Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving! A wonderful time of year to eat some really good food and have a long weekend in the desert. As per our normal tradition, we went to Chris' parents house for a wonderful meal with trailer and Lemon Joy in tow. After eating way too much, laughing till our sides hurt, and just enjoying every one's company, we loaded up two kids, two yorkies, and some excellent leftovers and headed towards Moab in a snowstorm. Thankfully, the roads weren't terrible, in fact, it only took us an hour longer than normal. After unpacking what seemed like our entire house, Chris tarped Lemon Joy in the rain and we all went to bed praying for sunshine. We woke up to clouds, but no more rain! YeeHaw!!



We headed out to the Gemini Bridges parking lot and met up with some friends from Salt Lake: the CarlPlus Family, Chadrick and Chelsea, and Mr. Officially Awesome himself, Cody (who happens to be Brendon's idol). :) With the clouds breaking up and the sun peeking out, off we rallied to Rusty Nail.

My "winter wheeling" look. Notice all the mud? That's what 40 inch tires do with mud puddles. Also, the towel on my lap is because our harnesses were soaked from the drive in the night before!

Miss Addison, Carl and Mandy's 2 year old

Carson, Carl and Mandy's 4 year old who is an absolute hoot!


The ever fashionable rock crawling Yorkie: Roxanna Kyndall

Another downside to Moab mud, is that it doesn't like to clean out of your tires.

My two favorite girls right there!!

Miss Moo and Ted

I hate the obstacle called "No Left Turn" so the kids and I always walk Rusty Nail. It took the rigs awhile to catch up with us, so B and I took that opportunity to take a nap in the warm desert sunshine.

Ted used her time for some tree climbing.

Slick Rock Punks baby!!

No, I'm not really that fat, I'm just warm! :)

Day Two: Area BFE and it's still muddy

Look at those tires. It's hard to find any gription when one's lugs are full of slimy mud.

Lyssie and her lizard friend on LockJaw

It was a beautiful day!

This is Carl and his nearly stock 4-Runner. Now for those of you who know what elitist jerks we are when it comes to rock crawling, you're probably wondering why we're out with a nearly stock rig. Well, Carl was a competitor for years and has built a bunch of buggies. This is his family rig and he makes that little Toyota do amazing things! Plus, Carl is just hilarious!

Awwww, my first time on Helldorado's GateKeeper!

My uber-enthusiastic co-pilot

Do you like Brendon's "safe" place for his gum?

Chadrick is such a poser!! :p

Chad on the hateful V Crack on Green Day. He was unable to recover from this position so he got strapped up from here.

Now, call me crazy, but I was pretty sure I knew the line on the V Crack. This may be a good time to mention that this particular obstacle has kicked Chris' bahookie numerous times. In fact, it was exactly one year ago on this day, that he got LJ so horrifically stuck in the crack, it took us TWO hours to extract her.

Here's Lemon Joy up to her normal shenanigans. She loves falling into the crack.

Cody is an excellent spotter and is actually the one who spotted Chris into oblivion last Thanksgiving!

I had Chris take off the hood because every time she would roll onto her passenger side, the fender would mash into the hood.

I was SOOOOO close!

Okay, so maybe not that close....

And she nails the line!!

Yes, I'm clapping for myself here. I still can't believe I made that!

Roxy, the fearless co-pilot

Sunday dawned bright and sunny again. The weather really was fabulous all weekend, with the daytime highs being around 55 degrees! You cannot ask for better weather in November. Carl and Mandy broke a longfield on Saturday so they headed for home first thing Sunday morning. Cody and his crew were taking the scenic, dirt road tour back to Salt Lake, so it was down to us and the Chad's. Back out to BFE we went and got Chad on Britney Spears. He nailed the first two obstacles, but the third wall is nearly impassable. In fact, we don't know anyone who has driven it. Chad gave it a noble effort, but between the mud and cool air, ole Britney wasn't going down without a fight.

Chris is a very trusting fellow!

Such a valiant effort!! Next time......

When the sun went behind the clouds, Sophie got cold!

Alyssa's lean-to for her and Ted, in case we didn't make if off of Britney!

Look! It's a two-headed Yorkie!

And here is my carnage for the weekend! Well, I actually broke a u joint on the rear driveshaft, but this was much more traumatic! I was trying to slide my front end over this rock to line myself up. What I didn't see was a hateful little stump there that just took my tire right off the bead.

Looks painful, doesn't it?

