Charles in Charge

Trav's side of the family goes big or goes home.

This is home base. Trav's parents just closed on this beautiful home in the Park City/Heber area. We fit 6 1/2 kids under the age of 5 and 10 adults in this pad.

We eased into the week long reunion with an 8 mile bike race up Sundance.
I would like to say that I did it all but I was two minutes late to register for the race and I guess the people didn't want to take my money so they shut me out! I was going to bike up anyway with the crowd, but when we got down to the start of the race, the lamos said, "you have to have sleeves to race," (I guess its more professional that way) and I only had on a tank top. I got mad and just biked the two miles up the canyon where we parked. I was huffing and puffing pretty hard, that 8 miles up would have killed me.

On the other hand, Wes, my fabulous brother in law, gave the shirt off his back to Kimberly. She also only had on a tank top, but had already paid for the race. Poor guy had to bike up with a mountain bike and no shirt or helmet. What a stud!

These were our awesome fans

Next event was the camping trip. No, not just an ordinary camping spot. We went to a place in the Uintas where 4-wheel drive was required and the only living things around for miles were the blood thirsty mosquitoes. They were so happy to see us.

We got to stay in this extravagant car tent away from the dirt and bugs.

This is the inside

Avery did pretty good the first night, but the second night, I had to remember that I didn't have a newborn baby. She woke up every two hours! Desperate times call for desperate measures and the only way she would go back to sleep was a midnight cap. So I basically nursed her all night long. So naturally, in the morning, I was starved and could have eaten a cow. I'm so happy that Kimberly was in charge of breakfasts because I gobbled it up. Thanks Kimbi.

Camping was fun. We hiked, ate, had fires, talked, went on walks, etc.

We made an important discovery with Avery. When she refuses to take a nap, put her in her stroller and start walking. Its a guarantee, even if she was kicking and screaming before, that in ten seconds, she will be asleep.

A special thanks to Kimberly (again) for letting us borrow fleece PJ's for Avery. It was perfect that they were huge because it wouldn't allow her to crawl around at night. Also a special shout out to Traci for having the guts to go out running all by herself with all the lions, tigers and bears around.

I think I am done camping for the year!

Other fun things we did were:

ATVing up Daniels Summit

Can you tell Tracie was a first timer!

We made a nude slip and slide in the backyard

(I tried to find the least explicit photos)

We also went to outdoor BBQ's and concerts throughout the week.

We were extremely busy this trip, and I almost need a vacation from my vacation, but we had the best time!!! Kevin was an all-star planner. I loved the games, the desserts, the scenery, the bike rides, the tennis tournament (notice how I didn't go into detail on that one, oh that's because we lost to the Wilton's, boo!), the swimming, and of course the people!

We have a whole month left here. Trav starts his rotation on Monday so the playing will not be as intense. I miss this place. I think I am one with the mountains, and they will be hard to leave!

Keepin' up with the Jones's

It all started with the Jones/Butler side.

We sprinted out of our car as soon as we pulled into Draper. We were in that bad boy for 18 hours!!! Avery did great, Delores (our car) was who we were worried about. She was acting up, so we couldn't go over 60 MPH for half of the trip. Very frustrating!

Anyway, as soon as we got to Draper, we said hi to the parents and the Jolley family, then we slept. We had driven the whole night and were dilirious. As soon as we caught up on our sleep, we left to go camping. We went to Scofield with the whole Butler side of the family.

This was Avery's first camping trip

She loved all of her cousins and all of the attention. She didn't love the tent. We wussed out and ended up sleeping on the floor of my aunts little cabin. So much for catching up on sleep.

The thing I think I will remember the most about this little trip is when we decided to take one rhino and fill it with me, Trav, my dad, TC all four grandkids and snikkers the dog to venture on a very steep and scary ride. My mother in law would have been so mad. For some crazy reason I just trust my dad with my life. I don't know why because I was scared for most of the trip, but it worked out.

It was a short and sweet trip, one day. My family is not the camping type and by the end of the trip we had to call the "wah"mbulence.

I either look like a giant or my sister looks like a pygmy in this picture

A couple of days later we decided we hadn't had enough of the great outdoors, so we went to Snowbird ski resort. We didn't really have a plan. We knew we wanted to hike a little bit. My mom had the brilliant idea to hike up to the tram and back with a baby. I was reluctant, but I guess I trust her with my life too, so agreed. Again, here I am, alive to tell the story, but I don't know if I will keep this trusting my parents with my life business up.

This is how the story went:

We were all happy and content, maybe even a little bit of singing was going on.

I was noticing that the trail was getting harder and harder to see. Before we knew it, the trail was gone and we were on the face of the mountain. Come to find out, we didn't even start on the right trail.

I was tempted to turn around, but it was pretty steep. We continued on and found some sort of trail. We definitely ignored the signs that said to stay off. I kept thinking, "aren't those the kind of signs you obey, its a freaking mountain and people die here!"

Our little girl was doing awesome. We did have to stop and feed her (I wasn't planning on such an intense hike and didn't bring much food so had to feed her the natural way), change her and even switch drivers

It started to get long. The temperature seemed to be plummeting along with Avery's patience (OK and mine too). The beautiful scenery all of a sudden turned into a snowy tundra. Avery had had enough of the backpack, so my mom took her out and held her and she quickly fell asleep in my moms arms. It was getting pretty slippery. We had to walk on the side of my mom so she wouldn't fall. Each step was pretty scary. We were getting pretty close, when we noticed one of those rescue sleds on the side. We snatched it up, had my mom sit on it with our sleeping baby (I don't know how she slept during all of that) and pushed the sled.

The operator of the ski lift was watching all of this. I was so embarrassed, I was going to pretend that my mom was Avery's mom!

We got to a point where the snow was cleared and in 20 minutes we were at the top!

Avery was the coolest baby that day!

We were a little scared to ask the tram attendant if we could grab a lift since we didn't pay for a ticket. He was the nicest guy and said that since we hiked a the way up here, we could ride down for free. Thank you Steve!

We were so spent!

We were 11,000 feet high

We are a little retarded, but what a fun adventure. One of these days I'm not going to live to tell the story.

The rest of the week consisted of swimming, BBQ's, movies, games, etc

I love my crazy family! Even if they are trying to kill me.

This was just the beginning...