Lake rats!

Look at those lake rats! In our normal responsibility-shirking manner, we spent most of our free Friday nights and Saturdays at the lake this summer. We are so blessed to have a kick ass ski boat pretty much at our disposal without having had to actually buy a boat. This is the second summer Mike and Melissa have had the boat and this year Mike generously bought an older Suburban to tow with so we no longer have to take two trucks. Way to go Mike! :D

Lovin' life!

All of us girls love the lake!

Chris' newest love in life is wake surfing. After trying it once behind a friend's boat, he was sold. For his 34th bday, his parents went in with the kids and I for his own board and rope. We felt that was a good donation to the boat! Chris is now a die hard surf junkie who lives for the lake and is willing to compromise all morals just to get a pull behind a good boat. We always tease him about being a surf whore as he will have his jacket on, board in hand, ready to jump ship at any given moment to the boat with the full tanks and a good wake.

Lyss really enjoyed surfing as well. It's very low impact because you start off on the platform and never go faster than 10 or 11mph.
While surfing is his first choice, Chris still enjoys a good ride on the wakeboard!

Bjorn become our kneeboard guru this year. After one ride, he informed us that he was mostly professional and took it upon himself to instruct everyone else on how to properly ride the kneeboard!

Summertime fun

My goodness, where did summer go? It seems like we were just gearing up for a great summer of lake fun and rock crawling and now suddenly, it's the end of September! I must apologize for not updating the blog on a regular basis. Between life, kids, playing, and being preggo, I've definitely dropped the ball. Now that the weather is starting to get cooler and not every free moment is spent at the lake, I'm going to try and get caught up. I thought I'd start with some fun random moment pictures from our crazy life.


My newest salt and pepper shaker courtesy of my little brother, Seth. He collects squirrel paraphernalia for me, you see. :)


Liz, Amie, Seth, and I


Happy days in the sand

A big moment for Bjorn; with the installation of "Lola" our 3 speed transfer case in Lemon Joy, we now have super low 4 low which allows one to dump the clutch in all 4 gears and not kill LJ. We figured this was a great time to start working with Bjorn on driving a standard/rock crawling. This is his first time actually driving Lemon Joy, plus he's on an actual trail in Farmington and he did AWESOME!!

In hindsight, we may be creating a monster seeing as how starting out in a rock buggy might give one a warped perception of reality!!

Life in Lemon Joy is GOOD.

Look at those cute faces!

Rock crawling wears everyone out.

Miss Moo

Once again, rock crawling can really wear you out!

A fabulous dinner at the Hibbard home. From L to R: Bjorn, Lyss, Amie, Seth, Mike, Todd, Ryan, Michael, Marrie, and Chris.

"Stevie" Bjorn's belly button tattoo.

Miss Moo and Beaker enjoying a tea party.

Ben and Kami, some wheeling buddies from Salt Lake came for a visit and we had a fabulous time!

Here's Ben and Lyss at Piedra Falls.

Planky and I enjoying Piedra Falls as well.

A quick update

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry it's been nearly 2 months since I've done anything with this. Life has been wild and crazy at our house. For those of you who don't know, we are 5 months pregnant with #3 and we are all SO excited!! Thankfully, I'm feeling much better than I was and school is out so we are just intent on enjoying summer. Chris has work which is such a blessing. The kids are awesome as usual, just enjoying life.

Here is a quick picture of our cute Miss Moo. Just the other night she pulled out her second tooth! Gotta love that smile!

The Cimarrona/M&M Drop Service Company Motivational Run

With spring just around the corner and in hopes of having lots of work this year, we loaded up Lemon Joy and headed to Moab to meet up with the Bir Family. We've been working with Mike and Melissa for seven years now and have become very good friends. As soon as we rolled into town, it was decided that a night run up The Pickle was just what we all needed to get in the weekend grove. Unfortunately, halfway to the Pickle, Mike's Jeep decided to sever a brake line so Lemon Joy had to navigate the Pickle solo that evening.

I love the angry Chinese eyes!

