Fish Springs

Last weekend we drove to a place sort of near by called Fish Springs. Aaron heard about a man who lived out there and had a bull frog ranch with the purpose of supplying the restaurants in Utah with frog legs. However, he learned that there wasn't much of a demand for frog legs in Utah, so he split, leaving the bull frogs behind. So we were hoping to spot some bull frogs. We also just wanted to see the springs.
It was a long drive out on the dirt road, and on the way we came to a pony express historical site. So we stopped and wandered around and chased a few tiny lizards.
The monument.

The old, reconstructed, post.

When we finally arrived at Fish Springs we stopped at a little picnic area and had lunch. There were some pretty cool trees there. They looked like mutant aspens or something. So we had a bit of fun climbing around in them.

Well, most of us had fun most of the time. :)

We went to a little pond thing and fed the tiny fishies.

Then we got back in the car and drove around all the ponds, that are apparently fed by a saline spring. We saw some cool birds, like Blue Herons, Pelicans, and other long legged, wading, birds that I don't remember the name of.

While driving down a dirt road, Aaron suddenly slammed the breaks and skidded to a halt, jumped out of the car and dashed after some unseen prey. Well, unseen to me. But, knowing Aaron like I do, I also dashed out of the car, camera in hand and took a some pictures of Aaron bouncing around in the dirt and scrub.

Then I saw the frog.

Then I helped Aaron catch the frog.

Then we showed Morgan.

Then we released the frog and went on our way. On the way home we stopped at some Geode beds. I don't know if we were expecting to find geodes just lying all over the ground or what, but the hot desert that we found was rather disappointing. There were lots of holes dug into the grounds, and some stones that had circular impressions in them, indicating that other stones had been removed from them, but we left with nothing more than we arrived with. Except for, perhaps, a layer of dirt.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Aaron's birthday was about a week ago. He turned 31! I made his dinner of choice - roast and potatoes - and then we had presents. Yay presents!

A hoody.

His favorite present has to be this Ps3 game, Little Big Planet. We've played it a little bit almost everyday since he got it, and it is seriously fun. That was from me and my parents.

Later on, we had cake and ice cream. Now. I know that I am no cake decorator. I have no talent in that area, like many of you readers do. Plus, his cake was German Chocolate. The frosting for that isn't exactly easy to make look smooth. So, knowing my lack of ability in cake decorating, I embraced my lack-of-talent and made a masterpiece of a different sort. I bought those little sugar letters to spell out Happy Birthday Aaron. But I had so many left! I couldn't just NOT use them! So I used them all. I made as many words as I could and decorated the perimeter. Morgan stuck on the extra numbers and letters that were unusable in the word department. Then we had our finished product. I must say, I am very pleased with it's outcome. :)

The number 1 candle was left over from Morgan's first birthday. I bought the three for Aaron's birthday, and because I can use it for Morgan's third b-day in just a couple of months.

Right. Aaron blew out all the candles with one breath. So impressive.

When we started decorating the cake, Morgan started getting very excited. I told him it was his Daddy's birthday and he really seemed to understand and kept talking about it happily. When Aaron got home from work, Morgan ran from the kitchen to the front door and exclaimed, "Daddy's Happy Birthday!" Or something akin to that.

Morgan enjoying the birthday dinner and fantasizing about cake and ice cream.

Lesson Learned

Our last day of camping, Shelly said the blessing for breakfast. In it, she asked that we would have safety on our drive home.
Later that day we got everything packed up into the three different cars, including children. When my dad was satisfied that everything was ready to go and was ready for a trip departure prayer he noted that kids were already buckled in to different cars. So, since Shelly had already asked for a blessing of safety, it was rationalized that we would be fine.
On the way down the mountain, driving along the narrow, windy, dirt, road that followed the reservoir, (mountain on one side, small cliff and water on the other) we were safe. Even when a truck came careening irresponsibly around a corner, pretty much driving all three of our cars into the mountain, we were safe.
But then, when we were on a straight highway, the Expedition, which was carrying the huge ATV trailer, mysteriously got a flat tire. No nails or punctures or anything were found.