With a little high-lift jack magic and our cheap-o air compresser, Chris was able to re-seat the bead and we were back in business in under an hour. After a glorious night run out in BFE, we headed to Zax's for dinner and were home by 1:00 that morning!

I was asked why we always go to Moab for Thanksgiving. It's really quite simple actually. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all that we're thankful for: our family, health, an old, hand-me-down Ford that is loved beyond all reason, and good friends......and what better way to celebrate than being together doing what we love the most?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Rocktober Fest 2008

While Moab is delicious anytime of year, mid October is one of our favorite times to escape to the desert and play a weekend away in the warm sunshine. Well, that and it's also one of our very good friend's birthday and what better way to celebrate than beating your junk together? :)

The lovely Pritchett canyon, one of the most beautiful drives in Moab!

The birthday boy posing!

So here's a funny story for you. I'm happily bumping along listening to my music when I saw this obstacle and thought, "hmmmm. I've never tried this way before." I pulled up and immediately saw my line, there was a ramp for my passenger side, you see.

Look how nicely everything is going! Yeehaw! Now, it's really quite steep and what happened almost immediately after Chris snapped this picture was my rear tire falling into a hole and Lemon Joy standing straight up on one tire. Holy flying sea monkeys, she was going over on her lid and all I could do was laugh! Thankfully, something kicked in and I was able to slam the clutch in and she came back down, but man alive, what a ride! Chris and Shane were beside themselves, they both kept telling me, "man, you were going over!" Ya know, believe it or not, I was well aware of that fact!

Notice the nice view of the sky? This is right after I was able to get LJ back on all 4 tires.

The very talented sand artist

Shane on Rocker Knocker

Caulen has been wheeling with his daddy since he was 6 months old. In fact, that was also the age of his first roll over!

The Rock Pile. Most people stack rocks at the bottom to try and improve their odds of making it up. With 113 inches of wheel base bliss, Lemon Joy owns that obstacle!

My three babies right there

America's Next Top Model!

Day Two of Rocktober Fest was just as beautiful. We sojourned out to Area BFE and meet up with Kell and another friend at the entrance of Coyote Canyon. Now, for those of you not immersed in the rock crawling scene, Kell is crazy. Bottom line, that boy is not right. He drives a 4 cylinder Toyota with leaf springs and he has driven the Waterfall on Upper Helldorado which is basically a super human feat. Anyhoo, here are some pictures of Kell's antics on Coyote.

Believe it or not, he still had a chance of making it here.

Okay, so maybe he's not making it.....

When your spare tire is the only tire making contact with the rock, even rock star's have to throw in the towel!

Lemon Joy playing tug a war with Chadrick

Yes, I am screaming like a girl in this picture. I have good reason you see......Lemon Joy had just fallen onto her passenger side so this was my first "real" flop onto my side. I'm a big girl rock crawler now!!

We heart the Herzog Family

Beaker Ann

Okay, so here is my second foray into trying to roll. I'm frighteningly close to going over onto my side and then falling off the obstacle and ending up on my lid.

Thankfully, a kind tree caught me and held onto me while the guys got out a strap and held my front while I backed down.

It was a good day to roll

Indeed a sick and twisted past time.

Lemon Joy is what we like to call "A big, beautiful woman".

Notice that Alyssa's eyes are closed?

My very brave co-pilot, right before she had to lean in to avoid that large rock that Lemon Joy loves to snuggle with.

Hmmmm....maybe that's how the body panels got so jacked up!

Yes, that's me laying on my side AGAIN, in the exact same spot. While you'd think I'd learn, at least I didn't scream that time!

Brendon the yoga master

Rock crawling yoga

Here's Chris trying to roll the old girl as well. This was the end of the day on Sunday right before we were leaving town.

Chadrick the Brave saving the day here as Chris was driving OUT of rolling.

And that was Rocktober Fest 2008. Kick ass wheeling with awesome friends....it doesn't get any better than that! ;)

Miss Moo turns 7!

October 13th brought about Alyssa Joy's SEVENTH birthday! How that girl is that old is beyond me, but here she is at a big ole 7! :) Due to MaKenzie's batteries taking a poop the day before, we ran to Durango on her birthday and bought two new Optima's for Zee, had a birthday lunch at SteamWorks and then came home for a small party with our family.



Beaker was VERY interested in the going-ons

Woot for Littlest Pet Shop!

Every girl needs pink cowgirl boots.

Lyssie's most excellent cake courtesy of the always amazing Sherry! :)