Camping in NM

I was hoping someone else would write this story and I could just refer you the their blog but no such luck. Alex was (is currently) working crazy hours. He works his 24 hour shift and then two days working about 14 hours each and then his 24 hour shift again (please pray for him). So when I found out my sister, Teandra, was going to be in NM visiting my parents I told Alex I was going, too. Unfortunately, the crazy job changed the start date so he did end up having a few days at home by himself.

Teandra was going to go on a camping/hiking trip with my parents and other sisters but I messed that plan up because no one wanted to take the kids on a huge hike (duh) and they felt bad leaving us at the base camp with my mom (or at least my dad did) so instead we ended up having an impromptu family camping reunion on my dads side. The only one missing was his brother from Washington State. The first night went really well.

This is the view from the middle of our camp sites across this valley with a little stream running through it; we had two sites right next to each other. My sister, Iwalani, and her husband came in around 11 pm or so we set them up and every body went to bed. It's really, REALLY cold there at night - especially if you're used to living in Texas - but for the most part everyone slept well. The next morning the forest guy comes over and says that we're okay where we are but my aunt has to move because her site is reserved for the second night by someone else. She gets kind of mad because when she called to reserve sites for all of us they said "we don't do reservations" but what they meant was "our campsites are full because other people have already reserved them." So we break her camp and get them set up about a mile from us on a smaller site but we figure we'll just all hang out at our site because it's nicer anyways. So we go to the fish hatchery (see below for pictures), have lunch, take some naps, play games, and then get set up for dinner. We were planning a massive stake dinner for my cousins birthday so we started cooking around 4 or so (somethings earlier like the fresh bread). At 7:30 a different guy comes and says that we've already been told to get out by two and we better get out now. I was actually taking alex to the bathroom and then we stopped to play on a slide so I missed the fight, but apparently the guy was calling us all liars and telling us we wern't going to get any refund for the night since we weren't out by two, get out of the park because it was full and he was going to write us a ticket. The guy that told us we were fine was already gone. Around 12 they had switched the sign from available to reserved (which we of course thought was for us because they said we could stay) and that was why we were in fault. No one had said anything at 2 (which was when we were supposed to be gone and when there were still other camp sites that were open). Anyway, I get back to the camp site and Chio looks like this.

So I'm still in a good mood and taking pictures of Chio and her raccoon face, then I get out the video camera to ask her how it happened, before I notice everyone is packing up. That's when I hear the story and the guy comes back to yell at us more. We finally get everything stuffed into our cars (extremely haphazardly) and remember that we had a flat we had to change on the van (and that was before we loaded all our stuff in it). We're still being watched by the forest guy and the people who are really camping there so we just drive it to my aunts site and my dad changes it while the rest of us try to save dinner (having no fire to start with). Around 8:40 the forest guy comes back and looks at all our license plates again and says says "ohh, you're all staying then" so we explain that no, we're still leaving but it took us awhile to get dinner done because we didn't have any coals (we haven't started eating at this point still). So the guy leaves and we eat then my parents take my kids home while we stay for birthday cake and a game. At 10 pm we go to leave and the gate has been locked -it closes at 9pm. We have no service in here so we can't call my parents to let them know we're not dead, the forest guy won't let us use his phone and he doesn't want to let us out. We asked him why he didn't say anything when he stopped at our camp at 8:40 and he yells at us about how he shouldn't have to tell us everything (actually he was yelling at Jeremy and Iwalani in the other car which is good because I hate to get yelled at, but we could hear him from our car). We said we didn't think they locked the gates because the night before they weren't locked and he called us liars again before writing own license again and shining his stupid light in all our our faces and then finally letting us out. A couple hours later we made it to my parents house and my dad said he was going to write a letter.

Our food set up.


This is Chio's tackle box she uses as a purse, I think Iwalani and Grandma are rubbing off on her.

Fish Hatchery:

Chio's trying to catch that duck.



Trish, Chio and Brendon.

Reeling the fish in.

You can see the fish on the ground.


Chio caught the biggest fish and alex caught the most. Brendon caught the most that got away.

Monsters vs. Aliens

We shared some frostys before we watched Monsters vs. Aliens.

Chio still doesn't like to go to the Movies.

