Yet another update

My how time flies by, I need to get in a better habit of writing more often. The last couple of months have been busy. In April, we took the plunge and bought a new camp trailer and a used truck that could fit the four of us. We ended up with a 1999 Ford f350. It is very nice and roomy. We have used it a lot more than we thought we would. It is fun to jump in and go for Sunday or evening rides up the canyon. The weather has been really wet this year. Here it is the first of June and we haven’t had too many sunny days yet. The rivers are flooding and it just keeps raining. We have managed to get a few camping trips in. For Easter, we went to Daniels reservoir in Idaho by Malad. It was cold, but we had a nice toasty trailer to stay in and still managed to have fun.

My photogenic boy. It will pose for me anytime.

Hunting for Easter eggs.

CHEESE!!!!

"I'm a Princess"

The Easter Bunny sure does spoil my kids.

May 7^th, I had my first wedding photo shoot. The bride was one of my sister-in-law’s cousin. Misty came along and helped me. It was nice to have a side kick. I could not have done it without her. I was so nervous the whole time, but they turned out really good.

The middle of May, Eric had a week off of work, so him and Parker headed up Blacksmith Fork Canyon, yes right next to the flooding river. I threatened both Parker and Eric that they were not allowed to go next to the river. Parker is such a good boy, he didn’t go by the water without asking dad. He would say, “Dad, let’s go look at the water.” It rained on them most of the week, but they still had fun, watching movies, reading books, and a little bit of fishing when the sun managed to come out. The other thing Parker got on a kick about is what do "Good Ol' Boys" do. Parker, "Dad, do Good Ol' Boys wear their hat backwards?" Dad, "yep". Parker, "We're good ol' boys aren't we dad". He proceeded to ask if Good Ol' Boys go fishing, hunting, and several other things. He just wants to be a good ol' boy with his dad. Maisie and I went up a couple of nights and had dinner with them. Wednesday night we stayed the night and got up and went to school and work from there.

Friday, May 20^th, Maisie and I were on our way to work and got in a little fender bender. Nothing serious, but it still was scary. I was turning onto the highway by Cox Honey. There was a truck that was behind me and to the left a little. Apparently he was turning right too. He turned right into my back end because he didn’t see me. He got the citation, but is probably going to fight it. He claims he was there before me and that I pulled up to the side of him. I honestly don’t know, but I do know that if he was there, he wasn’t in the turn lane and he didn’t have his signal on because I wouldn’t have pulled up next to him if he did. We will see how that pans out. I was able to take my car in Monday morning and it was fixed by Tuesday after work. It looks like a brand new car. It was almost worth paying the $100 deductible to have the nice car wash.

Friday, May 20^th, after work I went to my sister’s to watch her kids for the weekend while my parents, Shanna and Jason, and Josh & Kirsten were in Hawaii. Saturday, May 21^st, Kyle and Misty brought their kids to Shanna’s house for me to watch while they helped Misty’s parents move cows. It was amazing how well 9 kids behaved. There were a few times that I had no idea there were so many kids there. They were really good. We went to the park for a little while and I had to keep counting heads to make sure I didn’t lose anyone. Later that night, when Kyle and Misty where finished with the cows, we loaded the kids and headed up to Eric’s camp and roasted hot dogs. It was nice to get the kids out of the house for a little while. They had a good time.

Memorial weekend – I was a brave woman and drove the kids with truck and trailer to Grace, Idaho to camp with a co-worker, Shannon, and her family and friends. It was a little scary driving. The truck likes to wander and I had a hard time keeping it on the freeway, so I didn’t go over 65 mph. I made it though. Kyle & Misty and their kids joined us. It was fun for the kids to have someone to play with. They played on the playground and road their bikes around. Again, it was rainy and cold. The sun did shine on Saturday though. We took the kids to Lava Hot Springs. We only went to the hot spots, and man were they hot. We were there for a couple of hours swimming and ate lunch. Afterwards, we went for a drive. We were trying to find Black Canyon. Well we headed west of Grace, Id, like we were supposed to, we drove over a bridge and remembered looking at the river below thinking, wow that looks cool. Well we drove around some old farm roads, up the mountain a ways, turned around, drove around some more farm roads, and ended up right back where we started. The Bridge, with a landmark sign, “Black Canyon Gorge”. So apparently that is what we were looking for. I think there are several places to see Black Canyon. Where we were it was straight down the black, rocky, ledges to the river. It was beautiful though. Of course, I forgot the camera. After that we drove back to camp. Sunday, it rained most of the day. We drove out to Chesterfield. Just as I was leaving camp, Eric’s truck’s overdrive light was blinking. It freaked me out a little and that is all I could think about. Chesterfield is a little ghost town with houses and buildings from the late 1800’s. We then drove to the reservoir. We decided that it would be a fun place to camp sometime. Then we drove to the “Last Chance Canal” which is east of Grace.

