Flashback Tuesday!

In light of my recent post about our beach trip and falling out of the car, I was reminded of an earlier family adventure to the coast. Only instead of falling out of the car, I fell off a horse, well jumped off really. To this day I am not quite sure where my brain was on that trip. I guess temporaraly gone due to preganancy-i hate it when that happens.

I know this is a terrible picture-it makes me look like a female sumo wrestler.

Well the fateful day went something like this. "Hey wouldnt it be so much fun to go for a horseback ride at the beach." This was my suggestion to Randall as we are on our little adventure. So we all agreed we just had to do it. Obviously my brain was no where to be found, because had I thought about it a little more I would have decided it was not such a great idea for a 5 month pregnant lady. But because I severely lacked judgement at the time I was certain that it would be no big deal. After all we were just going for a leisurely stroll down the beach. We payed for our ride and the wranglers brought the horses over for us to get onto. As I gazed over the corral they appeared to be fairly trusty steeds, until they brought over the most mammoth horse I have ever seen in my life. This thing was huge!! They called for me get on the horse-my first thought was SERIOUSLY!! NO WAY. But oh no, despite my reservations Parker and I mount the mammoth beast. My first clue to not proceed should have been that my pregnant belly and Parker could barely fit on the saddle together. But oh no, I'm an adventerous girl I told myself, we'll be just fine.

Randall and Abrianna got on another much smaller horse and we rode off through the sands with our guide. While traveling through the small dunes to reach the beach my horse kept stopping to do some business. Well 1 time no big deal, but 2, 3, 4, times Seriously!!!! He just couldnt stop. The guide thought maybe he wasnt feeling well but wasnt concerned. Well I was starting to get concerned. He proceed to have the same problem all the way down the beach. Our guide was in front followed closely by Randall and Abrianna, and Parker and I brought up the rear. Well out of no where my horse just stops, and no matter what I do he wont move. Everyone else is so much further ahead of us that no one know that we have stopped. Then out of no where we start going down. This mammoth of a horse started sinking like the titanic. My first reaction was oh my gosh he is going to buck us off. But oh no it was a slow decent and thank goodness. He first sinks to his knees in front and then in back, all the while Parker and i are holding on for dear life. My next thought was that he would roll over on top of us. So as he lowers down to his belly I grab Parker and jump off the the horse, well rolled sort of, praying that our legs would make it out from under him. We made it off and ran as fast as we could away from that horse. I have never been more shaken up in my life. At this point I am really cursing myself for this great idea of mine. Well long story short we are miles down the beach and there is no way I am getting back on that horse. So the guide gives me hers, still quite large, to ride back. And let me tell you trying to get your 5 months pregnant backside and belly on a horse on the beach-nearly impossible. Well, I can laugh about it now, but lets just say you probably wont find me on a horse on the beach ever again.

Why do I always fall out of the car!!!!

This may seem like a silly question to pose, but it is seems quite appropriate in my life lately. Let me explain. Last weekend Randall and I decided last minute to get out of town for a much needed break. We packed up the car and took the kids to the coast for an overnight adventure. Everything was going great. The weather was even in our favor, which is rare on the Oregon Coast. The kids were down on the sand playing and Autumn was bundled up so cute and snuggly-it was her first time at the beach. So naturally I wanted to capture some memories with our camera. Well I was all geared up for a great shot when the camera decided not to work. I opened it up to see what the problem was only to discover that the memory card was gone!!! Well I decided that I was not going to let that stress me out or dampen my spirits-so oh well no pictures, I guess i can live with that. We continued our pleasant afternoon until it was time to check into our hotel. Well we get all checked in and to our room and we went to find the pool and IT WAS CLOSED. WHAT!!! I specifically had chosen this particular hotel because it had a pool right near our room. We had stayed there before and loved it. Well I was bound not to let that get me down either. So I ever to cheerily told the family that this would give us the wonderful opportunity to check out the other pool at the hotel, that we wouldnt have otherwise gone to. So we loaded everyone in the car in swimsuits and flipflops and drove up the hill the the main pool. Well, we park the car and I open the car door in a hurry and before I know it I am on the ground. We were in the Expedition, so it was a long way down. I didnt even fall gracefully. There was no catching myself or even time to realize that I was going down. One minute I was up and the next I was on the wet cement. I was so stunned I couldnt even move. Randall jumped out of the car and had to pick me up off the ground. The damage was already apparent, bruises on my legs and arms and a very large one on my hip that took the brunt of the blow. At this point I began thinking to myself, "You have got to be kidding me." For a brief moment I begn to wonder Why, Lord Why!!! I had been stressed out of my mind for weeks, having anxiety and feeling so exhausted from all of the demands of life, but I was really trying to look at the sunny side of life. I guess sometimes I just think there should be some brownie point or reward for choosing the high road. Example: Well Brook, I know the pool was closed at your hotel but because you decided to make the best of the situation.... you will now have a fabulous time with your family, everyone will cooperate and be happy and life will be wonderful. Wouldnt it be nice if it really worked like that. I guess it is the Lords way of keeping us humble. Because belive me, I really feel humble about a lot of things in my life lately. Well if I have learned one thing lately its that even when life doesnt go exactly as you have planned and even when you find that sunny patch through the gray, you still sometimes Fall Out Of The Car!!!!!!!!! So dont be too discouraged, life will get better even if it doesnt seem like it today.

