Calf Creek

Part II

We took lots of pictures and had lots of fun and I didn't want to make my the last post forever long. Not as many pictures in this blog.

Sunday, we got up and kind of just hung out around camp. We had talked about hiking up to Calf Creek falls but after the experience from the day before, I wasn't sure the kids would be up for the hike. The hike is pretty easy other then it gets hot and is kinda long, especially for kids. We finally decided just to do it around 11ish. So we loaded up on water & snacks, left the pregnant woman at camp and hit the trail.




We took a dip in the pool, well Chad and I did. The water was FREEZING cold! Cash did because I dunked him, he wasn't happy about that at all. I think the girls kinda got in. T was a big wimp, actually she said she didn't want to swim in it because she didn't want to smell like fish. haha! Too funny. When you swim close the falls, there is a current and was actually kind of fun. Chad swam up right under the falls, he said once you got in close enough the current sucks you in. It was nice to cool down and lower the body temp before heading back to camp.




Cash talked the Whole way there and the WHOLE way back! He has little legs and walked about three times the distance I did. On the way in to the falls, I stuck back with him most of the way and we had all sorts of conversations, mostly about when the Indians come back alive. Not sure how many times I had to tell him that their are Indians alive now and that they live just like us. Towards the falls, T stayed back with him so I could power to the falls, Jet was getting pretty upset about spending so much time in the backpack.

Jet pretty much cried the whole way back, kept him entertained for a while with my camel pack water hose. Didn't work the whole way, so I booked it out. The crazy thing is that the girls kept right up, didn't complain, well big K and b butt didn't complain and just hiked right along. After getting back to camp, I dropped Jet of with the pregnant lady and cruzed back to meet T and Cash. They weren't too far behind, about 3/4 to a mile back. She was carrying him but said she had only carried him a little. It's a 5 1/2 mile round trip hike, the girls went the whole way, K bug was carried a bit, and Cash made it almost the whole way. Pretty good for a 3 year old. I'm surprised that he didn't get tired from all the talking!



T has spent the past month or so deep into Harry Potter books. She was trying to finish the 6th book while we were camping and tried to read every minute she had. She has also been staying up way past her bedtime reading all the books. She has finally finished all 7 books and we can now go watch the 6th movie.

The ride home from Calf Creek was fun, it was a late night drive. We stopped in Tropic to visit my dad's aunt for a bit. She thought that I was my dad. "Oh, that's not Lani?" "No, it's his son" The kids loved it at her house, she had dogs, cats, cows and a peacock, they also have goats but they were out back. The kids were supper hyper when we got in the car and stayed awake way too late.

It was fun, we need to spend more time in Southern Utah.

Wednesday Tunes

Death Cab for Cutie: "Grapevine Fires"

Escalante

I love southern Utah and I specifically love Highway 12 and all that it has to offer. I really feel one reason why I love this area is because few people travel there. It is not close to anything and it's not a through road, it's a loop. I was able to get the Hiltons to travel with us down there for some fun a few weekends ago. It was a good time.

Sorry for all the pictures!



We were lucky to make it to Calf Creek campground to get the last camping spot left. They only have about 12 or so spots, that typically go pretty fast. While you can camp out in the wilderness just about anywhere in the area, we had a pregnant woman and kids, so it's much easier and worth the money for a campground.



We spent the Saturday waiting for the pregnant woman to get out of bed. I recently learned that Saturday is "sleeping day" at their house. We first went into Escalante, picked up some firewood and talked to the visitor center about the Hole in the Rock Road, and it's condition. The old couple told us the road was bad and they were nervous for us. Seems like they always tells us that. The road was fine for a dirt road, actually pretty good for the most part.

We visited Devils Garden. It was HOT but the kids had a blast running around on the rocks. As we were walking around we overheard Marc telling K bug that "it's really not his garden, it's just called that"



We then headed over to Spooky and Peekaboo canyons. T and I visited the area before we had kids and remembered it to be fun and easy, other then walking in 120 degree sand in 100 degree weather. When we got down to the entrance of Peekaboo, it was a bit different then what we remembered, wish I had taken a picture of it. For some reason I remembered it being an easy 6 foot wall climb, ya, it was about 15 feet and not so easy with kids and a pregnant lady. But we figured a way to get the kids up into the canyon and even the pregnant lady, who hung out at the mouth of the canyon with J man while the rest of us went up into the canyon. The kids loved it, 'cept Cash got scared a few occasions, he's not real fond of heights.


Where they waited


A look into the Peekaboo


On the back down, he was whining here.


B took the picture of me! And a picture of all the kids in the canyon.


One of the arches you climb through. The pic of b is looking out the canyon, kinda gives you an idea of how high the mouth was.

After this, the pregnant lady, T and J man hung out in the mouth of another canyon while the rest of us walked down to Spooky, about a 1/2 -1/3 mile in a HOT ravine. T had the camera so I didn't get any pics, I think that Chad did, so I'll have to get those from him. The kids thought that it was going to be a "scary" canyon because it's called Spooky. It's supper skinny and there was no way the pregnant lady could have made it far at all, the kids love it.

