Big Horn Ranch...

Yesterday my dad invited up to his campsite. We loaded up the four-wheelers and headed out bright and early in the morning. It is down by Birdseye/Indianola area and I must say it is very beautiful. A lot of beautiful trees, and a lot of wildlife. The kids rode 4-wheelers, shot pellet guns, caught frogs in the frog pond, and played on the playground. I would have to say by how dirty the bath water was, that the kids had a blast. Dad and Deedee have made their campsite a fun place for everyone. Thanks for inviting us, we had a great time.


The merry-go-round is always a favorite pass time. You will notice Kinzie now has a purple cast. She kept taking off the splint so the Dr. gave her a permanent one. At least for the next 3 weeks.

A broken thumb can't stop the fun.

The swings are so fun.

You can tell how much fun your kids have had by how dirty they were. My kids were filthy.

This is a lovely family picture. Thanks for the fun dad.

The Verdict is........

It's BROKEN. After a fun filled weekend in Yuba we decided it was time to get the thumb x-rayed. If you didn't read my previous blog then I will give you a rundown of what happened. Friday, just before leaving for Yuba, Kinzie came home from gymnastics with a hurt thumb. She had been doing back handsprings when she ran out of mat and hit her thumb on the floor. We convinced her if she went to the Dr. and it was broke she would have to have a cast and she wouldn't be able to swim or play in the water. So we gave her some ibuprofen and ice and went anyway. I didn't think it was broke, I thought it was just jammed. Later that night her thumb started to swell and turn purple. It had little movement, by Saturday her whole thumb was bruised and she couldn't move it at all. More ibuprofen, more ice, more fun in the water. Sunday was about the same so I got up this morning and headed to the Dr. At first the Dr. thought it was just torn ligaments but sent us for x-rays anyway. Later I received a phone call from the Dr. saying it was fractured and I needed to go an orthopedic surgeon. Oh shit! Well it turns out this type of fracture does not need surgery and we are to keep it splinted for two weeks and then have it x-rayed again. After that who knows. I wonder if I broke it worse, when I tried popping it back into place, you know cuz I thought it was jammed.OOOPS!

Wild Weekend!

Our weekend started off with a hitch. A couple of weeks ago Jeff's family decided we needed to go to Yuba. So Jeff's two sisters, his brother, his parents and us headed down on Friday. Kinzie went to gymnastics first thing Friday morning. When I went to get her she told me she thought she had broken her thumb while doing back handsprings. I then proceeded to tell her that if she did, they would put a cast on her arm and she wouldn't be able to swim or play in the water. After much deliberation she decided to go to Yuba and wait until Monday to go the Dr. So with Ibuprofen and ice we loaded up the "S.S. Mag" and headed out of town.
This would be the S.S. Mag.

The trip down to Yuba was uneventful. Jeff's parents followed us down and we were the first to arrive. We found our camping spot and the kids started to dig in. The sand that is. One thing about my kids is when we go camping, anywhere, they are in the dirt and or mud within the first five minutes we were there. Next to arrive was Jeff's brother and after a 3 hour wait to get their alternator fixed Jeff's sister Andrea showed up. They have a toy hauler like we do and when they opened their cargo door this is what was inside:
You know you are a redneck when....you can carry your boat into your trailer.
Anyway the kids all had a really good time. We fished, wakeboarded, buried each other in the sand, make castles, and just hung out.
A perfect castle for a princess.
Colton with his hair blowing in the wind. Look at those black clouds. We didn't realize what they were bringing in.
Kinzie chillin' with Grandpa.

About 4:30, Saturday the winds started to kick up, which is not unusual at Yuba. We all kind of hung out and then we started to get dinner ready. About 6:30 we were getting big gusts of wind. I took the kids into the trailer because they were getting pelted with sand. The wind wasn't to alarming until we looked out at the lake and saw 4 to 5 foot waves coming at us. The boats were not beached, they were anchored off shore. Well that was not going to be that way for long. The waves were starting to toss the boats around. Our anchor was holding pretty well and then all of a sudden it came lose. Jeff swam over to grab it and he had hold of the rope. I looked out the window just as he grabbed the rope. It looked like he was trying to hold a bucking horse. I bolted out of the trailer and went to help hold Jay's boat, while the men went to hold onto our boat. I was holding the side of the boat and one wave came and went right over my head. And then more waves came and they were picking me up and I was swinging like a flag in the wind. It was a good thing I was holding on or I would have been lost at Yuba. Finally, Jay decided to just beach his boat. About that time Jeff decided he was going to go into the middle of the lake and just float instead of beaching our boat or worse getting it sunk. After about an hour he came back. The wind hadn't stopped but the waves weren't that bad, so Mike, Kelly and Jay went and helped Jeff put the boat on the trailer. Good thing to because the wind was still blowing when we left.

This is the end of the storm. The waves weren't very big here, but I was too busy holding on to boats to get a pic of the big waves.


The result of the "perfect storm," a sunk boat. So glad it wasn't ours.
If I can figure out how to make a slide show I will post more pics later.

Welcome Stailey!

Our new niece Stailey Lyn Brooks was born this morning at 8:00. It has been 6 years since we have had a baby in the family. Congrats Jammie. She is absolutely beautiful. This is her very first pic.

