Frogs......

This past weekend we went to Green River for Melon Days. I haven't been since before my kids were born so we thought it would be fun to go. In the morning we went to the parade where the kids collected waaaay too much candy then we went to the park to check out the festivities in the afternoon. Grandma didn't want to stay long so I took her home and went back to hang out with the kids. I told them each that they could pick 1 thing to buy from one of the booths. We circled the park twice looking at all the toys, hats and knick knacks. I must have missed it the first time around and now I wish to God the boys had missed it too, but what do they tell me they want..... FROGS!! Yes, this coming from a household that has absolutely NO PETS! (I don't count the horses because they are in Hanksville and I don't have to clean up after them!) Even better, this came after a time where I had promised myself that I would try to be more understanding of my kids and try to let "my boys be boys".
"It's such a good deal" they said to me.
Good deal for who?? The people who so happily scooped them into Ziploc baggies or the poor sorry suckers who just couldn't say no to their pleading children. My vote is for the boy who happily took my $20 bill.
So for the bargain price of $10 we got 2 frogs, a tiny aquarium and a 3 month supply of little brown balls that look like mouse turds to feed them.
Keep in mind that I had 2 frog loving children so this means a total of 4 frogs and 2 aquariums in my house!
In my very stern mother-like voice, I told them that if they didn't keep them clean and take care of them, I would promptly flush them all down the toilet.
On Sunday, they held them for the entire 3 hour drive home (they were still in the Ziploc's though because I did not want to transfer them until we got home.) When we got to the house, we put them in their aquarium's and gave them each a brown turd.
Tuesday was show-n-tell in Garrett's class and he begged me to bring his frog's to school for him so he could show the class. I was running late so I grabbed the little aquarium and jumped in the truck not thinking that the water would be sloshing around and come out the cracks in the top. By the time I pull up to the school I had frog water all over my console and in my cup holders and I was FREAKING out and didn't want to touch anything. I had to come home and spray it all down with 409. What a joke... but that isn't even the worst part.
Wednesday morning I went in Garrett's room and found that one of the frogs was dead!! I was actually pretty grateful that I was already down to 3 frogs in less than a week until I stopped to think about how Garrett would feel. SHIT I thought. Now I have to go buy another damn frog before he gets home and one of those scoopie things to get the dead one out! Just my luck! I went to the pet store in American Fork and bought a $2.99 frog before I realized that I had a couple other errands to run before I wanted to go home. Now I'm wondering if this frog will die if I leave it sitting in the hot truck while I am grocery shopping. Do I want to make yet another trip to the pet store today? Uh no!! So the damn frog got put in my purse in his baggie while I shopped at Walmart! Try to explain that one while you are digging for your wallet at the checkstand!
I made it home at exactly 3:40 thinking that I had beat the children home but they were extra fast that day and were already at the kitchen table doing their homework. Great! How do I hide this? I told Garrett that his frog had died and he started crying and said that he had just seen him sleeping that morning. We had both noticed that he (the dead one) seemed to have grown fur because his corpse looked very hairy all of a sudden.
"He's not sleeping Garrett, he's dead. But I bought a new one so now you have 2 again."
What a good mother.
Together we fished out the dead one, cleaned out the aquarium and put the new frog in with the old one. Yuck.
Thursday morning, I am in a hurry to get the kids to their dentist's appointment. I peek in Garrett's room to check on him and he is standing in his room in his underwear crying that the other frog now had hair on him and that he was dead too!!
This is such bullshit, I thought.
I leaned down and sure enough, the little sucker looked dead. Oh great! I tapped on the side and he moved a little. This was a good sign, but maybe he was sick because he sat in the aquarium with the other dead one all day while I figured out what to do.
"We have to separate them so he doesn't make the new frog sick" I said to Garrett.
I remembered an empty Cool Whip tub that I had thrown away the night before so I fished it out of the garbage and washed it out. I told Garrett that he had to scoop up the new frog in the net and hold his hand over it so that he didn't jump out before we got him transfered to the Cool Whip container. He tried but his hand wasn't big enough so the frog jumped out of the net and started hopping around on the counter. I couldn't even think straight, I was jumping up and down screaming and yelling at Garrett to catch it. The frog fell down in the crack between the counter and the fridge. I ran around behind the counter and kept yelling at Garrett. Luckily his skinny arms fit right in there and he was able to capture the escapee!
What a circus!! I can't believe I was so paranoid. All I could think about was this frog loose in my house touching everything!! EEEWWWW.
Needless to say, we were late to the dentist because I had to completely sanitize the entire kitchen counter.
I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of these frogs now, especially after the boys know that I can just go out and buy another one. What have I gotten myself into?

