Our Crazy Week

Well...we haven't been able to catch up since our trip to Lake Powell, so we'll just have to move on with life and back track later. Well, Allie and I had a busy week last week. Blake took off for a week long trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River (Let's just say he owes me this trip of a life time one day). Allie and I stayed busy swimming, frequenting the parks, and having play dates (No pictures of our week because Blake had the camera).

I was really worried that if something happened while Blake was gone I wouldn't be able to get ahold of him, since he was in the middle of the wilderness. Well Blake headed back home on Sunday. He called me when he had service for just a second to inform of what time to expect him back. Well, not 30 minutes later we had a little trip to the Emergency Room.....read on to see the details.

Blake and his friend Jon getting ready to hit the river

What more can you say when you get to fish every day

Blake's trip sounded so awesome! I was just imagining him floating down the river with some high class rapids, but the river beheld more that that. There was awesome wildlife- heards of mountain goats, deer grazing by their camp sites, and big horn sheep. There were natural hot springs that they hopped off to experience all along the river as well as Indian ruins to explore. The best part is one of the guys that was in Blake's group was a professional chef...you can't beat that.

Well on Sunday evening 3 hours before Daddy got home we landed in the Emergency Room. Allie and her cousins were jumping on the smaller sized trampoline. With 3 kids on the little tramp there isn't that much give for them to bounce high. Well a few minutes into jumping I hear a horrible hurt scream coming from Allie. I looked out to see her climbing down off the tramp just holding her left arm. She continued to cry, complain, and not use her left arm for quite a long time...which if anyone knows Allie; it was not Allie. She wouldn't even grab her cup to drink her mimi (a.k.a. milk).

I got her loaded up in the car to head to the E.R. and she immediatly fell asleep. I thought that maybe I would just go lay her down for the night and we would wait until the morning and take her to the Pediatrician. When we got home and I tried to unload her from her car seat she just started screaming. Well we packed back up and headed to the Emergency Room.

Once we got there I think everyone was a little confused about why we were there and I myself was doubting my judgement. Allie was just enjoying the cartoons in our room and then when the Dr. walked into our room she reached out with her LEFT hand and grabbed her milk and procedded to drink. The Dr. was like, "Looks like she's using that arm quite well; it is the left arm right?" He then decided to get an x-ray to check things out. Well sure enough we have 2 buckle fractures, the big one on her radius and the small one on her ulna. The Dr. splinted and sling'd Allie and we will follow up with Dr. Buzz when the swelling goes down

It was quite the adjustment for Allie not being able to use her left arm; eating food, going to the bathroom and just trying to have her not running and jumping around. We have done a bath and I thought I was doing a good job bagging the arm until I turned my back and Allie dunked it under the water. Let's just say we'll be double bagging next time.

Our clean cute kiddo cleaned up after the bath

On a side note....I can't believe we got to have our creamed peas and potatoes so soon this year. Last year we were eating this dish in the middle of July

Day 7-Surfing, Docking, and De-Braiding

The final day had arrived; I can't believe how fast time flies. We went out on the boat in the morning to get some last minute rides done. Then we undocked the houseboat and headed out for the 5 hour boat trip back to Bull Frog to dock the house boat for our final night in the "barn"

The kids all enjoyed riding at the front of the boat for the morning ride

Rod was surfing with Natalia, which was pretty impressive. With surfing the feet are not attached to the board; you are just standing there hanging onto the rope and eventually let the rope go and ride the waves

It was really windy on top of the house boat on the way back. The kids were attempting to color and it was not working out so well. Blake suggested they go under the Ion to color, so they all enjoyed their fort under the Ion

Once we got docked in the barn we started to un-pack things that were not needed for the last night on the boat. These were the carts we used to haul our stuff back up to the cars. The kids had a great getting a ride in them too

I figured since we were heading out the next morning and Allie's hair was starting to fro, why not just take the braids out. We rounded up the girls and began to de-braid Allie

Not enjoying this, although it was much quicker than getting them in

Not wanting to pose for a picture when we were all done either. Her hair turned into this great afro and was so soft. A quick jump in the shower and Allie's hair was back to normal

Day 6, Tubing, A Snake, and Clear Creak

The water activities continued and what an adventurous day we had. The water was once again like glass so we decided to head out early before the wind decided to pick up later

Allie and I ready to ride on the Ion. I just love this tube. You start out getting whipped back and forth and continue getting bounced around everywhere. Allie again, just loved this ride.

Later we turned on the water to the slide on the back of the boat. I couldn't ever get Allie to go down with me, I think there was too much of a drop off

Then, we all went swimming off the back of the boat

Allie joined me for this activity. She enjoyed swimming with me until the wind started to pick up. We headed to the ladder on the back of the boat and that's where we encountered a nice surprise

A SNAKE!!! I hate snakes and to meet one in the water through me into a panic. I swam over to let Allie climb up the ladder onto the boat and we were met with this snake wrapped around one of the steps. I started swimming as fast as I could to the other side of the boat, hoping this thing wouldn't take off after me. My heroic husband came and got it off the steps, and took off with it far down the canyon.

