Uinta's Camping 2014

 Here's our long saga of our annual camping trip. Greg wanted me to document it well. So I have lots of video and pictures. We had perfect weather. Zero rain, windy at times, few bug bites, a little sunburn, no major injuries. It was great! There were well over 100 people from Greg's Bangerter Family up in the Black's Fork River area of the Uinta Mountains. The "Lorenzon" family all camped up on the little hill over looking everyone else. Here is our view from up by our camp fire looking out over all those cousins, Aunts, Uncles. We had to switch area's this year because some other huge group stole our usual spot! What?! We are hours away from civilization. How does that happen?!  :) There were like 20 cars. When Greg was growing up he said there would be like 7 cars. The family has grown and the generations continue to come up and camp. A unique thing.

I have to mention our beloved camper trailer. It's from 1972, it's old, kinda ghetto, but we sure LOVE having it! Truly, truly love it. It makes camping in the wilderness so nice. We eat lunch in it, play in it, try and take naps, hang out, make food, stay warm, or even cool, love the fridge, love that we all fit, and most importantly - love the bathroom. It makes me a happy camper.

 One evening we all went down to the river. To throw rocks, take pictures, hang out, and a bunch of little boys got wet clothes and ended up practically naked. But not my boys. They know their mom would be bugged about soaking their shoes. Mainly because I don't have a decent 2nd pair for any of them.

We always ride horses. And this year there were shetland pony's! The kids sure loved them. Cute little horses. We even made Jax ride one. He's allergic and usually stays away like me.

The whole group gathers for a brief campfire, singing, sometimes a program. And this night, a skit. Greg and his brother Rick and some cousins used to do Hans and Frans from Saturday Night Live back in the 1980's when they were growing up. They'd do it every year until adult hood. So Greg recruited our bro-in-law Abe, got cousin Chad and even Jax to join and they did it again. We are here to "Pump- You Up!" in a German accent of course. Everyone seems to love it and laugh. Silly stuff.

Poor Rafe was having a rough night (hence the no smile). He had to go to the bathroom and had been holding it for days. So he was crying every few minutes. Relief came right before bedtime. Greg said to document everything.:)

One day we did our Lorenzon family hike up to the second crossing (2nd time you cross the river) over an hour up for the boys. They were troopers. Then we fished for hours. They all decided this was the year to be brave and not grossed out by the fish and were touching and holding them like their daddy does.  I buy the worms for Greg to use. Aren't I awesome.

It was Rafe's 1st time fishing. And he caught one! Yeah! We (Ryan, Tommy & us) are all celebrating with him. Thanks for making it happen Greg!

One evening Greg borrowed a cousins motorcycle and the boys all got a ride. Rafe was scared seeing his brothers, but then decided to would be fun and tried it as well. 

And the boys explored and went and found an old BB-Gun war fort Greg and his brother made years ago. I think around when we got married or just before. So they are pretending to shoot in the picture. And then Abe and Greg figured on the last day while they were bored to just make a little log cabin. No big deal. What?! Abe used his chain saw, Greg hauled the logs and they pieced them together. Jax was proud because he helped chop part of the roof. The kids played and loved it. I think it's pretty awesome of them. Let's see if it's still around next year.

Here's a few left over random moments. Little boys every where peeing all over. Ha ha!  Greg is helping Rafe out. Nobody beets cousin James though, right? he he.

Then Creed could always be found down by the ponies. He would just walk them around like they were his little pet. I could never remember their names. So he would tell me all the time, it's Sunshine and Penny. He would love to pull the little kids around too. So cute. 

Then me down at the river taking pictures. I had my camera bag the whole time always taking pictures or mostly having my video camera on hand for capturing moments. Jax and I decided to try and make a Uinta's dance video to music. So I have lots of Lorenzon's dancing footage to go through. It will be fun. 

Then back at home. We had unloaded and the boys were waiting for Greg to buzz their hair. So they were doing a group hug and asked me to take a picture.

