Husband Tag

Okay I think this is the first tag that I have ever done, but I couldn't resist this one!

What is your husband's first name? Lamon
How long have you been married? For about 5 years and 5 months
How long did you date? Lamon tries to claim 3 or 4 months, but it was less than 2 months before we got engaged. We were engaged for about 5 months though.
How old is he? 28
Who eats more sweets? No contest on this one. That would be me!
Who said "I love you" first? Lamon
Who is taller? Lamon, but not by much. Our kids have no chance.Who is a better singer? I think we are both pretty dang good. Lamon can sing higher than me though which is quite intimidating!! My family thought Lamon was pretty mellow until he randomly joined me as a soprano in the Hallelujah chorus one year, hitting all the high notes.
Who is smarter? Lamon would say me, but I would say him. I am book smart, but Lamon can fix just about anything. And when it comes to common sense . . . I am not quite there!
Who does the laundry? I do. Sometimes Lamon will move the folded clothes from the bed to the floor though when he wants to sleep . . . :)
Who pays the bills? I do. Lamon works hard making all the money though. I just manage it.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Lamon
Does he snore? Sometimes Lamon snores. When he is stressed though he talks in his sleep! I have some great stories about that! One time Lamon woke up and was kissing his pillow. I nudged him and said, "That better be me your kissing!" :)
What does he do in his spare time? When Lamon has spare time he wants to work on something! He likes to work on the yard, wash the car, and build things. He has made us all sorts of beautiful log furniture. I love that Lamon is so handy! I certainly am not.
Who mows the lawn? Lamon
What is his favorite candy bar? I don't know, but he was pretty mad at me on Halloween when I ate all of the Heath bars out of our ginormous bag of candy.
Who cooks dinner? Both. Lamon is the better cook hands down. He has mastered the Dutch oven and is great at grilling things. I always need a recipe, but Lamon just goes to town. He's fabulous!
Who drives? Lamon. I'm just proud of myself for driving period! I've come a long ways since Mr. Roland kicked me out of the car and told me I was the worst driver he had seen in 27 years!
Who is the first to say they are wrong? Definitely me. Only because I'm the only one who is ever wrong. I don't know how that happens but . . . I am pretty quick at admitting it!
Who kissed who first? Lamon tried one night but missed and hit the side of my lip! I went inside and told everyone, "I think Lamon just tried to kiss me, but I'm not sure." Lamon thought I dodged it and the next time we went out Lamon asked me if I was waiting until the alter to kiss. I assured him that I wasn't, and that night he asked me if he could kiss me and he did. It was my first kiss, and I was really bad at it!
Who asked who out first? Lamon asked me out first to a BYU football game.
Who wears the pants? Lamon and I always joke about how we both run around without our pants on most of the time. We both wish one of us would just buck up and wear them! We are pretty relaxed people.
Does he say he loves you everyday? He surely does.

Lamon is the most amazing husband. I think anyone who knows me would agree that I can't stop talking about how wonderful he is. I am always randomly telling Lamon how wonderful he is. He is always like, "Mary you are so cheesy!" But I never want him or anyone to ever doubt that I love his guts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I tag Katie, Kate, and Brenda.

Trains, Trains, Trains!

I don't know if everyone was aware of this or not, but my children are obsessed with trains. If you were to come to our house on any given day you would be able to hear the sweet sound of my childrens voices mimicking train sounds as they play. Okay, so not so much sweet sounds, but more like high pitched squeaky voices and a lot of crashing sounds. That accompanied with an overusage of the word, "No" and "Mine!" They play well together for a good portion of the day but it seems like I've been opening a lot of cupboards in our kitchen lately with a forgotten train at the top from an earlier squabble where Mom or Dad had to confiscate the item of contention. It's amazing how many trains we have here!
Anyway, we have been trying to help the boys behavior by rewarding them with pennies when they are good and the kids have been really getting into it. Drew wanted to get a Thomas the Train movie with his money and he saved up his pennies. We found one for a dollar at Savers and he was super excited. It was fun to see him give the cashier his money that he had saved.
Well, Drew woke up the other day and said, "Mom, I want to ride on a train." I said that I thought that would be fun, and maybe someday we would do that. He kept asking me when we would ride on a train though, and for Family Night on Monday we did. Well, we sort of did anyway. We rode on the Trax train in Salt Lake. The kids didn't know the difference. They were loving every minute of it. Maybe sometime when we are really rich we will take them on a real train.

