Cabin, Cousins, & Courage

These kids always have fun together. The Cabin is a great place to get away from it all…

well, not really ALL. We actually ended up leaving the cabin to “get away from it all” including getting away from this:

WARNING: the following picture is graphic due to limited availability of correct representation (so cover it up with your hand if you don’t like blood)

WARNING #2: The following stuff is a bunch of ranting about a scary encounter of mine and probably includes more information than you care to know. I just want to document this experience before the memory fades.

Sorry. It’s the only picture of this rodent that I could find that resembles our visitor at the cabin. A few differences…OUR visitor is still alive and well and when I encountered the fella, our visitor seemed to be about 12 inches long . Other than that, I think I have identified the intruder.

Upon arriving at my parents’ cabin with myself and two kids, I found two types of droppings. One big, one small. This is my first time at the cabin with the potential of rodents and I thought, “I really don’t like mice, but I’ll have my mom bring up a trap when she comes with my two sisters. It will be unpleasant, but we can handle that.” That night we set the trap. (after calling Judd and asking how to set a mouse trap) Next morning, trap was there, no food, no rodent. We had to stay in order to catch whatever it was. We went through that day enjoying our fun vacation figuring there was nothing to worry about as we had isolated that “contaminated room” and figured we’d avoid the visitor, for the most part ,by simply shutting the door. HA! That night we got up the courage(or what we thought was courageous) to move all the furniture and confront the mouse/bigger-dropping-maker. We even had stools for us to jump on once the rodent was discovered. We found...Nothing. Not even a dropping. So that was bad.

We set more traps that night and went to bed. I woke up to a trap clapping shut. I couldn’t wake my kids so once I got out of my room, I turned on a very inconvenient light, looked to find that the trap indeed had gone off, but heard something upstairs. I went up saw another set off, but empty trap, and heard something scrambling, clawing and scraping up the FIREPLACE? At least we were narrowing down where it might be getting in/out. I got up the courage to shovel the mouse trap with mouse/baby-of-the-bigger-dropping-maker in tow and threw it into the wilderness, set the traps again and, went to bed. Again I heard the trap go off. Dreading what might happen next, I knew I had to go out as soon as I could muster the courage because I needed to figure out where/what/how this thing was doing what it was doing. I came out…trap empty, noises upstairs. I went up the stairs…all alone, mind you…and saw another trap set off, but empty and then looked over to see what looked like that rodent in that picture (a potential "woodrat") tripping over itself and rolling around in frantic fear as I started bawling and screaming. Now if you know me very well, you’ve never heard me do anything like that. I’ve never heard me do anything like that. I was unprepared and defenseless and couldn’t predict what this thing might do. Plus it was around 4:00 am. Plus I had gotten little sleep the night before and was in a weird state. Plus I didn’t expect to SEE the thing. I was planning on LISTENING to figure out how it was getting in/out. My mom had come up to the stair below the one I was standing on, but didn’t have her contacts in and “couldn’t see anything” so she was watching my blurry, horrified face, listening to my screaming and hugging my legs. The rodent made it’s way back up the…chimney? and we heard a thud--like it jumped down onto the roof. So I started a fire and kept it going the rest of the night. Sleep totaling around one hour.

The thing is, there are no openings in the chimney. I went up there myself to make sure. We don’t know how it’s getting in. We don’t know how it’s getting out. So whatever, Rodent. At least I faced you and I hope my screaming hurt your ears.

On a positive note, I bonded with my mom and sisters. So that's good.

A Happy Halloween

Caleb was such a great Spiderman for his Preschool parade. I was surprised he put up with the uncomfortable face paint, but when your are “really” Spiderman…you can do anything. In the picture you can see that the face paint is a bit smudged by this point. C.J. is the skeleton pirate in front and Caleb is having so much fun with his cousin being in the same class!

View Full Album

Adelynn started eating candy right after “dinner” (two sorry excuses for bites) and didn’t stop until right before bed. That kid can down food like nothing I’ve ever seen. You might notice the chocolate on the corners of her mouth and in hand in more pictures than it should be. You might not be able to see because the album cut off Caleb’s head, but we used the mask for trick-or-treating and again I was surprised to see that Caleb kept the mask on pretty much all night. He would ask me things like “Does Spiderman wear shoes like that?” If I said yes, he would comply to wear them. Otherwise, it was a no-go. My kids LOVE Halloween and it makes it so much fun.

View Full Album

Snow before Halloween=Is it Christmas yet?

I love when you wake up and look out the window to a white blanket of snow. (and you didn’t know it was coming) My kids were a bit confused and Caleb was asking when Christmas was coming. Thanks a lot, snow. It wasn’t even Halloween yet.

The other day, I took a mop head off of the stick. Okay, I guess that's random enough to warrant an explanation. Actually, I can't remember why I took it off. Huh. I bought it years ago as I was going to make Caleb a lion for Halloween once, and never did. Anyway, with Christmas on his mind, Caleb thought it was perfect for being Santa Clause. I turned around to see this: with "Ho Ho Ho" coming out from behind the mop strands. Adelynn had to give it a shot as well.

