In No Particular Order...

I'm too lazy to try to blog this in order, so here are some highlights for our Memorial Day camping trip:

Evidence that I was actually there. Kirk set the camera timer and balanced the camera on a ledge. Not the best pic, but at least we're all in it. My favorite pic of our camp site. We pulled off the road that leads from Kanosh into Fishlake National Forest and found this free place to camp. It was absolutely beautiful, plus we had ample shade and personal access to the river.

The last day of our adventure, we met my parents and Jack in Little Moab (by Utah Lake) for some motorized fun. Look closely and you'll notice Adam is driving the dune buggy my dad built. Yeah, it's even running. He had such a blast.

Once the boys warmed up to the motorcycles, they had a blast riding with Dad, Uncle Jack, and Grandpa. Alex even went for a ride with Grandma once.

I didn't get any pics of anyone actually IN the hot springs. Oh well. We went to these hot springs. They were warm and fun.

Adam's favorite part of the trip was an unexpected adventure. We were lost on the way to the hot springs, and we came across a couple of dust devils. We stopped the truck and let one blow right through us. It was pretty cool.

This is a pic of the boys in the tent trailer, both of them on Alex's bed. One night, though, we came in after the boys had fallen asleep to find no Alex in his bed. We looked around and found him sound asleep in our sleeping bags, with his head on my pillow. It was so cute!

We camped right on a river. Adam was scared of it for about 5 minutes, but then we couldn't keep him out of it. He and Alex would have been content to just throw rocks and scoop water for three straight days.

I think this is the sweetest picture ever. Just look how much that little boy loves his dad.

The lava fields were amazing! There were chasms and caves and tunnels for every age and ability. My little boys had a blast, but I think big boys - ok, adult boys - would have even more fun here. We'll definately go back for more exploring!

A Whole Day of Adventure

*Sorry - this got kind of long...

I've noticed an interesting thing about having four boys (two of mine, and two nephews who I babysit). The arguing practically stops when I get them outside. This week, Kaleb has no kindergarden thanks to assessments, so I knew we'd need a little something extra. I let Kaleb help me pick out a hike to try from my "favorites" file, "hikes to try," and we planned to go to 5th Water Hot Springs in Spanish Fork Canyon.

Here was the plan:

8:00 - Breakfast

8:30 - On the road to the canyon

10:00 - On the trail

11:30 - At the hot springs - Play/lunch

12:30 - Back on the trail

2:00 - Back in the car (and hopefully naps on the way home)

3:30 - Home

The reality:

8:00 - Me, Alex, and the pancakes up and ready to go. 3 other boys who RARELY sleep past 7:30 and NEVER past 8:00? Snoozing soundly in their bed.

8:30 - I get too impatient to wait any longer and wake up the kids, feed and dress them, and finish getting ready to go.

10:30 - We arrive at the trailhead, but everybody has to go potty. We spend 15 minutes taking turns in the most DISGUSTING public pit toilet I've ever had to walk into. I honestly nearly threw up due to the combination of the smell and the pregnancy.

10:45 - We hit the trail, 45 minutes behind schedule. Adam reminds me that he's scared of rivers. (Seriously what isn't he scared of). He cries loudly for the next 10 minutes about how he's going to fall in the river and he just wants to go home. I finally threaten the scared out of him, and he relaxes. We're having a great time, but Alex is SO slow. And so easily distracted. He stops to pick up sticks and rocks. He stops to run his fingers through the sand. He stops to "bushwhack" the weeds with the stick he picked up. He stops to throw the rocks he picked up into the river. He stops. And stops. And stops. And sometimes he refuses to go again.

12:00 - It's noon, and I'm starting to wonder if we should stop to eat and then just go home. I think Alex agrees with that plan, but the 3 big kids "really want to go to the hot springs." Good attitudes abound, so we trudge onward. I spend most of my time trying to convinve Alex to keep walking.

1:30 - We're still walking, and we're still not there. I'm SO done at this point, as I've carried Alex for the majority of the last half mile. Did I mention that Alex weighs 28 lbs? Did I mention that the backpack carrying our water and lunches and baby wipes and sunscreen and... weighs nearly as much? Did I mention that I'm 20 weeks pregnant and prone to dizziness? I'm SO done. I spot a nice little grove that would make a great picnic spot. There are two women eating there who seemed to have thought so, too. I holler to them, "Excuse me. Hey, did you guys happen to go all the way to the hot springs?" They respond in the affirmative. "Are we anywhere close?" They laugh and kindly inform me that we'll be there in about five minutes.

1:45 - 15 minutes later, we've made the last 5 minutes of our journey and arrive at the hot springs. It is nearly 2. We've had no lunch. We have no cell service. We still have 2.5 miles left to hike back to the truck. We're obviously not making it home by DINNER, let alone by the planned 3:30. Oh well. We made it to the hot springs, and we're going ot have fun!

2:30 - We're mostly dry, full of lunchables, and ready to start back. Even Alex is doing his share of the walking. The kids keep falling because downhill is hard! We turn it into a game. "Wow! That is such an awesome scrape! We'll have to show it to Daddy as soon as we get home, and he'll know we really had an adventure!" Alex walks until he simply can't walk another step; I carry Alex until I simply can't carry him for another step; Alex walks again; I carry him again. The length of time Alex is able to walk gets shorter and shorter each time. I probably carry him 1.5 miles of the way back. Thankfully we've eaten our lunch and consumed most of our liquid so the backpack I'm carrying is not as heavy.

4:30 - We come around the bend, and there it is: the parking lot. Heavenly sight. But everyone has to go potty, so we're back to the disgusting pit toilet. I choose to just hold it and stay far away from the smell.