Oh the Weather "Inside" is Frightful

When we first moved into the house we experienced some problems with our Air Conditioner, and we lived without air conditioning for awhile. But we set up a few fans throughout the house, and we made it through. And thanks to our cousin Bill we got the Air Conditioner up and running. We were relieved. We were so happy to have our air conditioner we didn't really think to check if our heater was in working condition. Well, it's been getting pretty cold in the early morning hours and the kids have been waking up in the middle of the night really cold in the last week, but the past two or three days have been bitterly cold and . . . no heat was coming from our heater! On Saturday the kids and I were at home and the thermostat read just below 60 degrees or something like that, and that was in the middle of the day. We dressed the kids in multiple layers of clothing, and at night put two pairs of pajamas on them including a warm sleeper. So last night after having a lovely dinner at my sister Karyns house, Lamon lit the fireplace, and set up two space heaters and Drew Hayden and Lamon slept downstairs. When we woke up this morning it was like ice in the house, and the ground was covered with snow outside! We went to church, and when we got home the house was about mid 50's. We bundled up downstairs, and finally Lamon with his manly brains figured things out. He switched the thermostat and there was Heat! I am absolutely sure now that after we have experienced lack of heat and airconditioning, that I would definitly rather have heat!!!! I am so thankful for a Heater!! Although it was pretty fun to hang out next to the fire with the kids!

I'm still a Klutz!!

Warning:This story is lengthy for no reason at all, and has no significant point . . . so unless you just love my stories, you do not have to read it!

Okay, so just in case anyone has any doubts that I am still a Klutz and prone to having accidents . . . I thought I would just share a few of my recent incidents to absolve those doubts.

I am totally a geak. I know this and those closest to me know this, but sometimes I hope that I can hide it from the world if at all possible. I was hoping that I would not do anything embarrassing here at our new residence until we were really established and had friends and all that . . . but that didn't so much happen. Ever since we have moved in we have been being very frugal. We decided that it would be a great idea to ride our bikes wherever it was feesible to ride them. So Lamon has been riding to work just about every day. We also bought a bike seat and we have the Chariot trailer for the kids, so I have been riding around with the kids. And I just will tell you that I look completely geaking with a helmet on and this is the truth. The first time I went to my parents house on my bike, my family could not stop laughing at me when they saw me. But I finally convinced myself that I was really cool for being active and riding my bike despite my geaking looking helmet. But just imagine me looking geaky in my helmet when I tell you these stories.

