5th Annual Backpacking Trip

August 5-8

Turkey Creek, CO

Written by:  Dallin the awethome.

With the trunks totally and completed loaded full of stuff we'd be needing on our, "treacherous journey"

Little did they know of the torture that awaited them....

(Especially Hayden, cause it was his first time going)

Before

The expectations/way-da-photo's-supposed-to-look

Da-REAL-DEAL

(Utterly exhausted)

We lived off of fish, especially the Breinholts. They were positive they would catch something, since several of their meals had the main course as fish.

I'm glad we caught some fish. It was absolutely delicious

You never feel "Pro", "Legit", or whatever you call it until you pass into "The Wilderness"

Showin' off the guns.

"Hey yo BABY! Check out da Gun-Show goin' on over HERE! Boom! BANG!!! Fire-Power!"

-Mr. Thinker from Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Our happy little camp looked something like this.

Heading out after the first day of sleeping with a root in our backs. Still going strong!

This was probably the first time we ran into someone on the trail in all the years that we have done this. He was lost, had been out there for some weeks, was trying to hike to a totally different mountain, was super friendly, needed a friendly pointer in the right direction, and he decided that he would go back into town to buy some more food, then hike for several more weeks to get to where he was trying to go.

The classic water fall. Only the brave dare jump into the water that is probably below freezing during the hottest point of the day. I DID IT! I've done it for several years and it hasn't gotten any warmer. Like, at all.

The small group of "Elites" that had the courage, man-power, will-power, strength, tolerance, and all that fun stuff to jump in, swim across, pose, and not get hypothermia in the process.

Daphne and Rachael. The only girls that have gone on the backpacking trip.

At our trips end, it just wouldn't be fit to not stop by at Boss Hogs and get something to eat.

Hammerheads Take City!

August 1, 2015

Citywide Swim Meet

For the first time since the Gariety kids have been swimming with the ABQ Metro League, the Eisenhower Hammerheads won first at city!!  I'm really proud of my four swimmers for their hard work this summer, and super excited for this great achievement of our team this year!  (Photo credit for most of these goes to Untle Nay Nay, aka Uncle Nathan, aka Nathan.)

Go Hammerheads!!

July Quotes

Hayden:  Mom, can we go to Inside Out after lunch?

Dallin:  No, when we get home, we should do something productive.

Hayden:  We just did a SWIM MEET!

Daphne: Yeah, that's like 4 hours of production.

Sydney on the way home from church:  I thought we were going to the La Cueva ward!

Me:  We did.  That's where we just were.

Sydney:  What?  That was it?  Hayden said it was gonna be fun.  But it WASN'T!

(Hayden probably meant primary, and we went home after sacrament, since it was our second sacrament meeting of the day!  three hours of church is about all we can take round these parts.)

Sean:  I think it's impossible for me to ever get all my wiggles out.

Me: (waking up from a nap and hearing someone in my bathroom)  Who's in there?  Bennett?  Is that you?

Bennett:  Doe bat to sleep, Mom!  (Go back to sleep, Mom)

Oh, that can NOT be good.  Sure enough, he had gotten into my make-up and dumped it everywhere. And that's how I keep Mary Kay in business.

Me: No more snacks; Daddy is picking up some dinner for us.

Sydney:  Dinner?  I LOVE dinner.  It's way better than . . . . working.  I love eating and playing.  That's all.

(me too, syd.  me too!)

Sydney was sobbing today after church because she was in the car that got home second.  She wailed, "I hate losing!"

While I was making dinner, Bennett was taking all the cans out of the cupboard and putting them on the counter.  I said, "Are you helping me?" He said, "Mm hmm.  I matin' breatfast." (makin' breakfast)

While riding home from a friends house, Sydney spilled a bowl leftover watermelon/juice on the seat of the car.  Everyone started moaning, "Oh, Sydney!"

Sean: Gross it looks like barf!

Daphne: NO, it does not . . .  uh yeah, it does actually.

And from henceforth, the name of that seat is "Barf."  He's actually a pretty popular seat to claim.

Sydney:  Why are you brothers so mean??!!  You keep eating all the fruit snacks!

After Sean and Bennett accidentally bonked heads, Bennett said, "Sean, I just want to bont your head adain! (*bonk/again.)

I recently overheard Sean encouraging Bennet to eat some food off the floor.  He said, "Bennett, come eat this fruit snack!  It'll build up your immune system."

Bennett:  one, two, SEVEN!!!

Hayden (while camping):  Have you ever noticed that the nights are longer when you are camping?

Sean:  Hayden, they aren't longer, it's just that you're awake for most of it so it SEEMS longer.

Bennett (while hiking):  My legs making STRONGER!

Dallin kept talking to Daphne while Sydney was trying to sleep.  After awhile she said, "Can you stop getting the sleepiness out of me?"

Sydney:  BENNETT!! We're all going TO DIE!

(not sure what Bennett was doing, but apparently something quite fatal.)

Fighting over who had to sit in the back seat, Sean tried this tactic to get Syd to move back:  "Sydney, you need to learn not think about yourself so much."

Bennett is picking up on the bad whining habits of some of his siblings who "never get" this or that.  At dinner one night when he was given a plastic plate instead of a glass plate he moaned, "I neber det a plate!"  (I never get a plate.)

Hayden:  I have lots of sides, Mom.  A good side, a bad side, happy side, mad side, sad side.  And hooligan side.

(boy isn't that the truth?)

Colorado Camping

After we got back from NYC, Nathan stayed to come camping with us up in beautiful Colorado.  (Oh I love it there.)  We camped for three nights at a place called Sportsman's Campground, went hiking, fishing, played games and ate delicious camping food.  All the kids from Dallin through Sydney caught multiple fish which was pretty exciting.

The last day, we went to visit Mesa Verde.  It was raining the whole time we were there, but it let up enough for us to walk down to see the Spruce Tree Dwellings. (I think?) Well, we saw some cool cliff dwellings--the closest ones to the visitor's center and they were awesome.

The bummer is I forgot my camera at home, so all of our pictures were phone pics, which doesn't do it justice, but you still get the gist.  We LOVED having Nathan with us on this trip.  We all adore him and hope he didn't mind being squished in our car and roughin' it in the mountains with us.  It was so great to spend some time with my "littlest" brother before he leaves for his mission in a few months!

"My legs making stronger!!" ~Bennett