 And very last, the camping unpacking and clean up. Here's a load of socks and the dirtiest 2 pants and 2 shirts. Just a pre-wash rinse before soap. Yucky water man. Fun laundry day for me. NOT!

Flat Tire

 We started out our big annual camping trip like this...

 We had our pit stop in Evanston, Wy. for dinner and gas and then headed down I-80, took our exit off for our journey to go for over an hour on a dirt road. We were loving the huge wind mills when our engine tire failure light came on. So we pulled over to check our tires. Sure enough our back passenger side was low. And getting lower. :(

Luckily I have a capable hubby to take care of it. He whipped out the spare and got it changed. The boys thought it was a great adventure. They walked a ways down the road and explored around. Nice scenery, you can barely see the wind mills on the left side.

I enjoyed the evening light and snapped a few pictures. We decided that going on rocky dirt roads for the next 5 days with no more spare tires was not a good idea. So we headed back a few minutes and found a place open and able to help us patch our original tire to use as a spare. Here is Greg watching the guy.

Incredible views like this while you change a flat tire?? Pretty nice. And the Wyoming wind made it not so hot. It was 102 degrees back home. And 52 that night after we made it to camp.

 Boys, hold still! Trying to get some pictures...

 Now the sun has set, it's getting dark, what a great time to head into the mountains and pull into camp at almost 11pm. Ugh. Only 3 hours later than we wanted. Off we go!

And apparently jack rabbits like cars. We saw many just off and on the road. I'm sure our trailer got the ones our car missed. And it's funny. A few days before I had a dream that we got a flat tire. But in my dream it was our trailer and caused a lot of damage and trouble. After all these years of going up to the Uinta's we were bound to have a flat. Greg said his grandpa Bangerter used to load up like a dozen tires to use for all the flat tires when he was young back in the day.  It was our time to get one. We weren't the only ones either. Luckily it wasn't too bad. Just expensive. More on our camping adventures to come...

Camping #1

 Oh-A-Camping we will go. And go we did. Round 1, now we only have 4 more to go and one of them is the big one to the Uinta's. This one we went up to East Canyon Reservoir with the Erickson's. We went boating, and camped and boated the next day with our friends the Davies. I only have a few camping pictures though. So we have Bo by the campfire. Creed, Bo, and Rafe stayed up later than they have in their whole life. Bo and Rafe were up till about 11pm and Creed lasted a little longer like 11:30. They were so tired. I felt bad. It was a late start at the campfire and they really wanted to have that. I showed a mid-night photo of them sleeping and then in the morning the older 3 had slid down their pads to the bottom of the tent. It was funny. We were on a slight hill. I love the happy Rafe and groggy Creed in the morning.

 And I stuck another picture of Bodie doing his second round of swim lessons - this summer. This time we did private lessons. Maybe next year he'll be able to "swim" on his own. He'll do what the teacher wants, but then to do it on his own while swimming for fun, he just won't apply what he learned to get from point A to B. Always at his own pace I guess.

Grandma Day

 Last week my mom had her local grand kids over to her backyard-o-fun. She had a bunch of games and the boys loved playing with their cousins. We sure missed the Williamsen cousins that live in Oklahoma and actually just moved to Louisiana after this. We haven't seen them in several years. :(

Here's a few pictures of some action. My mom made a fun day for them. My dad just stayed inside and sat and either watched from the window or just went to his room to get away from the noise and crazy kids. Ha!

 And then she had lunch for them. Look at that table of food. They had plenty to choose from. Nobody left hungry.

Sick Bugs

 I have a whole slew of pics from some of our summer activities, but I'll save those for another time. Poor kids have been sick. Jax had strep, for the first time. Bo and Rafe had their usual cough that never goes away, and Creed has been lucky and didn't catch anything! Poor Rafe also had a fever one day. I looked over and saw him lying around on the hard floor falling asleep. Then I scooped him up.

