The Dump Fire

First, let's talk about how dumb the name "Dump Fire" is.  Seriously.

Ok, Day 1 was June 21.

We actually saw it pretty early.

I had Brooke take this picture on our way home.  This is on the other side of our mountain in Saratoga Springs.  This must have been pretty soon after it started.

By the afternoon, it had come up and over to our side.  We had a pretty awesome view from our backyard.  We were a little concerned that it could come all the way down, but by the time we went to bed word was that the BLM had it under control and were going to let it burn.

Day 2 June 22

When we woke up, the fire was still raging.  It wasn't until a few hours later that it started getting scary.  Parts of Eagle Mountain were evacuated.  We were lucky and it never got close enough to us for us to evacuate.  I did have things packed and ready to go just in case though.  We figured all it would take was for the wind to shift and we could be in danger.

I took this panoramic shot so you can see just how much of the mountain burned.

And it still was burning on day 3, but further south of us.

It was pretty cool to watch at night.

It looked like lava, or city lights from really far away.  These pictures don't do it justice.

The fire still burned for a day or two more, but it was pretty well contained and mostly just the smoke was noticeable.  I am just so grateful to all the firefighters who worked so hard to keep it away from houses. 

9 Years Ago Today

Aaron and I met and had our first date!

That's right, it was a blind date.  His mom and my dad work together and it was suggested by a coworker that we go out.  So we did!  We doubled with Aaron's younger brother and his wife(then fiancee).  We went to PF Chang's for dinner.  We then went bowling.  We got some ice cream at Cold Stone and went up to the Bountiful Temple grounds.  We ate our ice cream and talked for awhile.  When he dropped me off, he walked me to the door, but didn't even try to hug me!  Luckily it wasn't because he didn't like me!  Soon after that I had a couple trips that I went on.  We weren't able to see each other for a little while, but after that we went out again and again.  We were each other's first kiss and first boyfriend/girlfriend.  Now here we are, 9 years, 3 kids and a house later, still in love.

Photo taken on one of our dates a few weeks after we met.

Man, we were I was young!

Cleaning out MeMe's basement

On June 9, we met at MeMe's to help her clean out her basement.

We found a lot of fun things!

A real fur coat

Scuba flippers?!

We are guessing they belonged to Drew. 

A scout hat

And...

MeMe's wedding dress!!!

Amanda decided to model it in honor of MeMe and Pa's 52nd wedding anniversary which happened to be this same day!

Seriously, the bodice of this dress is amazing.

And here is what we ended up getting rid of.

Books, books on tape/cd, magazines, videos, music cd's.

Chase had gotten these piles sorted out before we arrived, thankfully.

And now, the trash.

3 different views so you can fully grasp the size of the pile.

Oh, and don't forget what we fit onto the truck!

And there is still a lot more to go through.

But, MeMe's basement looks so much better!

Brooke Gets Staples

This post contains gross, bloody pictures, so skip it if you get queasy.

On June 7, the kids were playing in our front room and Brooke started to run(which is a no-no) into the living room when she tripped and hit her head on the corner of the wall.  We heard a thud and she started crying, but we didn't really think much of it because this happens all the time.  She went over and sat on Aaron's lap for a while and stopped crying.  When she got up to go play again, Aaron said that she was bleeding.  I saw his shirt first which did have a pretty good size spot of blood on it.  I put my hand on Brooke's head and started to hurry her to the bathroom.  When I moved my hand there was more blood than I was expecting.  It was a lot.  In her hair, on her shirt.  We were able to get the bleeding to stop pretty quickly, actually.  Then we were able to see the damage.  It wasn't very big, but it was gaping and we could see fatty tissue.  So, we called the instacare to make sure we would be able to get it taken care of without and ER visit. They said we were fine to come in.  So, off we went!

Here is what it looked like before we left.  Gross.

We got to the instacare( less than 15 minutes away!  Score!) and checked in.

Not happy.

Dora was on, so we got to watch that during our 30 minute wait.

As you can see, Brooke likes Dora!

After our wait, we got called back and were done in less than 10 minutes.

The medical assistant asked us some questions and got the room prepped.  The doctor came in, and came over with the numbing shot behind his back.  He told Brooke, who was still sitting next to me, that he was just going to clean her up.  So, she looked down and he gave her the shot.  She did really well and just said it hurt.  She didn't cry.  Then he got rid of the shot before she saw it.  He had her get on the exam table/seat and cleaned up her wound.  Then just stapled her up!  Seriously, it was so fast.  The last staple hurt her for a second, but she was fine.  He was really nice, and awesome with her.  I've been to the instacare here before and I know we got the better of the 2 doctors that work there.

Getting the staples

Since she did so awesome, we stopped at the Maverick for a drink and a treat. 

Here's what her poor little head looked like that night.  It actually looks worse than before the staples.

We had to leave them in for 5 days.  The first few days she would ask for Tylenol, but other than that she was just fine.

We went back 5 days later to have the staples removed and now she is all better.

Right after the staples came out.

I am just so glad the instacare was still open.  The nearest ER is at least 30 minutes away.  Not to mention, it would have probably cost a lot more to get it fixed there.  I'm also glad Aaron was hometo stay with the other kids.

Keeping Busy

On the days that we don't have anything planned, we are trying to keep busy so we don't watch tv all day.

We have made rice krispie treats,

and fruit with coconut cream dip.

Done some science experiements, 

We watched the water "walk" from the upper glass to the lower glass through the paper towel.

We bent water with static electricity

We attempted to explode bags with vinegar and baking soda.  It didn't really work.  The bags just ended up with a slow leak.

We played in the pool 

We have gone to the splash pad a few times

We've done some school work

Learning about money

Learning about nouns

We made a comic strip

Dallin's

Brooke's

We have been to Thanksgiving Point a few times

We went to the dinosaur museum,

and then, we met some friends at the children's gardens

Aiden and my friend's cute baby L.

We've been super busy!