Island Park

My dad really wanted to do a family vacation this year. Janelle and I planned one. It was great. We went to Island Park. The cabin we stayed in was perfect. Here are some pictures of the fun.

We spent a lot of time on my dad's boat. Curtis and Millie were bonding. My dad loved it.

We got Trisha on the water weenie. She had more fun than any of the kids. She had never done anything like it before. It was so funny to watch her.

Jared, Mark and Jon (Sarah's husband)

Mark and Jared getting ready for their ride.
Abby and I on our ride. We didn't get a picture of me and Jared because he flipped us. He started rocking while we were taking a turn. It was really cold.

Mark up on the wake board. He hadn't been for years, but he still has it. Abby freaked every time he fell.

My mom and the boys.
Trisha right before we sent her out.

Abby loving every second with her grandparents. She really misses them now that we are back in Utah.

Jared loved the boat. He could have spent the whole trip on it.

Jared way excited to try fishing. He didn't like it as much as the boat.

Jared and my dad where we fished. They were throwing rocks in to scare the fish away.

Now Abby had to join them. Yes, Jared doesn't have pants on. Don't all men fish in their under ware?

Jared decided to hang out in the grass.

Park City Vacation

We decided that we need a vacation this year. Since every last dollar that we earned was going to buying our house we had to go cheep. We went to hear a time share presentation just to get a free vacation. I am embarrassed to say this, but we had a great time.

The place was great. It had a kitchen which we saved lots of money on food.

Abby spent most of her time swimming in the bath tub. It had jets and she loved to add bubbles.

The best part was that it had space for everyone. We all got the sleep we needed.
Yes, Curtis is in the bathroom, but we slept at night.
The first night we rode a gondola up to Deer Valley for a free concert. Jared was a little scared.
Abby loved every second of the ride.
Mark and Curtis on the ride. It was a little cold that night.

Abby and Jared dancing at the concert.

Mark and Abby dancing.
Now just Abby. This girl has rhythm. It was a Jazz concert and she was right on. The people behind us keep commenting on what a great dancer she was. She has this little hip thing that is very unique. I do not take any credit for this. Her babysitter was on the high school dance team.
The next day we went down the alpine slide. Here is Mark and Jared getting off. Jared wanted to fly down.

Abby and I going up the chair lift. She was a little scared at first.

Abby and I coming down. She could have gone down a million times. However we had to slow down at every turn because the sign said so. Needless to say it was a slow trip.

We had the best time. Listening to a time share presentation wasn't that bad. The trip was worth the time we spent at the presentation.

Fun Pictures From the Move

The kids on one of our many trips to Home Depot. We lived their.
Curtis on the day we moved out of our house. He was so tired and his crib was gone. We had to make him a bed. It worked.
We were in our house. Mark ran out of shirts. This started as a joke. I went shopping and Daphnee the girl who used to watch our kids was working. She had to show me the new line of men's clothing. I had to buy the pink shirt for Mark. He thought it was a horrible joke. Well when you have nothing to wear he could either stink or wear pink. He chose pink.
The boys. We were walking Abby to the bus stop.

Finally in Our New House

After a lot of trials and heartache we are finally in our new house. There is so much to tell and I have no clue where to start. People keep telling me that I need to write down all the problems that we had I will just have to do a summary because if I wrote everything down it would be a novel.

* The day before we were suppose to close on our old house we got a call saying we wouldn't get $5,000 that we were planning on. We spent most of the day fighting it out with a guy at Provo city offices. He told us he would have to take some time to think. After a family prayer we went back and he gave us the full amount.

* We are packing our big items up and it was time to go to closing. We couldn't find the keys anywhere. We look for two hours with no lucky. Went to closing in another car. Finally we decide to unpack the furniture. The keys are in the couch at the very bottom of the pile.

* EmmaLee and the kids go back to Idaho. One of the boxes with Marks, EmmaLee, and Curtis clothing ended up in storage. No big deal we will be in our house soon. We will make due. (still haven't found that box)

* We have our family vacation in Park City for a long weekend. We had a blast. We will update pictures later.

* We go back to Idaho for a few days. Then go on vacation to Island Park with the Hammon side of our family. We had so much fun and will update with pictures on this too.

* Pack up our stuff in Idaho and start out to Utah. It was Tuesday August 19th. We were so excited we close on our loan today. Get a call from our mortgage guy and there is a problem. We cannot close today, but will close in a few days.

* We stay at Mark's parents house. The next day I go to the new house to get carpets cleaned. I had to get something upstairs. I am holding Curtis and going back down stairs. The carpet guy had put cleaner on the carpet and I have shoes with no traction. I step from the stairs to the tile floor and I fall. Since I am holding Curtis I fall wrong and I am in so much pain. I call Mark and he rushes over. (His office is only five miles away. YEAH for gas.) We go to the doctor and it is only sprained. I have to stay in bed.

* Friday...I get a call from the doctor and he tells me my foot is broken. Then I get a call from our mortgage guy and the underwriter. To make a long story short they decided not to do the loan because of Mark's student loans. Our mortgage guy assured us that he would get the loan done in a few days. He told us to hold tight. I had my doubts.

* Saturday... We have to be out of Mark's parents house. His step mom was having two surgeries. We get a hotel on Price Line.

*Monday... Abby starts Kindergarten. We will update with photos. We send her to the class that would be hers if we get the house.

*Tuesday... We get a call saying the underwriter wants a letter from us explaining how we are going to pay for the house. Very odd, but we would do anything at this point. Mark writes an amazing letter.

*Wednesday... We get a call and we can close on the loan that afternoon. Tears of joy for both of us. We close on our house. The mortgage company got it through a new underwriter and us to closing in 3 days. It was a miracle. On Friday our realtor told us to go with a new mortgage company. She said she knows someone who can get the loan done in 5 days. Well they did it in 3.

* Thursday... We get a call and the sellers never signed papers the night before. Sheer panic went through my body. We went to get socks at Kohl's and Jared runs away from me. I cannot catch him because of my foot. 30 minutes later I find him. I call Mark and Jared goes to work with him. I get Abby to school 45 minutes late. We still don't have a house. We are living in our car. I am ready to check into the nut house. At this point I am sure they would gladly take me. We get a call from our realtor and it was a mix up with the title company. The sellers are going to sign right away, but the home has an HOA that the sellers never disclosed. They are going to let us move in the house even though it wont fund until the next day. We still do this day don't have the HOA settled, but we have a house to live in.

* Later that night we had beds set up and it wasn't in a hotel. We were all so happy. Mark's brother Gary, his dad and my cousin Curtis all helped. We could never have done it without them.

This is the long update. Now we have our computer set up and Internet. We love the house. It has four bedrooms, a great living area, and an unfinished basement. Our back yard opens up to a huge playing area. It has lots of bike paths. The kids love this. Our neighbors seem really nice. There are tuns of kids to play with. Mark is a huge collage football nut. He new he was at home when he saw Christmas lights on someones roof in their sport teams name, another neighbor had another teams flag up, and on Saturday we herd fog horn meaning someones team scored. Mark informed me that he is unpacking his cow bell. I am a little scared.

We have lots of picture to update. Many more fun summer stories. Not all were bad. Now we can do this because we have a home and a computer.