A grand adventure

This fall, the opportunity came along for Chris to put in a bid on a big telephone job in Kansas. The contractor he was bidding under lives in Moab and wanted Chris to ride with him to a pre-bid meeting in Stockton. Instead of Chris just driving to Moab to hop in with Howie, I saw this as on opportune moment to sneak off to Salt Lake City to hang out with all our rock crawling friends. We drove into Moab late on a Tuesday night and Chris left the following morning for Kansas. The kids and I drove into Salt Lake and began our adventure. After some mini golf and a visit to Summit Machine, we were off to IKEA. My very first time, by the way!


We stayed in Magna with our really good friends the Herzog's. They were so kind to open their home to us and on Thursday, we went into downtown and saw where Shane works. Amy, Caulen, Shane, the kids, and I then walked to the Gateway which is this killer outdoor mall they have. It was a beautiful day!


This is a kick ass restaurant that Shane introduced me too. It's an island grill and their pork sandwich with sweet potato fries is to die for!! Plus, they have fry sauce which is just delightful!

In the middle of the square are these fountains. Every half hour there is a 5 minute show set to music. It was really fun! Of course, my kids, being the country bumpkins they are, immediately ran into the water as soon as the music was over!

They got soaked!!

Riding the "alligator" as Alyssa used to say when she was little.

This Porsche was parked in Shane's parking garage and Brendon told me he's going to have a car just like that one of these days!

The Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point was absolutely fabulous! We spent Friday afternoon there and had a blast! If you're every in SLC, go check it out!

Lou-Lou and her drawing

A little excavating.....

Chris joined us in Salt Lake on Friday night and took the kids to a museum on Saturday so I could take advantage of the Sandy Mall.

That girl LOVES horses!

Miss Sophie Divine the great traveling Yorkie!!


The highlight of the entire trip for me was the BBQ we went to on Saturday night. We have made so many amazing friends off of our rock crawling forum, most of whom live in the Salt Lake area and we all got together on Saturday. Shawn and Alayna hosted it and man, did we ever have a good time! It was so great all being together at once and just hanging out.

Ben and Kami

That is crazy ass Shawn. He is not right, but I love that guy.

Shawn, Alayna, me, Lory, and Jeremy (Hickey)

The great Cody McKendrick whom Brendon absolutely adores!

The ever stoic Carl with the very non-stoic Chris

Shawn and Alayna's kids are some of the coolest kids we know. Shay is 10 and Nash is 8 and they all play so well together. I really wish we lived closer, they are such good buddies.

That would be Amy Herzog, Miss Sophie's new Mama. They absolutely adore each other and if Shane was okay with it, I think Sophie would've stayed in Magna!

As a favor to Howie, Chris got to drive "Betsy" the boom truck from Dodge City, Kansas all the way to Price Utah! No AC, radio, or any other creature comforts, but everyone survived and now Chris can say he has driven a boom truck across 2 1/2 states!!

And this was the "loaner" truck that Chris got to bring to Salt Lake. It was hilarious, he barely knew what to do with all of MaKenzie after driving this and Betsy for a few days! :)

And there is the short version of our trip to Salt Lake City. It was terribly hard to come home, we love everyone there so much. But it was a fabulous trip and Pagosa will always be home......they all just need to move here! ;)

Random thoughts from Brendon

This morning Brendon informed me that when he gets a dog, he's going to name him "Root Canal". You would never know he was our child now would you??? :)

Work day

One of the many joys of homeschooling is the freedom to enjoy whatever the day may bring. One lovely September day, Chris had a telephone job way up in Lost Valley of the San Juans. I packed us a lunch, Chris made room for us in Henry, and off we went. Lost Valley is about an hour up in the mountains and it is so pretty up there!



The money making rig:
Henry towing Horatio on Bindi the trailer :)




Our view from the customer's front lawn where we enjoyed our picnic.














Another view from the job site.

It's these kinds of days that I envy Chris getting to work outside!













Getting started: First Chris digs a start pit for the plow blade which basically looks like a big steel crochet hook. He sinks the plow and then runs the cable down the shoe. The plow vibrates along and feeds the cable into the ground at about 12 inches.











One of the huge advantages of plowing in cable is the lack of an open ditch. Here is the rip line from the machine. Yes, there's telephone cable in there!!











While I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, in the 6 years we've owned Horatio, this is the first time I've plowed in cable with him! I've driven him around and used the backhoe, but this is my first cable plowing experience right here! I put in 70 feet of cable. WOOT! :)










The helpers filling in the hole where Chris pulled the plow out of the ground. Don't you love Brendon's hat? He's had that since he was born!














Roxanna Banana inspecting the rip line after Chris ran it over with the machine. If it wasn't for Horatio's tracks, you'd never know we'd been there!

The job barely took an hour to complete, but we all enjoyed the afternoon out. After rolling back into town and dropping off Horatio at the yard, we went out for ice cream. The kids feel that they "need" that after working with Daddy.

Lovin' on Lemon Joy

As much as I try to deny it, fall is coming so we took the opportunity last weekend to run down to Aztec, New Mexico and get in a little rock crawling at the Rock Garden. The weather was absolutely perfect and we were with the Bridges family whom we absolutely love. The wheeling kicked ass, the company was awesome, Lemon Joy was on her best behaviour, and best of all, we didn't break!! Yeehaw! :)

Dropping into "The Butt Scratcher"I love that wicked flex!

I know I'm biased, but that's wickedly cool right there!That is an amazing girl right there!
Brendon kicking it in a Toyota
A little known fact is that Ted is a hard core rock crawler!
The fearless rock crawling Yorkies
Jack always gets the girls
That truck always impresses me

She really is the best thing ever


I got to ride with some cute boys!
Yes, it really is that steep!!

