Newman Family Campout

This past week we went camping in Idaho with my family - my Mom and Dad, Sister Breanne, her husband Danny and our niece, Kenzie. We went to a campground called Summit View just above Georgetown, ID. After a lot of packing and preparation, we headed out Monday afternoon. We made it to Georgetown Canyon and after driving around for 1 1/2 hours, realized that we were in the wrong "side" of the canyon. I was pretty frustrated since we had told my parents that we would be there sooner, but at least it was a pretty drive. Once there we got settled in, had dinner and roasted marshmallows around the campfire. I was a little nervous about bedtime. We had never taken Noah camping and I wasn't sure how he'd do. We set up the playpen in the tent and he actually slept pretty well. That night he woke up with a dirty diaper and went back to sleep in my sleeping bag with me for a while. I eventually put him back in his bed and he slept the rest of the night. Lexi woke up early to go to the bathroom, but besides that, the girls slept really well. It was a relief, because I like my sleep! The next day, we got up and had hot chocolate. I love that part of camping, sitting around the campfire, drinking hot chocolate, trying to avoid the smoke. Anyway, it warmed up really quickly and we ended up in shorts and in the shade very quickly! We spent most of the day just kind of hanging around camp, doing a little exploring, geocaching, slacklining and visiting with each other. The kids LOVED being able to run around and get dirty. They especially enjoyed the water faucet. Myra was very quick to offer to go get water, etc. We all brought our bikes, so Myra and Lexi rode their bikes around while Chad and I went off looking for a trail to ride on. We found a four-wheeler trail that went down and down. That night, we rode down it for about 5 minutes, but were deterred by it going continually downhill and how late it was getting. That night, Chad and I made Dutch Oven Lasagna. It was so yummy! Although the meal had a bit of a damper on it when I got stung by a wasp! Owie! It hurt so bad! By the next day though, it was completely healed! We were all very tired that night and headed to bed pretty early. And we all slept great. The kids all slept through the entire night! The next morning started out mostly the same. We made pancakes and bacon over the fire for breakfast. While we were doing that, we discovered that there was a wasp nest under the bench I was sitting on when I got stung the night before. I'm so glad I was the one to get stung and none of the kids! Chad took care of it for us!
Later, Chad and I decided to take off the four-wheel trail to see where it went. I was a little worried after all the down-hill travel, but it was a beautiful ride and eventually came out to the main road. Which we decided to ride up instead of taking the trail back. It was very steep, but we finally made it. It took me forever to recover. It was so much fun though. I haven't ridden my bike much the past few years until this summer, so I still feel somewhat hesitant on it, but I'm getting better. I think I could really get into the biking thing! Anyway, that afternoon we spent some time doing crafts and reading. It was very relaxing to just be outside, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. We had a super fun time playing Bocce Ball and Badminton with Bre and Danny. That night, the kids slept wonderfully again. We were so lucky! Thursday morning, we started packing up again and Chad and I decided to go down the trail again on our bikes. Chad drove the car down to where the trail came out at so we wouldn't have to go up the hill again. We made it down the trail in about 30 minutes. It was such a beautiful area we were in! We were sad to leave. We stopped by in Garden City for ice cream on the way home and now, I'm still unpacking and cleaning. It was a great vacation!

