Annual Harker Cabin Bash

We look so forward to coming to Montana every summer. This place is so temperate, green and peaceful. The cabin crowd is so diverse, loud, and hilarious. Two things never cease to amaze me about the Harker/Dernick family. The first is that they never, ever stop cooking while on vacation. Here is what has been whipped up by the queen bees since I showed up just yesterday: chocolate chip cookies, chocolate fudge ice cream, strawberry shortcake, pulled pork barbeque, breakfast burritos, chocolate triple-layer cake, chicken salad crossaints, huckleberry milkshakes, chicken enchiladas, pico and salsa galore, and blueberry muffins from scratch. I have realized that my cooking reprituar is very limited. Poor Brad when we get home:) The second is how many trips to town the group cumulatively makes in 1 day. Today was around 9.

Highlights thus far have included the following:

• Logan and I missing our plane after running like crazy people through the airport and meeting the most impossible lady employed by the airlines
• Logan and I waking up at 3:00 A.M. in the Luxor to catch our flight to the Missoula airport, 3 hours away from the desired destination
• Brad getting a blow-out on his way to get us, and the three of us seeing the worst car accident we've ever witnessed directly in front of us
• Brad using zero discretion and letting Logan ride into town with him on the Harley
• Logan putting in atleast 3 hours a day on the waverunner and not allowing anyone else to drive it
• Grandpa building a patio and a sandbox all in one week
• Mike shocking us by arriving with a stunning beard and full mustache. (looks a bit sophisticated but frightens the kids away)

To be continued......

Road trip!!

So the morning after getting home from the AI concert, we headed with the Harwoods to San Diego to fight the pit crowd at a Coldplay concert. They played in an outdoor ampitheatre that held 20,000 loyal fans. Holy crap, it was much better than Salt Lake had been. The highlights of the trip were as follows: Stephanie practically beat (with a flailing glowstick) some low-life chickas that stepped in front of her at the concert. Don't mess with a 4'10" Coldplay groupie or you will get hurt. Justin has a legitimate phobia of bridges, which became appearant as he white knuckled and sweat bullets while driving us to Coronado Island. He also has a serious co-dependence problem with the lady on the navigation system. Brad insisted on Justin trusting him, but Justin couldn't do without the soothing voice letting us know to turn off in 4/10ths of a mile. Max travels well and attracts a scene. I took Tramadol both days, which causes me to say and slur conversations that should never be repeated. Death Valley was 122 degrees. What a great time with the Harwood fam.

Really, really happy week

Steph, Lora, Tanya, Kim, Nattie, Leah having fun w/o us

Steph, Nattie, Tanya, me, Steph

Savannah, Kiara, Kaile, Ryker, Logan, Halle (Nixon and Christian sleeping)


So this last week was a pretty wicked awesome one. And I am soooo paying for it now. My body has declared war on me since I arrived home. And it was worth every second. Steph Farrer and I drove to Salt Lake for a reunion with some of our girlie friends that we miss very much. We had a great time catching up. We got to see Tanya while she was in the country, Laura Denny before football season starts in Buffalo, Laura G. before her Malaysia/Tolman world trip, Natalie, Stephanie T, Kim, Leah, and all of the husbands and kiddos. I am a lucky girl to know such fabulous girls. Logan and I stayed with Rach and Ty, which is always a treat. Max broke in her carpet with a few accidents:) Sorry Rach. AND, I got to meet Jamie's manlove, Christian. They are so getting married before its all said and done.

And now for the highlight of the Salt Lake visit. Steph F. and I went to the American Idol Tour concert on Tues. night. Oh snap, it was one of the funnest nights of my life! We sat, well stood, in the middle of the second row. I can't decide if I should be more embarrased that I got on Steph's shoulders to get Adam to wave to us, or that we ran through sprinklers, tried to pay off little girls, and waited for over an hour to meet and get pics all of them. Or maybe I am most embarrased about what I talked about with Danny Gokey, or that I only got a pic of Steph's forehead while she was meeting Chris Allen cuz I was too excited to focus the camera. Oh, brother. Lil, Megan, and Anoop all sounded much better live. Matt and Chris RAILED on the piano, and Adam did a few things that made you feel like you should be closing your eyes. But boy can perform. And he did The Muse proud. Alison was perfect as always, and Chris was out of sight. The music was all sooo good. The Fray, the Killers, the Beatles, Bill Withers, Tears for Fears, Heart, Alicia Keys, Journey, Ray Charles, Pink...... now that is a shmorgasboard of artistry all in one night.

