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. :)

Up and coming author: Mr. Brendon Bolos

For English today, Mr. B needed to write a fable. Here is his fable for every one's reading entertainment. Enjoy! :)

The Wolf and The Hunter

Author: Brendon Bolos

Rated R for gore

Once upon a time there was a daddy wolf, a mommy, and a baby wolf. One day they went walking in the woods and the baby wolf ran in front of them and the mommy wolf said "don't run in front of us because there are hunters here in the woods." And right when the baby was about to turn around "kapow" the baby was stuck in a trap. And right when the baby was about to call for help, he saw the hunter. He was about 6'2" with a unibrow and a '62 Carbine rifle. Then mommy wolf and daddy wolf came around the corner and saw the hunter. Then "shazam" the daddy wolf leapt at the hunter and sank his teeth into the hunter's arm. While daddy wolf fought with the hunter, mommy wolf helped baby wolf escape from the trap. Then daddy wolf ripped a chunk of flesh off the hunter's arm. The hunter ran back to his truck screaming his lungs off while blood was gushing out of his wound. Meanwhile Mama wolf was telling baby wolf if he had learned a lesson and baby wolf said yes. Then baby wolf, mama wolf, and daddy wolf went back to their den and had human flesh for dinner.

The End

(P.S.....the lesson in this story is to obey your parents.)

A Valentine's Treat

Our usual Valentine's Day tradition is to head to the desert for a long weekend in our yellow love. This year we decided to mix things up a bit after hearing that our wheeling partners in crime, The Chadricks, weren't able to make the trek to Moab. Another minor contributing factor was the fact that Lemon Joy currently does not have a transfer case connected to her drive train. Small detail, but problematic nonetheless! Upon contemplating our options and me feeling very socially deprived from winter, it was decided that if the Chadricks wouldn't meet us in Moab, we'd just go to them! After loading up kids, dogs, and most of the house, we were off to the "Big City".



Chad and Chelsea opened their house to our crazy family and did we ever have fun! They have 3 dogs, all under 10 pounds, so between the kids and dogs, it was a madhouse! Due to none of us having a ton of money, we spent most of our time just laying low and hanging out. Chris's big treat for the trip was a comp pass to Snowbird for a day of snowboarding! Thank you Mr. McSweeney!! So Chad and Chris spent Friday on the mountain and had an absolute hoot. Chels and I took the kids out to lunch and then we did a little shopping.



Here's Lyssie holding "Izzy"






Happy Valentine's Day!!

Look at that cute boy!! He just opened his "coupon" for his new Nintendo DS. :)


After hearing rave reviews about the Aquarium in Sandy, we headed to Rumbi for lunch and then decided to check it out for our Valentine's adventure. Imagine our surprise when the first exhibit we see was......

A TIGER SALAMANDER! And this one has all 4 legs, unlike our sweet Happy. Unbeknown to us, tiger salamanders are native to Utah as well. We were all so excited to see another one since to date, Happy is our only Salamander experience. Both kids thought it was pretty cool that the Utah ones come with four legs. ;)

Lyssie Lou loved petting the manta rays

Instead of going out for dinner that night, we headed up to Magna to the home of our very good friends, the Herzog's. Amy was so sweet and had little gifts for the kids and had the house all decorated. We brought some steaks from home and had a most excellent evening enjoying each other's company and some really good food. Ames is an amazing cook and her red velvet cupcakes make my knees go weak.

Brendon, Alyssa, and Caulen

The Bronco's and the Zoggy's :)

The cutest Caulen

Sunday was a very mellow day around the house. Brendon brought his XBox so there were plenty of video games and just enjoying being together.

Chad, Lyss, and Crawl having quite the conversation

Woot for the Wii!

Chad's latest project: a tube chassis for his buggy

Look at that sexy transfer case! Chad was able to buy a Stak just like ours, so now we're transfer case buddies. Awwww......

No trip to Salt Lake would be complete without calling all our crazy friends and getting together for a schwing-ding. The lovely McSweeney's hosted the party again and it was a hoot! We hung out, grilled some pizza, and laughed until our sides hurt.

Kami, Jason, and Jacey. Jason and Jacey got married in November and this was our first time meeting her.

The Chad and Chelsinator

Lyss, Shea, Brendon, and Nash

A little Apples to Apples fun.

Alayna and Shawn, Kami and Ben, Jason and Jacey, Chels and Chad, and then me!

Miss Sophie's excitement for the trip was having 3 new friends to play with and an entirely new yard to explore. The other highlight for her was meeting "Murphy". Murphy is Chelsea's parrot and lives in the living room on the desk. Sophie was convinced that they would only be the best of friends and spent quite a lot of time barking at Murphy to come out and play.

Just can't get any closer!

Watching Murphy from afar

Hmmmm...maybe a different angle will work!


And there is a brief synopsis of our weekend in the city! It was such a treat to get out of town for a bit and hang out with everyone. Both Chris and I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful friends rock crawling, but the only down side is that they all live 8 hours away! Thankfully since we are self employed and home school, it isn't a big deal to make the trek. Plus, it's always a treat to go to the city and go shopping and get fresh Krispy Kremes!! :)