The Sink up Uintah Canyon

This week, one of my girlfriends is out visiting from California. Since I don't get to see her often, I decided to take a day off and spend time with her and our other good friend.

 

We decided to escape the heat of summer and go up to the mountains. Ashley K knew a cool spot that neither of us had ever been to, so we went there. Its called The Sink because the water comes down the mountain, but then disappears into an underground tunnel.

They talked me into taking Sage; she had a blast. 

Ashley K and I have been friends since we were young and she was my best friend growing up. 

Ashley N and I have known each other pretty much our entire lives, but we became good friends in high school.

They are both amazing women and I am blessed to call them friends. They are two, of the few people, I feel I can be myself around without worrying about hiding or offending.

 

We walked through the small cave, but after the 2nd opening, it was pretty dark and we didn't have a flashlight with us. 

We also hiked up the water fall. Ashley K was kind enough to help me with Sage in a few spots. That dog has endless amounts of energy. 

It was a gorgeous drive and a beautiful hike.

But the best part was spending the day with my best friends.  

Nephew #5

Colt Dallon was born at 6:43 AM on July 7th.

He weighs 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 inches long.

This makes us the happy aunt and uncle to FIVE nephews now and we couldn't be happier. 

Red Mud Run 2014

This year, Josh talked me into running the Red Mud Run with him on the 4th of July. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I decided I should at least try it once. 

I was really bummed that we wouldn't have any pictures since we were both running. But, about a half a mile in, we were surprised to find we had our own cheering section. Melanie and the boys had come to cheer us on. Honestly, right before I saw them, I wanted to quit. But after seeing them, I pushed myself and kept going. 

But first, I stopped to give them each a very wet hug!

Then I was off again. I only did one of the walls. The second one, some of the ropes were broken and the others were very short. I didn't think I could reach them. I told myself, I knew I could do it because I did the first one and ran past the second one. I also skipped two of the hay bale towers later. I've decided they don't build this course with short people in mind. 

Josh sliding into the giant mud pit.

This was the last hay bale wall. It was staked 3 giant bales tall and you jumped into a mud pit below. Josh said he had to wait several minutes for it to clear, because he didn't want to land on somebody. Unfortunately, the next person didn't give him the same consideration and landed right on his back. When I got to it, there was a young boy on to that was terrified and it was full of others trying to coach him off. I decided to just jump from the edge and continue on. 

One more wet hug before approaching the finish line. 

I did it!

It was a fun thing to do, but I don't know if I would do it again. I'm not normally a claustrophobic person, but I had several small panic attacks during the race that kind of took the fun out of it for me. Last year, the crowd cried for more mud, but I think they took that a little too far this year. 

For the Newest Nephew

I'm getting a new nephew this month. As I started rounding up my baby purchase I have made over the last several months, I realized: I'm pretty excited!!!! I didn't think I had that much. I had only been buying a thing or two, here and there. But apparently I did that a lot more than I thought I did.

Her family threw her a baby shower and the teachers she worked with did also. But I guess everyone was baby showered out because there never was a third one for me to attend. If I had known, I might have tried to sneak into one of the others. 

Baby clothes are pretty much the cutest thing ever. I wish I had an outfit that had a bear on the butt. (Well, not really, I don't need to draw attention there, but still, how cute is that!?)

I also couldn't resist this lion onesie pack.

I had a hard time finding something cowboyish, but I thought this campfire outfit was too cute to pass up on.

I also had to make sure the world would know he was an cool nephew with an awesome uncle and aunt.

I finished the package off with a few odds and ends. I bought several things to make a diaper cake, and this is just what was left over when I was finished, along with another package of diapers.

I really wanted to find a couple western style fabrics to make blankets with. That turned out hard to accomplish; I was in the fabric store several times. In the end, I did an outdoor blanket, a safari animal blanket and a western blanket and 2 burp rags of each.

After that, I thought my gift was complete. But while cleaning, I found a box with blankets and burp rags I keep for last minute gifts. I didn't even think to look in it while I was shopping for fabric. I decided to look inside and see if I needed to work on refilling it again, only to find more cowboy blankets! I just had to include them.

 

And a few more burp clothes.

I had to go to three stores before I could find a gift bag large enough to hold everything.

The last thing I wanted to do was make a diaper tractor cake for the baby shower. But my timing was bad. Literally an hour after I finished it (and ordered a few more things to make it a little cuter), I learned it had been cancelled.

Here is the final version. I didn't like how the moose had looked on it, so I ordered a stuffed cow and a binky/steering wheel. I think the cow made it so much cuter!

I looked at several ideas online and they all used different items for the tractor body. But in the end, I decided I couldn't go wrong with more diapers, wrapped in green receiving blankets.

The little guy's due date is July 9th. But I'm so excited to meet him, I wouldn't be sad if he came a few days early.