Monthly Archives: October 2017

Cruisin

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We went on a cruise! The end of September. Don’t know how to describe it really.  It was fun to get away, fun to see how the whole cruise thing works and fun to hang out with Derek and Penny.  But the food was blah, our shower flooded the entire bathroom every time we showered and I spent the second day of the cruise with blurry vision.  All in all I’d say it was a good experience even with the few hiccups.

This was our ship, the Carnival Imagination

We boarded in Long Beach and that’s when I put on a motion sickness patch Penny had gotten from her Dr.  The next day when I woke up, I couldn’t read or focus on anything my eyes were so blurry.  They felt tired and red.  I couldn’t believe that my eyes would go bad in one day, but Derek was sure it was because I’m old.  It took us all that morning but we finally figured out it was a side effect of the patch.  I took it off and in another 12 hours my eyes were back to normal.  Whew!  Made me grateful for my sight, I’ll tell you what!
 Our first stop, Catalina Island

We rented some golf carts to drive around the tiny island.

Check out this cool Rock I found!  
I think he’s trying to duplicate the face in the rock.

We took a glass bottom boat ride on Catalina.  Well, Penny, Derek and I did.  Rock was coming down with a cold and wanted to head back to the boat to read and sleep.
The fish were not the most colorful I’ve seen, but it was pretty cool.

Every morning when our room was cleaned they left one of these folded origami towels.  They were so fun I took a picture for the kids.
Scorpion
The next day we pulled into Ensenada, Mexio.
My attempt to get the Mexican flag unfurled caught this cool picture of the mini golf course on the top deck of the ship.
Ensenada was… well it wasn’t my favorite.  Maybe it’s from my years living in dry and barren Southern California, but I just didn’t find it beautiful at all.  We did an excursion to see a blow hole and shop at a Tiajuana type street full of shops.  It was just like in Jerusalem.  I still hate haggling!
The blowhole was also ok, not that great.  Here’s my best attempt to catch it.
That night as we headed back north we went up to watch the sunset.  We sailed right into fog.  It was pretty freaky.  The foghorn, blown right above your head, is NOT a pleasant experience.

The next day was our day at sea.  No land in sight!

We spent it lounging around on beach chairs.  It was beautiful!!

Loved hanging out with Derek and Penny.  Loved relaxing.  Loved talking with my wonderful husband for hours.  And, I loved the unlimited hot chocolate.  
Final thoughts on Cruising:
We decided we will go on another cruise someday, but this time maybe one a little bit more upscale or one that takes you to some prettier places.  
Alaska or the Bahamas anyone? 

The End of Summer and the Total Eclipse

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We celebrated/mourned the end of summer this year with the Total Eclipse.  We are lucky enough to live about thirty minutes from the Zone of Totality.  The fear mongers had convinced me to stay home and watch the 98% eclipse from my back yard for fear of being stuck on a road somewhere for days with the massive crowds who were heading our way to watch the eclipse.  But that morning, Rock checked the traffic and it was totally open all the way to Weiser, where we planned to watch it from.  So I decided at the last minute to join the rest of the family.  So glad I did!  There was NO traffic whatsoever on the way over and only a little bit on the way back.  We pulled right into the empty church parking lot and set up camp.  Sarin even had time to drive over and join us!  And we had a moment of silence for those beloved family members who couldn’t be with us that day. 
It was incredible to feel the temperature drop, and to see how even when the sun was totally covered by the moon it STILL let light through!  It was also fun to watch it in a crowd.  Like watching fireworks, there’s just something that unifies humanity when you share something like that with a bunch of strangers. Loved it!  So glad I got to go!
The almost total eclipse with my camera doesn’t look like much.  I was hoping to get the crescent look, but it didn’t work. 

Almost…there….
 Total Eclipse!!!
Check out those street lights!!!
We drove back home and packed up the lunch boxes and the back packs for First Day of School.
First day of High school for Reagan Dean.  

Cade is on top this year in 8th grade.

Levi is in 4th and Liberty is in 2nd.  
The school year has gone great so far for all the kids.  
Reagan had his first orchestra concert in 2 years!  See if you can see him.
I’m in the home stretch!  Two more blog post to get caught up!  Stay tuned for our Cruise and Pumpkin Patch 2017!!

Hymas Family Reunion 2017

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Waaaayyy back in August we had Rock’s family reunion in our favorite place, Eden, UT!  Loved the views, loved the company! 

Games, Games, and More Games!

Lots of yummy food too, including sandwich making assembly lines.  I discovered the wonderfulness of Muenster cheese on this trip!!!  YUM!  Our fridge has been stocked with it ever since.

