32 and still smiling!

Today's my birthday, and I turned 32, and I have to say it doesn't depress me, but I'm always surprised to see myself aging in pictures. I had a plan growing up to be done having kids by the time I was 30, and I had wanted at least 6 kids. Well, I wasn't able to have my first baby until I was almost 28, so that plan went down the tubes really fast. Here I am, 32, and pregnant with my 4th, though I don't plan on having at least 6 kids anymore. Funny how life does what it will with your life.

To celebrate, Hyrum took me on my traditional birthday camping trip, which we haven't done since just before I got pregnant with Talea. We left on Friday afternoon and headed for Loon Lake (we've never been there before), but by the time we got there an hour and a half later, both campgrounds were full! We decided to just camp on the side of the road since we didn't know where else to go, but Hyrum found a little deserted road that went back off into the woods, with a potholed, scary road, but we thought it looked perfect for the night since we had no other option. Hyrum, utilizing his incredibly amazing backing skills...move over Mater!, backed the truck and trailer down the road (there was a tree leaning way over the road, large potholes, and it curved and dipped all over). I led the way to guide him, and got my 2 and only mosquito bites of the trip. There was some trash on the ground and an abandoned, smashed car, but it was dinner time and almost time for bed, so we didn't care. Hyrum cooked us hobo dinners on our portable grill since we couldn't build a fire there, and then we went to bed.

In the morning, we wished we looked as cute as our kids, but who are we kidding.



We set off in search of a campsite, in hopes that someone left. The state campground was still full, and even though we were on the waiting list, the person on the list before us got the last site. That campground was $18, and had a huge beach. We ended up having to go to the private campground (Loon Lake Lodge), where an RV site is $33 per night! I about died, but I figured we would have spent that over 2 nights at the state campground, and since we got the first night for free in the forest, we paid for the site so we could have electricity, water, and a fire. Oh, and access to the beach.

We played at the lake most of the day, and though Talea got brave and dunked once and swam around with her life jacket, Hyatt still kicked her can in the swimming department.


Though Kiersa tried the water, she wasn't that thrilled with the cool temperature. You'd think all her chub would keep her warm!


We showed the kids how funny the dogs are when they swim, because Indian swims gracefully and purposefully, but Cowboy bobs vertically like a cork paddling with a panicked splashing motion and his face even has a panicked look. Though it's a little pitiful, it's darn funny.

Talea and Hyatt liked wearing their goggles, but they didn't even look underwater with them!



Hyatt let me throw him in the water to dunk over and over.


Our new raft made for some interesting amusement, but best of all, the kids warmed up really quick after swimming just by laying on it.



A dust devil started up, and it was probably the closest thing I'll ever see to a real tornado.

On the morning of my birthday, Hyrum made us pancakes and canadian bacon (much better than the blubbery, greasy stuff, in my opinion).

While we were packing up that morning, we heard about a little farm next to the RV park with rabbits, cows, chickens, peacocks and squirrels. That made sense because there was a little rabbit running around our trailer that looked like an escaped domestic rabbit. Hyatt found it almost impossible not to chase the chickens, and then he had to pee. Talea was desperate to catch a bunny, but it didn't happen. When we got home, she immediately let her rabbit loose, but luckily we caught it again.



On our way home, we stopped at the elk reserve to see the herds.






Hyrum completely spoiled me this year, which made me feel kind of bad since for his birthday 2 months earlier, I got him absolutely nothing! What do you get the man who gets what he wants when he wants, and the only things I could get require him picking out the particular model or whatever. (He bought himself binoculars the day after his birthday, poor guy.) Hyrum doesn't like shopping for me because he says the gifts I always want are family things and it makes him feel bad getting it for me, but really, I can't think of anything I want that he thinks is a strictly "Tiana" present. He ended up buying me some things I had earlier requested, which were: a raft (which we used on the lake), a small digital camera (easy to stick in my purse and also take video), some Rubbermaid organizers (he felt so retarded about that gift, but that's what I secretly hoped he'd get me the most), and tickets for the family to go to England in September!!! I'm so excited! We're finally going! I've been saving forever it seems, and now finally we'll go! I'm the only member of my family (of my parents and 9 kids) who hasn't been over there to visit Daisha and her family. She reminds me of it often, so now I'll be able to cross that off my to-do list. We knew we had to go before the next baby is born because each kid makes it so much more expensive! My doctor doesn't want me to travel that far after October, so Hyrum bought us tickets! Kiersa's passport will be here in late August, we were told, and the rest of us already have ours.

So now that I have a camera that takes video, it's super easy to download videos onto my blog, and though they won't print out when I print this into a book, they'll be funny to watch until then.

This video is of blowing out the candles on my cake. While you watch it, I want you to notice how incredibly filthy my house is so you no longer feel bad about your clutter. Remember, we just got back from camping (thus the scraggly appearance) so I haven't had a chance to do any picking up or clearing of clutter from the trip. Where do you put the stuff from your 3,000 sq ft house when you have to cram it into a 400 sq ft apartment?


Overall, this was a birthday I'll always remember! Thanks Lover!