I had a sinking sensation that something was terribly wrong....

Unfortunately, I meant "sinking" literally, and unfortunately I was right about the "terribly wrong" part. Yesterday as I was walking through my backyard, I stepped into a soft spot. Something was weird, so I kept pressing my foot, on the spot until I realized there was nothing below the grass, It felt hollow underneath. In my mind I imagined giant snake habitats, broken sprinkler pipes, large yard varmin all as possible causes. I was definitely worried I would find a problem. I ran to the garage and grabbed a hand shovel went back and dug a hole about 6" in diameter. As I pulled the grass up to reveal what lay under the mysterious patch of grass I immediately began freaking out. It was still kind of bright outside so what I initially saw was a bottomless hole. What happened after that basically consisted of me freaking out for about 3 hours. I finally had a neighbor come over who is pretty knowledgeable about Lehi geography who quickly diagnosed a bad seal on the burried irrigation pipe that runs beneath our yard. Upon further inspection we determined the hole was about 4-5 feet in diameter wide at it's widest point, and probably 3-4 feet deep at it's deepest point. I tried to take some photos, but they really don't do it justice. When we dig the rest of the grass up to fill the hole I'll snap a few more shots.

Our neighbor's little boy threw a stuffed animal down into the hole. It's a small stuffed animal.

My hand is still a few inches from the bottom here. The hole slopes down so it get's a little deeper further in.

I called the city this morning who promptly sent their water guys out to look at it. Unfortunately we found out that this "ditch" as they call it is owned privately by 3 different individuals. I called the water master who is part owner and of course his response was, "well it's not the ditch". He doesn't realize who he is dealing with. I'm sure if I told him it would just be easier for him to come fix it than to try to fight me, he probably wouldn't listen. He's coming out tomorrow to take a look at it and hopefully he'll do the right thing and make some speedy repairs. (Yes I will be hiring an inspector to approve the work.)

The first night in our house, the second time around.

I still remember the first night Mark and I slept in our house July 23rd, 2002. The fresh smell of a new house and no air conditioning. It was our first time buying a house and our builder had the power turned off on the day we closed. We weren't able to get power until 2 days later and I remember how uncomfortable it was sleeping in the heat. But we didn't care, we were home and we knew it.

Over the next 7 years we poured our heart and soul into putting in a yard all on our own, and finishing our basement, again on our own. We painted, we decorated and rearranged furniture and rooms many a time. Three of our four kids came home from the hospital to our house and Maddison spent 6 of her 8 years growing up in our house. We truly had an amazing time making memories in our home.

Last year, when we decided to move to St. George, there was no way we could sell our home. That decision was probably the best of our married life. Laying in my bed, in my room for the first time in over a year last night was even better than the first time around. After 16 hours straight of moving with little breaks, I couldn't sleep because the happiness I felt overpowered my weariness.

Home again... at last.

Science Fair

Maddi and Wyatt both entered the Science Fair at their Elementary School. It was an optional thing that they both decided to do. Maddi did hers on which hairbrush is the best at getting tangles out? She tested 3 different types of hairbrushes on different girls with different lengths of hair. Not very "Sciency" but mom's fighting with daughters over brushing their hair out in the morning is a pretty common problem. She wanted to help find a solution. In the end it was determined that a brush with "boar bristles" is the best at getting tangles out without hurting too bad.
Wyatt did his project on racing objects in flowing water. He based this off of how much he likes to race sticks or random pieces of litter in a flowing raingutter or stream of water whenever he sees one. He wanted to test which types of material will go the fastest and therefore win the race every time. He determined that wood wins over plastic or styrofoam, likely because it is heavier, but not too heavy to sink. He won 1st place for the kindergarteners and is going on to the district competition. Way to go Wyatt!

Wedding!

My sister Lisa married the love of her life, Josh on March 5th. We love him and are so happy for her! They were married in the SLC temple & had a fun reception at the Millcreek Inn.

Twins, with a picture of brother thrown in.

They obviously LOVE glasses and try them on whenever they see them.




Wyatt was having fun playing dressup at his friend Taylors. Nice Face.
Love the Pigtails!
I really hope the bond and the friendship they develop now lasts a lifetime!

Pictures!

Fun in St. George.

Although boring most of the time, we do find some time to have a little fun!

On our way to the pool.

The splash park down the street from our house.

Our pool.

Kaylie Loves swinging!

How to print your blog...

So I just barely Printed my blog for 2009 and I was reminded of how much I love having these family yearbooks! I have one now for 2007, 2008, and 2009 and quite honestly probably would have bailed on blogging all together if it weren't for these books. Now, when I blog, I keep in mind that this is my "family yearbook" and try to post according to what I'll want to re read and look at over and over. If I ever post anything that I don't want to have printed in the book, I just delete it as I'm creating my blog book.

SharedBook makes it so easy to edit, add more photos and print these books into a nice hard cover book. I love it.

Here's the link if you want to check it out: SharedBook (Also called Blog2Print)

Monticello UT 2010

Dale and June Maughan's kids in front of the house they grew up in.

The great grandkids in front of Dale and June Maughan's House

The Grandkids in front of Dale and June Maughan's House.

Everyone who made it to the family vacation this year.

Mark and his bro and Cousin in front of the house his mom grew up in.

Maddi on the 4th of July

All the kids in the hot tub at the hotel

Wyatt and his best friend/cousin Blake

Maddison concentrated very hard to shoot this little pellet gun.

Wyatt seems to always have a smile on his face.

Sage had a great time walking around, so independent!

My cute niece Landry being entertained by my cousin in law Carlie.

My cute niece Rylie getting ready to go on a 4 wheeler ride.

We did a lot of 4 wheeling

The boys played a lot of Stick Ball, with a few short rain delays.

And the girls found an awesome fort in some trees that you had to cross a little creek to get to. They had lots of fun sweeping it out and decorating the inside. They even constructed a great little bridge that crossed the creek into the fort for easier access.

This is an old abandoned cabin that never finished being built. I took some of the kids on a hike to it and told them it was a haunted house... they were so scared. It was actually kind of creepy. My sister in law Ashlie and I walked up to it with the babies and we were a little scared our selves. It was abandoned, but there was a light on inside and the overall feeling around it was pretty eerie.



These are some shots of the campground we stayed at, rather, scenery, and other cool things at the campground. There were Hundreds of Deer around, there were a few Fawns that were pretty young, we saw this one with it's mother the first night. I love the beauty and majesty of nature.