Blessings and Transitions

In March my husbands' seizures increased so much that he had no more time off at work - even with his doctors FMLA paperwork for time off. She was unhelpful this year in changing medication to something that worked better as the two he was on had stopped working. Unhelpful with filing the new needed paperwork for him to retain his job and unwilling to do anything that might have helped us. Needless to say, she isn't our doctor anymore.
Not that it makes a huge difference as we are uninsured until I've been at my new job for 3 1/2 months. At that time we most likely would have been searching for a new doctor who took our new insurance anyhow.

Leap ahead I was offered 3 jobs - huge blessings as I've been a stay at home mama for 13 years - on my 39th birthday I was offered the job I truly wanted. Its 7 minutes from my home, I stay busy all day long and time vanishes quickly. Even better I have work I enjoy and feel like I do a good job in my position.

Hubby's having a go at being the stay at home dad. He's doing a great job and he's still mostly sane even being around our dastardly duo 24-7.
Our life has been full of ups and downs, after 12 years at his job building up a decent 401K we cashed out enough to pay off tiny bills and buy ourselves a small unretirement gift.

After searching for a while we found a wonderful gem. A 40 yr old class C motorhome in near perfect condition! (insert squeal here - louder)

I made a joke as we drove it home that he had just bought his own dog house (joking, just joking).
He came back with that as long as we have it we will never be homeless - touche, he wins the point.

Our amazing friends S & S thought we should run it up for a quick trip over Labor Day Weekend (since I had it off paid) to test it out - they, of course, came with us in their RV to make sure we were safe. Also, they adore camping. S's parents also bought a class C RV (2018) this year and wanted to test it out so they joined us. We had an incredible time.

This year has been full for us, so many blessings, so many changes and lots of new experiences.
Prissy was asked to Homecoming next week and our small circle seemed to flip. Dress from a friend, shoes from our neighbor, nails being done by my bestie S & hair cut by me - most likely styled by me as well.

Winter will be spent fixing up the motorhome, we want to paint inside and outside, fix the brake light, the hot water line & change the valve on the propane. We also are going to give it a tune up and change out the fuel filter. Lots of little things that will give it the TLC love it needs to shine. It truly surprised us camping - everything works! Furnace, AC, propane, stove, sinks, toilet, onboard generator etc. Even more amazing it made it up Parleys Canyon! (For those of you who don't live in Utah it is a main road up a mountainside with a 6% grade for MILES to reach the top. It's not the grade of steepness that makes the road so hard to get up but the length in which you need to drive your car up that steep of a climb. Its burnt out more than one engine.)

So while our garden has been amazing and I've already canned several fun things this year I really have been to busy to blog - on any of my blogs. Not even the most amazing surprise birthday love from all my neighbors this year - so hi, still alive, still here, still making it one day at a time.

Camping!

Camping!

Our camp site was roughly at 9,000 feet.

However we did take a day trip down to Current Crick.

Just one of the amazing days up in the mountains with the best people!

Our camp site! 

On one of our many nature hikes I stopped to take a great photo and the hubs snapped one of me!

So here is the shot of me, followed by the shot I was taking!

I could have stayed there forever!
(please forgive my disheveled appearance it was day 3 of camping and I really didn't care at all what I looked like.)
I mean really, who needs to look beautiful when everything around you is stunning!?!

I have to say I needed this camping trip!

Its been a stress filled summer and taking a week away to rest, relax and unwind was heavenly!

The stars at night were magical! 

Our site was directly underneath the milky way and at night (the moon NOT up) 

the sky was bright!

There are no words for how amazing the sky is far from the city lights!

I could try to talk about the inky blackness, the dark deep velvet of night, the shimmer and the brightness along with the depth of light.

How it looks so deep you could dive in and swim away to the furthest star in no time at all, yet if you don't have the imagine in your mind its just not the same.

Fall is coming.

Already the trees were turning yellow!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much, I've had a rough summer. 

Then I've two weeks of constant apples (canning, slicing, peeling ect)

Today is prayerfully my last day of apples - next I start on cucumbers!

Early Morning Mountain Walk

Sunday morning  I took our dog (tiny one Patch) and Rocko (HUGE one) for an early morning walk, while the men made breakfast.

There are few ways I'd rather wake up in the morning than a solitary hike through gorgeous terrain.

Very few. 