Chio does love frostys though.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hair Cut

When alex went to bed one night he wasn't actually chewing gum, but he did have some in his new handy dandy watch. Some time before 3 in the morning he opened that watch and chewed that gum and then fell asleep. I know because at 3 in the morning he was screaming bloody murder. When I got to him he was trying to pull his hair out from the roots. I couldn't get the gum out with peanut butter, ice or oil so after trying for about 20 minuets I cut got out the clippers .

We got this far before I was just done with the crying and told him I'd get the rest out in the morning.

You can see here how it was matted all the way around his head.

Maybe alex is just meant to have a shaved head.

4th of July -2009

Like I said before my parents and sister (Chantel) surprised me 4th of July weekend when they came to visit. We went down to Addison for "Kaboom Town" and had a great time. You can see the rest of the weekend here at my mothers blog (like I said before). Mostly these are just pictures of alex being a dare devil.

This is a plane that flew around right before the fireworks started doing loops. alex thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Alex's Chiny-Chin-Chin

It was all because of vanity. Chio, alex and I went to NM for some camping trips; while we were there I cut my hair and didn't tell Alex. So when we got back I wanted to take a shower before we went to his fire department to see him. We were trying to hurry because we really wanted to see Alex. While I was in the shower alex slipped on the bathroom floor and split his chin open on the toilet. If we would have just went dirty we could have avoided all this.

My friend was able to take Chio to play with her girls and we got a blessing from our home teacher. Everything went really smoothly in the ER - as fast as can be expected. I told alex if he would do everything the doctor asked I would take him to the store and get him whatever toy he wanted; that turned out to be a "Bakugan" -which is all he has played with since then. I'd never even heard of these things before but I'm apparently behind on the times because there was half an aisle devoted to them.

Now it doesn't even look like a wound that merited the hospital but when he got it it was open so much it looked like a circle. He didn't have to get stiches, just glue and ever thing was good again.

Camping in OK

These are way out dated. We went camping to go and check out the area we were going to be going to girls camp in and we brought logo (There is another story way over due but Alex said he wanted to do a "guest post" about why we gave logo back-if he takes too much longer I'm going to write it myself...hint to husband). But the crazy story of this trip isn't captured in the pictures. It's hot here. So, our tent is all screens so hopefully we can keep a little cool while camping, or at least not create an oven and it has a cover you can put over it if you want, but we left it off because it was so hot. Sometime in the middle of the night I felt some mist and woke up frantically to tell Alex we needed to get the cover on.

"No," he says, "it'll stop in a minute and it's not raining that hard."

20 minutes later it's pouring; I'm talking buckets. So we get up to put the cover on but Alex has put the tent bag along with the cover in it in the car so it "wouldn't get lost". Then he can't remember where he put the keys. So he is out in the rain (but really it was as bad outside the tent as inside) looking for the keys and I'm inside with the kids and the dog. Logo was just annoyed and rolled her eyes at me when I told her she had to get under the covers with us, alex thought it was a great game having to hide, and Chio screamed bloody murder every time I moved to try to reposition our stuff so it wasn't floating in the puddles.

We finally found the keys (they were actually under the blanket will all of us), put the cover on, bailed the water out of the tent and went back to bed on our wet bedding. Luckily it's still crazy hot here in the middle of the night and we can sleep in wet stuff; if this would have happened camping in NM we probably would have died.

Alex and I didn't talk about it while it was happening but about an hour after all this excitement the storm was so bad we were both thinking things like "At least we're all together if we die" and "I wonder what it's like to get sucked up in a tornado."

We were planning on staying two nights but after this excitement we went home the next day.

These pictures are pretty self explained and there is a video at the end.

This is the sulfur water that people go to drink for it's healing purposes. I wish you could smell it but if you've ever been around a ton of sulfur you get the idea. Also notice all the stuff growing in the water.

4th of July

Alex said all I do now is send people elsewhere to read posts. But at least you get something. Here are some pictures from my parents visit.

SUPRISE!

Okay, I'm the worst surprise/secret keeper ever, but Alex is really good. I had no idea that my parents and little sister were going to be coming to my house for the fourth even though everyone else has known for the last month. In fact I didn't even catch any of the clues. Last night Alex calls and says, "I had a really bad day at work can you make sure the house is really clean for when I get home tomorrow?" So I think that's exactly what is going on. Then this morning I get back from taking the dog on a walk and alex runs up and says, "Grandma's coming" (real subtle I know, you can see how I missed it) and I get mad at Alex and say, "You can't tell him Grandma and Grandpa are coming when they aren't because then he'll ask me everyday for the next month when he gets to see them!" He has some story about how alex had misunderstood something he told him and I believe that too. I didn't even suspect; good job guys I'm so glad you're here. (And we miss everyone who's not.)