Yihoo for our favorite summer day!

God bless America. And Canada. And happy birthday to a really amazing person named Kate. So yesterday was a kick in the pants. So much so, that I was compelled to blog about it while everyone else is making dinner and wondering where I have gone and hid. So I woke up on the third feeling really sad that we wouldn't get to spend the day with some of our favorite people like in previous years, but soooo dang glad that we have the Harwoods and Farrers to share good times with. Also, we are lucky to have enjoyed Joe, our neighbor who entertained us with his unbelievable stories and reminded us about why we celebrate. He has seen and lived the ugliness of war after war like no one else I know. He loves this country with a profound depth that none of us, (especially Brad;)) can understand. And, he makes a wicked awesome batch of baked beans. We were really glad that Eric, Aspen, and Autumn Bueshae came out to spend the daynwith all of us.

We swam, we ate, we blew things up, we watched fireworks, we blew more things up, and we stayed up way too late making fun of each other. And Ralph, the neurotic schnauzer, survived yet another traumatizing 4th of July.

Quick update so that I can post July 4th

Baseball cupcakes for some hard-core atheletes

A fun swim day in the oh-so-hot sun

Logan's hilarious group of T-ball extraordinaires

Month of June happenings:

• Packing, moving, unpacking, greeting 1,000 subs/day who came to the rescue when things didn't work right
• Sandblasted the pool, killed the cockroach colonies, skowered the premise, scrubbed the house
• Got our first neighbor, good 'ole Joe. He deserves his own post, and will get one soon.
• Great days at the lake
• A fun visit from mom, Bailee and dad
• Busting through into the awkward phase of being introduced to the ward as a new visitor for several weeks in a row
• A weekend with Val
• Lots of beautiful walks
• Lots of Logan's T-ball games
• Way too much Benadryl, some sad tears, and a successful placement of Tillie into an adoptive family who loves her as much as we do. And they are cousins of mine, so we get to see her in town whenever we want. Okay, seriously.... the allergy problem became super, uber dysfunctional.

R.I.P cockroaches, R.I.P

Let me introduce myself. I am a cockroach, the most pointless and prevelant creature in these badlands. My 10,000,000 frinds and I own the greater Saint George area. Like all the others who have gone before me, I chose to die in the designated 'dead roach spot'. The Harkers wake up every morning of their life to many dead roaches around the premise, but always one right in this very place. It's the sweet spot.

The dog is still alive :)

Well, we must love this little girl much more than anticipated. I think that the following facts prove that Brad and I are forever-changed people:

• Tillie has peed on interior soft surfaces over 30 times
• As our allergy becomes more desensitized, we pop less benadryl
  
• She sheds black hair on our white sheets, and I don't freak out
  
• She got super-duper sick and spread her diarrhea at least 20 times in the house within a 24 hour period, and we cleaned the green goo up every time (not that we had a choice)
  
• We spent the second half of the night, the next two days, and way too much money at the animal ER to save her little canine life
• We both just about lost it to hysterics (okay, that was just me) when we thought she was dying of parvo
  
• We are getting her shirts that are far cuter than anything in our current wardrobes

So we are totally loving this little cutie, and crossing our fingers that she will do well in our next house.Why wouldn't she? Well for starters, she can't swim and I can't find any cat-size life jackets out there so far. Secondly,we have been warned by 3 separate people not to leave her outside alone. Ever. Reason? So that one of the giant hawks out where we live does not pick her up and fly her away as a hearty meal. Are you kidding me? Wish her luck =-)

This is going to be a long blog session

Today is Friday! Yihoo! But it is also 6 weeks since my last entry, so I will try to journal the recent happenings of our life here in St. George. I think I will resort to list form in order to keep my thoughts on track. Here it goes:

