Random Ramblings: FUN TIMES & DEFINITE BRUISAGE & I may have gotten a little carried away with all the pictures....

So, my family rented a cabin together in the Heber Mountains. My brother Robby, my sisters Stephanie and Katie, and me and all of our families were there. We did miss Dana and her family (they live in Colorado and her husband is in the Special Forces in the Army in Afghanistan) and Nathan and his family who just moved to Florida in July!
This cabin was so awesome! It had 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a zip line, a game room, a movie room, a wrap around deck/porch, and a huge kitchen and eating area. It was beautiful & secluded.
Each morning we anxiously looked out the wall of windows in the living room in hopes of seeing some sort of creature. One morning Steph saw a mama bear and her cub. Two of the days we saw moose. Once there were two moose and once there was one big moose who walked right up to the fence that was made of a couple of cables, which lined the property. One day a fox walked up to the house while eating some little creature. We saw lots of deer.
Steph's husband J.J. brought up some 4-wheelers and a side by side. We had some very nice little rides and a couple of very exciting rides. On one of the exciting rides we were heading up a very steep, very rocky, trail. When we were to a point where there was about a 50-70 foot drop to the left of me, my 4-wheeler started struggling to make it up the hill since it was so steep. Well, it was a manual shift 4-wheeler and I was thinking, oh no I must be in 2nd gear instead of 1st gear so I shifted down. Turns out I WAS in 1st gear after all and shifted into neutral. Oh CRAP!!! So I shifted back up to 1st gear and floored it, which caused me to basically pop a wheelie. The thing stood straight up, threw me onto my elbow and my butt, while still straddling it, and started teetering over all the way. I saw it teetering and panicked! All I could think of was that when 4-wheelers land on top of people they often die! Brian and my Zacky were on the 4-wheeler directly behind me. I scrambled to get completely off of it, flipped over to my knees and crawled away as fast as I could. Thankfully, it didn't ever roll completely over. The rack stopped it. It scared the crap out of me, Brian, Zack and everyone with us. I feel very blessed that it just stopped! I have bruises and scrapes and I'm sore pretty much everywhere but it could have been so much worse!!!
On Tuesday afternoon, Brian and I, and all of my siblings (except Katie who was cooking dinner that night) and their spouses went on a kind of hairy, totally awesome, 2 hour ride! Katie's hubby, Chris rode with Robby's son Tyler. And oh my gosh, it was awesome! We rode to the top of a mountain with spectacular views. To the east we could see the Uintahs, Mount Timpanogas to the west, and gorgeous views to the north and south as well. It was really fun! It was nice to ride on the back of a 4-wheeler, snuggling Brian for 2 hours. We rarely have that kind of time away from our children. Our 18th anniversary was on Sunday so it was so nice to have such a great time together! It's funny though. You can tell how much older we all are now. Steph, Jenise, and I were so happy that there was a nice little outhouse in the middle of nowhere on the ride that had T.P. AND hand sanitizer! I kept saying to Brian that I am a mother of 4 and every time we went over a bump it felt like I was being punched in the bladder. I really wished I had been more diligent at doing my Kegel exercises. HAHA
The zip line was so much fun! The kids especially liked it! My Max and Steph's son Josh are little dare devils and just thought it was the coolest! My Dad even rode it once. My Mom and all of us adults were more than just a little bit worried about him riding it. Of course all of his grand kids thought he was a total rock star!!!
We had a blast! We all hated to see it end. Can you believe that there were 17 people there and we all got along perfectly! It was really great! We are supposed to do it again next year and we just can't wait!
Life is so expensive anymore that we don't ever spend enough time doing super fun things as a family so it was especially nice to just get away and have fun! I'm so glad that it wasn't a 'luxurious' cabin. It was nice, yet just rugged enough, and the PERFECT place to take kids! They knew they had to take care of the cabin but we didn't have to worry about them doing naughty stuff so much because they were constantly entertained by the zip line, the great outdoors, the game room, and the movie room. It was great!

My sweet little Gracie climbing the stairs

Gracie & Max getting ready for our ride.

Zack, Gracie, Max, & Brian

Matty rode with me on a 4-wheeler

Look closely between the rear and front tire on the black car. The fox that came up to the house.

Starting out on the ride where I crashed.

I love how you can see the moon between the trees in this pic.

This is the crazy path we took. It was NUTS!!!Especially since we had kids with us and the side by side that was too big to be on this path. It was pretty cool too just a bit scary! We were afraid a bear or something would jump out at us. :)

This is a nice pic of all of them

This is when J.J. discovered there was a small branch from the bushes in Steph's hair...

Brian on the 4-wheeler that I tried to roll. I was on with Zack after the incident. I should have gotten a picture of the crazy hill we climbed when that happened. It was Crazy!!