Hillclimbing in Mayfield

Mick and his brothers have been dying to go hillclimbing down to Mayfield all winter long. There are some of the biggest hills down there that I have seen a motorcycle climb and these boys do it. They truly are very talented riders that can ride on any terrain put in front of them.

Tyler is half boy half mountain goat! Every hill the guys would climb, Ty would be up top watching them from up there. These hills were more like mountains.

Mick getting to the top!

This is Mick's brother Dave climbing. I love this shot because it shows how steep and high this hill is. I am standing about 2/3 the way up to take pics.

This is Mick's brother Dave - kinda funny because I was so excited that I got this shot and then I asked if he was ok. I don't worry to much about Mick climbing. Out of all the styles of riding that he does, this is the safest to me. Motocross and the desert are high speed and I worry about how hurt he could get when he wrecks doing that.

The kids were such good sports. They hung out and watched Dad climb and played in the dirt.

Emma was the most impatient, only because she wants to be riding on the bike - not watching others. She had fun with her little cousins though and once I pulled out the grub she was much more content. (She really is a lot like me!)

I had so much fun taking pictures of my sister-in-laws and nieces. These are just a few of the fun ones that I took. This is Ella and my sister-in-law, Laralee.

This is my sister-in-law Kenna and my niece Kaylee.

I just loved her hat!

I am ALL DONE with class!

My last day was Saturday! I took my written and practical test for the HazMat Ops class (Yuck). Luckily so far I have passed the written and practical tests for Fire I and II. I could have sworn that I failed the written on those two - they were so dang hard! I have also passed the HazMat Awareness written test and my practicals for HazMat Ops. I still have a few weeks until I find out if I passed the written exam from last Sat. If that comes back all good, I will be officially Fire I and II certified with the state. It has been so much work (a whole lot more than I anticipated), but I have learned so much and made really close friends w/ the others on the dept and surrounding depts. I have really missed being home with my family and having spare time to get things done. I am so excited to have my life back and I have so many big plans and projects to get going on. Thanks to my buddy Mick for taking care of my kids while I was gone every Tuesday and Thursday nights and all day every Saturday. What a trooper. My kids were also awesome. It was hard for them to have their mama gone all the time. I couldn't have done it without their support.

Hiking in Goblin Valley

Mick took the kids down to Goblin Valley with his parents, Justin, Laralee and Ella, and Pete, Kenna and Kaylee, I had one last full day of Sat. classtime of HazMat Ops and had to stay behind to go to that. I was so bummed I didn't get to go with them. Goblin Valley is one of my very favorite places to go with my family. They left Fri. afternoon and stayed in a hotel in Green River. The kids played in the pool that night. Emma was quite the little water dog!

On Sat. morning they got up and drove over to Goblin Valley to hike around and play on the Goblins.

Little Lucious stayed behind with Mick's parents while he went on a little hike w/ the older 3. Emma got away from them and as soon as they turned around she was gone. Someone picked her up and took her to the ranger, worried that she was lost. Apparently, they didn't ask around to see if she belonged to anyone in the area. The whole family searched for a bit and were getting pretty worried. They finally found Emma sitting on the ranger's tailgate eating some Oreos and drinking a Capri Sun. She didn't seem to mind at all. Kind of scary that she would just go to anyone like that. I feel bad that she scared everyone so bad. I am so glad that she is ok and someone honest found her that was trying to do the right thing.

Mick said the girl's would hike around holding each other's hands. So cute!

Ty is the mountain goat of the family. There isn't anywhere that this boy does not dare go!

Ty just loves hanging out with his uncle Justin. The two hiked all over together. Ty was born while Justin was on his mission. It didn't take them long to become little buddies when Justin got home.

After they got done climbing on the goblins they went over to my very favorite hike called Little Wild Horse Canyon. It is so incredibly beautiful.

Mick said all the kids hiked their little tail ends off and did so well.

This is an example of how beautiful the hike is to walk through.

Bethany's Birthday

Bethany turned 9 on April 17th. We had a birthday party for her w/ some of her friends. Of course, we had to have the traditional pinata. It doesn't do any good to put blindfolds on the kids because Mick has WAY too much fun pulling that pinata all over the place making it hard for them to nail it. It is so funny to watch them. They go to smack it and he yanks it up and it starts it swinging and he'll drop it down and it will bonk into them. Some of them try so hard not to get frustrated. It is hilarious to watch.


