Mommy and Jeff

I visited some ladies in my ward today. I got to meet some really cool women. Our last visit was to a sister who just had a new baby girl. This sister also has three other girls at home, totaling four. Yep...four girls.

I had a conversation with one of the girls while I was there. She just made me giggle. This is how it went.

Little One: My name is Lily.
Me: What is your sister's name?
Little One: My sister's name is Hazel. My mom's name is Mommy. My dad's name is Jeff.

He he he...Mommy and Jeff. Sound good to me!

THE Coolest Lady

In the LDS church we have something called visiting teaching. We are assigned with another woman to visit other sisters in the church. The woman that I am assigned to visit teach with is Nesta Provo. She is a very kind and generous woman who just moved here from Illinois. She grew up in Europe and came to America, I think, in her twenties or thirties. She is so fun!

Nesta called me today to talk about how we could help one of our sisters that we visit. Nesta is a very observant woman that makes me feel like a million bucks. While on the phone, I asked her what type of person I came across as. She said that when she first met me, she thought that I was just a friendly Idaho girl, but the more that she got to know me she realized that I was sincere and really cared about people.

It may seem kind of weird that I am writing this on my blog, maybe even a little showy, but that is not my purpose. I, just like everyone else, am special! It is just nice to be reminded of it every once in a while.

Ice Cream Potatoes?

I am an Idaho Farm girl. I was raised in the middle of nowhere. My Dad grows potatoes. Why is it that I had never heard of an ice cream potato until August 22, 2009 at the age of twenty-six? (GASP) I know. I was quite startled myself when I heard of them.

Stephen's Aunt and Uncle and cousins came up from Utah this weekend to visit and we all went out for Ice Cream Potatoes. When I first saw what they looked like, I was kind of grossed out. They seriously looked like potatoes with whip cream and oreos on top. Don't you worry...it wasn't a real potato and it was glorious! Vanilla ice cream dipped in cocoa, smothered in chocolate syrup, and topped with whipped cream and oreos. Your mouth is watering. I can tell.

Anyone who wants to come visit Stephen and Kami we will take you out for Ice Cream Potatoes. Then YOU can experience heaven for yourself.

I am retarded...

For those of you who know me, you understand my lack of attentiveness when it comes to my car keys. I lose them quiet often. I never know where they are. I randomly leave them in places and can never find them. The most recent hiding places that my keys have found has been in my husband's car. I don't know why, but I leave them in there. I always realize where the keys are just as I walk out the door to get in my car...urgh!

On Monday, I had a huge list of things that I had to do. I made sure I was up early and got things done in the house and then walked out the door at 10:00am to go grocery shopping...without my car keys! AAAHHHHH!!!! I had done it again! Stephen's car was at work in Eagle, with my keys. Stephen also has my spare key. I know, dumb me.

I had to go grocery shopping that day because I was out of everything. Seriously my fridge was empty. It's kind of depressing to open your fridge and find that it is full of nothing. Therefore, I really had to go to the grocery store.

I tried to get a hold of my sister, Krystal, to borrow her car. She didn't answer and so I assumed that she was at work. I figured that her work wasn't too far from my house, so I got on my bike and rode through traffic. I surpassed numerous hills, bits of traffic here and there, and finally made it to Complex Care Hospital (Krystal's work). Luckily for me, she was there. I borrowed her car, stuffed my bike in the back, and drove to Stephen's work to get my keys. By the time I got to Container and Packaging (Stephen's work), my bike tire was completely flat. Blah! I now had another problem.

I called a friend to come pick me up at Complex. Two hours later I began my day...gggrrrrrr. I really learned my lesson the hard way this time. Your only set of spare keys should not be on your husbands key chain.

Silver City

Most everything that we have done this summer has had something to do with camping. So here we go again...another camping post. This time, however, we got to go with new people! We went to the Owyhee Mountains with two families in our ward: The Hoopes family and the Wilkins family. We really had a blast.