This site is the point on the Bear River where water was first diverted by Mormon settlers to develop an agriculture industry in Gem Valley. Features at the site include diversion dams, hand excavated basalt rock tunnels, flumes, pipelines, and ditches to move the water to the dry plain. Several previous attempts to capture the Bear River waters had failed. This became the settlers "last chance." It epitomizes the 

development of the agriculture industry in the dry west.

When we got back to camp, I talked Eric into coming up and taking a look at his truck. He drove up and fiddled with a few things and finally got the light to go off. It seems to be driving fine, so hopefully it was just a fluke. He stayed for dinner and then went home so he could work on Monday. We woke up to snow Monday morning. We ate breakfast and packed up and headed home. After doing loads and loads of laundry, my parents had a luau at their house. My dad cooked shish kabobs, we had a yummy coconut cake. It is always nice to get together as a family. I am glad we all live close enough that we can get together.

Update

I just typed an email to a bunch of family members and thought I would post it here. Just a little update of what we have been doing.

It seems like life is crazy doing nothing. When asked what we do in our spare time, I have no idea, but we seem to stay plenty busy.

Eric is still working at Presto Products (plastic production plant). He works as a team manager over one of the shifts. Don’t know what that means or even what he does other than walk around with a walkie talkie. Most days he likes it. His schedule is a little crazy, but after 8 years I have gotten used to it. The one thing he loves is having days off. He gets to stay home with Parker 5 days a month and they just love doing boy things. He will definitely have Parker withdrawals when Parker is in school. Eric has taken up leather crafting and enjoying this new hobby.

Me, Amy, hmmmmmm, I am not sure what I do other than, work, take care of kids and husband, and go totally crazy. Things I do in my spare time: I attend a boot camp exercise class twice a week and love it. It really does kick my booty, but I need it. I just got a new bike trainer for indoors so now I can ride my bike in the winter and don’t have to freeze. A friend and I are going to do the Little Red Riding Hood bike race this summer. I think we are going to try for the 50 miler.  I enjoy reading, but usually they end up not being fun books. I have taken up photography and love every minute of it. Most of my reading has been photography books and how to improve. This last fall I took the plunge and invested in a really nice camera. I have my first engagement pictures this afternoon. We will see how it goes as long as we don’t all freeze to death. I love digital scrapbooking and do that when I don’t have anything else to do. LOL. So that doesn’t happen very often anymore.  

Maisie is in the 2^nd grade and loving it. She is a great little learner. So far, I think she will be my easy one to get through school. I don’t have to remind her to do anything or worry about if she has done her homework. Her teacher has told me numerous times, that she is the only one that turns in homework every day. I have to say that I am the bad mom that never even looks at her homework or questions if she turned it in. I am very fortunate that she attends school right next door to my work. She goes to the Edith Bowen Laboratory School here at USU. It is nice that she gets to ride to work with me and go home with me. After school she attends Boys and Girls Club where she does her homework and plays games and fun activities. When at home she loves her babies. Anything to do with babies she loves. She will be a great mom one day.

Parker is 4 and 100% a boy. He loves cars, tools (real tools just like dads), and believe me they are all over the house. Everything is broken and everything needs fixed. He loves to just play. I put him to bed and think he has gone to sleep and then find out he is in there playing. He also will wake up on the weekends and just start playing. It’s kind of nice that my kids are old enough that they can entertain themselves and let me sleep in for a little bit. Parker still attends daycare/preschool at Regina’s. Regina is my saving grace. We are very blessed to have her. I am so grateful I have never had to switch daycare providers. She is amazing in everything she does. She does a wonderful job teaching and caring for the kids. On days when Parker is staying home with dad, Eric will ask him, “Parker what do you want to do today”. Parker’s reply, “Watch the Dukes”. Parker loves the Dukes of Hazzard shows. Eric has all the seasons. Can’t remember how many there is, but there’s a lot and they have been through all the seasons at least once. Parker’s favorite part is at the beginning when the dukes of hazard car does a big jump, he has to say Yeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaa as loud as he can. Such a funny boy. His most exciting thing he got for Christmas was a set of 3 dukes of hazzard hotwheel cars. He would have totally been happy with just the cars.  I had to do some hunting online to find them and probably spent way too much for little hot wheel cars, but he absolutely loves them.

So much to do so little time

It is that time of year when I feel the pressure of all the things I want to do and all the things that need to be done. I love the holidays and spending time with family and friends, but always relieved when they are passed until the next year. I have almost all my christmas shopping done with just a few more items to make (that's the pressure) and buy.

It has been snowing like crazy. Last week we had a few good storms and I am sure the snow is here to stay. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving they pretty much such down the city for a blizzard. USU closed at 2:00 and the storm hit about 4:00 and the wind was blowing like crazy, which made it very hard to see outside. Glad we were all home safe and warm.

