Thursday, August 28, 2008

Labor Day Week





So we picked a weekend that was not going to busy camp wise. The weather according to the computer said it would be nice and as long as we were out of there by Tuesday afternoon we would miss the storm that was supposed to hit Lake Easton. John took the couple days off and we headed out for what was looking like a wonderful get away from everyday life. We arrived at Lake Easton and much to our surprise it started to sprinkle. No big deal we would get the tent set up and then get dinner going. Yeah right. We got the tent set up and it started to pour. We couldn't get a fire to stay long enough for us to fix our dinner. We had planned on having sandwiches for lunches but because of the rain we decided to go ahead and have them for dinner and then have our tin foil dinners for lunch the next day. We retired early because we had nothing else to do with it raining. We woke to what was looking like a beautiful Monday. We had breakfast and then decided to go hiking. Mariska, being the independent person she is, refused to be carried and walked almost the entire couple of miles we hiked. Towards the end she had had enough and she seemed a little cold so I stuffed her into my jacket and walked with her wrapped around my front the last half mile or so back to camp. She went down for a nap and I decided to join her since I tossed and turned most the night. It started to rain again while we were sleeping but nothing to bad. John hung out with Aurie and they had some good conversations. It did rain just enough that when Mariska woke and started to run around and do the usual falling down she was falling down in mud instead of dirt. I took a lot of clothes for two days and I was starting to run out of them. I guess I never realized how dirty kids can get by being out side in the rain. It doesn't help that Mariska is OCD about having her hands clean. Anytime she fell down she wouldn't catch herself with her hands but would catch herself with her elbows or stomach. I am not sure where she got that from. I had a feeling to get dinner going at 4:00 so I did and we ate early it rained off and on for a couple of hours and I had decided that we should just pack up and go home because obviously the storm had decided to show it's head early. As soon as I came to this decision it started to pour. There was no way we would get everything cleaned up in that much rain so we went to bed early again. It rained all night long. Everything was soaked when we got up Tuesday. It had finally stopped raining and I told John that we just needed to go home. I was glad that we had some time on Monday to go hiking but I am sorry ti say this was not one of my favorite camping trips. I was surprised at how well Mariska did apart from constantly being in the mud and eating the leaves off the trees. She stayed away from the camp fire when we had one and she for the most part stayed in our camp cite without being told. She was up set that we had to go home but fortunately I am Mom and what I say goes.



We went to the Fair here in Ellensburg on Thursday and had a really good time. I was actually surprised at how much fun my sister had. I enjoy going but I wasn't too sure about her. She actually stayed with some friends from the ward when John and I came home and then when I went back to walk around that evening Aurie came with me. It was nice to have some sister time and I didn't realize how much I was in need of it. We really enjoyed the animals and had a great time seeing everything else. Hope you are all doing well.

Friday, August 15, 2008







We have officially caught the bug here!!!! I love watching the Olympics. Our TV has never been on as much as it has in the last week. We are huge swim fans and have found that watching Michael Phelps and his journey through this Olympics very exciting. The other sports that we have thoroughly enjoyed watching is Beach Volleyball. I of course really enjoy watching the men play (for obvious reasons). I think that it is a prerequisite for beach volleyball players to be easy on the eyes. They all seem to be fairly good looking. Anyway moving on. I got a little irritated watching the men's gymnastics. The Chinese are really good and our boys really had their work cut out for them but I felt that we were really jipped when it came to our scores. Even the commentators said that they felt the US scores were lower than they should be. I was really excited when Nastia and Shawn took Gold and Silver in the women's all around. I have never seen anyone stick their landings the way Nastia did yesterday. I am really looking forward to seeing the track and field events. I think they started today. Mariska has even enjoyed watching with us. She loved the gymnastics and would laugh hysterically when they did flips and jumps. You can definitely tell how vocal we are when it comes to sports because when ever John and I really get into it we yell and holler at the TV. I was on the phone with my mom during one of Michael Phelps races and all of a sudden Mariska was not quite yelling, but saying loudly "GO, GO, GO!" It was rally cute. I just checked a little while ago China has more gold medals than any other country but the US has 48 medals over all and China has 41. I think when this Olympics ends I will be a little sad. It has been really fun to watch and get excited for the competitors who are representing this wonderful country. GO USA!!!!!!!!!