On the way back out, all the kids were warn out but we still had to hike out of the ravine. As we were about half way out the wind started to pick up, blowing sand everywhere, poor J man, who was on my back, just started whimpering. I felt so bad. The girls would have to stop and cover their eyes every time the wind blew. I hurried back to the car as fast as I could, as I got over the ridge the wind was insane, thought I was going to get blown off! By this time J man was crying, I hurried and put him in the car and ran back to get the girls, who were also crying and got them into the car. T was with Cash and Chad was way back with his prego wife. We all got back into the cars safely.

It rained on us all night and took away our desert sunset, Dang the clouds (shaking my fist)!!

I recommend that you wait until your kids are just a little older and that you don't take pregant woman to hike these canyons.

Wednesday Tunes

I know its not Wednesday but we can pretend that I posted this yesterday.

I want a new bike!

Or maybe one for T. Well if you click on the link in the upper right hand corner of my blog, it puts me in for a drawing to win one of their bikes. They give away one bike per week, for I don't know how long. So click on the link every Monday morning for me!

Thanks!!

More Family Reunions!

It feels like we have a LOT of family reunions, we do but we don't, really. This year we have had three, one was my dad's Grandma's, the Reeve's family reunion which was held at the park by our house and only lasted a few hours. Then we had T's dads side that we have every year. And then we had T's moms side, which is what this post is about. We could have a few more reunions and then that's all we would do all summer long. We should have some in the winter time.



This reunion has become an annual event and has been at the City of Rocks for the last few years. We have stayed in the same campground, pictured above, next to the Sisters for those you know the area. The campground is great, there are rocks for the kids to climb all over, while they could get lost and I'm surprised that they didn't, they would have to go out of their way to get lost. And the best part is that it's all by itself, so we can be as loud as we want, or as loud as our kids tend to be.



This year it was cold and it rained on us! We ended up spending a chunk of the time at T's grandpas house who lives just outside of the City of Rocks in Almo, Idaho. That wasn't too bad, we rode the atvs around and raced around the house. Though it was too cold to go swimming and I was actually looking forward to that. Which is strange because Im not a big fan of swimming, it's just not that fun, maybe for like ten minutes.



While they look a lot alike, they are almost nothing alike. Both of them are hilarious in their own way and they both are very much boys.



This year we did some rock climbing, well the kids did. So we have been going to the City of Rocks for the last 4-5 years and we never gone rock climbing. The City of Rocks is known for its rock climbing and people travel from all over to climb there. This year we (buzz) brought his gear for the kids and let get use to climbing. B was a little nervous the first time but quickly relaxed, at least going up. Coming down, Z was about the only kid who felt comfortable, the rest of them wanted buzz to help them. And Cash money, well he made it as high as he is in the picture above! He'll climb rocks left and right but once we put the harness on him he froze up and wouldn't go anywhere.

I'm kinda a Big Deal on Twitter

Haha! I have a few other blog posts in the works and hopefully I'll post those soon. In the meantime I thought I would share my fame with you all. City Weekly posted a blog quoting one of my tweets. I know some of you have tried twitter and most of you have not. Im addicted! It saves me a whole lots of time, the people I follow are always posting links to news and other items that I no longer have to search for.

Anyways, my tweet was about how I wish Rep. Mathason was more of a man like Barny Frank. There is a great clip on the link above to reference what I'm talking about. I agree with Frank that it's too bad that congress is not debating a single payer health care system.

Favorite SYTYCD Dance

This is my favorite SYTYCD dance of all time. It was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Choreography!



So, your probably wondering why I love SYTYCD? Well, I don't dance, I can't dance. I did take some lessons when I was in Jr. High (ya, that helps the self confidence of a jr. high boy) and I have taken some classes with the wife. I have three little sisters that dance, so I grew up spending whole days at dance competitions, which really isn't that bad when your Jr. High and High School age cause those things a chuck full of girls the same age! Then I married a dancer/cheerleader who now teaches dance and my daughter dances. This life time of conditioning has lead me to appreciate and enjoy watching good choreography and dancing.

So there is the short of it.

Christiansen Reunion

Cash, B, Jet, Z man & Luda (aka Ludacris)

We made our annual trip out to Ibapah last weekend for the Christiansen reunion. It was a lot of fun and the kiddies had a blast! B is now to the age that she can remember last year a little bit, add that with the anticipation that Z man was going to be there, she was supper excited. Cash was just excited to go camping and both were excited to play in grandmas new trailer. Here is the link to last years reunion.



They have all sorts of games and activities for the kids, along with rope swings, a huge teeter-todor, a pond and ATV's. The people who take care of the ranch do an excellent job! We pitch our tents on grass, we can throw blankets out on the grass and not worry too much about the kids getting dirty.