Read-a-thon

I am a huge fan of reading. I love it. I love the fact that you can get away for a while in your imagination. The problem is I get so engrossed with the story that nothing else exists in my world. What kids? What chores? Laundry? and when I find a good book and a good author I will read those books until there is no more of that author to read, and them I am stumped. I was explaining this dilemma to my friend Shaunte and she told me about an author she likes, Janet Evanovich, so I truck my butt to the library and I check out a few of these books.

The first book is called One for the Money. It is one of 14 in a series. People I am telling you these books are so stinking funny that I find myself laughing outloud. Do you know how embarassing it is to be reading in a room by yourself and all of a sudden you just can't hold it inside and you break out it laughter. My kids think I am crazy. Why are you laughing at a dumb book? Well it is because there is some funny $@#! in these books.

The other problem I have with reading is the fact that if there is a series, I have to read them all.. like within a few days. I can't wait I am to impatient. I want to keep reading and reading. Well the Lehi library did not have this whole series available and I was not going to wait until they were returned. So I called my sister Nat in A.F. and I wanted her to sneak me in their library so I could get all the books in the series. Jammie, my other sister, later informed me that there was this new thing were if you werea resident of Lehi, P.G. or A.F. you could use your library card at all these libraries. Awesome. Now I could go into that library without feeling all suspicious, like they new I wasn't supposed to be there and they were gonna ban me from libraries everywhere. I think Nat was a little happy about that to. I think she felt weird cuz I was checking out naughty books, and if they were late she was probably afraid they would announce to the world that Natilie K. reads naughty books. I told her she would like them, she just had to skim the naughty parts, she just shakes her head at me when I say this.

So off I went to A.F. library because they are far superior to our own Lehi library(I was told this by an A.F. librarian) and checked out all 13 books in this series. #14 was just released in hardcover, I am patiently waiting for it to be on the library shelf, hopefully when I return the others it will be there. I did this on Monday and I am starting on #12. I have been reading 2-3 books a day. A day people, I can't get enough. My head hurts, my eyes ache and I want more. She better start writing faster.

Newest Member of Our Family!

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the Magnusson family. We brought him home with us on July 2nd. This is Rocky Magnusson! He is a boxer. We would have introduced him to you sooner, but we had a little trouble coming up with a name. When he first came home with us his name was Ruger. We decided it didn't really flow well, then we decided on Ranger, and Rambo those did not really do it for us either. Finally we settled on Rocky. Jeff thought that was cool cuz you know Rocky was a boxer. I think there is probably a lot of boxers named Rocky, but what is one more. The coolest name we had for a boxer was Ramsey, but he was our last dog and we had to put him to sleep back in January. It was a tramatic experience for us all. Hopefully this dog can have a longer lasting life. The kids seem to think that he belongs in the house, while I think he belongs in the backyard. Who will prevail? Right now I am, we will see how long that lasts. I am having a hard time with this dog because it feels like I have another baby, and I am just so past that point in my life. But I guess the good thing about having a dog, is when he starts to bug me I can throw his butt in the backyard, but wait, I do that with my kids too.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

For over 100 years Lehi Fire Department has welcomed the 4th with salutes at 6:00 in the morning. They go and let off big firework booms all over Lehi. For over 30 years (yes I am old) I have enjoyed this tradition. The night of the 3rd I go to bed and seriously I wake up about 5:00 in anticipation for these loud cannons going off. As I lay in bed I count how many I can hear and then I would go to The Fireman's Breakfast, which is also a long standing tradition for fireman and their families, and tell my dad how many I heard and he would then tell me how many they had fired. I used to hear all of them. I know dorky. Over the last couple of years I have only been able to hear half. It is still a fun game for me, but I am sad I don't get to hear all of them. I only heard 9 this year. I love the anticipation of waiting for that first big giant boom. My dad has been great about lighting them off himself or sending someone else down around my neighborhood. Through recent years there have been a lot of complaints about the noise, mostly from move ins, they wanted this tradition to stop. But alas, us old timers have prevailed and the tradition will continue. I hope you enjoy bringing in the 4th with a bang as much as I do. Happy 4th.

Update!

After the tragic event that took place last week I thought the few readers I have would like an update on Capt. Terry's condition. I don't know a lot, but I do know some. He is able to recognize those people who get to go and see him. He is able to talk, and walk. In the near future he is hopefully going to be entering a rehab program. I don't know the extent of the damage or if there is any. I do know that we are excited that he is able to do what he is doing. We wish him and his family well. You are in our thoughts and prayers.

"Toes"day

In appreciation of one of my favorite holiday's, and the fact that this is the first day that Jeff reports to work as a LT., I decided to go and have my yearly pedicure. Well, that and the fact that my scaley heels were sticking to the carpet like velcro. So Jammie and I made an appointment at the local Nail Spa. It might not be the best place but I enjoy it. I love going there and relaxing. Although, I didn't do much relaxing because Jaycie and Kinzie wanted to tag along. The girls nails were painted by professionals. Don't ask me why I had to pay $8 for them to get their nails painted when I could have done it at home for "free" dollars. But what can I say, I am a good mom. After the spa bath, foot and leg rub, and hot towels( I love the hot towels) I was ready for my paint job. After much deliberation I had decided on the French Manicure. About this time the girls came over and started to dictate how my toes should be painted. It is a good thing my guy was nice and spoke English or he would not have understood. In honor of the 4th I was to get Red, White, and Blue on the tips. Then I was to have a decoration and glitter. OOKay! Well 2 child nail polishes and 1 pedi later my toes look like this:




I think they turned out pretty cool. Very festive. And my feet are soft. Thank You Chinese guy at Nail Spa. I love them.