But don't feel too sorry for him. Today while I was so excited to go roam around Target and was going to have the boys go look at the toys while I got to go look at what I wanted, Rafe turned into the demon and screamed the whole time. After I let the whole store hear him, I grabbed my herd of boys and marched out to the car and listened to him scream the whole way home. Jax had to help me hold him down so I could buckle him. Why you ask? Who knows! Some of it was not wanting to be in the cart, then he didn't want to get out, and the rest I couldn't really understand. It was an awful morning.

***

Yesterday Bodie became one with the Rollie Pollies or Potato Bugs. Whatever you call them. He had 4-5 crawling on him and picking them up. Quite happy. I remember as a child I loved them too. Until I examined them with a magnify glass. And didn't really touch them after that. :)

I have to instruct him that lady bugs and rollie pollies are fine to pick up and let crawl on you. Ants are not. :) - or anything else in my opinion.

***

What else? I love that Creed gets a low growl voice when he talks to his swim teacher or leaves messages on the phone to his friends. And he's become attached to his splint/cast he's been wearing for the last month. I keep seeing him with it on. It's time to take it off and not have to wear it anymore, but he says he likes it and it helps him. Whatever. 

Jax is always saying something is hurting on his body... his leg, knee, yesterday his wrist, and today was his neck. He still wakes me up in the night to tell me about his nightmare he had. And he has mastered swallowing a pill. When he had strep with his throat pain we gave him a pain pill. He says he is a pro now. And has a proud smile that he's old enough to take pills. ha ha.

A Wedding

 So Greg's younger brother Chris met Anna a few months ago and then... they got married! We are so happy for Chris to have found a bride. She is really sweet. She's from Italy and knows a little English, but now living here she will learn it better in time. It's cool having a sis-in-law with a strong Italian accent.

Jax and Creed were so excited to go to a real wedding and see a bride walk down the isle. Jax was on the isle seat so he thought it was so neat to be right there. They said their vows and exchanged rings, said yes and kissed. Jax enjoyed it all. There we are (Below) waiting for it to start. They had a casual wedding and got married in her uncles back yard. It was a fun evening. Jax will sure remember it. He kept whispering things in my ear about the whole evening. Rafe loved all the airplanes flying low over head going to the airport. Bodie and Creed loved the trampoline. And we all enjoyed the food.

 Chris and Anna saying "Yes" to each other. All these pics are from Greg's iphone. Everyone had their phones taking pics the whole night.

Here's our family with the happy couple. Congrats to them. We hope they have a great life together!

Amore La Lorenzon Famiglia.

Our Independence Day

 I know the 4th of July isn't all about Barbecues and Fireworks. It's also about Freedom, Liberty, and the birthday of our country. I read something similar somewhere. And I hope to be able to teach my boys about patriotism and the feeling it brings. And why I tear up in the parade when the military brings the flag by. John Adams said about the 4th of July "It will be celebrated with pomp and parade...bonfires and illuminations... from one end of this continent to the other." - and how! 

We enjoyed celebrating with family, friends, and neighbors, with the whole nation! We started out with the usual morning going to the Millcreek parade. I got to hold sweet baby Olive while the boys collected the candy being thrown. We watched with our friends, the Davies. Earlier in the morning, while Greg was with the YM putting up the neighborhood flags, Creed took his little brothers downstairs to camp out and sit and look at all the fireworks in the packages and boxes. He was sure getting excited. He had an order of which ones he thought should go first.

 We had our annual 4th of July party. We BBQ'd hotdogs and potluck from everyone. We ate and visited and the kids (and adult kids at heart, Greg and Abe) did a little water balloon fight. Once it finally started it sure ended fast.

 And then the firework show started. Of course I couldn't get the boys to hold still.

 We had sooooooo many fireworks. Look at the pile of loot on the ground. (middle picture) It was over an hour long. We were doing up to like 10 at a time. Then we also had lots of cool aerial fireworks. One fell over and shot right at us and the house. Yikes, so we put them in cinder blocks to make sure they didn't fall over again. We were lucky nobody got hurt. It was a little crazy with kids running everywhere all wanting to help light them. Next time we need to set some rules and enforce them. :)

It is fun to watch the kids get so excited. Rafe was a little scared so he sat on grandma Lorenzon's lap. Then with me and continued to ask to go inside and then please to go to bed. It was late, he was tired and refused to look up in the sky to see the ones shoot up. It made me laugh he was so stubborn about it.

