CLARK THE SHARK
(sorry, I should've clarified that the cousin spoken of in the last blog entry was Evangelyn, Rachelle's baby and Clark is Jodie's baby)

Here are some pictures of my sweet little nephew born May 27th at 5:45pm. He was a few weeks early and weighed 6 lbs and is 20.5 inches long. My sister Jodie did SUCH a fantastic job with a pretty hard labor and not much sleep. She amazes me!

KATIE AND RYAN HAVE A NEW COUSIN!! Yipee!!!

Derek's sister Rachelle had her baby girl on Friday at around 11:30. Her name is Evangelyn and she weighed 6 lbs 12 oz but I don't remember how long. I haven't heard any details about how they're doing or what the birth was like, but we sure are excited to see pictures.

It is pretty cool to have 2 new cousins in 2 days!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JOEY,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I love that 17 year-old brother of mine. Joe is not only one of the most handsome guys I know, but he's also just about the nicest ever. He really works hard in school, knows how to have fun, is a good worker, gets along well with anyone, and is a sweet brother. My kids are lucky to have an uncle like Joey and we are so excited to go and live with him in August. Have a great day Joe - we're thinking about you!


(Oh, and as a little birthday present, Katie decided to roll over from her tummy to back just for Joey.)

UPDATE ON THE SPRINKLER PROBLEM

So a few hours after my landlord left yesterday and the sprinklers were STILL going, I noticed that there was a leak (steady stream of water) trickling down my porch stairs. (We live in a basement apartment.) There is a drain at the bottom of the stairs right near my front door so when I called my landlord back to tell him about the leak he said, "Well that drain should take care of it" and that was that. About an hour later I looked outside and realized that the drain wasn't working and I was about 1/4 of an inch away from being totally flooded. I went outside and with the help of my upstairs neighbor figured out how to turn off the water supply to our house. That still presented a problem, however, since we need the water turned on in the house to cook and all. Ila (my neighbor) was SO nice and knelt down in the murky water and pulled the drain cover off and reached inside to get all the gunk out. I never would've done that, I'm too wary of putting my hand in dark places where I don't know what I could bump into. She discovered that it was just packed with mud and couldn't get it unclogged. Next step, we got 2 buckets and started bailing water away from my door. Then I caught site of another neighbor, Spencer, and begged him for some suggestions. As he and Ila were messing with the water switches and sprinkler controls, my brother in law, Denton, called on the phone and I explained the situation to him and he told me that he'd try to come over and see if he couldn't figure something out. I KNEW Adrian would be able to do it for me, but he and Jodie were gone to their Lamaze class. Derek was still on the bus coming home from work. My visiting teachers showed up for our appointment and one went back to her house to get her Dad. Right then, Spencer managed to shut off the sprinklers and the water was STILL on to our house. What a guy! It was sure nice of SO many people to be willing to help me in my predicament.

I must be my Landlord's biggest nightmare!

We've had a leak under our kitchen sink (enough to get comments from Gina and Jodie like, "Your house smells damp") and our tub has been backed up for weeks (gross!). Our Landlord really isn't quick about fixing things, but he came over today to get me off of his back. He came in and checked out the sink and declared that we are getting a new garbage disposal because ours is trashed. It stinks SO bad under the sink, the garbage disposal has just been rotting. It has always worked just fine and has never backed up, so I was a little surprised, but I never have a problem with getting new things. That problem, check!

Then he went into the bathroom and put his little snake wire whatever in the drain to pull out a bunch of my disgusting hair and also found 2 of Ryan's bath crayons. Yes, I played dumb but felt very embarrassed about that one. He said there was also some putty or something down there (which I swear I know nothing about unless it was one of Ryan's crayons that had started to dissolve). oops!

So on his way out I casually asked him if he'd like us to do something about the lawn seeing as how the grass is getting fried from the heat and I just don't have the time to stand outside with a hose watering the grass. He showed me how to turn on the sprinklers and then couldn't turn them off again. Now he has to come over again later tonight to try and fix THAT problem, constantly running sprinklers. I'm sure he was cussing at me for even mentioning the sprinklers. At least he is responsible for the water bill and that will encourage him to come over and fix it quickly so he isn't wasting money. And now there's a chance that my lawn will look lusch and green again. (Trying to look on the bright side).

