Sight seeing

Todd has spent a lot of time sight seeing lately.



The view from TB's hotel room.



Patriotic!

Sickos

I was diagnosed with an ear infection on the 14th. Isaac was diagnosed with an ear infection on the 17th. Jovie was diagnosed on the 24th. You don't usually think there will be an outbreak of ear infections. I guess we've been listening to each other too much. TB is avoiding us this month or he'd have one too probably. Thank goodness for antibiotics. You drug companies get some things right. =)

Ikey borrowed my camera and this was the best photo from his adventures around the house. He's really put on a few pounds since he got sick.

Antique Power Show in Wallsburg and Bridal Veil Falls

We've never been to Wallsburg. It's near Deer Creek Reservoir and Heber. It's a beautiful farming town. Grandma Rainey and Ross directed us to Richard Erickson's Antique Power Show this weekend and it was fantastic. It only happens once a year, so set your alarm clocks for the first weekend of summer and don't miss it next year.

A tractor towing a "people mover" will take you from the parking lot in a hay field to the pioneer village.

There are cool old and weird things in every building. There was a carbon fiber fishing pole that had been hit by lightning and a potato picker belt (looks lethal), old stop lights and toys, corsets and washing machines.

Ikey tap dances in most photos now.

These old cabins were moved from Salt Lake City and house collections of printing presses, shoe shop, an old soda shop.
 

 

 

The ice cream was made with a "Poppin' Johnny" John Deere engine

  churning the freezers.

I can't even guess how many tractors were at the museum. A million maybe.

Ikey climbed around on the caboose and the kids tried a merry-go-round for the first time. Ikey didn't like it. Jovie wanted to go faster.

Some of these motorcycles were as early as 1907. Steve McQueen's personal HD was in the collection.

We ate a picnic lunch in the hay field and the tractor driver came over to show us pictures of his own restored vehicles and to share some carrot sticks.

Ikey insisted on a hike, so we walked on a path from the Bridal Veil Falls viewpoint down to the park. I carried Jovie on my shoulders because her socks were stuck through with cheatgrass from our bushwacking to check out a sheepherder's wagon.

Happy Birthday Todd

Our dear Todd is in Indianapolis on his birthday this year, so we miss him, but we think he's great and he always has been.

 

Happy Father's Day

Todd is a really wonderful father. He's funny, affectionate, a good provider and protector. He's thoughtful and honest and enjoyable. We're very lucky to have him.

We had breakfast at Market Street. It wasn't relaxing, but we try to complicate TB's life in interesting ways. He appreciates that.

Grandpa Joe hosted a Father's Day BBQ and Grandma Pat made great burgers and salads and TB blew out some candles on a chocolate cake with white frosting.

Lowcountry Shrimp Boil

We had a lot to celebrate: Mom and Popa's 40th Anniversary, Todd's birthday, Sean's birthday, and Father's Day. So Laura suggested a shrimp boil, and we made it happen. We set up propane stove and two big pots on our back deck and threw in shrimp, andouille sausage (spicy!), potatoes, corn, carrots, onions and tons of seasonings. The kitchen was a hive of activity with everybody chopping something and the deck was pungent with the spicy smell.

We threw the food out on the table and everybody dug in.

Popa is a verified Cajun and he thought it was great. We think he's great. His 40th Anniversary and Father's Day coincided this year and we think he's a great example of a husband, father, grandfather.

It was so good! We had French bread, watermelon, way too many lemons, and lemonade.

We did our best, but we couldn't eat everything, so we tried to focus on the shrimp. We still had a tunnel of fudge cake and key lime pie to eat.

Cousin Dallin is popular with this crowd.

Grandpa Faucheux and little Wans and Burrows.

Nikki brought poppers for the kids and that was a huge hit. http://youtu.be/wzsknJfdS8M The kids got along great, everybody ate a lot and we celebrated some big milestones in our family this month. We're doing this one again!


Post-rafting clean up

We put up the tent in the back yard to dump out all the sand and spiders. The kids are pretty much experts at putting together the tent poles and they could probably put the tent up themselves by now.

 

Pictures of my rafting bruises about four days after I got them. Tough chick.

 

I was coughing during the rafting trip, and two days after we got home, I noticed that my ear hurt. I dropped everything and ran to the Instacare, where I was diagnosed with an ear infection. I picked up my antiobiotics before I came home from the doc and started them immediately. I don't mess around with ear infections, seeing how one almost killed me twelve years ago.

In May, 2001, my boyfriend, my sister and I arrived at a Moab campsite at 1 pm on a Friday night, intending to do a river rafting event on Saturday with a big group. Sometime after 1 am, I woke up with bad ear pain and I knew it was an ear infection. Although I don't remember it, I apparently insisted that I go to the hospital in the middle of the night, then drive home right away. No one had slept for the whole night, but I was persuasive enough I guess. The driver fell asleep in Green River (about an hour out of Moab) and the car rolled a bunch of times and landed on the roof. I was ejected into the median of the freeway. I had a broken vertebrae, broken clavicle, broken rib and damaged lung. I had a head injury and lots of road rash. My sister was left hanging from her seatbelt upside down in the car and she had a damaged lung and some other traumas. The driver wasn't injured. I spent a week in the hospital in Grand Junction and six weeks out of work and out of my mind due to the head injury. So everything recovered except I feel like my personality is different. (Is it possible that I'm less inhibited and more fun? You're surprised that I say that? You'd really be surprised at how uptight and unfunny I was before.) So good thing my ear infection struck in the days after the rafting trip this year, instead of the day before. I wouldn't have survived it this time.