So a couple weeks ago we were riding to the Macks house, and on the way back Ada was screaming her gutz out so Lamon said, "Mary, why don't you take Ada and Hayden (they were in the trailer) and hurry home so you can feed her." I was like, "Okay." So off I went. Just imagine me in my geaky helmet riding home with a wailing baby . . . this alone would attract some attention . . . but it gets better. So I was approaching the intersection nearest to my home, and I have learned from Lamon that you are not supposed to get in the right turning lane on a bike and I didn't so much want to go in the driving lane (that would've made me feel stupid) So I rode up onto the sidewalk instead in order to cross at the crosswalk. But on the corner of the side walk (where the pole is with the crosswalk button thing) there is a cement circle at the bottom of the pole and the sidewalk sort of narrows right there. When I attempted to round that corner the Chariot got stuck up on that cement part and the Chariot stopped but me and my bike didn't. Me and the bike flipped right over, and it looked hilarious I promise. It was quite embarrassing, I got up on my bike and wondered all the way home how many people I knew were in that intersection at that moment . . . but then I just kept repeating to myself, "Everyone wants to be me!" And that made me feel a lot better. Anyhow, it was awesome. Wish you could have been there.
About a week later, I decided to take the kids over to the Macks house. . . and I got them all situated with Drew on the bike seat and Ada and Hayden in the trailer. And I don't know if anyone has tried to pull a trailer and balance a kid on their bike but it is pretty hard! I got going down the street, and everytime I got on and off the sidewalk I was just praying the I wouldn't fall! When I came to the intersection I was suppose to turn on I needed to turn right, and there was no way in my mind I could manage this without falling so for some idiotic reason I just kept going straight. I don't know what I was really thinking, but here I was taking a trip southbound on State Street for no apparent reason. I was too scared to turn right on my bike so I went past the intersection that took me to the Macks and just kept on going. Perhaps Heavenly Father knew that eventually I would end up in Springville or Spanish Fork or something since I had no plans to ever make a turn on my bike so He intervined I believe on my behalf and we got a flat tire. So somewhere at a tire store on St. Street Me in my geaky helmet and my kids all sat there until my Brother and Lamons Dad came and got us and loaded our bikes in a big trailer and took us to the Macks. Oh I love to be me. I will never run out of stories! In fact here is my last one, and it doesn't involve a bike at all.
At my house we have two sets of stairs. Me and stairs don't get along all of the time, but I haven't really had any incidents for years until the other day. At the very top of the stairs I somehow missed a step or something I don't really know but I tumbled . . . well not really tumbled I sort of flew and just landed on the bottom step. Lamon was downstairs watching television and I was waiting for him to run over to see if I was okay . . . but he just sat there. Finally I sort of laughed a little . . . and suddenly Lamon just let loose. He laughed so hard. I couldn't believe it! How mean! I was telling Liz about my accident a couple days later, and she couldn't believe that Lamon could be so mean. Then later that day I managed to fall down those same stairs, and you know what? Liz did the same thing as Lamon. Only I think she laughed longer and harder! I cannot evoke anything but laughter out of people! I get injured and people laugh at me! Anyway, I'm done! I warned everyone that this would be long. So I do not even feel a bit sorry if you are still reading, and are wondering why you have wasted your time!

Our Junior Ranger Cowboy Drew

I had to save the best for last. This is something that I am sure I will remember for a long time. While at Frying Pan Flats each day Grandma (Jane) Mack set up Grandma's Store for the kids. Throughout the day the kids could earn pennies from their parents doing good deeds and helping etc. and at the end of the day they could give these pennies to Grandpa to buy little things like coloring books, toys, and vhs movies from Grandma's store. Well Drew really got into this. He was super stoked about all the treasures he purchased from Grandmas store. Well, on the day that we went to Capitol Reef Lamon took the boys in to the Visitors Center so that we could get our traditional magnet for our fridge (we try to get one where ever we go). When they came out they got into the car and for the whole drive to the little Nature Center Drew kept talking about getting something at the store. I assumed he was rattling on about Grandma's store, but when we stopped at the Nature Center and got out of the car out popped two keychains from his pockets. He said, "Look at what I got at the store Mom?" I was just like, "Oh boy . . . " I then went on to explain to him that we couldn't take things from the store without paying for them. We made Drew go back to the Visitor's Center to give them back. He waited patiently in line and then handed the keychains to the clerk and said, "I didn't actually pay for these." Then the employee said, "Thank you Drew. Here, come with me Drew. I have something for you." He then pulled out a Junior Ranger Badge and handed it to Drew and said, "This is for being Honest!" Drew was Stoked. When he got outside he said, "I got this for being "Spanished!" We laughed at that. But he now knows after some explaining what being "Honest" means. He was so proud of that Junior Ranger Badge, he wore it for the rest of the vacation along with his white sailor hat, and kept saying, "I'm a cowboy!" So their you go. Drew is our Junior Ranger Cowboy fully equipped with a badge and a sailor/cowboy hat!

Gooseberry

After our little reunion with the Spencer F. Mack Family we went directly to the big Mack reunion. It was so fun. I love Lamon's family. I spend a lot of time wondering how in the world I married into such an amazing family! It was so fun to listen to them talk about past reunions and all of their memories. It made me want to carry on the tradition, and always make the effort to keep family ties strong!