Pedal Away Parkinsons

On Saturday Chad and I went down to Kaysville to participate in the Pedal Away Parkinsons 10 mile bike ride that our friend Meredith Smith has put together for the past 5 years. We haven't had the opportunity to go before, so we were really excited to do it this year. I was especially excited since I've been riding my bike a lot this summer and this would be a good opportunity to push myself a little. I know a lot of my friends are avid bike riders and 10 miles would be just a little walk in the park. But for me, it was a big ride! Anyway, my mom met us there to watch the kids for us. Then Chad and I took off late, at the back of the pack. The 10 mile ride was awesome. Chad quickly pulled a head of me, but I set a pretty nice pace and finished at 51 minutes. Chad was one of the first to reach the end and had a time of 36 minutes! There were no winners or losers of this ride, so it was just a lot of fun. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed it a lot. After the ride, there were vendors and food. And we were able to visit with the Smith family, which we enjoyed a lot. The kids had a blast going down the inflatable slide and playing with Grandma. At the end there was a raffle. We already got 2 entries by being in the race, but we decided to buy 2 more. And guess what? I won the big prize! A new bike!!!!! I couldn't believe it! The bike shop was closed that day, so hopefully soon I can make it down to the shop soon and pick out the bike! Very exciting!

Noah - 11 Months

Father/ Daughter backpacking trip

For the past year or so I have been promising to take Myra on a Father/Daughter backpacking trip, she has been very excited about it. I realized that Thursday (Jul 15th) was one of the last weekends before Myra starts school that we didn't really have plans. So even though none of the dad's that wanted to go with us were available I decided, in fear of letting Myra down, that I better not put it off any longer. In reality one day ahead is about as far in advance I like to plan things anyway. Thursday night we ran to the store and bought a bunch of snacks, came home and I stayed up until about 1am packing the bags. Friday morning I went to work at 6:45am, and then got off early so we could finish packing and head out. I made Myra carry a small pack, it stilled weighed 10 lb (mostly water), and my pack with the tent, sleeping bags, and double everything else was pushing 50 lb.


We head up the canyon to the trail-head at Tony's grove, payed the parking fee, used the outhouse, tied our shoes tight, hefted our packs, and finally set-off around 5:30pm. As usual Myra was full of energy, and the pockets full of Skittles and Starbursts only augmented her enthusiasm. I had been on this trail twice before, but for some reason I thought that it was under 2 miles; after hiking for a bit we came to a sign that said White Pine Lake 3.8. That was a bit further then I had planned to have Myra hike, but it was too late to turn around.

It took us about 2.5 hours to make it to the lake, Myra did awesome, she did not complain at all (a few time she told me she was tired but so was I). We only took a few breaks, and I don't think Myra stopped talking the whole way. I was really proud of her.

We got there about 8pm, the sun was starting to set, so we were in a hurry to find a campsite, unfortunately, several scout groups, young women groups and fishermen had decided that this was a great weekend to go camping as well. Every campsite was taken. After wandering around for a while we found a flat area where we could set up our tent and a place to build a fire pit. By this time it was starting to get dark and Myra was ready to go to sleep, but we still needed a fire to cook our hot dogs so I convinced Myra to follow me around a bit longer while I tried to find some dry wood (5 year olds don't really care to be left alone in the forest). We had to go kind of far to find some wood, but we finally did and got it back to camp, cut and ready to go just before it got dark enough for us to break out the flashlights. Dinner was good, I could not believe Myra ate 2 bratwursts by herself.

By now it is about nine thirty, and we are both ready for bed, just then another large scout group shows up, and since all the spots are taken, they decide to set up right next to our tent, I was a bit frustrated. So as to have a little privacy I decided to drag our tent away from them a little ways; the only problem is that our new camp site is covered in rocks. I did the best I could to move what I could and situate the tent on a less rocky area (to little avail). We climbed in, got in our pajamas and laid down for the night. One minute Myra was talking to me the next she was a sleep, I thought it was going to be a good night... I was wrong. It was super hot, so I slept on top of my bag with a towel for a blanket, I was kind of in and out of consciousness until Myra woke up about 12am just cry about her feet hurting. She was so tired, so there was no comforting her, I am sure they just hurt from walking so far. Plus she was not really comfortable on the rocks since I only had one sleeping pad, and thought that her young body could probably deal with the lumps and bumps better them mine. I finally told her a story that took her mind off of the pain and she fell asleep, for a little bit. This went on for about 3 hours, her waking up crying, me trying to comfort her, telling some made-up story and her falling asleep again. Finally about 3am I decided to give her the sleeping pad, which she gladly accepted and tried to make myself comfortable on the rocks. She slept pretty good after that, while I laid on my back checking my watch every 10 minute and waiting for the sun to come up - it was a long night.

