Yuba lake

We went to Yuba lake for pioneer day this year.  I really wanted to go to the lake so I let everyone know I was going on the 24th whether people were coming or not.  I just really wanted to go. So I got everything ready and lo and behold almost everyone came.  Yuba is only about an hour away and it is warm with nice sandy beaches.  We drove right on the beach to secure a spot for our big group.  We found the perfect spot.  Then we went to launch the wave runners.. I was heading down to road that leads to the launch ramp when I heard a strange metallic noise.  I quickly came to a stop with fresh visions of our Yellowstone disaster to check things out.  All the lug nuts on our trailer had come off of one wheel and the wheel was just sitting on the axle.  I found one lug  nut and my brother-in-law Matt found another one.  We got out the jack to put the tire back on.  Only one problem we only had 2 out of our 5 lug nuts. So we took one off the other tire.  I was so glad we said prayers before we left.  That could have been a huge disaster if we were one the freeway and that happened.  It could have rolled the trailer and ruined the machines. I counted my blessings. Once we got all the machines launched it was time to have some fun.
It was perfect weather maybe a little windy but welcome to Yuba its always a little windy.  It really reminded me of going to the beach.  It had the nice sand and plenty of water and with the wind there were even waves like the ocean.  My brother Scottie brought his new boat so we could do wake boarding and tube wars.  Nothing like a good tube war if you don't mind sore muscles and bruises the next day.  I personally have no problem with sore muscles and bruises.  I jumped on to have a battle with my nephew Shane.  Lets just say I am not as young as I used to be, but I did have fun. For those of you who don't know what a tube war is.  basically you try everything you can to get the other person off their tube.  Whether it is pulling on their tube. knocking into them or even jumping on their tube and pulling them off. Gotta love it.
This time I decided to see how fast the yellow waver runner goes.  The problem is that the speedometer doesn't work so I just went as fast as it would go to get that thrill of  speeding across the water with the wind and the spray in my face.  It was exhilarating until I tried to make a sharp turn at an incredible speed and threw myself off tipping the wave runner upside down.  After I got over my shock I was smiling from ear to ear.  I think in another life I would love to race these things semiprofessionally.  My mom even hopped on the purple one to see how fast she dared go.
We buried people in the sand and had a made up game of Swedish baseball with a shovel and a tennis ball.  You have to hit the ball then run into the water to touch the tube for your first base.  When the next good hit comes you have to make it back to home plate before being tagged with the ball.  The challenging part other than trying to hit a tennis ball in the wind with a shovel was that the base kept moving.  Still so much fun.  I love how we can have fun with anything especially if there is water involved.

 We played until 5ish when a storm was threatening to  rain us out.  It ended up blowing over but by the time we got everything packed up and pulled out we were tired and ready to head back home.  What a good day.  Now that I realize how close this lake is and how much fun we had I just might come with only my kids like we used to go to the beach.  Maybe this is my new beach.

Swedish baseball

me losing a tube war

Pioneer pagent

Merrill Osmond has resurrected his Mormon pioneer pageant.  This is something I did every year as a youth.  Its a big production telling the story of the Utah Mormon pioneers.  They asked my dad and brother if they would build part of the set.  They built 2 houses a couple of covered wagons and a barn facade. Some of the  perks of building were that he got free tickets to go see it.  Of course I was in when he asked me if we wanted to go. I admit that the pre-show was a little too long.  They had all these awards and children's choir.  Which wouldn't have been so bad if they had only sung 1 or 2 songs but they sang their whole album and they were not super amazing.   Everyone was getting antsy before the play even started.  Finally they announced the parachutes coming.  This is a tradition for this program that sky divers drop out of the plane and land right in front of the stage.  The last one has an American flag tied to his ankle.  Then the play began.  Talk about blast from the past.  I was instantly transported to younger days as the cast sang and danced all the same songs and choreography.  I was amazed that I remembered all of it and I mean all of it.  Scott said it was like stereo because I was singing all the songs and my sister Stephanie who was sitting behind him was also singing. He was a good sport to sit patiently through it as we wiggled in our chairs partially doing the dances. 