Yes, she thinks she's an alien. :)

Saturday was a beautiful warm day in the desert and the plan was for the girls to drive Poison Spider Mesa while Chris and Mike rode it on their mountain bikes.

The Bir Girls

The Manly Mountain Bikers

What a life!

"Maurice, it's much more fun if you raise your arms!!"

Looking at Behind the Rocks with the La Sals in the background.

A mummified Alyssa Joy

The mummy is coming to life.....

Oh no!

And she lives!

Sarah having her first lesson at Auntie Pink's driving school

Everyone has to wear their harness!

Alyssa planted a garden on Pritchett

Pinkie and the Brain will rule the world one day with King Julian by our side!

The elusive flying Brendon

Mike playing around on Pritchett

Tempting the fates.....

And the number one reason why you shouldn't take a Razor up Pritchett!

The children's sand kingdom

Look at those cute desert Yorkies!

Ah....the finished kingdom. We were back on Pritchett about three weeks later and were able to still see some of this! Those kids could be structural sand engineers! :)

And that was our weekend of fun. With the exception of Mike's brake line issue, there wasn't any carnage which is always a huge blessing. The weather was fabulous, the company even better, and we were rock crawling. Life was good!

Who would've thought?

Eight long years ago, this showed up at our house:

What exactly is it? That was my question to Chris as well. Turns out, it was a bone stock 1972 Ford Bronco which Chris had bought for $850. It came to us pre-rolled, with a carburetted 302, 3 speed on the column, and mostly broken. Neither of the doors opened properly and the ignition was seriously jacked up as well. I thought my husband was loony, he informed me that I was looking at "a diamond in the rough". In my cranky pregnant state, I just rolled my eyes and went about my day. What Chris didn't realize at the time was that this moment was the beginning of the end and neither of us had any idea how fabulous our journey would be with this little Bronco.

Fast forward eight years to today and let me re-introduce you to our beloved Lemon Joy:

Monday night, Chris pulled her out of the garage for another test drive. I can't even begin to count how many test drives we've taken her on over the past 8 years. This particular night was both exciting and bittersweet though. This picture is of her first spin with no more stock Bronco components. The last stock part was her Dana 20 transfer case which has now been replaced with a super-de-duper 3 speed STaK. The only Bronco parts left on her are 3 mangled body panels, part of her grill, 2 frame rails, and the dash. As far as the pregnancy that was making me sicker than a dog so long ago....she is now our crazy 7 year old who always includes Lemon Joy in her prayers as a thank you to the Lord for "a Lemon Joy who rocks".

Let's compare: The new STaK versus the Dana 20

Look at that sexy beast!! I'm particularly thrilled with the purple skull shift knobs. :)

Seeing as how I'm in such a sentimental state right now thinking about our crazy journey here are some pictures to show the progression of our sweet yellow love.....

Billings Canyon in Grand Junction, Thanksgiving 2006

Silverton in the summer of 2006.....look at those pretty body panels!

Her first run up Upper Helldorado in Moab. This was the trip that took out the soft top.

A side obstacle on Rusty Nail; EJS 2007

And the destruction of the body begins....

Britney Spears, EJS 2007

These pictures were taken right before Chris ripped off all her body panels for her make-over last summer. The poor girl has been abused!

And now the newly tubed out Lemon Joy!

Coyote Canyon, fall 2008

Pritchett Canyon, New Year's weekend, 2009

And just for giggles, here's a brief list of what makes Lemon Joy amazing:

~A fuel injected 302 from an 89 Grand Marquis

~NP435 4 speed transmission

~3G Alternator from a mid 90's Mustang

~Electric fan from a Ford Taurus

~3 Speed StaK transfer case

~Full width axles from a 79 Ford F150

~Custom 4 link suspension which stretched the wheel base from 92 inches to 113 inches!!

~A wonderful winch from Chris' mom

~40" Iroks

~And most importantly, an amazing piece of old iron that has more personality than we know what to do with.....but dammit, she's cute and we love her. :)