The Doll

Like most little girls (I guess) Chio has a doll she loves. She carries it around like alex does with his cars; lately she has been wanting the doll to match her exactly.

Sometimes this is convenient, for example: dressing. She won't wear the first dress I ever made her, I made a dress for the doll and suddenly Chio loves her dress.

Sometimes it's inconvenient, for example: writing. Last night things were getting a little out of hand so I brought Chio with me to ward council (first and probably last time) she was taking notes while I was...on her face. So after someone pointed out what was going on I took the pen away from her. She turned around and asked me if she could have the pen to draw on her baby's face too (she said it so I knew exactly what she had asked but luckily no one else could understand her) I said no but because I'm such a great mom after she threw a fit I gave it to her (these are the people who watch me take care of my kids during sacrament meeting, I get enough evil looks from them as it is) and she drew on the baby's face so it exactly matched her.

And sometimes it's downright exasperating, for example: painting. Today I was out getting paint for Chio's bedroom walls. She took the little bottle of acrylic paint and smeared it all over the left side of herself and all over the left side of her baby doll on the ride home (I thought the silence in the back seat was from her sleeping so all I would have to do at home was pick her up and lay her in her bed, not stand her in the front yard and hose her off.) Actually I didn't even have to clean this mess up my mom did while I was in a store (THANKS mom!!!) bring back any memories?

The Dog Story (Guest Post by Alex)

We got rid of our old dog and got a new one. I'd like to say we had rational reasons but we didn't. Some times I see things at work I wish I hadn't, and suffice it to say, I saw something involving a Pit Bull. Logo is a great dog. I unfairly judged her as a Pit Bull, because of the large white spot on her chest, her ears started sticking up, the shorter snout, the muscular jaw and her front legs started to bow. Well after the work incident happened, I couldn't get these features out of my head, then she snapped at alex, like a puppy does and I lost it. I didn't hurt her except slapping her on the nose. Then I thought to myself, there is no way I can take care of this dog anymore. When I got her, the people that we bought her from said that if things didn't work out we could take her back. So I called and took her back the next morning. I'll never know what breed the dog is, but it didn't look lab and we miss her.
That night I talked to the kids about taking the dog back, and they were disappointed, but I promised them a new dog. So that same day we took her down to Mckinney, I looked up and found another dog and we went back to Mckinney. We wanted a beagle and the craigslist ad said that it was a male beagle the lady had found while camping. We found out this lady didn't know what she was talking about as soon as the dogs rolled over. None were males. This one is a redbone coon hound we think. She'll be bigger than a beagle, about 45-65 pounds. Her name is Waffle, she is great, loves being with the family, and loves to play (too rough some times). She is very smart, which I see as a potential problem. I think she'll be a great dog, my wife thinks otherwise.

The greatest benefit of this new dog is that alex isn't allergic to it. With Logo he'd wake up every morning with congestion and big puffy eyes. The day after Logo left, alex didn't have any more allergies. The coat is much shorter, like a beagle. She is calmer too. We love our new dog and miss the old one.

Painting

I talk a lot about the difference between mom's and dad's when it comes to raising children and here is another example. I was out side painting Chio's table and the kids wanted to paint too; so I got out our chairs from the front porch (the ones we got from DI when we first got married for $5) for them to paint and I also got two paint brushes and two plates with little dots of paint on them. I then put them in their painting clothes and set them up on the other side of the yard from me so they wouldn't want to "help" with my project. I was half way through a layer when the needed more paint so I called Alex to go get it for them. Being the perfect husband he is, he just asked where it was and brought it out. Being the perfect dad he is, he just gave them two bottles of paint to do with as they liked. Cleanup was a little more involved than I had anticipated but they sure did have fun.

alex the dog

The other day we had one of alex's friends come over to play. She left her shoes here so I told alex that we would take them back to her the next day; alex said, "I don't know mom, let me check to make sure they're really hers." I was thinking what the heck is he talking about? But he goes over to the shoes and sniffs them for a while and then says, "Yeah, they're hers." Then he just walks off.

I guess the dog is rubbing off on alex.

My Vacation

So this wasn't exactly the plan for my vacation post, but you can go to my mothers blog and see part of "The Visit :0)".