Sunday, November 6, 2011
Ellis Family Halloween Pictures
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| Mary a Hershey's Kiss, sweetheart that she is. |
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| Jared as Captain Jack |
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| Arlene as a Zombie Ballerina. Elena helped her come up with this outfit and designed her make-up. |
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| Enoch as Voldemort...which head shaving still makes my stomach hurt. Not to mention the self -evaluation of raising a child who wanted to be Voldemort. |
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| Miriam as a "China Girl" |
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| Elena as Galadriel. |
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| Frodo as bird. Costume by Miriam. |
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| Sam as Robin Hood. Costume by Elena. |
Clegg Cousins Halloween Party
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| Crazy Clegg Cousins Arlene, Collin, Miriam, Jared, Enoch, Elena, Ben, Mary and Asher |
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| Out take 1 |
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| Out take 2 |
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| Carving Pumpkins! |
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| Enoch's Pumpkin had FOUR eyes! |
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| Thankfully Enoch only has TWO:) |
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| The goth version of Miriam. Not my favorite. |
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| Halloween Treats |
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| Doug made his edible witch craft a self portrait:) |
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| Asher and Grandma Clegg |
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| Rob and a pirate...with anchor tatoos. Miriam regaled Uncle Rob about them. She asked, in an accusatory tone, "Did you put fake tatoos on your SON?" To which Uncle Rob responded, "no, they're real ones:)" |
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| Cute Collin |
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| Baby Seth and Aunt Ruthie |
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Vernal Trip
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| This week was our fall break. We headed down to Vernal to do the dinosaur everything. I had what seemed like my own personal welcome:) |
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| Arly with the "cute" baby dinosaur eggs hatching in the outdoor garden. Jared proceeded to tell her only 1/3 of them would live past their first year. |
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| This outdoor garden was the coolest part. |
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| Mary about to be eaten by a pterodactyl. |
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| Elena the ornithomimus. |
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| Jared and his Curelom..I mean Mammoth. |
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| Miriam playing patty cake with a Utahraptor |
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| This is a huge wall of fossils. There are hundreds of bones visible. |
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| Enoch's idea to run from the t-rex. |
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| Just above Jared's head is a spine fossil. P.S. he complained the ENTIRE way down he didn't care about dinosaurs anymore. |
Beautiful Hike
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| We went on a long scenic drive. The kids LOVED that;) There was a 3 mile hike somewhere in the middle where we could walk out to the end of a very slender mesa and have a horse shoe view of the whole valley. The views were breathtakingly beautiful. I loved walking along with the children visiting about nature and things of the Spirit. At the end of the mesa I found Jared shouting Theodin's pre-war speech at the top of his lungs. |
Not so Beautiful River Trip
The pictures below are from the internet because Doug's camera and pictures are waterlogged.
So, Doug had been longing and pushing to take the family down the Green River in a raft. This was, clearly, against my better judgement. I resisted a long time but seeing how important it was to him, unfortunately, I relented. The fact that the rental company had to unpack never-before-used children's life jackets should have sent me running.
Doug remembered a relaxing float down the river. Some of the parts were just like that. It was beautiful. The fall colors were lovely. The water was clear and we could see the fish swimming in it. I forgot I was good at paddling. I haven't done it since forever. Thankfully, Jared and Elena had also done some paddling at their various camps and did a great job. We taught Mary and Miriam to paddle as well. The little kids got turns during which it was wrestling match to keep the raft going the right direction.
We managed most of the rapids just fine. Arlene, my dare devil kid, was at the front of the raft loving the spray of water on her. Mary went from loathing the whole idea to being a good little paddler. We had one rafter in his own solo craft who would wait for us at the bottom of each rapid and tell us which way to go. We were slower than he was and we eventually lost sight of each other.