A couple of qualms that I noticed were the mob scene.  It only had 2 horsemen where as our older version had like 10.  Then they left out the barn raising scene.  That was always awesome but I think the majority of the cast was too small to actually raise the barn facade.If I were really picky I didn't care for the strobe lights during the crickets scene.  Other than that I enjoyed it.  probably because it brought me back to younger carefree days.

foam day 2012

Foam day this year was an absolute blast.  To get some back ground info on the whole day we asked the Lehi Fire department who are the ones who put this on.  It started as a way for them to not waste the foam they have to put out fires.  When the foam is ready to expire they wanted to use it up so here comes the birth of foam day.  They have these buckets of concentrated foam that cost around $50 a bucket.  However for foam day they do buy extra buckets of fun.  They hook it up to the fire hoses with a special nozzle and viola instant foam.  They build it up first for about 20 min to a half and hour its all roped off as the participants watch eagerly behind the lines.  They set it  up in 2 areas.  One for the younger kids and one for everyone else because a little one could get lost in the foam. Then they release the crowd and spray away for  2 hours straight.  They also invite vendors to come and sell their wares and they have free watermelon that the beauty queens serve.  The whole day cost the city around $500 not bad for a full day of fun.

One thing that is a definite must is goggles.  The foam can sting your eyes and it doesn't taste very good but what soap does.  All of it is worth it as you plunge into the deep cool foam. It was so funny to watch all the different reactions from people.  Some thought it would soften their fall so they would belly flop right onto the grass with a resounding "ugh".  It turned the ground into an instant slip and slid.  That was super fun to watch all the much bigger kids (grown ups) bring out that kid inside and slide all the way across the grass.

Some people loved it and some were more content to sit on the side lines and watch.  Scott really got into it this year getting right in the middle of everything.  He would dive through the foam with glee and then scoop up a bunch and pile it on anyone who was remotely dry.  He even snuck up on my mom and sister Kate to give them a giant foam hug. Then he came after me. I admit there were quite a few squeals and screams on my part.  I wasn't really planning on getting soaked.  As if right on cue one fire fighter manning a foam hose aimed his weapon of mass foaming right at me totally soaking me.  There was nothing left to do but join in the fun.

After we were all foamed out we grabbed some watermelon and watched the crowd.  They also had a bunch of bouncy slides they kids attempted to go on.  However the lines were really long so I think only half of them actually got to go down one.  I had a wonderful time with my family watching and laughing at all the crazy people and just plain enjoying summer life. Foam day gets 4 stars from me.

Scottish festival

So much fun so little time to document it. We went down to the Scottish festival in Payson.  Scott was really looking forward to it. Of all the festivals this is one I knew he would like.  It was very appropriately raining when we woke up covering the mountains in a beautiful misty cloud.  By the time we got the the rain had fizzled out and we were just left with a slightly cool and humid summer day.  Perfect for a Scottish festival.This festival had everything; singers, dancers, sheaf tossers, Scottish hammer throwers, stone put throwers, caber tossers, weight over the bar tossers, and pipers, pipers, and more pipers.  Being a bag pipe fan I loved it just as much as Scott did.  Surprisingly the kids enjoyed it also.  I was worried they would get bored but what kid doesn't love watching people chuck stuff, sword fighting and lots of noise?

We always love to try the traditional food.  We were looking forward to the Haggas but sadly they ran out.  I got a Scottish egg instead.  It looked a little strange but it was delicious.  They took a hard boiled eggs and molded around it with a sausage/turkey dressing concoction then lightly seared it all around on the griddle.  I 'm sure it was way out of my calorie allotment but it was super yummy.  Where else can I eat a Scottish egg? The Highland games were equally fun to watch.  The stone put and Sheaf tossers were quite impressive.  The caber tossers try as they might had a hard time succeeding.  I only saw one guy get the pole all the way over.The boys had a great time trying out the swords and beating each other up, we literally had to pry the swords out of their hands then ended up buying them each a sword to take home.  Sometimes I think the swords were more for Scott then the kids.  We couldn't find Ellie for a little bit until we looked up and saw her on stage.  Of course where else would she be.  She just had to take part in the dancing.

caber toss

stone put

this was just a really cute little girl in her Scottish garb I had to take a picture