When we got up, the first thing that we had to do was find some water. We had used up all that we had brought and had not been able to replenish our supply the night before. Myra said her feet still hurt too bad to walk so I had to carry her until we found a little spring. At this point I was starting to worry that I would have to carry her out in my arms. Luckily once we got the water, she started to feel better. We found our way back to camp, heated some water for oatmeal, ate, and took down camp. It probably would have been fun to spend some time playing in the lake, and walking around, but I was pretty tired, and if it was going to be a slow hike back because of Myra's feet, I want to get started as soon as we could - so we headed out. The hike out ended up not being too bad at all (I had added Myra's pack to mine so she could run circle around me), we made good time, and Myra did not need too many breaks.



The biggest struggle we had was that I was not really capable of figuring out how to teach Myra how to go to the bathroom with out a toilet... lets just say it is a good thing that Shannon pack extra underwear for her.


Over all the trip was really fun despite the few challenges we encountered. By the end I was really sore from having so much weight in my pack, but it was nice to see that I could carry that much if I needed to. I think that Myra really enjoyed it also...I would do it again, but probably take a little less and go some where where we won't have some many neighbors.

El-MYRA Duff

ElMYRA Duff, Coincidence? I think not! Why is it that Myra's name is a part of Elmyra Duff, the little Tiny Toon girl that LOVES animals to Death? I'm pretty sure that they are one and the same! Our dog runs with fear from Myra. Not because she's mean, but because she's too nice. She's always trying to hold her and feed her and pick her up and drag her around. Nena's learned really quickly to just avoid Myra. Well, for the past month we've been dog-sitting my Grandma's dog, Koty. And Koty isn't smart enough to avoid Myra, so Myra is constantly dragging her around the house, picking her up, feeding her, etc. Poor Koty is terrified of her, but just doesn't know what to do to avoid her. Crazy resemblance between the two "Myra's", huh?

4th of July Weekend

It's crazy how the 4th of July expands into being the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th of July, full of celebrations! So, this is how our weekend went. First, Logan city's big firework display was on Friday. I watched out our back window and saw a glimmer of light through our trees. That was about it. On Saturday, we went down to my sister's house in Lehi, where they bbq'd for us and then we went to Thanksgiving Pointe to watch the firework show. We waited around for about 2 hours for it to start and then it was over in no more than 10 minutes! It was pretty windy, so we figure they ended early because of that. We still had a fun time playing soccer and chatting. It took us over 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot after, crazy! On Sunday, we went out and bbq'd at my Grandma Newman's house. After which we had a rousing game of Bocce ball, which I really stunk at. Poor Chad, he was so brave to go after my ball in the spider-infested shrubbery. On Monday, I took the kids out to Hyrum for their parade. I left an hour before it was suppose to start and the traffic was so bad getting out there that I barely made it in time to run and find a spot to sit with the kids before it started. We were right at the beginning of the parade route and it went on for over an hour and a half! No kidding! Lexi was tired of going after candy after the first 15 minutes. Myra kept up the energy the entire time, but even by the end, I could see her desire to parade watch ending. It was so long! After that we walked down the hill to the park for the free watermelon and to check out the activities there. I didn't know that the park was almost a mile and half away. Once we got started, we couldn't turn around. Anyway, I was glad that a friend was able to give me a ride back to my car. I wouldn't have enjoyed pushing the stroller up the fairly steep hill. After that, Chad came home early and we went hiking up Logan canyon. It was called the Riverside trail and it was beautiful.
After the kids had fun playing in the water that was running over the road. It was a fun little outing. I just love Logan that the canyons are so close! Anyway, that sums up our Independence Day weekend.