Here is a little video of one of my favorite parts of the trip. This is a game the Macks have been playing at reunions for years and years. It's called Sorry to Passe? Anyhow, here it is:

Fish Lake

Of course one of the days we had to spend at Fish Lake! We split our time relaxing on the shore reading, or going out on the Kayaks. Spencer was the only one who caught a fish. It was a nice big 16 incher.

Lamon was so cute though. When we were rowing back to shore after our turn on the Kayak, Lamon got this cute look on his face and he said, "I've got an idea!" He said, "I think I know something the kids can do that will be fun!"
So when we got back, he rounded up the kids and had them walk with him down the shore line. He then preceded to help the children build a raft out of logs! The kids loved it! Lamon pulled them around the lake on it, and even little Mack, who up to that point was not enjoying himself too much, had an absolute blast!!

Capitol Reef

One of the days (Saturday) we went to Capitol Reef. It was a lot of fun. We did a little hike, and somehow in it's duration all of the children ended up on our shoulders!

While at Capitol Reef we also went to a little Nature play place with the kids. They had a lot of fun there too.
Here are all of the pics from our day at Capitol Reef:

Dirt Dirt Dirt

The best part about camping is by far the dirt. All of the children were constantly dirty. They were so cute. How can kids go camping and not be covered in dirt? Dirt is so fun! Throwing it, kicking it,tripping in it, eating it, rolling around in it, sleeping on it, putting it in dump trucks, getting it on your hands and then wiping it on your face . . . the possibilities are endless. I told Lamon that I wanted a picture where all of us adults smeared dirt all over our faces. I thought it would be funny, but he looked at me like I was a psycho woman. I can't help it if I'm fun!

Things I learned at Kanarraville Falls

1. Don't believe the online map. Even though it says that you can drive up to the trailhead . . . you really can't! You have to hike about .6 miles to the trailhead, which is quite an added climb seeing that the trail takes 4 hours. But that's O.K. because we are all tough!


2. I am tough! I carried Miss plump Ada ( along with all the water) almost the entire time!



3. Lamon is tougher.






4. Drew takes the prize! He is the toughest of us all! Our little Drew boy is such a good hiker. He hiked the whole hike (more than 5 hours worth) without complaining, and insisting on doing everything himself. He is so awesome!




5. Hayden may be a lightweight, but he still gets heavy when you have to carry him for hours and hours on your shoulders . . . and . . . he does not like long hikes much . . .






6. Kanarraville is my new favorite hike! It is soooo beautiful, and we had so much fun. We loved it!

Camping in Snow Canyon

We decided on the spur of the moment on Monday that it was time for Ada to have her first camping experience. We have wanted to go camping for awhile, and so by golly we went! It was so much fun. We have lived here for 4 years and still haven't camped at Snow Canyon. So we went and it was a blast. The kids . . . okay and I . . . played on the rocks and in the sand, we cooked some tinfoil dinners, and roasted marshmallows. It was perfect. The kids slept great, and the only incident we had was when Drew woke up at 4:30 after wetting his sleeping bag. But don't worry as prepared as Lamon and I are we remembered to bring an extra pair of pajamas! We forgot an extra pair of underwear unfortunately . . . but hey, we are improving!The boys slept great though, and Ada slept from 10:00 until 7:30 this morning! It was great! We love camping! And we are so glad the kids do too!

Pleasant Vacation?!!!

