Flaming Gorge - The Most Obviously Plagiarized Blog Ever

Thanks Meg for providing all of the info :)

A couple weeks ago, we were sitting in the Morrill's living room. Meg sighed and announced that she needed to get away, she needed some sort of vacation. Thus was born the idea of a 4-day extravaganza.


On Thursday evening we somehow managed to cram 4 people x 4 days worth of stuff into the trunk of Meg's poor Accord. And off we went, arriving at the trailer in Manila after dark. We were greeted by two gnomes and Jesus staring at us from a window ledge. The "trifecta" would continue to watch over us from there during our stay, except for the short stint they pulled in the fridge at one point.




The boys, of course, were bound and determined to get the old record player working. And they did. And we listened to "Hot Rod Hootenanny" for about five seconds before turning it off again.



Day 1
We drove to the marina and got our boat rental set up for the next day. We were introduced to the "wakeboarding boat" we'd be taking. A bright blue monstrosity, which affectionately came to be known as "The Blue Dart." (We're so mature.)

During the afternoon we did a bit of sightseeing.





That night we ventured over to the Daggett County Rodeo, which was quite the experience. Everyone in town got all "gussied up" to come to the big event... but once they got there they refused to cheer. It was the most docile crowd of cowboys I've ever seen.

Day 2
We all woke up early, eager to get our boat out on the Gorge at 8:00. The temperature was perfect, the water was crystal clear, and only rarely was another boat to be seen. After some fishing, we headed back to the dock and picked up a wakeboard.









Throughout the day, both Steve and Dalan would bust out the wakeboard. Dalan was eventually almost able to stand up on it. :)





Eventually Steve biffed it hard enough to decide to call it a day. He got back on the boat with an array of scratches, bruises, and a bit of a headache.





We turned the boat back in at 6:00. Over the course of the day, we all went from using 30 SPF to heaping helpings of 70 SPF, but still wound up a bit toasty.

Day 3
To start off Steve's birthday, we headed over to Red Canyon Lodge and got ourselves some horses to ride. We did a half-day ride and after 4 hours of sitting in the saddle, we were all sore, dirty and ready for some relaxing.

I rode Shaker who had some digestion issues. Dalan became very attached to Mabel, so much so that he made her a theme song that dealt with her going back to the stable and not being allowed at the dinner
table.



Meg got Foxy, who gave me very little trouble. But poor Steve got to deal with Tiny, who was ginormous and actually mowed down a tree during the ride.








That night (after an afternoon nap) we found a gorgeous little campsite to cook dinner. We had marinated chicken... and we meant to have some potatoes with it, but they became victims of a tragic cooking accident.




After dinner, we made pies and stuck a few matches in Steve's since birthday candles were not available. :)






Day 4
We crammed everything back into the trunk and headed to Jordan Commons. We all had a date with the IMAX theater and Batman. It was an incredible movie, though, obviously not one I'd take kids to. Hands down my favorite part was Heath Ledger as the Joker. It was a phenomenal way to wrap up a fun vacation.

In a Kiddie Tent

So we just had a fun weekend filled with camping and lots of food. We went up Logan canyon with Meg and Steve to an out-of-the-way campsite that many probably don't even know exists. I was a little peeved with Dalan at first when he insisted on driving up there because we had no idea where we were going. We roasted s'mores on Friday night, that we decided to go back Saturday night with our tents to stay for the night. Tobey was surprisingly well behaved and really seemed to enjoy all of the new smells around the campsite. When we returned on Saturday some family decided to be in our campsite, grrr. We drove around for about an hour looking for more, and we did find one within about 10 minutes, but that wasn't good enough for Dalan, after getting my car even more dirty than it already was we settled for the site from 50 minutes earlier. First thing we decided to set up, and now we come to the part where I dislike Trent right now. After rolling out our tent which we got from Trent for our wedding and had not used before, we realized that it was small, very very small. So small that Dalan examined the packaging and found "Ozark Kids" written in fun crayola writing on the front. Funny prank for Trent to play, maybe I would have enjoyed it if I had realized it before we were already out in the wilderness and not about to venture back to civilization to buy a new one. We already have a squishy enough night with Dalan, Tobey, and I on a full bed, imagine the three of us trying to sleep in a kiddie tent. After the claustrophobia wore off, I came to my senses and vowed to never go camping again, or to at least buy a new tent! Funny thing about all of this is earlier that same day Dalan tried to get me to let him buy a new tent, which I refused, since we hadn't even opened the one we had.

Styx Fanatics

On July 4 Dalan and I were able to attend the Styx concert w/ Megan and Steve. It was so much fun! Surprisingly those guys can still entertain like crazy. We were screaming our heads off the entire time, and Dalan embarrassed us all by yelling "JY" at the top of his lungs every time there was a lull in the crowd. All together a great experience, but very sad that they moved on to California, where they were to begin a tour with Boston! I guess Logan's just not big enough to justify to rock legends.


The pics are courtesy of Meg's camera phone:

Over-run by Schnauzers!

While my family is in Disneyland this week (lucky ducks) we decided that it would be ok to watch Jake for them.  My thought process behind this was because Jake is such a good dog, hopefully after a week of time together he could rub off on Tobey.  Well I was wrong, now instead of one barking, biting, running schnauzer we have two.  Sorry Mom & Dad, my dog ruined yours. 

ps the dark faceless blur would be Tobey

Thank Goodness I Married a Plumber

So we have had a few problems in our new house, thankfully the large ones have all been due to plumbing errors, and we do know a good plumber.  The newest has probably been the biggest pain. With all of the rain recently we decided to wait on the sprinklers, bad idea.  Turns out that we have several broken pipes, and now Dalan has no time to fix them.  Our lawn is getting browner and deader.  Dalan gets to manually run the sprinklers every night to try and help out a little, which Tobey finds interesting.  Apparently the water is trespassing on her lawn and she is out to teach it a lesson, the water always wins though.  So, so far we have a missing shower head, had 3 out of our 4 sinks spring a leak.  A broken valve to our washing machine.  A leak in the tub drain, and now sprinkler problems which results in water gushing out of random spots on our lawn, and now a gigantic hole right by the front door.  Welcome to the Hilton's.

Butchered!

                                                         

We took Tobey to the groomers yesterday, she has had a puppy trim before, but since it was starting to get hot we decided to have them cut her short.  This is the old man we had to bring home with us.                      

    

Lagoon Day

Today we went to Lagoon with Meg and Steve.  We rode the Wicked a few times and have to admit that we are huge fans.  Dalan and Steve rode the Catapult for the first time.