About 2/3 of the way through the run we hit a nasty bit of rapids. We steered around one rock only to run right into a bigger one broadside. Doug used his paddle to try and push us around it but he feels that it actually tipped us over. The oar was quite bent. We all got dumped into what the rafter idiot at the rental company said was 42 degree water. I got flung backwards a ways. Jared and Miriam got caught between the raft and the rock. Miriam's glasses got rubbed off her face leaving a three inch scratch. The glasses were lost. Jared said he punched on the raft to get it off of him. When I surfaced I still had my oar somehow. Trying to swim with an oar, in a life jacket, in a fast moving river is a near impossibility. I looked around me and could only see Enoch floating off in a different direction of current. I was bobbing and struggling and trying to think through the freezing water. It was horrible.
The only good news was that Elena, after hoisting Miriam into the raft, heard Enoch calling for help. She swam after him and got him to shore. Doug threw Mary into the raft and then Arlene. As I swam toward the raft all the kids were crying and screaming. Mary kept saying, "I love you Mommy, I love you Mommy." She was so afraid I was going to drown. My jacket and clothing were water logged and the lip of the raft was two feet above the water. I simply could not hoist myself into it. I decided to try and tow the raft over to the shore. We were still too far from my babies and not moving fast enough.
Jared made his way to the raft. Mary and Miriam helped him up and over. Then it was my turn. I called to him and he hauled me up over the edge. I got my paddle and started to move the raft to the shore. I accidentally whacked Doug, who was still in the water, with the paddle (he's not so sure it was an accident:). He held on to the rope and swam with us over to the shore. We all hopped out. I walked back to Elena and Enoch and helped them the rest of the way.
It was cold. We shivered violently. Doug and I bailed the water out of the raft. The kids didn't want to get back in but it was the only way out. It was seriously grim. We said a prayer of gratitude asking for continued safety and got back in the swearword raft. We put the little ones in the middle to huddle together for warmth. They were SUCH troopers. All our jackets, which were a protection against the cold, were now a hindrance. I was shaking like mad. I was needing to cry my head off but was trying to be brave so the kids wouldn't have a complete melt down. I just kept remembering Enoch floating away and me being wholly unable to do anything about it. It was all I could do to keep myself together. Jared and I were in the back. Elena and Doug in the front. We managed the remaining rapids with more solemnity but still had some close shaves.
We maneuvered the swearword raft up onto the dock. Jared's feet were bare, he hadn't wanted to get his only pair of shoes wet, and they were torn up from the rocks. I had packed changes of clothes and shoes in the back of the van, just in case. I got all the clothes out and sent the little ones up to change in the restroom. When I came back to the van I found my usually ultra-private-lock-the-bathroom-door-at-all-times-15-year-old son naked as a jaybird changing right there on the ramp. We'll just chalk it up to hypothermia!
We have said MANY prayers of thanksgiving that we were safe. Today as Enoch recounted the tale to his primary teachers. He said "the good news is we still have 8 people in our family." Indeed. Thank Thee Heavenly Father!
So, Doug had been longing and pushing to take the family down the Green River in a raft. This was, clearly, against my better judgement. I resisted a long time but seeing how important it was to him, unfortunately, I relented. The fact that the rental company had to unpack never-before-used children's life jackets should have sent me running. Doug remembered a relaxing float down the river. Some of the parts were just like that. It was beautiful. The fall colors were lovely. The water was clear and we could see the fish swimming in it. I forgot I was good at paddling. I haven't done it since forever. Thankfully, Jared and Elena had also done some paddling at their various camps and did a great job. We taught Mary and Miriam to paddle as well. The little kids got turns during which it was wrestling match to keep the raft going the right direction. 
We managed most of the rapids just fine. Arlene, my dare devil kid, was at the front of the raft loving the spray of water on her. Mary went from loathing the whole idea to being a good little paddler. We had one rafter in his own solo craft who would wait for us at the bottom of each rapid and tell us which way to go. We were slower than he was and we eventually lost sight of each other. About 2/3 of the way through the run we hit a nasty bit of rapids. We steered around one rock only to run right into a bigger one broadside. Doug used his paddle to try and push us around it but he feels that it actually tipped us over. The oar was quite bent. We all got dumped into what the rafter idiot at the rental company said was 42 degree water. I got flung backwards a ways. Jared and Miriam got caught between the raft and the rock. Miriam's glasses got rubbed off her face leaving a three inch scratch. The glasses were lost. Jared said he punched on the raft to get it off of him. When I surfaced I still had my oar somehow. Trying to swim with an oar, in a life jacket, in a fast moving river is a near impossibility. I looked around me and could only see Enoch floating off in a different direction of current. I was bobbing and struggling and trying to think through the freezing water. It was horrible.