I must be his worst nightmare.

This past weekend we planned a camping trip with Denton and Joanne. We had a certain campground in mind that Derek and I had been to before. It is a place right next to the Aspen Grove Family Camp near Sundance in Provo Canyon, so when we heard the name, "Aspen Grove Campground" we knew it was the right place. When we showed up we discovered two things, it was actually called "Mt. Timpanogos Campground" and it was currently closed. We found out that the water wasn't turned on yet and the bathrooms were closed. We also couldn't drive into the actual campground, but there was a parking lot nearby with an open bathroom, and Derek was willing to trek all of our gear from our car to the campground, so we decided to camp there anyway. You wouldn't have been able to tell if we were camping for 2 days or moving across the country because our car was so packed. Derek even brought his mountain bike along to get some good use out of it.

We set up camp and ate some burgers and then promptly hit the tent. We brought the pack 'n play for Ryan to sleep in and it actually fit in our 4 man tent alongside our queen air mattress. Ryan didn't have any trouble falling asleep, never woke up in the night, and the weather was GORGEOUS - probably somewhere close to 45 or 50 degrees in the middle of the night.

The next morning we woke up and had some pancakes and eggs and bacon and then set off on a little hike to the Stuart Falls. I'm not sure what the distance was, but Denton hypothesized that it was about 2 miles with a .2 margin of error. Ryan was on Derek's back in a little backpack someone gave us. He's WAY to big for it these days and his legs are totally cramped up. Plus, it really hurts Derek's back, but at least there's a way for us to get him up the mountain. I carried Katie in my wrap and we were both sweating terribly, but at least it wasn't hurting my back at all.
Luckily we found Ryan's old hat for her so she didn't get all sunburned or anything. We made it up in about an hour and the falls were really pretty. We hiked down to the bottom where there was tons of mist blowing on us and it felt great. It was funny to be so hot but standing on a big mountain of snow. Derek took some waterfall pictures, including this strange one of Katie "flying" in front of the falls. She wasn't so impressed with the cold mist.

This one is an even better shot of her sad face.

We got back to camp exhausted and ready for lunch and then a good nap. It rained a little while the kids and I were napping, but it was a warm rain and didn't get things too wet. We were able to build a fire that evening without any trouble. We made a cobbler and just enjoyed being outdoors.
That night Ryan went to sleep fine but woke up screaming a few times in the night. I was about 10 minutes from packing up the kids and driving home and then coming back in the morning. I gave Ryan a flashlight because he was talking about spiders and then he was able to fall asleep for about 20 minutes. Once I finally was about to sleep again he hollered REALLY loud and I looked over to see him huddled in the corner of his crib clutching the flashlight. "Pider" he whispered to me. It was SO funny to see him so terrified of spiders. I promise I searched his bed for a spider and found nothing. I let him keep the flashlight on and figured I'd buy Denton some new batteries when we got back home. Things were fine after that.

The next day we didn't have many plans so I started packing up some of the things in our tent. Ryan was SO busy all over the place and so incredibly filthy. This is where he spent most of Saturday...
in the fire pit. Show us your hands Ryan.
FILTHY! Yeah, this one is pretty gross too. What a BOY!
Denton and Joanne and Derek played horseshoes while I put the kids down for a nap. Then we had a rousing game of Phase 10 which Derek beat us all in. Can I mention that for the first 3 years of our married life I consistently beat Derek in any game we played. Now all of a sudden our luck has SERIOUSLY switched. He stopped playing games with me but once school ended we've become the total gamers. We'll play cards or board games 2 or 3 times a week with either Jodie and Adrian or Denton and Joanne and I don't think I've won a single game. Derek ALWAYS beats me. Holy cow!


Anyway, after Ryan woke up we packed up our stuff and I drove us home. Derek decided to make good use of his bike and the downhill ride home. It was a great trip, one that we'll remember for a long time. Ryan keeps asking me to tell him stories about the trip so I'll remind him of what we did. Fun stuff.

Oh, and can I mention that Ryan is Mister Manners these days always saying, "Thank you Mommy" over and over. It's a VERY welcomed change - and really sweet.