View Full Album

Pumpkin Patch Possibilities

My kids couldn’t wait. Even the lady behind them was wondering what all the excitement was about. ;) The Pumpkin Patch is a great tradition. Here is Adelynn showing how big she wants her pumpkin “a baby one” was her preference which is what she ends up with.

It's so fun for this age to get the ride the train behind a tractor, too!

View Full Album

Judd’s Other Love

and it’s not me.

(I’m his first love) Why keep any more secrets? Blogs are for telling it all, right? No more mincing words. Judd is in love with the Green River. (and I’m pretty partial to it myself). It is such a beautiful place and I get to share it with people I love.

It seems like Judd almost lives for the next time he goes to the Green River. I am so glad that there is something in life that gets him this excited. He tries to make it at least once a year. This year, we went with my parents and had a great time. Judd is such an awesome fishing guide/lover. He was constantly helping me hook into some big ones…until I started talking too much to my mom and not paying attention, and I dont’ think he could stand it anymore…it was my turn to row. ;)

We all had our turn “on the oars” and my mom was brave enough to give it a go. Even though she thought it felt awkward, she caught on quickly and even got Judd “into a fish.”

Here are the boys scouting out the biggest rapid “Red Creek.”

Despite the happy smile, he’s probably shakin’ in his waders…and boots. He volunteered to go first down the rapids.

Here’s a view going into the rapid:

It was so fun to be adults doing adult things for a couple of days…despite me wearing Caleb’s cowboy hat. It happened to be in the back of our car and was great for blocking the sun. Not flattering, but useful.

September Cabin Visit

View Full Album

We had a lot of fun with friends...good weather and great company.

I Know I Know

Well actually, I didn’t. I didn’t realize that it had been since AUGUST?!?!? that I last posted. Ang brought that to my attention…thanks, Ang. All you others that merely said, “You need to update your Blog.” were missing the real motivator for me…the fact that I am 3 MONTHS behind! I knew that I was behind, but not THAT behind. Holy cow. So, as I am overwhelmed with all that I should have already posted, I think I will do a “quick” summary of our 3-month past:

Here we are at our past house. The kids love Grandpa’s riding mower.

And speaking of the past…as we were packing, I found and got rid of some real icons in my life…the puffy yellow coat and my well- used high school tennis sweatshirt(someone’s gonna feel really lucky when they see THESE hanging in the DI window)

Because Judd claims that the yellow coat is the first thing he remembers me wearing and probably the last (and I’m sure the reason why he couldn’t resist me) I had him take a picture of me in it before it continued it’s legacy with another owner. And I know I’m beating this subject to a pulp, but just another point of interest: I donated my Junior High green Eddie Bauer backpack from High School to the D. I. and the other day, I saw a man riding on his bike down main street with his “new” green Eddie Bauer backpack in tow over one shoulder. This was no coincidence. It gave me a new respect for the D.I. “The church sure knows what it’s doing,” I thought . The man was stoked and I was stoked. Win Win. I had seen the system in action.

Our house in it’s final stages getting the long awaited stucco:

The state fair rodeo or “radio” (as Caleb would say it, and now Adelynn, too) was a hit. A free cowboy hat,

and some not-so-free, disgusting nachos later,

Caleb was in heaven.

Adelynn making the most of the nachos and cowboy hat:

The next day, we went to the fair to see the “GREAT BEAR SHOW” that wasn’t that great, and then Garrison wanted to ride a ride. I wasn’t sure, at first,whether it was a very good idea, but he got through it…barely.

After finishing the house, around Mid August, we went to St. George for some relaxing fun:

I love swimsuit cheeks (on kids)

Family Festive Fun Center(and that’s just what it was)

I am proud to say that Caleb was SOOO good at the gumball game:

He won some flattering veneers

And Adelynn won a sucker. Both prizes cost us about 5 bucks, but what did I expect?

When we got back and got used to our new house being our new home, our kids took a fancy to our corner tub and pretend it’s a pool. Couldn’t resist posting these:

I told them to put their arms around each other and they held this pose for about 5 seconds. Pretty good first try.

Caleb’s first day of preschool (second year):

Adelynn wasn’t a big fan of him going without her. She kept saying she was going to go to her “class.” I kept telling her that we could have fun with Mommy, but nothing would suffice. A couple of times, she got almost out of our circle while trying to ride her bike to Caleb’s school. She decided if she couldn’t go WITH Caleb, she was going to BE Caleb.

Adelynn has been LOVING babies for a long time, and Caleb loves teasing her. It’s simple really. Do anything with Adelynn’s baby and you’ve pushed a button.

View Full Album

She’ll ask, “Wanna hold my baby?” Judd or I respond with something like, “Yes, please.” and as she looks at you with her head tilted with such pleasure, it soon turns into concern and she makes certain that we “Don’t hit her.” or really it’s “Don’t hit heh.”

Up next, if you’re still awake and if Judd can handle the kids a bit longer, Cabin visits (one with a surprise visitor), Judd’s Other Love, Family Pictures, and Halloween…