The only good news was that Elena, after hoisting Miriam into the raft, heard Enoch calling for help. She swam after him and got him to shore. Doug threw Mary into the raft and then Arlene. As I swam toward the raft all the kids were crying and screaming. Mary kept saying, "I love you Mommy, I love you Mommy." She was so afraid I was going to drown. My jacket and clothing were water logged and the lip of the raft was two feet above the water. I simply could not hoist myself into it. I decided to try and tow the raft over to the shore. We were still too far from my babies and not moving fast enough.
Jared made his way to the raft. Mary and Miriam helped him up and over. Then it was my turn. I called to him and he hauled me up over the edge. I got my paddle and started to move the raft to the shore. I accidentally whacked Doug, who was still in the water, with the paddle (he's not so sure it was an accident:). He held on to the rope and swam with us over to the shore. We all hopped out. I walked back to Elena and Enoch and helped them the rest of the way.
It was cold. We shivered violently. Doug and I bailed the water out of the raft. The kids didn't want to get back in but it was the only way out. It was seriously grim. We said a prayer of gratitude asking for continued safety and got back in the swearword raft. We put the little ones in the middle to huddle together for warmth. They were SUCH troopers. All our jackets, which were a protection against the cold, were now a hindrance. I was shaking like mad. I was needing to cry my head off but was trying to be brave so the kids wouldn't have a complete melt down. I just kept remembering Enoch floating away and me being wholly unable to do anything about it. It was all I could do to keep myself together. Jared and I were in the back. Elena and Doug in the front. We managed the remaining rapids with more solemnity but still had some close shaves.
We maneuvered the swearword raft up onto the dock. Jared's feet were bare, he hadn't wanted to get his only pair of shoes wet, and they were torn up from the rocks. I had packed changes of clothes and shoes in the back of the van, just in case. I got all the clothes out and sent the little ones up to change in the restroom. When I came back to the van I found my usually ultra-private-lock-the-bathroom-door-at-all-times-15-year-old son naked as a jaybird changing right there on the ramp. We'll just chalk it up to hypothermia!
We have said MANY prayers of thanksgiving that we were safe. Today as Enoch recounted the tale to his primary teachers. He said "the good news is we still have 8 people in our family." Indeed. Thank Thee Heavenly Father!
Little Women
When we arrived home from our big trip, I made a deal with the Lord. I have been aching to be in a show. It has been a couple of years. Still, I didn't want it to be hard on my kids. The deal was this, I would move all my teaching to the daytime while the kids are at school. Then from 4-7 I would make sure their homework was done, they were driven to their lessons, and we had a good meal. Hoping that from 7-10 I would be in rehearsal or performance. In a matter of days, no kidding, I had been cast in Little Women. It was SO FUN for me. The plan worked well. We had a few hiccups but on the whole I was very pleased. Elena wanted a phone and we made a contract about her putting the little kids to bed for me the nights I was away. It was a win-win!
I also got permission to bring three of my little women to the show with me, one night each. They helped me in and out of my costumes, some of which weighed 15 pounds. Those Civil War women were no sissies. Aunt March is an elderly woman. My make-up is kind of scary up close but I looked old from the audience side of things. I had numerous people come up to me in the meet and greet to settle a friendly but hotly contested conversation about my real age.
I also got permission to bring three of my little women to the show with me, one night each. They helped me in and out of my costumes, some of which weighed 15 pounds. Those Civil War women were no sissies. Aunt March is an elderly woman. My make-up is kind of scary up close but I looked old from the audience side of things. I had numerous people come up to me in the meet and greet to settle a friendly but hotly contested conversation about my real age.
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