It was windy and cold outside so we ended up in our beautiful garage. The kids didn't seem to care at all, as long as that pinata was chuck full of candy!

Ty and his girlfriend Makenna.

Egg Coloring and Hunting

While we were camping out to Cherry Creek on Easter weekend, we colored easter eggs and had an easter egg hunt. It is actually quite nice because the mess is outside and it doesn't matter as much if things spill.

After we colored the eggs, I put them in the fridge in the trailer. All of us go out to the sand dunes and make little trenches down a dune and race our eggs down the hill. Right before we were going to head out, I discovered that Hana and Emma had decided to "eat" all the easter eggs in the trailer. The shells and crushed up pieces of egg were all over the table, the seats, the couch, the counters, and the floor. It was everywhere. Let's just say I was not a happy camper! I have no idea what possessed them to do this, but it stunk and it took quite a while to clean up. Luckily some of our friends had a little vacuum out there and I was able to clean it up easier with that. So there were not any eggs to race down the hill this year.

Then we came back and had the candy hunt. Most of us were too lazy to put candy in plastic eggs and we just hid the candy around camp. The kids don't seem to care anyhow about the eggs, they just want what is inside!

Ty loaded up pretty good, he was on the move and didn't waste an ounce of time looking.

Emma had fallen asleep and I went to wake her up because I thought she would be sad if she missed the candy hunt. Oh no! She did not want to be bothered. I brought her outside and she just boobed and bawled and carried on, so I took her back inside and she threw a fit on the couch. I should have just left the beast sleeping.

Bet and Hana came away with a pretty good haul. They had their easter baskets, but for some reason they wanted to use baggies instead. I do not know. . . It wasn't too long after this that it started to rain. I was so glad that the weather held out good for us all weekend. We really did have a great time in spite of the egg mess and Emma's tantrum! :)

Camping Easter Weekend

Off to Cherry Creek we went for Easter weekend to go camping with a bunch of friends.

Hana Bugs

The kids had spring break the same weekend so we were able to leave Wed. evening and stay until Sat. night. Most of our other friends came out either Thurs. or Fri. Thurs. was a fun day because it was just our family for a while and it was good to spend time together. Ty had me running from tree to tree using them as our hideouts and a stick as my gun. I had to explain to him that I didn't fit in his hideouts quite as well as he did. I had sticks and dirt all over in my hair but we had a blast. Dad and the girls were the enemy in the trailer and we were spying on them. I told him that I would have loved to have had someone as cool and imaginative as him to play with when I was a kid.

The weather was supposed to be crap, but it held out for us until Sat. afternoon. We didn't care though, a bunch of us geared up and went out for a ride in the rain. I loved it. I had to take my goggles off though because I couldn't see a thing.

Ariana had a blast riding around in this little jeep. At one point there was a whole cluster of kids running behind it and holding onto the bumper to be dragged around in the sand.

There were so many kids for our kids to play with. Bethany and Isiac (Ray and Joanne's little boy) were the "hot" little item. They imformed us all that they were more than just friends. When someone asked Bet what that meant she said " you know... he likes me and I like him!" Good answer Bet!

My little Kitties

Bethany painted little kitty whiskers and noses on herself, Hana, and Emma. Most of the time they pretend they are horses, but today they were in for something different I guess. These were their "beds". Emma had lost interest by this point when i took the picture. The next day she was still into the marker thing and drew a wonderful mural on her wall in her bedroom. I just have to say. . . whatever. Glad it came off and at least it wasn't permanant marker!

Family Night up the Canyon

For family night a few weeks ago we went with our really good friends, The Magnusson's, up Nephi Canyon for a bbq. To say it felt good to get out in the fresh air up the canyon would be a HUGE understatement. We roasted hotdogs and played in the fire. Mick even gave a little lesson and the kids actually listened! What a fun night.

Check out the Kool-Aid on Emma's face!

What a cute hubby I have. I have such a great little family that I just love to be with. I am going to be so glad to be done w/ all my classes so we can officially start having fun as a family for spring!!!

Tyler and Makenna are "more than friends" and are always very excited when our families get together.

I'm not sure who is the bigger pyro - Tyler, Mick or me!! We all love to play in the fire. Maybe Ty will grow up to be a firefighter too!