4-Wheelin'

After eating breakfast and loading up the van, we were onto our final adventure, before heading home.

Our family, along with Ira and Cheyenne, were the first wave of 4-wheelers.

When we arrived at "home base" we set up the bug/shade screen, put out camping chairs and table and unloaded the 4-wheelers. We passed around helmets, goggles and gloves, until everyone was outfitted. Ira gave us brief instructions on how to operate the 4-wheelers and then we were off.

There were 4 vehicles;
Ira/Cheyenne/Abree
Jason/Treyson
Me/Rylee
and Taylee on the little one.

There is a learning curve when driving a 4-wheeler. Taylee had a few "off-road" moments trying to get the hang of it, at first.

I too had an "off-road" moment when I over-corrected the steering and veered off into the meadow, instead of going up the hill. My learning was, keep the steering handles straight, even when the vehicle tips and bumps around. If you try to turn, it's way too much and you end up in tall grass and bushes, instead of going up the hill. Lesson learned.

Part way through, Taylee switched with Rylee to drive the little 4-wheeler. Rylee had been a big backseat driver on my 4-wheeler, commenting on Taylee's off-road experiences and telling me what to do. I was glad when she could experience it herself and show us how it was done.

The last stretch before getting back to "home base" was on a fairly hilly gravel road. Our speed increased and we started getting some distance between vehicles. Ira was in front, then speedy Rylee, then Jason and then Taylee and I. When I came to the top of a hill, I saw Jason stopped and Rylee off of her 4-wheeler. When asked what happened Jason said as he came up the hill, he saw Rylee's bike on it's side, with the wheels spinning in the air. Rylee couldn't quite explain the events leading up to the wheel spinning, but she was ok and was still having a blast.
I think she was probably going a little too fast for the slippery gravel road, but what do I know I'm just the slow-poke mom.

Taylee and Rylee switched once again and I got to hear "Go faster Mom!" all the way back to camp.... backseat drivers!
When we got back from our 2+ hour ride, everyone else had just arrived at camp. We gathered firewood and made a fire to roast hotdogs and s'mores for lunch.

After lunch, we said good-bye to the second wave of 4-wheelers, as they took off for their own adventure.

Jason/Becky's oldest daughter Whitney, wiped out, hitting a tree and scraping herself up good, to the tune of $800 worth of damage to the 4-wheeler. Yikes!

Jason-Jay-Ira

Awww, they love each other.

We stuck around for a little longer and played "Curses" (a VERY silly game) with those who were still at camp. Then we hit the road... homeward bound.

Thank you to the Crawfords for delicious meals, comfy bedding, good company, lots of laughs and many adventures. Love you guys!

A Hiking We Will Go!

On Monday, we decided it would be fun to take a hike to the "Wind Caves".

We each made our own sandwich wraps, slathered on sunscreen and put on our best hiking shoes then headed out. Becky (7+ months pregnant) and 3 younger ones stayed back, not knowing if a hike would be that enjoyable for them.
Nicky-Taylee-Jay-Treyson-Jason-Cheyenne-Madelyn-Marissa-Savannah-Abree-Rylee-Emilie-Me-Brayden
Our hiking group (minus Spencer).

Spencer finally decided that he WOULD hike with us, when given the choice of staying in the car and not having anything to eat or coming. He said he would rather hike, than "starve to death". :)

Here we go!

About 1/3 of the way up the mountain, we came upon some people stopped on the trail. When I listened, I knew why they had stopped... I heard loud rattling! There was a rattle snake close by and he was warning us to STAY ON THE TRAIL! It made some of our group (including me) a little nervous about continuing, but we did.

Taylee begged me to let her go see it. I begged her to leave it alone and just keep going. She was so disappointed.

Our group was divided into 3 parts most of the way; the teenagers and older kids, me with some younger kids and Jason, Jay, Nicky and the youngest kids. The first group made it to the wind cave a head of all of us. They explored without restraint.

I heard a person (not from our hiking group) say, "Did you see that boy fall? He made me nervous." I was almost certain it was Treyson they were talking about. I found Treyson and the big kid group, scaling the rocky mountain side. There was a narrow ledge that if you hugged the mountain and shuffled your feet, you could end up in another big cave. (So I was told. I was not brave enough to find out for myself.) As I was getting down to the first cave, I saw Treyson disappear around the corner on the narrow ledge. I told him to tell our group to come back and that I didn't want anyone else to go back over there. I couldn't handle the worry of someone falling. The cave had a lot of loose dirt and gravel and it was easy to slip and slide around.