Later in the evening we drove the boats down to Clear Creak for a little hike

Two years ago, the water was 25 feet lower and so we weren't able to get up to this point. We hiked a few hundred yards and were met with this little murky pool. There was also a rope and some slats in the rocky wall that led to another path on top. A few people made it up and the rest of us stayed behind to play in the sand

Blake attempting to climb the rope and Carson using the slats. The rope ended up being to difficult, so everyone who went up used the slats

Allie enjoyed playing in the sand with her bucket and shovel

We all came back and were ready for another movie night. Here are all the girls in their sleeping bags and pillows ready for a show

Day 5-Hole in the Rock and Bonfire

We had a fantastic Wednesday; I think if I had to pick it was my favorite day of the trip, hence all the pictures. We woke up and played a lot of rounds of Nertz.

Allie hung here with Papa while we took over the floor for Nertz

We did a lot of playing outside. Allie and the girls were having a great time in the sand. I was laying out in the sun soaking up some rays

I was also busy keeping my eye out for these little guys that were everywhere; hoping one wouldn't come crawling across me on the rocks

The girls were having fun playing kitchen. They enjoyed mixing water with the sand to make a muddy mixture so they could in turn make their food

The cookies are baking in the oven

Later in the afternoon we went to hike Hole-In-The-Rock. It is a 1 mile round trip hike on a rocky path that leads up to a narrow crack in the canyon wall

Blake climbing with Allie on his back. A little tricky at times but they succeeded

All of the kids at the top . Once you make it through the crack in the wall it is just wide open space all around

We decided to let Allie do a little rock climbing on the way back down. She just loved it and made it a majority of the way back down. I think it made easy for the little kids because they were so close to the rocks and just held on with their hands.

The little troopers, Allie and Cam

One family shot to say we all made it

Later that night we decided to make use of our fire pit and all of our cardboard in the trash. We were anxiously awaiting the boys to come and help us, but they were busy organizing the toys and repositioning the anchors on the boat. We girls couldn't wait any longer so Grandma Julia started up the fire

We got out the roasting sticks and made us some s'mores

Allie enjoying her chocolate treat

I ended up managing this fire for the remainder of the night. I'm glad that it stayed contained because every time I would through card board on top it would go crazy and ashes would start flying every where

To top the night off, all the girls took off down our canyon for a little skinny dipping.

Day 4-Exploring and Tubing

Well we woke up to a few visitors. Luckily they were dead. The boys were into catching things on this trip, the fish, and now the mice. They laid out a few mice traps the previous evening and this is what we got to see in the morning.

Really disgusting if you ask me. There were two total dead mice this morning

We headed out for a late morning ride on the jet ski. We went all over this morning and were gone so long that Allie fell asleep on the jet ski

Katie packed along her Jillian Michael's work out DVD. We all got a kick butt work-out a few of the mornings

We had a lot of fun playing tons of games. Nertz was the all-popular favorite once again, with Speed coming in second. I am not sure what these guys were all playing but I thought it made a great picture

Allie and I did some tubing in the small round tube. She just loved this and didn't want to stop. I finally was the one who called the shots to cut it

This was shortly after Blake found Allie scaling up the wall. I had taken Allie back to try and retrace her steps, but we were unsuccessful

A night watching one of the final basketball games. Cam had grabbed a sleeping bag and curled up on the floor to watch the game with the boys. To cute!

Day 3-Indian Ruins

Well we woke up to a beautiful morning and the water was glass. What better to do than head out on the jet skis. The Given's joined us on the other jet ski and we took off exploring. Luckily for the kids, we found a frog at the end of our ride.

The canyon we explored was so narrow, the sides were so high, and the sun was just coming through. It was beautiful!

Here is the frog before we took him back with us. He was an interesting frog. He appeared white on the rocks and then when we picked him up he changed colors. The kids thought this was so cool.

Getting ready for a dip in the water

And we had success. Allie and I had a fun time swimming around. She loved using her floaties out where she couldn't touch. I am glad Allie enjoyed the water with me because our dad is a party pooper when it comes to swimming

Lovn' It!

We brought the frog back to the boat to show everyone our encounter. We let him hang around in the bucket and swimming pool for awhile before we returned him. Allie enjoyed letting the frog hang out on her floaty

Later that day we headed up to the Indian Ruins. These are quite impressive. You have to think back to how in the world these Indians lived so high up in the rock. I'm glad things have changed

The kids discovered how to make their own slides out of the chairs. They got quite creative and enjoyed this the entire week

Getting ready for Movie Night. Steve never fails in bringing his giant screen that we put on top of the boat. We wait until dusk, pop up some popcorn, sit back and enjoy!