Amy and Broc came down about a week ago and stayed with us. I'm sure they were planning on having a nice pleasant visit here in the sunshine. There were plans of fishing, of basking in the sun at Sand Hollow while the children played in the water . . . we were going to go out on our new kayak . . . but . . . it didn't quite turn out that way. For one thing the wind was howling so bad there would be no fishing, but worse than that certain events would occur that would keep us all from enjoying any of our planned activities. It was all due to three little mischievious boys ranging in height from about two to three feet tall. Drew has a little buddy next door whom he is always playing with. Drew is always running into Jamin's house and if they are not over there then they are over here. Sometimes there is not a lot of communication going on between us parents, it's just almost understood that if they are not here than they are over there and vice versa. Well, I think we will be a little more aware from now on. Lamon was watching the boys, and Jamin came over to see if the boys could play. Permission granted, Lamon assumed that Kelly was out watching them. Well, Kelly on the other hand assumed that we were watching them. But what really happened was no one was watching them and they decided to have a lot of fun. Soon Drew came in and said, "Dad Dad, we did it, we filled it all the way to the top." Lamon knew almost instantly what Drew was talking about. Someone had ran over a sewage pipe in our front yard recently, and it left a big hole in the top of it. Well, the boys decided it would be a blast to fill the pipe up with rocks, which they did. Well, they clogged it pretty good, and after finding out that a plumber would charge us to have a backhoe come in to dig up our driveway and work on it, Lamon decided to use the shop vacuum to try to suck out all the rocks. It was a pretty dirty job, and he got as many rocks out as he could see six feet down, but the water was still backing up which meant that the clog was even further down the pipe underground somewhere. So the job was about to get a little bit longer, harder, and dirtier. Broc and Lamon decided that instead of having a back hoe come to dig a hole in our yard, they would dig it instead, and then they would saw open the pipe and see if they could get the remaining rocks out. Well even though the boys were both going to dig up the hole, somehow it ended up being the superhuman Broc who pretty much dug the entire hole himself. Soon after the hole was completed and the pipes exposed, the boys discovered that the clog was located clear underground in the middle of the road somewhere. Seeing that I am a female and don't know anything about how to fix things, I don't really know what all happened from the time the hole was dug until the whole ordeal was over, but there was a lot of men looking at the pipes or looking at the road, scratching their heads and doing a lot of man thinking. And somehow with all that man thinking and the gracious help of a plumber who lived next door to Nate, by late evening the problem was solved and the sawed open pipe was replaced. The oblivious kids all had an absolute blast playing in the "poopy" dirt while all of this was going on. We are just grateful for Broc and everyone who helped out because it saved us thousands of dollars we have come to find out. And after helping Lamon in the morning shovel the dirt back into the hole, I am absolutely assured that Broc really does not feel pain at all. I am quite positive. My back was killing me after a few shovels worth of dirt!!! Needless to say, I am sure that Broc and Amy have had some more pleasant vacations in their lifetime. We did at least get to go on a fun drive to Baker's Reservoir, do some Geocaching, and go to Kolob Canyon . . . all of which I was completely wussy and stayed in the car the entire time, pretending like I was doing it for Ada's sake, but really I couldn't stand the bitterly cold wind!! How am I ever going to survive when we move back up North?!!! I'm pathetic.

Finally a date!!!!!!

Last week Lamon and I went on a date finally after quite a drout. We are always going on fun adventures as a family, but we don't get out by ourselves very often. Well last week we had a fabulous adventure. We convinced Nate and Kendra to watch our kids so that we could have a date, and we told them that we would be back in two hours. Well we decided we wanted to go find Elephant Arch, a hike that we had been itching to do for quite some time.
It's a hike that not a ton of people know about, and it is kind of a hunt to find the arch; but we brought our GPS and set off. We were kind of short on time because it took us a while get to the trailhead through random dirt roads since the main road was blocked by a gate. So we had to make a decision about what we wanted to do. Should we just goof around and hike a little bit, or should we try to move fast and find the arch? We decided to find the arch! It was such a fun hike! We were moving as fast as we could, and not far into the hike we ran into sand. Most of the hike was in sand, which is not the easiest terrain to move quickly in. But Lamon, being the wonderful husband that he is, walked in front of me while I treaded in his semi-packed footprints. We got to a point in the hike where a few washes met together, and we were supposed to find a trail that was headed northwest out of the wash. We thought we found the trail and started hiking, but it wasn't the right trail, and we ended up hiking over a little bit of a mountain in order to get back on the trail. That didn't help our time. But we found the arch and it was sooooo cool. The hike was a blast, and Ada had fun too. Ada gets to join Mommy and Daddy on any dates for a while. It was her first real hike, and she was looking up at us smiling the whole time, until she got hungry and I had to nurse her while trying to walk quickly in the sand. That was quite interesting I assure you! We didn't quite make it back in two hours, and I think Kendra and Nate pretty much wanted our hides, but if they knew the efforts we made to make it back!! :) Just kidding. It was definitly a blast!!!