabbed our 2.5 lb fire extinguisher & threw it to Travis. That didn't last long. I grabbed the 5 gallon water holder we had in the trailer & threw that to Travis too. That also didn't last long. I went into the trailer to start grabbing our expensive stuff (read lap top). I'm not ashamed to admit the first things I grabbed were Brookelyn's blanket made by her great grandma & Caleb's cow & lamb. There would be no mercy if those items went up in flames - the kids don't sleep without them! After grabbing the kids stuff I grab the lap top, my purse, camera, etc. In the midst of throwing stuff into the truck Nash stops me & says (with tears in his eyes) "Mom. I think I know how this happened." I stopped & said "How?" He looks at me & I swear the kid is ready to start crying & says, "Caleb had a stick that he was playing in the fire with & it caught on fire & he dropped it & we couldn't find it after that." I told Nash it was ok & that we weren't mad to just stay in the truck. (I found out later that while we were running around putting out fire Caleb was in the truck saying, "I'm too young to die! I'm too young to die!" Seriously? That kid cracks me up!) Finally 2 guys from the next 2 camp sites over come over with some water & good stomping shoes. They helped throw water on stuff & kept stomping out flames. FINALLY the fire is all the way out. A minute or two later the fire department calls Travis's cell phone to ask where we are because they can't find us (well, no more raging fire so I guess we aren't as easy to spot). Travis tells them where we are & that we've got the fire out. Before too much longer 2 fire trucks & a sherriff's truck shows up just above our camp site & Travis flags them down. The firemen hop out of the truck & start talking to Travis about what happened. They decide it's best to spray the burn path down so that it doesn't start back up again. Then they busted out their hose & ax's & start looking for any hot spots that need sprayed. The fire department was there for probably 30-45+ minutes in all. They didn't leave our site until just before midnight. Caleb fell asleep curled up in his folding chair while they were spraying everything down. The policeman told us that campfires are completely restricted unless they are in a metal containment unit up off the ground. Travis told him he thought the restrictions were just in National Forrest areas. Nope. Poor policeman had to go site to site & tell every other campsite to put out their campfires. I'm sure were would have won most hated campers award!
I cannot believe we didn't lose any of our property to this fire & that no one was hurt. Truly a miracle by all means. I can say that after the fire department left, there was not nearly enough alcohol in our campground to calm the nerves of my poor husband! The man deserves a trophy! He told me that the policeman told him, "Man, you must be fast! You should be a policeman!" Travis tried to take pictures of all the trucks on his phone but it was too dark - curse you dead camera batteries! I asked the kids after everything calmed down, "Now do you understand why mom freaks out when you play with fire sticks?" I got a resounding "YES". I am quite certain that none of my children will want to get anywhere near a fire for at least a few days! Especially Caleb! :)
The next morning Travis reminded me that he had a few batteries in his lap top case. Great! If I had had a clear mind the night before I could've grabbed them & snapped photos of the fire crew! I found the batteries & changed them out & was able to snap some pictures of the damage. What blows my mind is that as I was looking at the fire pit to see where the fire jumped from, there was not a single burn mark anywhere near the fire pit. I think the boys must have caught some cotton on fire & the tiny breeze that was blowing caught it & picked it up & moved it across the campsite.
The first few pictures are hard to see the burn damage because of the shade but I took more later in the day.
Can you see how close it was to the trailer?
This is the trail that the fire took from the trailer toward the other campground spots.
I got a cute picture of my baby feeding her breakfast to the dog on Sunday morning!
Here are the pictures I took later in the day when the shade was gone. You can see clearer now just how close the fire got to the trailer. All the dead looking in front of the trailer - yea, that was on fire!
This is the trail from the back of the trailer.
In addition to having to stomp out a massive fire, poor Travis got sunburned pretty bad on Saturday while we were at the lake. His legs & tops of his feet matched his swim suit! Lucky for him he had long pants & his cowboy boots on when he had to stomp out the fire!
I had a nice surprise waiting for me when we finally made it home. My daisies are starting to bloom.
My lilies are just a day or two from blooming.
My hollyhocks are blooming!
You can't tell how deep this bowl is, but it's probably about 2 of the 2 lb pkgs that you buy at the store. The kids have loved eating these! I'm hoping I have enough left to do a batch of strawberry jam!
Today Travis left & headed back to work. I'm interested to see what adventures await us while he is gone! We'll get to celebrate the 4th of July without him again this year. I did buy a pkg of sparklers a few weeks ago. I think I'll make sure to water the lawn the day we light them & have them use them only on the driveway! On the bright side, I have lots of secondary water taps with hoses already hooked up to them!
The kids are still attending summer school & seem to not be quite so mad about it anymore. That's always a bonus! Piano lessons will start back up in July. We took May off because their teacher was graduating from USU & then she & her kids got whopping cough in June. Caleb is still excited about going to Miss Shannon's once a week for Craft Camp. I'm wishing (for his sake) that it was more days a week! We're still participating in the summer reading program at the library. In fact, we need to go back down tonight so they can get another sucker & mom can fill out 2 book review slips to get tickets!
Next time Travis comes home we'll be celebrating Caleb's 4th birthday & going to Relay for Life! I'm excited for Relay this year. My mom signed up this year (she hasn't for the last 2 years). Our team is sitting at almost $1,100 & if I can sell 4 more boxes of Cards for a Cause I'll get to add another $195 to my fundraising total. We'll also be raffling off a quilt, possibly a fishing pole & selling the flip flops Laura & I put together. I think we'll pull in a bit more money at the event. We will also have our silent auction basket. The event itself should keep me on my toes. Since I'm the sponsorship chair this year I'm the one running the silent auction. Plus, we signed up Travis & all four kids to be official members of the team. I'm hoping things don't get too out of control!
Here's to hoping you have a forest fire free week! :)
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