A few months ago, the Hoopes family was telling us about Silver City. They said that it was a really cool mining town that they would camp near. So, we set up a trip and off we went. The Hoopes brought up their four-wheelers and we had a blast!

On Friday night we went to bed pretty late. We stayed up talking around the campfire and just laughing at...whatever we were talking about. Austin, Jodi and Kelly Hoopes' son, fell asleep in his camping chair. Let me give you a visual image of how he fell asleep. Jodi says he does this all of the time, but I just cracked up. He was sitting in his camping chair Indian style (according to Jodi it is really know as 'criss cross applesauce'), wrapped in a blanket, with his head laying on the little armrest. He was a pretzel.

My goal in camping this weekend was to get Dan and Kelli Wilkins' little girl, Halle, to like me. She ignored me basically the whole time. Halle is almost two and has the most adorable little pigtails ever. I poked her, took her binky, tickled her, played with her shirt, messed up her hair, AND SHE STILL IGNORED ME!!! This little girl has the endurance of Job. The only way I got her to notice me was to pull out my knock off Winco goldfish crackers, which I call my cheesy sea creatures. Halle instantly liked me and wanted to be my friend, or in other words, she wanted my crackers. Hey, I didn't care how I got her to notice me. I would have sold out for a lot less...she is hilarious.

On Saturday morning we went into Silver City. According to Kelly and Jodi, that place is always deserted, but it was packed! There were people everywhere! It really was the coolest little mining town. They had an old hotel that you could stay at, and an old school house with the bell and everything! They also had a renovated church house with a bell. They held church services there four times a year. The only way that we could see the church was to look through a peep hole. It really was beautiful! We joked that there was actually a picture behind the peep hole rather than the actual church because it looked so pristine and untouched.

Silver City was a party. Thanks to all who came with us!

Softball...Krystal...Dirt...Little Boys

I am officially a substitute. Not the normal substitute that you would think, however. When you think of a substitute, you think of teaching...right? Last night I was a substitute husband for Krystal. Her husband went golfing with my husband. I guess Shane figured that if I was going to Krystal's softball game, he could get away with skipping.

Well...the game was kind of boring...no offense Krys!...but the coach wouldn't let her play! I might have, maybe a little bit, made her two minutes late to the game, therefore allowing the coach to not let her play. Good thing I brought my book!

I sat in my camping chair about three feet away from the metal fence surrounding the softball field, just in case Krystal got a little play time. While reading my book, I noticed in the corner of my eye a group of little kids running around. A little boy about four or five years old broke off from the group to run and stand directly in front of me. He picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in the air and watched as it fell down in a huge cloud of dust and said, "WHOA!?! IT LOOKS LIKE A BOMB!!!!!"

This little boy proceeded to cover me in a thick layer of dirt from his leftover 'dirt bombs'. Figuring that wasn't enough, he ran behind me and started to fling dirt from his hands while turning as fast as he could in a circle.

Those darn little boys.

Do little boys' mothers just pretend not to own them when they are being little miscreants?

Sometimes I wish I could shoot laser beams from my eyeballs.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!

I am a nerd. I know that I am a nerd. I love AM talk radio. I love the news. I love history. I actually read the newspaper. I have been telling myself that I was going to buy books to help me learn more about the government and history...well...I FINALLY DID IT!!! They came in the mail today. I spent all of my fun money to buy them, but it was worth it. So, if anyone wants any recommendations, here they are:

1. The 5000 Year Leap
By Cleon Skousen

2. The Forgotten Man
By Amity Shlaes

3. Glenn Beck's Common Sense
By Glenn Beck

4. The Real George Washington
By Jay Perry, Andrew Allison, & Cleon Skousen

Utah Travelers

We've driven to Utah twice in the last week and a half. Stephen's grandfather passed away and we went to the funeral on Friday. There were a lot of people there and a lot of really good things were said about him. I didn't know Stephen's grandpa very well, but what I did know of him was good. He always gave me such wonderful compliments. Who doesn't like to hear nice things about them?