6:00 - We arrive at home, tired and dirty. We all take baths before sitting down to the yummy dinner Aunt Heather cooked for us. It probably tasted even better at dinner time. Too bad we missed that.

7:30 - I stand up after having sat still for awhile. Okay, maybe the hike didn't seem that bad while I was on it, but I hurt EVERYWHERE. My hips are killing me. My feet never want to bear up my weight again. My shoulders are literally bruised from the weight of the backpack. But the kids are still happily chatting about what a good time they had. And I had a great time too. No, I probably wouldn't do it again. But no, I probably wouldn't take back yesterday either.

Did they REALLY just say that?!

The scene: I'm at the school playground with Adam, Alex, and my nephew Ryan waiting for my nephew Kaleb to take his kindergarten assessment test. The kids are all playing on various parts of the playground, with about 20 feet between Adam and Ryan. I am even farther away, sitting on a nearby concrete structure enjoying the shade. An obese man walks by with his kindergarten child, presumably looking for the appropriate entrance to the assessments.

Ryan: (shouting across the 20 feet to Adam) "Adam, did you see that guy?!"

Adam: (shouting back) "Yeah, he's really fat! I don't even know how he's gonna fit through that door!"

Ryan: "Yeah, there's NO WAY he's going to make it through that door. They'll have to get a bigger door."

Me: Okay, I confess... I said nothing. I was too far away to make the situation any better. What was I supposed to do? Yell, "Hey, boys... I know that guy is fat, but that doesn't mean we need to talk about it!" No, I don't think so. Instead, I waited until he was out of earshot then had this discussion with the boys.

Me: "Just because someone looks different, like maybe they are really fat or really skinny or super short or tall, that doesn't mean we need to talk about it. You probably really hurt his feelings saying he couldn't fit through the door."

Adam: "Yeah, and even if someone could fit through a door, we don't need to talk about that either."

More of the Same

Well, we still get to claim to specialize. Our ultrasound today confirmed my doctor's suspicions that we're headed for Boy #3. Sorry to the 17 of you who voted for girl, but you're wrong.

Update to "Remember that time when..."

If you haven't yet read my previous post, you'll want to start there.

A) For those of you who are in my neighborhood and have been asking, I was at the park in Sugar Plum (the one right off 3100). I think it might be called Fox Tail or something like that.

B) I posted after I thought our saga was done, and I tried to be brave and enjoy the sunshine with my kids in our backyard. We were sitting on a blanket in the sun when I noticed Alex itching his head again. I called him over, and sure enough, there were about 4 bugs in his hair. We called all the kids in and found 2-5 in each of their hair. So yeah, they seem to be in my backyard, too.

What am I doing about it, you may be wondering? Well, we did TONS of internet research and the best answer we've come up with so far is that they might be "no-see-ums" or a black biting gnat. If so, they happen to have chosen our area for breeding, which totally sucks but usually only lasts 3 weeks. I caught one of the bugs in a container, and I'm calling an exterminator today to see if they have ever heard of anything like this and to see if I can pinpoint what I'm dealing with, and how to keep my kids from getting bites in their hair.

Sorry to those of you who live in my area who I've probably freaked out. I wish I had more info for you, but until I do, you might want to just keep an eye on your kids' hair. And stay away from Fox Tail park and my backyard.

Hopefully I'll have more info later today.

Equipment

I spent most of Friday packing and preparing to head out on our first camping trip of the season. We have a new (okay, 37 years old but new to us) tent trailer, and so packing was a little different this time. I was pleased that we remembered almost everything (note to self: remember garbage bags and a shovel next time), but I was pretty surprised to find out when we got there that I had apparently not brought along a very important piece of equipment I didn't even know I'd need.

As we were setting up camp, other campers started to arrive by the truckful. I watched closely for little friends for my boys as each camp set up. I definately saw LOTS of boys, but where were the moms? Did none of these boys have sisters? I started to become acutely aware that I seemed to be the only female in sight.

An overexaggeration, I assumed. Surely there were moms and daughters somewhere. It wasn't until we took the boys to the little playground area that I realized how truly alone I was. Surrounded by boy scout leaders and their scouts and Fathers and their sons, I listened to the games they were playing. As the tweenaged boys played some version of tag on the playground equipment, I heard more than one of them exclaim, "Don't push me, or I'm going to lose my manhood." Or "dude, you almost lost your manhood there."

Suddenly, I thought of something that a mother of three boys recently told me: "It's all about their weiners." I realized at that moment the piece of equipment I hadn't brought that made me stand out of the crowd. Kirk kindly informed me that if the baby I'm carrying is actually a boy, then I had one, too. I laughed, and got back to enjoying my camping trip.

Sure, all the scouts kept us up until late in the night playing their night games. Sure, they kept running through our camp, hollering for their friends or making random animal noises. Sure, they started all over again at 6:00 a.m. Oh well. I still had a great time.

Is it a Boy or a Girl?

I finally have my ultrasound scheduled, and I only have to wait until May 18th to finally find out if this kid is a boy or a girl. I thought I'd let you all join in the fun, so please take the poll located on the right. You have until May 18th at 10 to vote (that's when my ultrasound is scheduled), and then I'll post the answer as soon as I get home that day! A couple of things to consider:

- In many ways this pregnancy is different than my pregnancies with Adam & Alex
- Both my doctor and his nurse think that the heartbeat is the heartbeat of a boy
- Adam is COMPLETELY convinced that he is getting a sister. I've been trying to prepare him in case it's a boy, but today in response to the fact that the nurse thinks it's a boy, he told me, "Well, if it grows out a girl, then the nurse will be wrong."
- 89% of the children produced by Kirk and his siblings are boys. I'm thinking the Fife genes only create boys and that Leslye was a fluke.

With that background information... happy guessing!