School Time!

We started school on Tuesday, September 2nd after rolling in from Moab about 2:00 that morning. Needless to say, it was a later start that day, but start we did. I am now the proud teacher of a 4th grader and a 1st grader. WOOT! :)

The puppies figured it would be wise to catch up on their naps while the kids are doing school!

One heck of a Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend is always the start of our wheeling year in Moab so it's always welcomed with much anticipation! This year was no different, in fact, we were even more eager than usual seeing as we hadn't been rock crawling since mid June AND have a new, improved Lemon Joy. Chris had spent most of his August nights working on the girl and finally, Friday morning dawned and it was time to put her on the trailer. After multiple errands, a visit to the Chiropractor, and random work stuff, we rolled into beautiful Moab about dinner time. We went straight to the Slickrock Campground to meet up with our friends, Jack and Kendra Bridges. They had dinner waiting for us which was awesome! Right as we were cleaning up, some friends from Salt Lake, Chad and Chelsea, pulled up with their Jeep in tow. As the sun was setting on the red rocks, we jetted out to Poison Spider Mesa for a night run. It was phenomenal!! We made it to the top of the Wedgie in no time and all hopped out to enjoy the evening. It was insanely warm and there were a million stars out that night. After hanging out for a bit enjoying each other's company, we began the trek back down to the trucks. About 3/4 of a mile from the trailer, there was an awkward "ka-chunk" sound from Lemon Joy's undercarriage. We thought the transfer case had just fallen out of gear. Well, we were wrong. Turns out that ka-chunking was the transfer case actually falling off. Thank goodness for skid-plates! To make a very long story short, we were broken before even checking into our hotel. Thankfully Jack's Toyota stepped up to the challenge of pulling LJ's big ole bahookie off the trail so we got back to the trailers and went to check in and unpack. Saturday was a beautiful day which Chris spent 12 hours of laying on our trailer in 95 degree weather dropping our transfer case, fixing a funky idler shaft and then putting the whole mess back together again. Whilst under there, it was discovered we had a bad heim joint as well so he had to replace that since it's integral to our suspension system. The day ended with Lemon Joy all back together and fully operational, I know, my husband is amazing! Chris was so filthy by this point, he actually washed his entire body and head with liquid Ajax that evening. That's just awkward right there.

Now, for those of you who are wondering if we realize how crazy we are, the answer is yes! I read once that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. Well, we're not totally insane as we expect the breakage, in fact, we even anticipate it so that means we're only mostly insane. And now comes the inevitable question: Why? So many people have asked me that and ironically enough, I don't have a pat answer for you. And I've come to embrace that maybe that's part of the addiction. What I do know is this; rock crawling is what reminds me that I'm alive and man, do I love it!

After the very stressful Saturday, it was decided that Sunday was my day. I was going to drive Coyote Canyon! Now, Coyote is only about a quarter mile long, but it's a nasty boulder filled ravine that thrives on breaking rigs. I'd decided some time ago that I would really love a chance with Coyote, but I was very intimidated by the difficulty of the trail. I made the "mistake" of telling a friend my aspirations and in not so many words, he called me a chicken shit and said just go do it. So I did!

Here we are at the entrance. I must admit to being a little freaked out here. What was amazing though, is once I started driving, I wasn't afraid anymore. And that felt AWESOME!!



Scorpion aka Jack

I love that sweet face! :)

Lemon Joy and Chad's Jeep

Look at that mad Toyota flex!!

I love when she gets all twisted up like that!

Chloe Belle, Alyssa Joy, and Sophie Divine

Believe it or not, Lemon Joy didn't even feel tippy there hence the reason I'm smiling! I absolutely adore our 4 link suspension. Seriously the best thing EVER!

Chad's Jeep is bad ass!!

The last obstacle of Coyote. Ironically enough, this is the first trail that I have ever driven in it's entirety. I still can't believe I did it, it was truly amazing! Now the only problem is, who gets to drive it next time??? Yes, Chris is worried....and well he should be! ;)

The rain moved in just as we came off of Coyote. After sitting for a bit and debating our options, we headed back into town to re-group. The Bridges went shopping at the Maverick, and we snuck off to Milt's with Chad and Chelsea for some celebratory Root Beer Whips and fries. So freakin' delicious!! By this point it was about 5:00 so we decided to finish our day with Hell's Revenge.

The girls at the top of Hell's Gate

I love this picture

Dropping into Mickey's Hot Tub.

Look at those cute boys!! And Miss Sophie

Monday came too quickly as it always does. Somehow I pinched a nerve in my back late in the day on Sunday. I was in quite a bit of pain on Monday and since everyone was heading home, we decided a nice jaunt up Bull Canyon was just the ticket. Alyssa Joy had been asking to drive so she drove all the way in up the wash. And then Brendon piloted Miss LJ back out.

Playing on the great sand hill

Miss Alyssa's parking job at our lunch spot

And that would be my crazy husband

My fearless companion

And there you have it: our zany, but wickedly fun Labor Day weekend!

Crazy Mr. B

Brendon Joshua loves soccer and this will be his 6th year playing in the rec league. Every summer, we have an MLS camp that comes to Pagosa and does a week long camp. Brendon loves it and always looks forward to it. There are always different games they play and one of the fun things they do is "Wacky Wednesday". On Wacky Wednesday you can dress up however you like and the wackiest costume wins. This year, Brendon had the crazy idea of dressing up like a girl! He came up with this all on his own and put his entire outfit together, including asking me to do his hair.

Here's the best part: He won!! :)