Poor Tire

Go, Jason! Go!

Two cars of our caravan stopped to fix the tire, but Chris and his family went on ahead.
After getting the tire changed and filled with air, we went on our way, but stopped at a gas station a little further on to check on a strange sound. Everything checked out, so off we went. But Jason, who drove my Dad's little Kia, which has never had problems before, couldn't start the car. He had to push start it. It worked, thankfully.

Pretty soon we got a call from Chris. He was at the Boise Stage stop with a flat tire of his own!

Normally when we go on trips where we drive for a long time we have a prayer just as we are leaving. We always ask for blessings of safety and that the cars will work well and have no problems or incidents. This time we didn't have that prayer and we can clearly see the repercussions! We actually finally did have a prayer for that purpose AFTER all these things occurred, and we got home without further problem.
But we WERE blessed with safety, so, yay!

More camping pics

Because they all have to do something if one of them is going to do it, here are the three buddies in jogging stroller for two.

These kids were on an errand. Their errand? To bang their sticks on the tree trunk, of course.

Morgan loves animals. He was tentative around Sadie, (she's a big dog!) but loved her anyway.
The kiddos couldn't get enough rides.

Mmm, yes. Morgan is wading in the freezing creek water while it was cold enough outside to wear a jacket. :) We didn't have much heat the last couple days of camping. But he wanted to play in the water!

Log Wars

The first day of our camping trip, my three younger brothers were sent to gather firewood on the four wheelers. Casey came back with a huge log, which we turned into a bench. (He claims that this was his intension all along, but who knows?) :)

Cute kids utelizing the bench. P.s. That isn't snow, but ash from the fire.

But extra seating was not what we used it for initially. We introduced the whole, "I'm the King of the Castle" game into our camp life. The game is simple and familiar. Two people stand on the log and push each other. Grabbing is against the rules. The last one standing is the winner.

Here I am besting my two youngest brothers. :)

Most of the log wars occurred before Chris and his family arrived, so when he did, Jason had to challenge his untested brother. The problem was, I was sitting on the log eating my lunch. I was there first! Ah well. Let the games commence!

I'm ready for my close-up

This post I dedicate to Morgan. Thanks for bringing a smile to your mommy's face every day! Here's why:

Four Wheeling while camping

While we were up in Idaho, Morgan and I went camping with my family. So much fun! We found this place near Anderson Ranch Reservoir, which is pretty much in Mountain Home. Who knew there was anything pretty and foresty in Mountain Home? It was a great spot with lots of ATV trails, which was great considering we brought 4.

We got there Wednesday and stayed till Saturday. It was my parents, the three youngest boys still at home, Shelly, (Jason's GF) and then a day later my older bro Chris and his family came up. Morgan was much happier when his cousins arrived and we didn't hear as much of the "Let's go home, mommy" complaint.

On Thursday we went on a nice ride. All who were at camp went, which meant that each ATV had two people aboard, but it was still quite fun. I sent Morgan with Grandpa. On the back of my Dad's machine there is a bit of a backrest for a second rider. Look at the series of photos of Morgan with Grandpa.

The ride started like this.

Then Morgan started to slouch a little. Not long after that Morgan was laying down comfortably. He even put the brim of his hat over his face to protect from the sun and dust. Once while we stopped briefly, we lifted the hat to peak at him and he was sleeping! How do you fall asleep on a four wheeler?
Jason and Shelly.

Mom and Cameron.

Casey and I were on another, but I didn't really get a picture of it.

We found some beautiful views on this ride.

Morgan is so adventurous. Look at him go!

I thought it was cute when Morgan, Kaien and Emmy all hopped aboard their own ATV and took to the imaginary trails.