Memorial Day Weekend

 I had so much fun at my parent's house over Memorial Day weekend.  We went out Sunday after church and stayed until Monday night.  Monday morning we hiked to the Wind Caves up Logan Canyon.  Because it had been so rainy the trail was a little muddy in places, but the mountains were so green.  It was gorgeous.

 Those cliffs that go all along the mountainside are referred to as the Great Wall of China.  You can see why.

 Yes, I do rule the mountains. I have great power.

 So much power that I packed Eli off and on most of the way up.  It is only 3 miles round trip but it is quite steep with no redeeming flat stretches.  Towards the top I gave up and Timothy gave me Harriet in the carrier and he put Eli on his shoulders.  Ahh, so much easier.

 Here's the overhang cave-thing.  That is as far as I went.  The caves are along a cliff that goes straight down far enough to kill you.  I'm very nervous about heights, so I stayed in this first area with the littlest ones (Jack, Harriet, Eli, Emeline) and prayed for my older children's safety as they happily trotted after Uncle Wyatt (of all people to have with your kids next to a cliff edge!!!) and Mom and Timothy.

 That's Miriam in the hat trying to follow Uncle Wyatt up to where Cassidy and Hailey are hanging out.

 That is Miriam and Cowen (pretty sure) up on top.

 After we got home from the hike we roasted hot dogs and brats and marshmallows at Grandpa's fire pit.  Mom also got cookies and chips and my kids were in hog heaven.  During the course of events, Wyatt noticed that one of the horses was laying down in the pasture, so he went and hopped on.  The horse didn't do anything, so Wyatt nudged him a little, and the horse got up and ambled toward the barn corral.  Then the horse decided to rejoin the horses at a faster pace, so Mom and Hailey had to jump out of the way at the bottom of the hill.  Then the horse decided to buck and went up, and slipped on the way down, where Wyatt decided to bail.  The horse pulled a muscle but Wyatt was fine, so I guess it all ended well enough.  Wyatt didn't get in trouble because Mom was the one who told him to get on!

 After the food Dad and Wyatt saddled up some horses and we all took turns taking kids on rides or walking around leading Maggie who was (is, as far as I've heard) heavily pregnant and not that interested in walking around the corral 3,000 times.  My kids loved it--especially Cowen who got to ride Casper all by himself.  A pretty significant privilege.

The highlight of the trip, however, was Sunday night.  It was one of those nights where you laugh so hard you can't breathe and everyone is witty and hilarious and life is perfect for a few hours.  And it all started with Wyatt digging out a dart board he bought eons ago and forgot about and then remembered.

After the kids were in bed, Wyatt and Timothy went downstairs to the basement garage and played 3 rounds of baseball darts.  The board is set up like a baseball field and you can get strikes, balls, singles, doubles, triples, fouls, etc.  Then Lindsay Ann and I went downstairs to find the menfolk and tell them to play something with us.  Instead, Wyatt convinced us to play an inning or two of couple's dart baseball.  Let's just say that Timothy and I smoked Wyatt and Lindsay Ann.  SMOKED them in a most emphatic way.

But then Lindsay Ann had to nurse Natalie and Wyatt went and brought down a ringer to be his partner.  Mom.  Timothy and I were, understandably, a little nervous about that development.  (All my readers know that my Mom was on a championship winning softball team right?  She also pitches and has a mean arm and great aim.)  I realize that all the forthcoming details aren't going to be able to conjure up the feeling of the evening, but when I'm 90 and reading through my blog books, I will remember how hard I laughed at Wyatt that night.

The first few innings were pretty unexciting.  Timothy and I got a few runs in and Mom figured out the game and insisted on extra practice throws and things like that.  Then Wyatt and Mom had a 10 RUN inning.  It was incredible.  Just hit after hit after hit.  Timothy and I were down by 5 going into the 8th inning.  Timothy got me all psyched and said, "We have to get 5 runs."  I said, "Okay," and by george, we got 5 runs.

We went into the 9th inning tied.  Then Mom and Wyatt got 4 runs and thought they had won the game.  Timothy and I went up to bat more than a little nervous.  I didn't even try for triples (my favorite shot) but just for singles.  In my first 3 throws I loaded the bases.  Oh, yeah.  Mom said, "She doesn't even feel the pressure!"  Wyatt was dancing around, doing deep knee bends, and basically being Wyatt.  Lindsay Ann was laughing at all of us.  I don't have to remind anyone of how competitive my mother is.  It was intense, I tell you.

Then Timothy hit someone home, then another person home.  Then somehow, on our next throws, we got 2 outs and 2 strikes.  ARGH!!!  So here we were, bottom of the ninth, down 2 with 2 outs and 2 strikes.  Timothy was up to bat and threw his dart and knocked down the whole dart board!  We all screamed/shrieked/jumped a foot and Mom spent the whole time Wyatt and Timothy were putting it back up trying to get Tim ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct and other such nonsense.

Fortunately, Tim hit the dart board in the foul area when the board fell down so we were still in it.  On his second throw, Tim hit a TRIPLE!!!! Three batters came in and WE WON THE GAME!!!!!  WAHOO.

The best part of the night, besides the thrill of victory, smack talk, and Wyatt trying to throw darts from across the room behind piles of boxes so he could barely see the dart board, was Wyatt re-enacting everyone's reaction to the triple in slow motion.  Hilarious.  My victory dance looked nothing like his interpretation, but still hilarious.  :)

Good times.  Very, very good.