Every year I always wear my patriotic bling, ha! My flag necklace. My boys love it and always want to touch it. I got it in NYC right after 9/11 so it is special to have year after year for me. And my little boys see me paint my toe nails and always want me to do theirs too. But I don't. I just think it's so cute they beg. Greg does not think that. :) Well happy July Celebrating to everyone!

Melting in the Heat

 St. George is hot. The dessert is hot! Enough said.

We went on my mom's vacation with out her. :( We headed down to St. George using her time share condo. She was unable to go because of caring for my dad. He's to the point that traveling that many hours and being out of his familiar home would be too confusing and probably agitating for him. So there was Greg and I and our boys, my sister Amy and her hubby Karl, and my bro Cameron and his kids. I sure wish my mom could have been there. We missed you! We also missed my sis-in-law Amy and Drew/Alecia/kids in Oklahoma. (soon to be Louisiana)

We did the famous "crack" of St. George. I barely fit through as I did it with all the kids. I was squished front to back ribs and breathing was hard at the skinniest part. But it was fun, they wanted to do it twice.

Then we went to see the temple. Such a pretty one. I love how bright white and "old" it is. Also one evening Greg and I were able to get away and go to the Temple.

 It was so hot. We couldn't get enough of the drinking fountain. And my mom sent us down with a little family history story to share with the kids during the building of the temple. The cousins had a fun time.

 We hit Snow Canyon early one morning. Jenny's Canyon, Petrified Sand Dunes, and then the White Bowl. Then as it got ridiculously hot we called it a day.

 I've shown this formation in a picture on my blog in the past, as we've been to it before. But I liked this picture. Greg is at the top, Cameron is at the bottom and the kids scattered between. It was fun to explore all around.

 Then we hit the pool. Everyday. Did I mention how hot it was. 100's everyday of course. 

And you see the black splint on Creed's arm?  Luckily we didn't cast it and so after swimming we removed his splint and dried it and voila! Put it back on and he loved being able to swim for hours everyday. Me too.

 Greg threw the kids a few times, they made trains and jumped in and out a bazillion times. We added a little floaty ring for Rafe and he was happy as could be on his own floating around. It was nice not to have to hold him the whole time.

Then an early start for Zion's National Park as well. We rode the shuttle up and hiked the Riverwalk to the Narrows, then we did Weeping Rock and had lunch and drove back to enjoy more pool time.

We also relaxed, watched some movies, played with cousins, ate, and took the kids to our favorite Rec Center to swim and play there too. Such a fun vacay! They all said swimming and hiking and eating at Chuck-a-Rama was their favorite. Greg had a bunch of free car rental coupons, so we rented a mini-van for us to drive down for this trip. The kids thought it was great fun.

Juin

 Some stuff from June. In French it's Juin. As my older boys will tell you.

We did a big Costco run. Rafe is hidden in just one of our carts. He didn't want to get out. A half year supply of stuff. Well a lot of junk food.  So we are stocked for snacks, vacation food and treats, movie treats for the summer.

On one cold and very rainy wintery summer day (last week) we went to Classic Fun Center to roller skate. I was excited to do it again. The boys have NEVER been before. Jax had a blast. Fell lots, flailing arms in balance and was proud of his record of 7 times around the floor without falling. Bodie cried at first not wanting to do it. Then seeing his friend out having fun changed his mind. Rafe and Bodie enjoyed it. Rafe stayed on the carpet with me the whole time. But thought it was great. Notice Creed sitting on the bench behind Bodie. Holding his arm and crying...

