Sword Lake Hike

Yesterday I was able to go on one of my monthly wilderness outtings that I take with some friends. It's a group we got together that consists of women who love to get out in nature. We started it in August and each month we decide on where we want to go. In August we went backpacking up in the Sierra, in September we went rock climbing at Sardine Meadows and this month we took a hike up to Sword Lake. The day started out so cold and it felt good to get moving. The expert of the group said it was a 3 1/2 mile hike but it took us three hours to get in. My pedomiter on my phone said it was 6.3 miles. I'm going with what my phone says because we walked faster than 1 mph. So, all around it turned out to be about a 12 mile day hike. It was so fun and pretty up there. My good friend Lindsey was able to go up and it was so fun reliving some fun times we had way before we had husbands and kids. There we are in the first pic. The hike was long but it was worth it, I love getting up in the mountains and walking around the beautiful earth that Heavenly Father has created for us.

I hate dinner

I don't know about you, but I HATE DINNER. Not eating it mind you, but making it. Now that I work nights I just hate the thought of getting it ready before I leave at 4:30. What are some yummy/easy recipes that your families love? I usually have hamburger and chicken in my freezer plus other random things. Give em to me ladies, and men if you have em.

Old Men

Today, I took the two youngest to Costco to do a bit of shopping and pick up a prescription. While waiting for them to fill it, I sat down in the chairs they offer. Maren was wandering around and touching everything like usual until an older gentleman sat down next to us. She immediately came over and started chatting with the guy. He asked what her age was and she said three. He then proceeded to tell her that was the same age as the little girl who was killed by her mom over on the East Coast! I'm thinking, "why are you telling her this?" That was it, all he said but I could tell it bothered Maren. He was the type of guy who couldn't hear very well and also didn't make much sense to a three year old. She kept asking him why her mom would do that, and I'm sure he'd already forgotten he even said it because he'd answer her in totally random ways. I had to explain that the mom must have had mental problems. I didn't want to say she was sick because heaven forbid I ever get sick, then she'd think I was going to do her in. She also asked again how old the little girl was and he then let us know how old his "little" 50 year old girl was. I just thought it was funny that he would bring that up, not thinking that here was a child who would hear about her mommy killing her and he'd think nothing of it. That is the sort of story that brings nightmares to kids. I just hope she's forgotten all about it. Some old men should not be allowed out without parental supervision.

Time flies

It's been a while since I've last posted, five and a half months to be exact. We still have Cooper, and now he's huge. Still a good dog and he's getting to where we can work more with him. Big dogs are destructive too, that's one thing I've never experienced since only having little ones. My kids are back in school. They were doing an after school program and would come home after I'd left for work, or right before I would leave. So I never saw them but it was nice knowing we didn't have to be home so early and had time before they got home. But, not seeing them was getting to me and we decided to pull them out, especially since we were both home during the day. Now, they are home, and we can work on homework together. Joshua turned 8 in August so not only was he baptized but he can also do Cub Scouts. I was put in as his Wolf leader and asked to also stay in Young Womens, I couldn't imagine leaving. I'm loving the scouting program, so far I've done two days and hopefully the kids are loving it. I have it tomorrow and need to figure out what I'm doing. Also, my computer bit the dust a few months back and I'm using a borrowed computer. None of my pictures are on this one so I can't post any new ones. It's so basic that I can't even download stuff off the internet without encountering a problem. But hey, it's a computer in my house, that's all that matters. We will hopefully have money to get a new one soon.Well, I just wanted to update a little, I'm tired and need to sleep. See ya.

I got a dog!

So, I got a dog. This picture was taken the day we brought him home. I've been busy working with him and doing other things since my kids are out of school. He's a German Shorthaired Pointer and we named him Cooper. I actually got him from the pound which was an awesome deal. I'd been watching their website and saw a litter of these guys come in and a week later they were fixed and ready for adoption. There were nine of them available and by time I got there there were only five left. He was the last male so I grabbed the paper on him and went and paid for him before I could change my mind. It is so rare for them to have a litter of purebred puppies that I knew I'd kick myself if I hadn't gotten him. I'm so glad too, he's such a good dog. He has his moments where he's super hyper and gets after the kids. But for the most part he's very smart and a very obedient dog. He learned how to sit the first day I had him.

Dogs

Wow, this is really fun, I can get used to this. Okay, so, I've been obsessed about dogs lately, for some reason I want another dog. It's all I can think about. I've wanted another one for some time now, and Ryan finally said I can get another one. I've been researching for about a year on the kind I want and have it narrowed down to four or five breeds. I either want: a border collie, an austrailian shepherd, golden retriever, lab (chocolate, yellow, black, that's the order I'd prefer) or a german shepherd. I really want a bigger dog, and one that will fetch and actually do cool dog things. My dog can't fetch, hates water and is too small to do most things with. We love her though and she's a good walking companion. She's also 11 and is crabby at times, but since we've had her fixed, she's now a lap dog, before she hated being on laps. So, dogs, I've been visiting the pound almost daily, people who go in think I work there and ask me all kinds of questions. I almost got a golden retriever but backed out before the guy could bring the dog over. I just can't believe how expensive they are. Purebred with papers and OHA- $600+, purebred with papers 400+, purebred 200+ and any other 100+. When did dogs become so expensive? So, for now, I'm just gonna look and stay obsessed cause that's just too much to pay for a dog. The pound is the only way to go for now and until I find that one dog that speaks to me, I'm gonna have to keep to waiting and looking.

Test

I want to see how I stick pics on here, so I'm gonna experiment. Oh, that seems easy enough. I saw the little tab. Kay, so, anyway, we'll see if it comes up. This is Riley, at her first birthday that we celebrated 3 weeks later. I'm bad about my kids birthdays, I think it stems from being the 4th of six kids. Birthdays weren't a big deal growing up and so I've kinda transfered that to my kids. But, I try and atleast do something for their first, and have a cool cake made. Atleast I did that for the last two. Okay, I'm betarted, I think I did the pictures right. There they are. The first one is of Maren, and the cake I made for her and the second is Riley. My sister-in-law, Sarah, made Maren's and pretty much made Riley's too (I attempted to "help" but she ended up fixing most of my parts.) Wow, babbling is fun, and it's really easy to do in these blogs. Anyway, i just started this post so I could figure out how to add images and video. So, enough of that, now that I know it's so easy, I'll be doing it ALL the time, watch out world!