Injuries

Buddy's injury from camping...

We have NO clue what is wrong with the top of his foot, but he won't stop licking it and so we've had to "discourage" him from licking it and this is what I came up with:

My injury from jogging...

While in Kansas I was visiting with Jill, my friend from high school, about how disappointed I am in myself by how much weight I have gained over the last few years. My sedentary job and lifestyle is catching up with me. Jill ran a marathon last spring and is training for a triathlon. She motivated me to take up running again (I ran in high school). Shortly after we got home I got online and found a 10 week training program on Runner's World. Dave is going to train with me. We began the program a few weeks ago just by walking every evening (or at least several times a week). This week on Monday we started with our jog/walk program. I decided that I needed new running shoes, but that was a big mistake! I always forget that I have to break shoes in before they are comfortable on my feet. This is the injury I got from our first day of training (the picture is kind of gross):

Videos

These are videos of the kids enjoying a slip-n-slide at the 4th of July festivities

Emery

Nate

Jackson

Reunion Time

The laundry is done, the dishes are clean, the camping supplies are put away and now it is time to blog about our recent adventure up to Dayton, ID for the Dorothy & Steven Kent Family Reunion!

There are 8 children in Dave's immediate family and last summer they decided that it would be nice to get them all together again since it had been awhile. It was decided that the reunion would be scheduled for July '08. Last week we were able to participate in this event. It was good to see most of Dave's siblings again although 2 of them were unable to attend and they were truly missed!!

July 3rd

• Left Provo at noon with our pop-up trailer and two dogs in tow
• Arrived in Dayton, ID (Dave's hometown) around 3ish
• Dave played some silage racquetball with his brother, Zach, and Zach's friend, Mike
• Left Dayton at 4 to begin trek up to Dayton Basin where we would be camping for the next three days
• Realized our V6 truck wasn't going to be able to pull an 1800 lb trailer up the steep, rocky, dirt mountain roads to the basin
• Tried taking trailer to Maple Grove (an area closer to Dayton) instead
• Realized the road was too narrow with too many rocks and also no place to really put the trailer when we got there
• Unhooked trailer and manually turned it around in the road to then turn the truck around and re-hookup the trailer to tow it back down the mountain
• Borrowed Zach's friend's, Mike, V8 truck and hauled the trailer up to the basin
• Arrived at campsite as the sun was setting
• Stayed up really late watching the fire and chatting with Zach and his wife, Tammy

July 4th

• Ate a yummy breakfast prepared by Tammy and Dave
• Drove up to Look Out Point so we could call some of the other Kents to see what the plan was for the day (that is where there is cell phone service in that canyon)
• Learned that Dave's sister, Ann, and her family were on their way to the campsite to drop off their camping supplies before heading back in to Dayton for the city's 4th of July festivities
• Drove to Dayton to spend time with Dave's siblings at the Dayton City Celebration
  
• Hung out with our nieces and nephews while they participated in all of the fun activities for children
• Waited in a dust bowl at the base of the canyon for a few hours (the original plan was to have dinner with everyone there, but the plans changed and we were the last informed that dinner had been moved up to our campsite instead)
• Drove to the campsite for dinner
• Enjoyed spending time with Dave's parents, his siblings and their families
• Dave's sister, Ann, and her family, Dave's brother, Jake, and his family, Dave's mother, Dorothy, and Dave's step-brother, Zach, joined the four of us who were already there in camping overnight
  

July 5th

• Ate a yummy breakfast prepared by Dave, Ann and Tammy
• Our nieces and nephews did some exploring and playing in the nearby creek
• Drove to Dayton to help Dave's father, Steven, tear down an old barn on his property that was causing his insurance to rise
• Tore the barn down with no injuries
• Had a yummy BBQ
• Some of the adults sat around and visited and some of the adults played Rodeo Golf while the children entertained themselves and concocted a water balloon attack
• Drove back up to campsite
• Tried to take a shower in a 6' natural waterfall, but the water was entirely too cold
• Relaxed and had good conversation around the campfire

July 6th

• Packed up campsite and drove home
  

Having our anti-social dogs around new people, lots of children and other dogs created some stress for me, but overall we both had a good time. It was good to see Dave's brother from Alaska, Dan, and his family. We wish that Dave's sister, Shannon, and her family from So. Carolina could have made it, but we understand that it is very expensive to travel these days. We also missed having Dave's brother, Mark, around for the activities as well. You guys were missed!!

Below are pictures I took throughout the weekend. You have been warned that there are lots of them to look at!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Flashback Friday

With all of the talk and concern about gas prices these days, I decided to dedicate my Flashback Friday post to another time in my married life when we as a country were worried about our fuel situation. This was a newspaper headline during this time.

"Fuel Shortage Fears; Motorists find fistfights, long lines at gas stations after terrorist attacks"

The article continues on by saying..

"New York - In the hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, gas stations around the United States jacked up their prices and some motorists scuffled in long lines at the pumps.

In Topeka, Kan., a 78-year-old man was arrested for aggravated assault after he allegedly pulled a pellet gun on another customer and bumped his car into another to get to a pump.

'We got an e-mail from Oklahoma City saying gas was over $6 a gallon,' Ronda Hunter said while waiting in line for gas in western Topeka."

This type of news even scared the quiet little town of Halstead, KS that my mom lives in. I couldn't believe how panicked we became as a society and actually found some comic relief in the situation. I guess when you are young things don't bother you as much as they do when you get older...not sure??

I drove to the two gas stations in Halstead to take pictures of the chaos! Typically when you drive by these two tiny gas stations you find the place completely empty except for the one person working behind the counter. On this particular day in the fall of 2001 I found a completely different sight.

It is a little hard to tell from the pictures, but there are cars lined up and wrapped around the block just waiting in line to get gas!

Trip to Kansas

I finally found some time to create a slide show with my millions of pictures I took while we were in Kansas. We had a GREAT time as you can see from the pictures! We are glad we could see so many of you and also find time to work on my mom's bathroom. It was a wonderful trip!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Update

I just wanted to post a few pictures to update you all on our progress with my mom's bathroom. I'll post more "work" photos later and also some photos we took during our "fun" time.

Where the step up is was a wall before my uncle took it out. It increased her bathroom size tremendously! The other room used to be her "office." She couldn't ever sell this house with that room listed as a bedroom because it has no closet, so they decided to just combine it with the bathroom. Good decision!

In the big open space (in front of the window) my mom is going to put in an old claw foot tub. She got one cheap at a garage sale and is having it refinished. It will take 6-8 weeks to finish.

My uncle Fred is coming back sometime this summer to help my mom put in the sink. She has a picture of the sink she wants to create for her bathroom and he is looking for a piece of walnut to finish that project.

On the left of this picture is a second door into the bathroom and down the hall. When my uncle Fred comes back he is going to close that door off and put a linen closet in its place.

I'm very pleased with what we were able to accomplish on my mother's bathroom in two weeks! There is still a lot to do, but I feel like we made HUGE progress on it.