HG

"Real life" seems so long ago.  I remember the days that I went non-stop from sun up to sun down and the kids were right at my heels.  I never thought of throwing up and food was a pleasant part of life.  Now we march to a much slower drum, one that is being controlled by Hypermesis gravidarum.  It is an illness associated with pregnancy where severe and persistent nausea and vomiting impact every facet of your life.  I've been sick with my other pregnancies, but not to this extreme.

The good news:  It is only temporary, a matter of months.  And you know what they say, when you can't go over it or around it- you have to go through it.  It's a journey that our family is experiencing together.  Brent has been such a wonderful support.  He's become Mr. Mom and taken on a bulk of the responsibilities around the house and yard.  Both or our parents have been wonderful to help with the kids and then other generous people are bringing in meals and helping out with the kids.

It's a humbling experience.  One that has brought me to my knees.

Watermelon Patch

 I got sick of staring at this wasteland next to our backyard.  It seemed like a catch 22, because as soon as we got rid of the weeds, the wind would make a giant sand dune on the backyard.  Unless. . .

 You could cover it with enough black plastic to hold the sand in place.  And since watermelons love to grow in sand and the heat of the plastic, my idea was born.  A watermelon patch.

 Couple my idea with my husband's equipment and it exploded into a rather large patch.

 We hauled in lots of compost, installed a drip irrigation system, and got seeds and starts planted. 

The challenge in the Idaho wind has been keeping the plastic in place.  It's buried, stapled, and zip-tied in place but it still threatens to take off like a giant sail.  If we can keep it grounded, we'll be in luck.

Scout Mountain

 With the poor weather over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head out camping the following weekend.  We didn't have much time, so we headed to Scout Mountain up Mink Creek.

 There are lots of hiking trails.  We all enjoyed this view of Pocatello.

First thing in camp, Hudson decides to try out my new hatchet.  I found him whacking away at this quaking aspen.  We tried to teach him that you try to take care of your campsite and you can't cut just any tree down.  But boys will be boys.

 

Little did we realize that we had three stow-away birds in the camper until they started chirping for a snack.   I was content to let them go the way of the earth, but Brent decided it would be fun to catch worms and feed them.

 Hudson took this responsibility very seriously.  Straight out of bed and he was headed to get the birds breakfast.

 Dalanie on the other hand didn't share the same enthusiasm for the slimy worms.

 By time Hudson finished his worm harvesting, it looked like an infestation of moles because of all the overturned soil from his shovel.  I'm pretty sure it was another campsite rule violation.

 With the protection of a cup, Dalanie became much more involved.

 I impressed the kids by turning over a log.  They couldn't believe all the worms.

 The kids especially loved riding their bikes.  There weren't many flat spots so Dalanie had to learn to use her brakes.  It was a little scary learning curve, but she improved in leaps and bounds.

 Ruby could have played on the hammock and washed her hands the entire time and been content.  She is quite a clown and kept us all laughing.

 On a hike, the kids found all of their ages.

Memorable Memorial Weekend

We pulled into Lava and quickly discovered that the girls' bag didn't get put in the car.   That put getting into the hot pools on hold until we could track down some swimming suits.  No luck at the little shops in town, so we headed over the mountain to Alco in Soda with a little more luck.

 

It was the perfect temperature and after a few hours we had to pull the prune-y, wrinkled kids out.

Dinner at Fat Jacks.

The next morning, the kids were ready to get back in the pool.  I on the other hand, was feeling quite sick and could barely make it through breakfast.  I sat out swimming but took in the walking tour through the town.  Of course, this bull couldn't be walked past without getting ridden.

After little improvement in how I was feeling, we called it a trip and headed home via Chesterfield. 

We decided to try out the Reservation-Reid road with encroaching clouds.  I had to stop and get out and puke, but we pushed on.  Soon enough, the rain had made the road quite greasy and for a time, impassable.  We had a pudding and teddy graham picnic once while we were stuck and waited for a break in the weather.  The rain let up for just enough time to dry things out a bit so we could get out.  It was such a blessing since it continued raining for rest of the night.

We were so glad to get back home.  Sometimes you wonder why you ever left in the first place.