End of April- May

• Continued coaching gymnastic classes at Logan's school/gym until my ambition lost out to my physical therapist's voice of warning. So, we put that one on hold for now.
• Lots of evening bike rides, including one worth remembering. I took Logan down into a deep canyon trail behind the house, only to discover that the only ways out were to hike up a ravine, or walk through super deep sand while pushing the bike. Brad found us and climbed down to our rescue just after dark. Logan thought we should have camped out with all of the bunnies. 
• We drove home to Idaho to spend time with the family, see my sister's new home,  and see mom home from her trip to India. Poor mom was very sick for too long after she got back. What an unbelievable adventure she had. We were so lucky to be in Idaho Falls for Laura's wedding. We got to spend a day with many of Brad's cousins, their kids, and Grandma Peggy. Seeing our friends and neighbors definitely pulled at the heart strings. But the kicker was saying bye to nieces and nephews. 
• Kim and Peyton came to spend that next week with us! We tried to squeeze a lot into a little bit of time, and we LOVED having them here with us. 
• Harwoods slept over again and joined us in Zion's park for the day. 
• Mom and Dad Harker came to St. George two different times. On the second visit we drove all through the park, and then joined a lovely polygamist family for the bus tour. Val is the greatest person on the planet to accompany you anywhere that is remotely fascinating. I thought her Oooohhh's and Aaaaah's were going to cause her a heart attack:) We love ya Val. The scene truly was stunning that day-like heaven on earth. Oh yeah, and I contemplated crossing the Virgin River to get back to the fam after taking a long, wrong path. (Any patterns forming?:)
• Logan graduated from preschool with a bang. His part, "Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun," was delivered with virtually no flaws. Well, except for the fact that he can't say "from". The program was hilarious.
• Logan also started T-ball with a team in Santa Clara. Wow, what a player he is. He even tackles his own teammates on occasion in attempt to get the ball. 
• We have spent some super-duper fun boating days on Sand Hollow lake with the Farrers, Nasals, and Harwoods. The water has thus far definitely lent itself more towards tubing than wakeboarding. The surfing, however, has been fab. 
• We spent the Memorial Day weekend with the Harwoods in Vegas so that we could all experience Lake Mead on an uber windy day. We still had a great time watching Reese tear it up on the surfboard, and Hoover Dam is lookin' good. 
• Brad is headed to Idaho this weekend to load up our house and get it ready for the renters that will be moving in this week.

This next event was life-altering, impulsive, and just plain stupid. We are the semi-proud new owners of a ......... well, we aren't really sure what she is. Brad thinks she is a miniature pinscher. I think she has a little bit of chiwawa, beagle, or maybe pug. Actually, she slightly resembles a cute rat. We got a bit of wool pulled over our eyes from a nice lady in North Vegas. The dog's name is Tillie, she poops and pees A LOT, and she acts as though she has just had too much caffeine all.......day........long. Despite the chaos, Logan is in high-heaven. Knowing that it will take a while to find new friends at our next house, we felt like he needed something to occupy his time. It's working!!

I would say that the level of intensity in our family is quite high, but we are staying sane through all the changes. Brad is doing well at work and handles the stress of the industry with patience and grace. I am definitely lacking in that department when it comes to my unsolved mysteries. As far as expanding the human numbers in our family, no dice yet. I did have a hystersalpingogram and a repeated round of blood work this month. Fortunately, everything still checks out to be totally normal. We are trying to decide which route to take next. We love our ObGyn, but need to find a good AI Doc in the Salt Lake or Vegas area. I feel a much greater deal of stress regarding my hips/back/pelvis than I do about fertility. Pretty sure that something needs to happen to my body before pregnancy takes place. I am totally burned out from  the pain. It just hurts so dang bad, all the time. Seriously, I don't know what is happening after 4 years of trying to fix it all! I sometimes wonder if trying to stay of my feet for a few months would let everything heal. But that is totally impossible to do. Besides, someone would have to drug-induce a coma to get me to stay down that long. So many emotions. So desperate and exhausted. Soooooo over it. :)

So that's a wrap. We are having a very fun and adventurous summer. I am so grateful to live in a place surrounded by beautiful things everywhere, and to have fam and friends close enough to see. I am going to put up some fun pics of Logan to go along with the journal recap. But first I am going to pick up Tillie's poop. Aahh, bliss. 

"Urrrrrranus is the seventh planet of, uhh for the sun."

Graduation Day

Let's get this over with

Meet Tillie.

She likes to bite.

She doesn't know how to feel about Brad:)