Party with the Ham's

Gary and Julie came into town a couple of weeks ago.  They were picking up Lindy from EFY and dropping Kyle off at school.  On Saturday most of us went to Cowabunga Bay.  Keith was at his convention so it was just me and the kids.

Jonah and Caitlyn were off with their cousins all day and Wyatt and Ammon spent most of the day in the lazy river.  I'm glad Wyatt had a friend who didn't want to go on the big water slides either.  These two had a blast together.

Hallee was happy to see Lindy again.  Hallee and I spent most of our time in the lazy river. Alexys and Ataiya were sweet and watched Hallee for me so I could go on some water slides with the group

I was surprised that both of my parents swam and went down the water slides.  How fun is that, to ride water slides with your grandparents!  I was glad I got to go on a few with them. 

On Sunday we went to my parents ward and saw Dante be ordained to a teacher.  It was fun to visit the old ward and say hi to people.  After church we had an early dinner so Gary and Julie and their family could head out to Bryce Canyon for a little family vacation.  The kids love going to grandma's house and playing with cousins.

On Thursday Gary and Julie came back into town.  We all met up to ride tubes down the Provo river.  My kids were back in school at this point so I arranged for Nadia to come watch Hallee and Wyatt and Jonah and I would pick Caitlyn up from school and head up there.  I was worried about getting there on time because we were doing the last run of the day.  Caitlyn forgot and got on the bus and wouldn't answer her phone (she always forgets to turn up the volume, much to my frustration).  I had to make a quick decision so I decided to just head up there with Jonah because I was afraid we wouldn't have time to pick Caitlyn up.  Caitlyn was so disappointed and I was stressed about it.  We ended up getting up there quickly and I would have had time to pick her up. I was sad she wouldn't be there because I knew this is an activity she would love.  It was a good learning experience for Caitlyn and I was very proud of how she handled it.  She took responsibility and didn't get mad at me, which made me even more upset that I didn't go back to get her. 

Jonah and I were both a little nervous and didn't know quite what to expect.  We did the river run in the raft last year, but the tube was very different.  If I ever did it again I would do a double tube. 

The river was swift and there was a lot of different currents so it was hard to control where you went.  Case in point, I hit tress right off the bat and lost my hat. Luckily, someone told us to take paddles and they helped a little, but it was really hard with all of the different currents. 

The ones that went in the river first got pretty far ahead of the rest of us pretty quick.  I wanted to stay close to Jonah, but that didn't last very long.  Mel got out of her tube and waited for the rest of us to catch up, so I jumped out of my tube to wait too and what a mistake that was!  I couldn't get back in it!

Paul and Tiff were my guardian angles that day.  Paul helped me get back in my tube and luckily they stayed close to me because not too long after that a current hit me and I did a back flip out of my tube. Paul helped me get back in the tube.  I hit my leg on a sharp rock in the river, I'm so glad it was my leg and not my head.  Even though I was near Paul and Tiff we weren't close enough to talk very often.  At one point you have to get out of the water with your tube and walk around a bridge and then get back in.  The bridge is too dangerous, so they tell you to get out and go around it.  I wasn't up there, but poor mom got out of her tube and then the current took her away and she went right under the bridge.  She said she was terrified and stuck under the water for a while.  She got lots of cuts and bruises.  Luckily EJ was there and went after her and was able to catch up to her quickly.  We were all nervous because we didn't know if he had caught up to her and if she was okay.  Finally some of them caught up and they were able to yell back that she was okay.  When I flipped over in the tube my paddle broke, so I only had half a paddle.  Paul was so nice and offered to trade me, but I think I actually had a little more control with the small paddle.  We were getting near the end when I got stuck in a little whirlpool, I just sat there spinning on my tube and couldn't get my tube to move forward.  I just decided to jump out and walk the rest of the way because I didn't think we were far.  Well I didn't realized that the water was probably seven feet deep at that point so I was a little shocked when I jumped in and then I got a charly horse so I could only use one leg to swim.  I was sure glad when I saw EJ waiting to help me get my tube out of the water at the end.  I have thought since then that maybe it was a blessing that Caitlyn didn't come, who knows what danger she could have been protected from.  I actually enjoyed it for the most part, I just hated the out of control feeling and unfortunately I had that a lot!  I also think it would be a lot more fun to go down on a double tub and visit while you went down. 

Gary and Julie stayed at Tiff's house for the last few days of their trip.  I went over Thursday night and stayed up way too late laughing and talking to them, but it sure was fun. Gary and Julie and the kids were going to do baptisms for the dead on Friday morning.  I almost didn't go because I was so tired and overwhelmed with such a busy week, but I'm glad I went. 

Kyle had found all of the family names and Gary got to baptize and confirm me, so that was pretty cool.  It was fun to have this extra time with them.  After that they headed to BYU to get Kyle checked into his apartment and take a campus tour.  They dropped the other kids off at my house while they took Kyle grocery shopping. I got to check out Kyle's apartment when I took Lindy over later.  He is only about 10 minutes from our house.

That night we all met at Leatherby's for dessert.  The kids all love this tradition.  I was so tired from our long week.  The kids started school, which meant two back to school nights and three parent teacher conferences (it is really strange that they do them on the first week of school).  Jonah had a soccer tournament so that meant four soccer games that week, including some during school, so I really didn't get much time without the kids that first few days.  You mix all of that with the fun things we did with family and it made for one crazy week.  It was a great week though, I was just ready for a break.  We said goodbye to Gary's family at Leatherby's. It is always hard to say goodbye, it was so fun to have them here.

It's going to be so fun having Kyle live so close.  We invited him over for dinner on Sunday.  The kids loved it.  I asked him to teach the lesson for FHE and he did a great job teaching the kids how to gain a testimony for themselves.  I guarantee they put way more stock in what Kyle says than in what Keith and I say.  After that we played scum for a while.  The kids went a little crazy showing off for Kyle.  When I drove him home he asked if the kids were always that crazy.  Hopefully we haven't scared him off because we sure love having him around!