Has anybody seen the Parrot?

Randalls question to me last night:

Did you know that there is a parrot in our fireplace?

Me:Yeah I know. I just havn't gotten around to taking him out.

Randall:Why is the parrot in the fireplace?

Me: Well some days are good, some days are bad, and some days you just have a parrot in your fireplace!!! You really dont want to know.

Wouldn't it be nice!

Wouldnt it be nice if we could solve all of our problems with chocolate?

Extremely sleep deprived-chocolate

Havn't cleaned the bathroom in 2 weeks-chocolate

Fighting kids-chocolate

No dinner prepared-chocolate

Really bad hair-chocolate

World Peace-chocolate (although preferably from the Swiss)

And Parkers lastest:
Can't possibly finish my homework-chocolate.

This was his latest scheme after we argued for several hours about writing his letters for school. We had gone back and forth much longer than was needful until I was finally out of ideas to encourage and even coerce him into cooperating. I finally decided to make him go outside until he cooled down enough to reason with or he turned into a popsicle, whichever happened first. (I really thought the latter might actually happen.) After about 10 minutes he comes in and tells me, " Mom, I have a great idea. I think if I have a little bit of chocolate I will feel better and be able to finish my homework." Where did that come from? However at that point I really didnt care, so I consented to a piece of leftover christmas candy. He sat down smiling, ate the candy and didnt speak another word. A few minutes later the entire paper was finished without any further arguing.

I have to hand it to the kid. He can be pretty creative at times. Ah, to be a kid again when chocolate really can solve most of your problems.

So next time I am having a really bad day or a difficult time with something I think I will just sit down and have myself a good piece of chocolate.

Christmas Eve

Despite all of the craziness of the season, we did have a

wonderful Christmas Eve.

The Powell side of the family gathered at our home this year to celebrate. We started the evening with a wonderful steak and prawn dinner with all of the fixings. Since I didnt bake really at all this year we had little fruit tartlets and ice cream from Costco. They were actually really good and kept me from gaining a few extra pounds from all of the baked goodies!!!!!!!!!

We then gathered in the living room to talk about the gifts that we would be giving the Savior this year. My gift would be to listen and act upon the promptings of the spirit. It is something that I am not great at. I may hear-but the acting part often times gets shuffled to the side or forgotten in my busy life. Randall decided that he would give the gift of more strict obedience. The kids of course decided to read the scriptures and say their prayers-the most basic things that we even as adults many times forget.

Parker then delighted us with some riddles. He loves to be in the spotlight and show off his reading skills. We then sang christmas carols and the little girls shared the stage to sing Away in a Manger.

Papa read everyone The Night Before Christmas just after they opened up their new christmas pajamas. Parker got The Grinch and Abrianna Sleeping Beauty. Nana and Papa also gave each one of the grandkids a sleeping bag, and a book. Parker got Scooby Doo (of course), and Abrianna Princess. The kids then snuggled down in their new bags to watch a Dora Christmas Movie.

Brenna and Abrianna in their new jammies and sleeping bags.

We concluded the evening sharing our service projects that we had done for Mom and Dad. It truly was a wonderful day and we had so much fun with all of our family.