Maybe only one.

The dogs were well behaved during both our walk and the whole trip. For two dogs that don't spend a lot of time together then being put into a camper for a few nights they were amazing!

Most of the time the sky was a bright blue, the first night we had a light fog roll in over the mountain range, making some of my photos hazy, but it cleared up and stayed clear the rest of the trip.

Glasses not mine, overalls mine

Breakfast Saturday: Pancakes, eggs (fresh from our girls) and sausage.

Then of course I headed back out with my camera to do more exploring, photos and hiking.

More on the wildlife and adventures tomorrow! 

Camping Night One

Did I mention that I'm biased to Utah's stunning beauty? That I find our mountains to be gorgeous?
If I haven't I've been lax.
Camping this weekend, the end of summer, Autumn already starting to show signs of starting in the mountains was glorious!
I loved our whole trip. Friends, food and an amazing view.

The sunset over the ridge the first night lit up the entire sky, soft rosy reds, pinks and a light orange hue rounded it out.

Our entire group consisted of 13 people. 9 adults 4 kids. Most of us have been friends for years but there were a few new faces. M is recently engaged to R. Welcome R to the group! Also L & N came along getting to know the rest of the group. L and I've been friends for years, but her life recently changed where she can go on adventures and play again.

If you click on any of the photos you can view them larger. 

No good camping trip would be complete without S'mores!

This was a fairly short trip, we went up Saturday and came home Monday. I still managed over 300 photos, some of which turned out amazing!
More posts to follow!

2012 Camp Out pt 2!

My family

Have I ever mentioned how much I love these guys?

Next week school starts for my dastardly duo and I am in rush mode now to get the last of everything ready!

Clothes, bags, supplies, meeting teachers...

It was really nice to go up and spend some one on one private time with them.

We (along with another couple) rented this camper for a few days.
It was amazing!
It allowed us to go off trail and still have a potty!
By the last two days we had 14 people!
It was so much fun going up with such a large group!

The view from our camp site (above)

Also on a side note for those that follow my blogs, this area is up behind Heber, Ut.

The Lake is Mill Hollow Lake.

This is the region, the second half of book one, The Altered Lives of Lily and Ivy is set in.

(to be published soon)

My hubby and his wolf's head walking stick

now both of my kids want their own!

Seriously my kids never left Sue alone! 

Every time I turned around they were all over her!

Thank you so much for being a grandma to my kids.

 This was just a roof...

no floor, no walls, just a random roof in the middle of the woods.

Patch had a ball! 

He ran, chased squirrels, begged food and got very very dirty!

Can't wait to go again!

2012 Camp out

Camping!

We went up for 4 days, off trail up by Mill Hollow Lake

The kids got to shoot (paintballs) ride 4 wheelers, hike, cook, chase squirrels and so much more!

Everyone including Patch had a great time!

The weather was cool with a brief rain.

The night cool, but not cold.

The food was great!

Visit HERE for full menu

Our friend's Married almost a year and still doing great!

Can't wait to go camping with them again next year!

 My kids new adopted grandma!

Sue was always with one or the other of my kids!

Thanks for being such a great sport!

Sara doing what I love best about camping!

Book Blog and my week

Following in the footsteps of a friend, I have created a blog just for my writing.
This blog will remain about my family and weight loss. I did not write in yesterday about my weight as I did not lose anything this whole week.
I found the problem though and should again start losing weight.

Advice: when trying to lose weight make sure your carbonated flavored water is sodium free.

That said I will also mention that it snows in Southern Utah. A fact that us Northern Utah people sometimes forget. Like I did this last week when I packed up the whole family and drove them down to Escalante Petrified Forest for an out door camping trip. In the hopes that it would be much warmer down south. We lasted one night only because we were unwilling to leave our camping gear behind to make a beeline for a hotel. So instead we pulled the kids into our sleeping bags and huddled shivering all night long. Early morning as the condensation dripped through the tent and onto our heads we packed up and ran for home.
Vowing never to try camping again so early in the year. Best part of our trip was seeing several herds of deer.

Today we finished putting away the last of our camping items and won't try to camp again until June (alright maybe May), I am a gluten for punishment.

Hubby has managaed to lose another two pounds and is now down to 280!!

Little man can now count out loud to five, this is huge as he has only wanted to sign before and now he is vocalizing!!!