And yes, he was "that boy that fell".

Looking down from the top of the wind cave.

Even when hiking she looks good. :)

Beautiful views.

Rylee-Me-Abree-Jay-Taylee-Treyson

Marissa-Jason-Cheyenne-Savannah-Madelyn-Spencer

Brayden-Jeron-Emilie-Nicky

On the way down the mountain, Treyson started running and wiped out. I yelled to him, "Treyson, are you ok?" He didn't answer right away.

"Treyson are you ok?"

When I got to him, he had scraped up his knee and elbow, but he was ok. He stuck by me after that, but that wasn't the end of him falling. By the end of the day, he had many bumps, scrapes and bruises and his legs and hands were filthy!

Later, he was talking to me about his fall. He said, "When I fell, I started going down the mountain, so I just grabbed the strongest plants I could see. When I didn't answer, did you think you lost me?"

After we all made it down the mountain, we went to a park to have lunch and then headed home.

Nicky had an awesome dinner planned... dutch oven chicken, dutch oven potatoes, cheesy veggies and homemade rootbeer. The kids were fascinated by the dry ice and just had to play in it.

Catchin' clouds.

After dinner, I pulled out some old photos of Jason, Jay and Ira in highschool. We sat around and reminisced.. listening to stories of "the good ol' days".

Jason's ACTUAL Birthday

Just because the party was over, didn't mean that I was done surprising Jason. I had a few more surprises up my sleeve.......

I told Jason I wanted to celebrate his birthday Friday night with the kids, because I had something different planned for Saturday, his ACTUAL birthday.

Cute wall quilt made/designed by my MIL. It has button-off interchangeable names for each person in our family. Isn't it fun?!

I cooked his birthday dinner request.... tater tot casserole.

Then we had him open presents from us.

I was trying to keep the evening as normal as possible, so we all got our jammies on and Jason and the kids watched some Olympics, before we had banana cream pie (another birthday request).


I started to get nervous as it got closer to 9:00pm. I had a "special delivery" set to arrive around then. At around 9:15, we heard a knock at the door. The kids rushed to answer it. (I wanted Jason to answer, but the kids were just too fast.) They opened the door and there stood Ira and Nicky Crawford. Rylee rushed over to Jason and said, "Ira and Nicky are here????"


The Crawford family had travelled from Smithfield, Utah to stay with us for the weekend and to surprise Jason for his birthday. Yay!


Jason and Ira have been good friends since high school in Alaska. Jason says they only knew each other for a short time, before they moved away from one another, but have remained friends and have kept in touch over the years. Ira's older brother Jason, is also another very good friend.


We hadn't seen the Crawford's in years, but we just picked up where we left off and started our fun weekend together. ---Nicky and I have become good friends also. We always enjoy lots and lots of good talking time, usually centered around being a mom, a wife and other commonalities we share. ---Our kids had fun together too. Rylee said, "It was nice to hang out with friends that had kids our age." (She and Brayden are only a month a part... but everyone else are different ages. It's all a matter of perception.) Taylee hung out with Brayden and Emilie. Treyson really got along with Emilie and the little boys Abree also enjoyed playing with the little boys. We all had fun being together.

We stayed up WAY too late and talked Friday night. (I loved every minute of it.)
Then Saturday, Jason worked a little in the morning, then came home to spend time with Ira, while Nicky and I went shopping. Later that evening, Ira, Nicky, Jason and I went to dinner and then a play. We saw "Footloose" put on by Starlight Mountain Theater, at the Nampa Civic Center. Jason and I had seen this play during the summer, but this time it had a new cast including our good friends Brandon and Mindi Pierce. It was entertaining and fun to see the people we knew in it. (Another member of the cast was from our old ward. She did an awesome job too.) When we got home, we celebrated more by having pie... chocolate satin and banana cream. Yum!

Sunday, the Crawfords went to sacrament meeting with us and then headed towards home. We managed to get a few photos in, right before church.

Nicky, Jarin, Brayden, Kamden, Ira & Emilie Crawford.
Jarin was NOT happy to have his picture taken that morning...but at least he was in them. :)

Jason & Ira... still good friends after all these years.

A Valentine's Day treat for the kids... and maybe a little bribery for taking pictures too.

"Can we eat them now? PLEASE!!!"

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

.....and HAPPY BIRTHDAY (again) Jason!