Lake Powell

In August we took an "Adult" trip to Lake Powell with some friends. I love to take the boys to the lake with us but it is nice sometimes to be able to relax and not be worried about the kids the whole time. My kids are pretty good swimmers but I don't let them take their life jackets off at all!!! I can't swim so I have always been paranoid around the water.
We picked up the house boat on Friday morning and just drove it across from the buoy to a cove. It was a great spot with a nice flat beach area perfect for our horseshoes. It was so nice to hang out with everyone and have fun. I have been to the lake for the last 3 years on the house boat and never have I dared to go off the slide yet until this trip. For a couple hours each day we played around in the water and the guys always had contests on who could jump the farthest from the top of the houseboat. One night we were all out in the water floating around we kept feeling something brush past our legs so we were getting freaked out. Everyone made it back on the houseboat except for me and Caleb. When I went to climb on something grabbed my leg and I started laughing so hard I couldnt climb up the ladder. I fell back in the water and swam away from the boat. Then Caleb went over and it grabbed his leg too and pulled him under. Come to find out, Cody had gotten in the water near the beach and swam under the houseboat and was hanging out under there to scare us. We had all thought that he was passed out for the night and weren't expecting him to be awake. We laughed about that for hours!!
We took a few "tours", which we like to call where we pack lunch and head out in the boats to cruise the lake and check things out. We stop every so often and jump in the water to cool off.
Our horseshoe tournaments are always a good time and we did that most of the day Sunday. I actually started to throw some ringers!!! Sara and I were on a roll!
At night, we all pitched in to cook dinner and then danced and sang along with the music. There was definitely a good time had by all.

Demolition Derby

A couple weeks ago we entered 2 cars into the Wayne County Demolition Derby. Dennis and the guys that work for him put them both together in just 2 weeks. They worked on them every night after work and then the rest of us pitched in and helped with all the paint a couple days before. We worked all day and night to get them finished in time. It was a lot of fun. The best part was all the stuff that we painted on the car! Most of it were digs at the NRCS for not getting the dam in Hanksville done in time. The whole town of Hanksville got involved and came to Loa to watch the Derby. We had the best and fastest pit crews there too. They were all about being serious and had every tool and extra part necessary. It was a hoot to watch them. Dennis drove the "Safety Lime Green" car which of course was sponsored by Dennis Lierd Construction and Sheldon, one of his guys, drove the "Safety Orange" car. That one was sponsored by our friends at Cody Ekker Construction. Those colors were great and so fitting for 2 cars by construction companies. Dennis' whole attire during the week is comprised of those 2 colors. Occasionally he'll throw in a white one!!
The funniest thing was that Sheldon's car lost all of its forward gears before the last race so he went out and gave 'er hell in reverse!! Towards the end, his trunk was pushed up so high that he couldn't even see where he was going anymore.
Both cars did very well however we didn't end up winning. There were some pretty tough cars from Richfield that won the whole thing. They obviously had done that before! Their cars were really indestructible... illegal almost. They didnt crunch at all! They must have had some serious reinforcement. The guys have all vowed to start earlier next year and weld the cars more solid. There just wasn't enough time to get every thing right this time. Sara and I were going to drive the cars in the Powder Puff if they made it that far but it was late and the cars were hammered. Dennis thought his was blown up but after they loaded the car they realized that he had just run out of gas!! Oh well, live and learn I guess. It was all worth it!!