Brittany's Wisdom Teeth

Brittany had her wisdom teeth out yesterday! I was amazed at how fast they do it! Her bottom ones were impacted, but not the top ones, so that was good. She actually had 5 on the x-ray, but the doctor said he didn't notice the fifth one, and if it comes in later, he will take it out for free. She laid around with ice on her face and watched TV, and she is hardly swollen at all!

I found the first corn on the cob at a stand yesterday, so Kiersten and I had corn for dinner! It was so good! Fortunately Brittany doesn't love it like we do.

Granite Flat Day 3

The third day we laid low and relaxed. We had purchased a mancala game before we went, and the kids played that all the days we were there. It was really fun. Kiersten accidentally dropped some of the pieces and we found all but one. We also played BS (card game) and scum.

She did some exploring. She also ended up with some really bad mosquito bites! She had some on her calf that swelled it up until the skin was just tight! Tanner had two bad ones on his feet from wearing sandals, so we spent a lot of time putting cream and bandaids on them. Kiersten's calf ended up looking really bruised!.

We washed hair on that third day also, just me and Kiersten. It felt so good!

Tanner took some photos of wildlife! We saw lots of these.

We saw lots of butterflies, too, especially these black and white ones.

We spent a lot of time playing games and reading in Kristal and Charlie's screened shade thing. It was really nice to sit in the shade of the trees and not be bitten and bothered by bugs!

Here's Charlie making lunch. They brought corn tortillas and put taco meat and cheese on them and fried them on the pan. Yummy!

Brittany came for dinner. She had also been working at Arby's every day while she was at girls' camp. The stake rule was the girls couldn't drive into and out of camp, so we had to park her car at the lake, then I drove her into camp. In the morning I would pick her up at camp and drive her to her car at the lake and she would drive down to work. Then she would come back to our campsite and we would leave her car at the lake and I'd drive her into camp again. Complicated! But it worked okay. She was really tired, though!

Anyway, Mark was supposed to come up to stay Friday night, too, but Kristal's family was going home after dinner, and the mosquito bites were a problem, and the kids (especially Brittany) kind of wanted to leave, so we decided to go home after dinner, too. I drove down the canyon far enough to call Mark about it, and he said he had had vertigo the whole week and he would try to still come up for dinner, but he really didn't feel well.

So we had our dinner and packed up camp and came home. Mark wasn't able to come for dinner but he was a great help unloading the next day.

Jared was a huge help this whole trip; he did everything I asked him to and just had such a great attitude!

We all had a great time. I think we discovered camping is fun if you just go for two nights and use lots of bug spray before you get any bites!

Granite Flat Day 2

The second day we got up and had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausage. Then we got ready and went ATVing. We parked down at the lake parking lot and got the quads off the trailer and put helmets on. Then a park service lady came up to us and informed us that we could not ride with the little kids only in bike helmets; they had to have DOT certified helmets. I thought this was only a recommendation, but she said it was the law and pretty much implied that she would call the cops if we went anyway. I was so mad! We always ride with the bike helmets.

So we put the ATVs back on the trailer and drove down to Cabela's, where we managed to find a helmet small enough for Kiersten. I hate those helmets, though, because they are so heavy for their little necks! It really makes it hard for them to ride very long. We also got some of the fishing gear the guy had recommended to us so we could fish that night.

Back up the mountain, we got to ride and it was beautiful! The lake in the photo behind Kiersten is the lake where we park, Tibble Fork. The lake behind all the kids is the lake we rode up to, Silver Lake. It was really full!

We rode through the shallow river and started up the next part of the trail, but Jared decided it was too rocky and bumpy, so we came back down. 

As we sat relaxing by the lake for a minute, a man came up to us. He was kind of built and wearing a tight t-shirt kind of thing. He said he had noticed that we had just come down from that part of the trail past the river. (I'm thinking, "What did we do wrong now?") So I said, yes, we had. He asked what the trail was like up there, and so then I was thinking he was going to ride up there and was curious. Then he said he was planning a training exercise for some marines, and he was going to have them hike up there and carry stretchers and stuff, and he wanted to know if they had to cross the river and how steep the trail was, etc.! So I guess we were able to be helpful to the marines on this ride!

Here's the boys on the road below us going down. It was a fun ride! It always makes me wonder why we don't go more often!

Later that day we ate our fish for dinner (sooooo good!). We fried them in butter and put lemon juice on them. Also had some good chili Kristal made (the planned meal) and we did cornbread in the dutch oven. It turned out great! We put some little bunches of tin foil in the bottom of the dutch and then lined it with another piece of foil and put the cornbread mixture on top of that. The bottom didn't burn at all, and all we had to do to clean was lift the tin foil out and blow the ashes off the lid! I got this idea from a lady who did perfect rolls for an enrichment dutch oven dinner.

After dinner we tried fishing again, but the boys didn't catch anything. I caught one fish. I was so proud when I managed to clean it all by myself!