 

After less than 60 seconds of me getting his skates on. I turned to get Bodie's on and I hear Creed screaming and crying out in pain laying on the floor on the edge of the rink. And he continued to cry for the 2 hours we were there. We iced it for him. Let it "heal" for 2 days and then decided to get an x-ray. (3rd one for him in the last 6 months- btw) And sure enough. A buckle fracture. I spent hours on the phone trying to find a place to cast it for us before we leave town again. But in the end and after consulting our cousin who's an Orthopedic Surgeon he said it's fine to keep it in the splint for 3-4 weeks. He can remove it to shower. And we are a-ok with not casting it. 

The arrow is pointing to a "bump" it normally would be all smooth. And Creed's giving his arm a strange stare. He says he hates skating and never wants to do it again. I stayed with Creed and never did get my chance to skate again. Oh well.

 And I had to share just a little more of the incredible Lake Powell. The first one is the arm of the canyon we stayed in (Last Chance Canyon) and then somewhere in Forbidding Canyon again.

Greatest Place on Earth!

 We just came back from Heaven on Earth. Ha! They say Lake Powell is the greatest. And I'd have to agree. It is just amazing. I took way too many photos, naturally. So I narrowed down to just a few. Here is some of the scenery from cruising around on the boat. I felt like I was in a post card.

Here is Gregory Butte. Fittingly called my hubbies name. (he he) Our view from West Canyon.

And here it is from the other side from the mouth of Last Chance Bay. We stayed in this canyon, way towards the back. 

 

 And this is in Forbidding Canyon, where Rainbow Bridge is. I had to look at the pictures I took just before this to see where it might be. Then to look at a map to get the name.

Ok, now for the vacation details and pictures... this is long.

Tuesday morning we drove down towing our boat the 7 hours to Wahweap. Then loaded up the boat and drove almost an hour to the house boat we were staying at with 3 other families. Greg's sister and bro-in-law Andrea and Abe Denzer were going with some good friends and invited us to join. There were 22 of us on the trip. The Taskers and Smith's. We all fit on two motor boats to cruise around on. 

I got heat stroke while at the marina loading up the boat. And while driving out to the house boat I hadn't had anything to drink and then I felt nauseous and a bad migraine hit me. So I took medicine, threw up 4 times, and slept it off. I was just so hot. It was awful. Luckily we had an ER Doctor on board and he had some nausea pills I could take to get me under control again. That whole first evening was a blur. Did it really happen? What happened? I was so out of it. Greg was awesome and took care of me and the boys and our stuff getting settled. He's a keeper. :)

We bought the movie Frozen for the boys to watch on the way down and back. We knew they'd love it. And they did. On the Houseboat all the kids watched it again and we had a big group sing-along (shout along) to Let It Go.

We cruised around in the boat and explored everyday. It was so fun, so tiring, so sunny, so hot, and so great to experience it. I've been to Powell a few times. Greg has been lots. So it was neat to be there with our kids. And it was also SO different to be there with kids.

The day we hiked to Rainbow Bridge it was too bloody hot for me (100's) and I didn't want to risk heat stroke, so I waited half way up in the shade with Bo and Rafe. Man I don't do well in heat or freezing cold (like snow skiing).

 One day our boat had oil trouble so we didn't drive it and while Greg left on the other boat to go buy some oil, their new boat broke down. They were gone for hours, had to get towed and fixed, they lost a speaker while hitting the bad waves, it was a windy day. The rest of us stayed and played on the house boat all day. We had no way to contact them to see where they were. I was starting to get a little worried.

In the picture is our family on a rock bridge that is slowly getting deeper underwater everyday. I think they said the Lake is rising about a foot a day. We lost a little of our beach and had to move the house boat to adjust to the rising waters.

We spent our time with the Denzer's. Luckily we had the same idea on what to experience while on vacation. There was wake boarding, skiing, swimming, jumping, sliding, sand playing, fishing, exploring, and much more.

These are of Greg Cliff jumping, being a "homeboy" and driving us around some narrow canyons. We only scratched the front side bumper a little. :) - just one time.

