We're Back!!

Hello everyone! We are finally up and running again! Our computer is working again and we are finally back in town and settled down. There has been quite a bit that has went on, but I will try to keep it semi-short (yeah right, don't count on it. My posts are always long! =) )

To start off, I got new tile in the kitchen and my awesome pantry completed!! This was quite the project but totally worth it. We had to remove brick from inside the pantry so we could add in the door to have direct access from inside the house to the garage. And by the way, removing brick is not one of my favorite things to do! Anyways, after that was accomplished Ray and I set to work chiseling up the old tile in the kitchen and and scraping up linoleum in the laundry room. When it came to put down the new tile, Trevor (our handyman) came and helped. I am so pleased with the finished project! I couldn't ask for better. Now we are trying to decide on new countertop and then we will also paint the cabinets. I can't wait!



After that project, we went to Panguitch for Pioneer Day. We stayed at Ray's aunt's cabin with all of his family. It was a fun time, crowded, but fun. While we were there we went to the parade and it was quite the show. Afterwards, Logan got brave and wanted to ride one of the horses. There was a young boy that was completely willing to give the kids a ride. Logan and Kassi decided to ride together. I was so proud of him because he has been so scared of horses that he usually just runs away. Way to go big guy!!

(We stopped at Cedar Breaks on our way to Panguitch. It was an amazing view.)

After that, we came back to St. George and Ray had to turn around and head to Provo for a week for a class and then I was going to meet him in Provo and take the truck up to Idaho. I would hang out there and then he would meet me at my parents house and then go camping for a few days. Well, Monday, the day after Ray left, I came home to see water streaming from my ceiling! Not just an occasional drip, but constant streams of water coming from two vents in the kitchen and water all over the entire kitchen. Upon further investigation, there was water also steadily coming from the Logan's doorway and the entire hallway was completely saturated with water! Not the welcome home gift you usually want, especially not when your husband is out of town! So I call Ray and he tells me to turn off the water (duh...don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place) and then he told me to call his dad who was thankfully in town. So Dave, and once again Trevor (are you sensing a pattern that Trevor helps us out a lot?), with Linda and Kristi came to help clean up the mess. We got the Shop Vacs going to suck up the water and Trevor and Dave climbed up in the attack to see what was going on. What had happened was that the water line to our fridge runs in the attic and there was a joint connecting two pipes, well, one of the pipes came off the joint and so therefore, that equals water running from my ceiling. They pulled out all of the wet insulation and we set out fans everywhere to try and dry things out. Thankfully, the mess looked worse that what it actually was. The only problem now is that our house kind of smells pretty musty and unpleasant. Not quite sure how to fix that, but we'll figure something out. Needless to say, I was a little nervous to leave town the next day for a week and a half. But Trevor willingly said that he would check on things for us while we were gone.

(Logan had to help vacuum up the water with his sunglasses on. Pretty darn cute!!)

So after that, me and the boys made it safely and without any drama up to Idaho to my parents house. A few days later Ray met us up there and my brother Trevor also came up for the weekend (he's been working in Utah doing construction before his mission). We had family pictures taken on Sunday (my family does NOT do pictures) but they went so well and everyone cooperated so well. When we get them back, I will post some. But then on Wednesday we went out camping with my parents, Caleb my brother, and my Uncle Bruce with his family. We were totally excited to go because Ray and I hadn't been out to Sawmill Canyon since we were first married. I had forgotten how beautiful it was out there. I had also forgotten how stinkin' cold it gets out there!! Holy cow, we almost froze to death at night. It didn't help that it decided to have HUGE lightning and thunder storms most of the night accompanied but unreal amounts of rain. All of that is fine and dandy unless you are sleeping in a tent that leaks at the seams!!! We were able to manage it alright and we didn't get too wet, but the poor boys got pretty cold so on the second night they both ended up in our sleeping bag. We definitely stayed warm with four people sharing a bed. Other than that, we had a blast riding on the four wheeler and just hanging out. The boys loved all of the dirt and Logan enjoyed the freezing cold creek. But oh well, as long as he had fun. But after the first night of rain, we decided to try and move our tent to see if it would help with the rain-in-the-tent situation. Chase was asleep in his bed in the tent so we just put a blanket on his bed to help keep him asleep and we put him outside next to a tree while we moved things. Just as soon as we set his bed down, there was a loud crack and we look up and a tree was falling down coming right at us!!! I yell at Ray and try to move him (the tree was closest to him) and Chase at the same time but there just wasn't time to function. Thankfully, blessedly, the tree narrowly missed Ray and Chase. Talk about shaking you up a bit. I was just so thankful that nobody was hurt and the tree didn't hit anybody's trucks or trailers. The Lord was looking down on us that day.

(The tree is the one laying off to the side of the bed. Too close for comfort!!)

Well, we decided to load up the next day, we needed to head back to St. George because Ray starts school on Monday and we were tired of freezing. We made it back down to wonderful St. George without any problems and it feels so good to be back at my own house. It was a fun vacation, but a week and a half is a long time to be gone. Hopefully, things slow down here a little bit, I'm not cut out to deal with all of this drama. It's no wonder I have to many gray hairs!!!