We went to Price for Thanksgiving. It was nice to be there for the Vea family tradition of killing pigs and making sausage. It is a three day ordeal that the family looks forward to doing every year. We haven't been to Price for Thanksgiving in 4 years. Parker thought it was really cool. Maisie, Parker, Marissa, & Zoie decided to play killing pigs. They took turns shooting each other and then falling on the ground and shaking like the pigs did. Kind of disgusting, but pretty funny at the same time. Got to love kids.

Here is a picture of Grandpa Vea. He hates getting his picture taken, but I got one when he wasn't paying attention.

Christmas is here

It is hard to believe that christmas will be here before we know it. Tomorrow my sister, mom and sister-in-laws are going on our annual shopping trip. We have a lot of fun and enjoy helping my mom get her christmas shopping done in one day. It has worked out very nice since we started doing this and we sure have a lot of fun.

Everytime we see christmas decorations Maisie keeps asking why people can't celebrate Thanksgiving and then Christmas. She is so funny. I agree let's do one holiday at a time.

This last week, Eric got a elk up Causy. The boys always have a fun time going hunting together. While he was gone, I painted our living room and hallway. I even managed to shampoo the carpets. The day he came home us girls had planned a scrapbooking day and then we found out the boys were coming home. We were a little disappointed because all our houses were a mess and we weren't prepared for them to come home. I don't know about the rest of the wives, but I like to have the house nice and clean Eric comes home. Eric said it didn't bug him, but I felt bad. I was just still in a mess from painting.  I will post pictures of my painting project as soon as I get my decorations on the wall. I am still waiting for a couple of things to come in the mail.

Halloween 2010

This halloween was a little colder than previous halloween's. Eric and I took the kids to the Bear River City trunk-or-treat. It started sprinkling half way through and I think because of the weather there weren't as many people there. Afterwards we went to Grandma & Grandpa Hendricksons for trick-or-treat and to visit for a little bit. Then we went to my parents house for soup and dirt pudding. My dad just got back from a hunting trip with a friend in Alaska, so we got to here all his stories about the bears. I am so glad he is back safe. I was so worried the whole time he was gone. Now all the guys of the family are getting ready to go hunting for elk for 10 days. They all look forward to this hunt every year. This is about the only hunt Eric goes on every year. He is yet to bring anything home, maybe this will be the lucky year.

Here are some photos from last night's halloween adventures.

Summer 2010

It is hard to believe that Summer is half over. We have been really busy. The first of July we enjoyed the Hendrickson family reunion at Lyman Lake. Me and the kids went. I think there was about 70 of the Grandpa & Grandpa Hendrickson family that came. It was really nice to see everyone. Then we came home long enough to do laundry and pack again to go camping with brother-in-law Cody. Cody & Lexi have a nice trailer that they let us stay in with them. That made it a lot easier. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them and their friends. There was probably about 50 people that camped with us. Parker ended up getting a fever Saturday night and had it all through the night. We laid in the trailer most of Sunday morning, which was kind of nice, because it ended up raining and snowing. He wouldn't eat anything all day Sunday and by Sunday night I was ready to take him to the ER. Right before I wanted to leave Eric got him to eat. He felt much better once he ate. I also started feeling sick. I had a bad sore throat and cough. It ended up lasting two weeks. I hate being sick in the summer. For the fourth, we went to Eric's friends house, Tyler. He had a BBQ and we watched the Hyrum fireworks.

Parker was suppose to have his tonsils out on July 14th, but the day before Dr. Bennion called and said he needed to cancel the surgery. The anesthesoligist didn't feel comfortable doing the surgery because of Parker's genetic disorder. I was a little disappointed, but understood his concerns. They referred us to Primary Children's. We don't have an appointment until the middle of August and then we will decide what to do.

This week, I work four days and then Eric's mom, Mary, and cousin Camille are coming to visit Thursday night. I am hoping I can talk Eric into going to Bear World on Friday and then we have the 24th of July festivities at the Bear River City park. I am planning on running the 5k. Saturday night we are going to have a BBQ with Sallie and then go to the Preston fireworks.

The kids have enjoyed playing outside with the neighbor kids. Riding their bikes, running through the sprinklers and just enjoying the outdoors. It sure is nice when the weather is nice. It's a little hot, but we at least get outside for a couple of hours a day.

Well that is a summer so far. It will be over before we know it.

Spring is Here.

I am so happy that spring is here. It has been absolutely beautiful the past few days. This weekend the kids could not get enough of being outside. Both Maisie and Parker spent hours outside jumping on the tramp, riding their bikes, and Parker playing with his tractors trying to fix his "tire". He would tell me, "Mom, I fix my tire". He is all boy.

Maisie helped me plant my starter plants for my garden. She loves to help.

I love this time of year, but soon we will be complaining of the heat. But not now, I am ready for the warmth and just enjoying the outdoors.