 We swam, I actually didn't get in the water that much. Hmm, oh well. Rafe loved his sunglasses. He and Creed's hair got lighter from being sun bleached in the summer sun. The boys loved the fishing and watching fishing. The kids loved playing on the beach. For hours and hours.

One adventure we are sure to never forget, but we will have to rely on memories because we didn't have our camera with us was in Labyrinth Canyon. We drove our boat through the narrow canyon, then randomly found a sand patch to anchor to because it got really narrow after that. It's for Kayaks, in fact some were leaving and told us how far until the sand to hike and said there's no way to swim. But that didn't stop us. So then we loaded up the kids and swam over maybe 60 yards? 100 yards? Probably seemed farther than it was. But it was swimming through a thick layer of all the twigs, crap, muck, and prickly weeds you can imagine. Oh my yuck!

I was really not wanting to do it. Knowing my kids would whine and complain. Ugh! And Bodie and Rafe cried and screamed. But Greg and I had them, Jax and Creed swam it. Then by the end, we all made a Lorenzon Family train to get through it. Then we cleaned off, left the life jackets and explored an amazing slot canyon. In our bare feet. Prickly thorns, and hot sand. Bodie and Rafe had forgotten the gross swim out, and then quickly realized we had to do it to get back. Bodie didn't really cry but Rafe cried the whole way back. He didn't like it. But once clean and back in the boat with his towel he was fine.

Here I stole some pictures from the internet. This is what we walked through and saw. Beautiful and amazing. Creed got kinda dizzy and nauseous. I started too as well. Then back out to the gross swim back to the boat. But we did it, wow! As Andrea said to me, we are LIVING life, having a real adventure. Or something similar. :)

 Um, what else?

Jax tried water skiing for the first time. We counted and he tried getting up 10 times. He did it a few times, but immediately fell over. But I am so proud of him for trying. Creed loved the Easy Ski (tube ski thing). And poor Bodie didn't want to do it and didn't love it. But we made him. Look at his sad crying face. But he did it, and he finally stood up and we went super duper slow and he was super close to Greg holding him with the rope on the back of the boat. He smiled when every one gave him high fives after. But it didn't give him the desire to do it again.

 Riding on the boat for hours, being in the sun all day, loud motor and windy makes you just a little tired. There were plenty of naps by all the kids. I had to take pictures. Andrea was good and completely covered her kids in a towel. And they only got stepped on a few times, right? The kids thought a lumpy towel on the floor means you can step right on it. Kinda funny, as long as they didn't get hurt. :)

We sure sun screened our bodies and none of us really got burned. In fact I kinda don't even look like I got any sun. A little I guess. All the kids got rashes on their arms and chin from rubbing the life jackets all day every day. 

Did I mention I was the only one to get my own room. Greg would tease me about if I was enjoying "my state room". 4 bedrooms, each family got one. The 2 babies had the lower deck and the Smith's had the master and I had an upper bunk. There wasn't room up top with any padding and I was fine in the room with the fan blowing on me. It was so hot, only one night was "cooler". But I also survived with the fan's "white noise".

After a couple nights we moved Rafe from the living area to the top deck and he loved it! He was so excited to wake up in the morning and see the sky. We were worried about Jax. He sleep walked. He said he woke up and was across the deck on a lounge chair. We felt kinda freaked. So Greg kinda made a blockade so he couldn't just wander in the night and off the side to drown or something. One night his sleeping bag zipper was stuck all zipped so he couldn't get out easy. Scary!

Last picture: Our group in 2014!  All 22 of us on the house boat. Fun great people, great kids, good food, lots of memories.

There is Stirling and Rachel Smith and their little family, Scott and Heather Tasker and family, Andrea and Abe Denzer and family, and then us. All the kids had a great time. 11 boys and 3 girls.

The 3 other families...(Stirling, Rachel, Stockton, & Hazal Smith) (Scott, Heather, Griffin, Weston, Cami, & Strider Tasker) (Abe, Andrea, Lucy, Will, James, & Andy Denzer)