Stephen held his grandpa in the highest esteem. He told me once that his grandpa taught him how to treat a wife. Stephen said that his grandpa always took such good care of his grandma. Thank heavens for great men.

While at the luncheon after the funeral, I was sitting next to Brandon and Mitzi's family. My niece, Beth, was across from me. While walking around with her at the funeral, she noticed a lady standing outside of the gym. She said, "That lady is dlajfeljkdfi."

At least I didn't hear the last word she said and so asked, "What did you say?"

So Beth said a little louder, "THAT LADY IS MEAN!"

Trying to block Beth from the lady and quickly escort her to the gym, I glanced at the woman. She had once of those perma-frowns on her face. I'm guessing that is what Beth was meaning. I asked her what she was talking about and Beth said that she looked mean. I told her that the lady was probably sad because of the funeral.

I ushered her to the center of the gym with her family and giggled to myself. I love little kids. They are so funny and so honest.

Call Family Vacation 2009

For a whole entire year, Dad has been trying to get everyone excited to go on a 14 mile backpacking trip. Let's just say that some were a little more excited than others. Stephen and I ended up having to cut the trip short because of some other family emergency that came up, but all that we did hike was really fun.

Stephen is our official artist. Almost every time that we go to my parents house, he draws a picture on the chalkboard. I couldn't help taking a picture of the most recent blackboard drawing. (Sorry for those of you who are not in on the inside joke.)

On Wednesday night we camped at the base of the mountain in the Palisades. That night we roasted cheese dogs. It really doesn't sound that appetizing...and they looked really gross when the cheese was dripping all over the fire as it sprouted out of the hot dogs...but they were pretty good! Of course, after the hot dogs we had to have s'mores.

The next morning we were all "up and at 'em" and 7am. Krystal was not very happy about that one. We started up the mountain to the lower palisade lake at 9am. Because Stephen and I were only going to the first lake and then hiking out, we carried day packs. That sure made the hike a lot easier. I always let everyone else around me know just how "heavy" my pack was in comparison to theirs. Check it out! My pack was bajillions of times lighter than my pack we had going to goat lake.

Here we are getting all excited to go! Look at Emmett (he's the dog). Mom and Dad decided that he was going to pull his weight as well, so he got his own pack with his food in it. He wasn't too happy to have it on in the beginning and was a little squirmy, but he got used to it.

Here's his close up. I'm really sad that I didn't get a picture of what was actually on the bag. It was Krystal's old backpack when she was little. It had a picture of Winnie the Pooh on it! We all joked that we should have bought a special Hello Kitty bag for him. He looks so sad!

These are the pictures that we took on the way up.

Here is an official looking family picture. The camera is on a timer, on a rock, right next to the stream. I can totally see Emmett jumping down and pushing that thing into the stream...but we still have a camera. We're good!

Here's Stephen making it look like he was climbing a mountain. He tried. The trail was actually relatively flat. It made the hiking a lot easier.

This is Krystal, Shane, and Karli on top of a big rock ahead of us. We were waiting for Dad and Kelsey to fall to their deaths while rock climbing a shear cliff. Dad sometimes thinks that he is still eighteen. Mom was yelling at them the whole time...

Here is Krystal and Shane doing yoga. Aren't you supposed to be tied in a pretzel when you do yoga? I see no pretzels.

At this point, Stephen and I left the group to trudge back down the hill. We hiked up five miles in five hours, and then Stephen and I hiked back down in two hours. I was so proud of us!

Thanks for the fun time y'all! I hear, however, that we missed Kory building a raft...and Krystal and Shane catching amazing trout...that would've been fun!...

P.S. Sorry Buster (Charisse's dog)...I didn't get any pictures of her climbing the mountain. She was there...I promise.