This was taken of the boys getting their much needed naps about 10 minutes before the tornado struck! Ok, it wasn't a tornado, but it felt almost like one. You could see the clouds rolling in and the wind was picking up, so everyone started to get ready for a storm. I was able to get the boys in our tent just before the wind really began to blow! After the wind blew hard for a few minutes, I had to stop to look if their was a tornado or not, the rain came and boy did it rain! It poured for a good 10-15 minutes and then stopped and about half hour later, cleared up. T and Jet just about got it from a fly away tarp, luckily some kid grabbed a hold of it before it wrapped them up. I love those kind of summer storm, kinda fun really.



They really loved the motorcycle rides from their grandpa.


I'm probably posting way too many pictures, but we did take 150!

I don't know whats going on in here but it looks like one of the 500 fights the boys had.


Here's another fight, if you look closely, you can see that they're all holding rocks, with Z man holding the biggest, looks more like he has a brick. B is out of there! This ended just fine, I don't think any rocks were thrown, though after Z man dropped the brick, Cash picked it up and started running after Z man until I yelled at him to drop it.


We're horrible parents! Pretty sure Jet had some ear aches going on while we were out there, and instead of coming home, we just stayed. The first night he woke up sometime around 3am and screamed bloody murder for about an hour! He was ticked off! Nothing we did helped him, he didn't want anything, finally I just held him still for about 5 minutes and he was out. But this woke up Cash, who was whinny and wouldn't sleep for about a half hour until I threatened him that I would strap him in his car seat and he would sleep in the car. He sunk to the bottom of our sleeping bag, T was in his by now and pouted himself to sleep. Then B woke up around 5am after all of this and need to poop! Whats going on here? Seriously? Needless to say, it was a long night. Luckily for everyone involved, they all slept just fine the next night.


Can't wait for next year!

Crash Money

Well, it took him three years but he finally succeeded in breaking his arm. He had the eventful day on the 4th of July this year. Every year the Rose Park community has a kids parade, where kids decorate their bikes and go from the Day-Riverside Library to Riverside park where there is a breakfast. About half of the way is along the Jordan River, when the trail moves into the park there is a bit of a hill that goes off of the Jordan River trail down to the park. As we were going along, Cash would cruz ahead on his bike, get stuck, (he has a hard time still pedaling forward) wait for us, we would give him a little help and he would be off again. As we were approaching the downslope Cash came whizzing by me, I told him to stop and wait, of course he listened as good as always, not at all and kept on going. I knew what was coming next. As he turned down the hill and disappeared behind a group of people, I started seeing people jumping out of the way as an out of control 3 year old went flying down the hill! He emerged out of the crowd with his feet off the pedals and veered onto the grass, he soon let go of his handle bars and with arms stretched out crashed onto the grass!

Nope, this isn't how he broke his arm. But he did get right up, took a look at his bike and started crying that the had grass stuck in the one of the pedals. We pulled the grass off, threw his bike back on the sidewalk and he was on his way.



After the breakfast and clean up we headed home. T's mom does a big bbq every 4th, so we thought that we would put all of our kids down for nap before we headed over, this would hopefully mean less grumpy kids for the fireworks. So with all the kids down supposedly following our plan and taking a nap, I headed out to work around the yard. As I'm playing with my tomatoes, T comes running out, "Brad, I think Cash broke his arm!" I thought, crap, it's probably sticking out and all gross looking, the sight of it is going to make me sick. But actually it was hard to tell if he broke his arm or not. He was crying like he had just broken his arm, a good steady cry but not hysterical and holding his arm kinda limp. We played around with his arm for a bit, feeling the bone, having him squeeze his fist and move his fingers. We decided that we should take him in just in case, we didn't want to be like the Hiltons and take our kid in hours later.



I stayed home with the other kiddies, finally getting Jet to sleep. Got a call from T, he had a fracture brake, the doc said that it was the best kinda break for a kid to have and should heal just fine. They first put a wrap on his arm, we could tell right off this wasn't going to last long. The first day that he had it on, he asked multiple times to take it off "It doesn't hurt any more" thinking this would allow him to no longer wear the wrap. When that didn't work he then proceeded on several occasions to start taking off the wrap. Luckily he only had the wrap on for a few days before getting his cast. Casts now-a-days are great! They can get wet! This is perfect for summer, this allows him to still swim and boys get beyond filthy in the summer, if we had to cover the cast in plastic every time we needed to give him a bath, he would never get a bath! At least from me!



He is trying hard to break his other arm! His cast hasn't slowed him down a bit.

Busy

So I know that I have been a huge slacker on my blog but life happens. It's been real hard for some reason to keep this updated, maybe it's because facebook is easier and most of my readers are also friends on facebook, if not all. I've also been super busy with school. I am going to the U for a Master of Public Policy. This is keeping me very busy. Between work and school and the family and a few other projects, leaves me little time for my blog. Hopefully I'll inundate you with some post in the next few weeks before school picks back up.

SYTYCD

So our show, So You Think You Can Dance is back for a 5th season. It took us a while to get into the show this season, that was until last week. Last week was great, probably one of the best SYTYCD shows in the five seasons. Still, no one is really sticking out as a personal favorite. We thinks it's because, so far nobody's personality has really stood out. We really like the following two dances.

You can skip to the dance about -5:40

janette @ Yahoo! Video