Beautiful morning walks

Eating at the Oaks, a restaurant overlooking the beautiful Weber River in Ogden Canyon.  
 Cute Cousins

Levi and Jack had a blast together.  They raced each other everywhere and went exploring together whenever they could get away.  Levi got his first bee sting in the process and also found a very cool set of animal bones with a complete skull.
 We LOVE Farr’s Ice Cream!
Cute cousins brushing their teeth.
And a ridiculous looking Aunt
Family Pictures-I will post the good ones from Uncle Sam when he gets them put up.  🙂

Water balloons!!!

Playing at the Pine View Resevoire

And Grandma’s professional Birthday cake.
Grandma was a good sport when half her children disappeared to deal with car issues.  We were looking at buying a new van in Tremonton on the way to the reunion.  As it turns out, Sam’s van broke down on the way from South Carolina and to make a long story (and lots of crazy trips away from the reunion) short, we sold our old van to Sam and we bought a new van while on this trip!  
Thanks for the good times, Hymas family!  Until next time!

Chasing Chipmunks-Red Fish Lake

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Still catching up from Summer… my goal is to be all caught up by the end of October!!!

While Reagan was away on his 50 mile hike this summer we took the rest of the kids camping up at Red Fish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains.  We couldn’t let Reagan have all the fun. It was beautiful and fun and peaceful and unforgettable.

We did have a few small hiccups on our drive up.  The first was not so much a hiccup as a really sad commentary on the dessert where we live or more likely the fact that we need to get our children outside more.  In our defense, family outings are rather painful at our house so we don’t  do them as often as we should.  As we drove up into the mountains Liberty asked, “Mom, is this a forest?” Mom: “Yes”. Libby again: “Oh, at first I thought it was just a big tree farm.” 

Before the drive up I had stashed the DWWWDOC in the glove compartment of our trusty minivan for use at some point down the road.  For those of you not familiar with modern day car travel that acronym stands for Devices With Which We Drug Our Children more commonly known as ipods.  After a pleasant first hour drive I went to pull them out, but the glove compartment wouldn’t open.  I pulled and yanked but it wouldn’t budge.  Finally we had to pull over so Rock could try.  The kids got to enjoy some dangerous scenic overlooks while we wrestled with the door.  I could have sworn I took a picture of them dangling themselves over the cliff while their father and I tried to save the devices, but I guess not.  We did finally get it open but not without breaking it.  It would no longer close, but hung open on my legs the entire rest of the trip.

The next hiccup was more like an upchuck.  Libby got car sick.  Luckily her mother is uber prepared and whipped out a ziplock back for her to be sick in so we had no messes to deal with.  Handy things, those ziplock bags.  Just think what MacGuyver could have done if he’d had those in the 80s?!  Libby managed to recover, but only after a good sleep.

In Stanley we stopped at the gas station where I realized that I had remembered the ziplocks and forgotten the sun screen.  DO NOT EVER BUY SUNSCREEN IN STANLEY, IDAHO.  Unless you want to mortgage your home and all your possessions away.  Ugh.  I seriously had a debate with myself at the register when the nice little attendant told me how much it would cost.  $10.00!!!!!  For sunscreen!!! “Hmm, skin cancer or my life’s savings, what to do…”  I decided to buy it and frame it when I got home as a monument to modern day capitalism as its finest.    
We arrived at our campsite only to find that we could not park in our actual the campsite, something I was greatly perturbed by, I must say.  What kind of car camping is it if you can’t back your car right into the site so that everything you need is within 12 feet of you at all times!!!??  On the bright side, Cade got to get in a little practice for the Trek next year!

The rest of our campout went swimmingly.  The kids loved the gigantic rock right near our campsite.  I was not as thrilled by it’s mammoth size, but that only added to their pleasure.  They had a great time climbing to the top over and over.

Levi is on the left. 

Liberty found her own size rock to read on.

Dad joined her for little while.
The kids discovered that the campground was covered with chipmunks and this became their fascination for the rest of the trip.  They chased them all over the place.  Trying to get a few on camera was pretty tough.  They are fast little suckers.  I took twenty just to get these three.

 How many can you see?
After setting up camp we headed to the lake for a very cold swim.

They had the most amazing ice cream at Red Fish Lodge.  It’s worth the 3.5 hour drive just for that!
More exploring before dinner.

We roasted marshmallows and smores, read Harry Potter by the fire.  Good times!
And I actually SLEPT for the first time since camping as a kid!  I brought an air mattress and ear plugs and that did the trick!  I could do this again!
Nothing is better than a camping breakfast.  I don’t know if it’s the hot chocolate or the pancakes cooked in bacon grease, but it’s heavenly.  It’s my favorite part of camping. 
When we went to get our food out of the bear box that morning I found this little moth.  But just barely, can you spot him?
The kids explored till their hearts content all morning .  We found a beautiful little alcove that was so quiet and peaceful.  Nobody was there.  Still can’t figure that out, but I was grateful.

 Cade in Contemplation
This was such a wonderful trip.  The kids got to swim, climb, explore.  It was a little slice of heaven.