December 23, 2009 Boom goes the trailer!!!

Ok, I'm back up and running. I don't have much incentive to blog when my kids beat me to it. Hence, no Aruba blog. Then my camera quit and I just got a new one. All my pictures until now were hand me arounds from my kids so they already had them on their blogs. Anyway ....

December ... ok, let's start with the 23rd.

All the kids plus Perry's parents were coming for Christmas. So we decided that rather than using the air mattress - which no one likes to sleep on - we would just put a couple out in our 5th wheel. It has a queen size regular mattress and it has a great heater. So we gave it a test run the night before where we lit the heater to make sure it would get warm enough in there. This is the coldest winter we have had in 5 years (according to the weather man). It was plenty warm out there so we were ready to go. On the 23rd, I went out to start the heater as we needed it that night. As I opened the door, it reeked of propane. I closed the door and decided to let Perry check it out when he got home. Perry came home and I told him about it. He went out to see about it. About 5 minutes later, I heard what sounded like a sonic boom and the whole house shook. I knew it was Perry in the trailer and that it had exploded. I was sure he was dead. We all ran to the trailer. J'see and Charlie found Perry outside the trailer door applying snow to his burn face and hair. He had cleared the propane and then started the heater. When it flashed, it dived out the open door. He has some minor burns on his face and hands, a lot of singed hair and no eyebrows or eyelashes. He was one lucky man. I was a basket case all night. We brought him inside to check him out and thought we needed to put some aloe vera on his burns, which was in the trailer. He went out to the trailer to get it and discovered the bathroom cupboard on fire. I called the fire department because I wanted to make sure that if the fire got out of hand, my house which is 5 feet away from the trailer didn't go up too!! We got the fire put out before the fire department got here. They put out a smoldering roll of toilet paper and checked Perry's burns out. Anyway, all's well that ends well. I have a husband still!!! The trailer is pretty much totalled as you can kind of see by the following pictures.

All of the exterior walls were bowed out about 5 inches from the blast, all of the window frames were pushed out and bent, the screens were pushed out the window openings and the curtains farthest from the heater were melted. You can see gaps between all of the cupboards and the exterior walls because of the bowing of the walls. I don't know what it would have looked like if the door hadn't been open to vent some of the blast.

Spring Break

For our spring break we decided to take the trailer and go to Goblin Valley. We spent Saturday with Grandpa and Grandma W. having our annual easter egg hunt then left Sunday for Goblin Valley. We spent a couple of days there. We climbed on rocks for hours. Goblin Valley is a lot of fun and it's huge. There are all sorts of rock formations. To the west is a big yellow pavilion that you can see from all the high points so it's hard to get lost. Chanse and Miah are both part mountain goat and if you give them rocks to climb anywhere they are happy. So they climbed to their hearts content, from sun-up to sun-down. They played hide and seek and tag and climbed some more.







We then hiked through a slot canyon called Little Wild Horse Canyon. (Where we ran across two families from home. You can't go anywhere, far or wide, over spring break without running across someone from home.)





We had a great time!!! You'll have to join us next time!!

A New Granddaughter

Zach and Lindsay are the proud parents of Laryssa Jo Shore. She was born on March 21st. She weighed 5 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 in. long. Zach thinks she's a cute little thing. And she is!! The long dark brown hair surprised us. I went up to see her on Sunday night. She is so little!!! It's so fun to have grandbabies!! I think I need lots more!!!

Why do little girl's grow up?

Well, Miah has reached that milestone of being on her way to becoming a teenager. On Feb. 13th they had the 6th grade Valentine's dance at school. That means a new dress!! And a little make-up (if she wants). She will also be 12 on the 28th and that means Young Women's and another new dress. Tradition .... who starts these things? Oh, guess that one was me. It's hard to believe this is the last of my 5 girls. And she should still be 3!!! By the time she leaves YW's, I will have had a girl in the YW's program for 20 years without a break!! Maybe that's why I keep finding myself back there serving. Oh well!! She's a great daughter and a sweetheart. She loves outdoor adventures and has no fear. She said she would love to skydive!!! I guess I can live with her growing up if I have to!!!

Here We Go

So here we go. Who would have thought I would ever do this? It still remains to be seen if I can keep it up to date. Don't expect any miracles!! My facebook is not going anywhere but maybe if I just have to update this and don't have to actually interact with anyone, it might happen. I love reading everyone elses. But my life doesn't have too much happening. With just two kids left, and the older ones with their own blogs. I don't have much to report. But we'll give it a try.