Getting ready for Moab

Brian and I are spending much of our time together planning and getting ready for our next family trip to Moab. We have been to Moab about three times. Two of which I was pregnant, one when Kaden was only 4 months old. I'm unbelievably thrilled to be going when my body is my own and our kids are big enough to kind of enjoy it. That and the camping part will be very easy compared to previous trips. I am so glad we have a fun family tradition like this we can plan and save for. Brians parents and little brother usually go with us. This year, however, Ron and Karen are preparing for a mission and will probably have the call before we go. Brians little brother Shane works for Micron and doesn't know if he has a job for much longer. They will be laying off 1500 or so more people by August. Scary.
Here is a picture of the unfinished rack that Brian made to go in the back of the Cherokee. It will help to be able to pull out a cooler without having to move everything that is piled on top of it. We are also making a magnetic curtain to put around the hatch when it is open. This will help the privacy thing for our little luggable loo. I refuse to go without a potty! One of our trips to Moab, I was 8 months pregnant. Going potty out in the middle of nowhere was not fun when I was that huge.
Brian did a fabulous job with this rack. It is exactly how I wanted it to look. It goes in the back cargo area of the Jeep. He is also making a cargo barrier. This is so that nothing falls forward on the kids in the back seat. We are going to be rock crawling so this is a good thing to have. Having a husband that can weld anything you could want is a good thing too!=)

Dance Recital

Today was Brooklyns first dance recital! She did so wonderful! She smiled and wasn't nervous when it came time to walk up on the stage. We fixed her hair up all pretty with red bows and put lip gloss on and some sparkly eye shadow. She told me that "I'm so pretty that I have to dance pretty Mommy." They danced to a jazzed up version of "Yankee Doodle." They marched and saluted and jumped in circles. I must say, I know I am biased, she did a darling job.

Chocolate Festival +Good Friends=Heaven

So a couple of weeks ago we drove to Logan because some friends of ours invited us to go on a double date and attend Logans annual chocolate festival. We were just starting on our first 7 days off so Brian was game for a short trip. We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner with Sunny and Adam, then scooted over to the festival. You would not believe how many people were there. It was SO packed that breathing room was a luxury. Most of the time you waited in a long line to get a sample of the different sweets that were offered. I guess that it was worth it though. It was really nice to get out of Kemmerer and see some friendly faces. Winter here is still in full swing. Kaden is getting a really mean case of cabin fever. I think pre-school will be good for him in the fall. I caught a nasty case of coldzilla. Whoa. I went to bed one night feeling just fine, but woke up in the morning unable to breath through my nose. I fear that my head may explode.
So Brian and I just finished watching Band of Brothers. GOOD MOVIE! It took us a long time to finish it because it is an HBO miniseries about WWII, but totally worth the time and effort. The reason we like it so much is because they have interviews of men who were there at the beginning of each section. I studied WWII in school and everything, but this was really amazing to experience.
Brooklyn is dancing at the grand-opening of the new Events Center here in Kemmerer. I think I am more excited than she is. It is her first dance recital. She gets to wear a costume and be on a stage. She is doing really well in learning the stretches and exercises. But her favorite part is wearing the ballerina costume and prancing around.
My big brother, Johnny, who is my hero, is in the Idaho National Guard. He has been in the east at a training for the last few months. He got a new phone and has texting (wahooo) so I have been able to communicate with him a little bit. I heard through the grapevine that he had a run in with a rather large black man with a gun. For those of you who don't know my big brother, he was an Army Ranger, speaks Arabic, and could probably kill you with his pinkie. So I texted him and asked how he was doing after this gun incident. He said "oh, I just got in my car and drove away. But pray for me, I'm more scared of not passing my training course than I am of black guys with guns." I laughed for a good ten minutes. That's my big brother.

I love tax returns!!!

Brian and I just got home from getting our taxes done. YAY! I love tax returns. We are just so relieved that we don't have to pay this year. I could not believe how big the smile on Brians face got when we found out that we were getting money back. So the Moab trip is ON! We are going to camp our way through about 7 Jeep trails. There are some really fun pictographs that I want to see as well as breathtaking views. Anything that involves family time and an insanely happy husband . . . count me in! This man is a maniac about jeepin and combine that with every other week off of work, well, the monster is born. We already plan on doing a ton of camping this summer. We have everything that you could ever need to camp in luxury, in a tent of course. Brooklyn and Kaden don't remember camping the last time because they were too small. We hope to break them into the roughing it thing before they get too old and don't think we aren't cool anymore.

Fever Princess

So late Friday night Brooklyn came to me and said "Mommy, I don't know what is wrong with me." I felt her forehead and wow! She had a fever of about 103. Whoe. Ok, if I had a fever that high, I had better be on my way to the er. But Brian gets really high fevers and it doesn't effect him so much. So we are on day three of Brooklyn fighting off a fever, vomiting, and dizziness. Nights have been nasty, if the Tylenol wears off even a little bit she is sobbing and wanting daddy. If this lasts much longer, we are in big trouble, because Brian just got switched to straight nights at his job. Yuck. But the good thing is we are now back on the 7 days on and 7 days off schedule. I like having 7 days of Brian home. More traveling! Brian is already planning a trip to Moab to go Jeepin!!!!
Anywhooo, I think that Brooklyn is so upset about being sick because she had to miss school and dance class today. I am scared to death that the rest of us are going to catch this crud. Poor Brooklyn, all day Saturday she was so still and snuggely. That was what scared me the most. Brooklyn is hardly ever snuggely. That and she turned down candy. You know she is sick when she turns down candy!