Wow....10 years!

Yep!....Nate and I just celebrated our big 10 year Anniversary yesterday Aug.20th.
Anyway, late, late, Monday night we got a surprise visit from Grandpa and Grandma Haws(my parents). They were able to go back to Georgia and bring back a school bus. While they were back there, they stopped in Savannah and the beach. They picked up some seashells for Corbin, because we had hoped to be able to go with them but couldn't afford to. Corbin has been dreaming of going to the Ocean for over a year now and he's saving all his money in his piggy bank to take with him when he goes. Thanks Mom and Dad.....it made his day to know you loved him that much to go to the ocean for him! Grandma and Grandpa stayed all day at our house on Tuesday. Grandpa fixed Nate's blue Eclipse and dug up a ton of weeds cleaning up our yard for us, and took us for a fun drive in the school bus. Grandma did my dishes for me 2 times, kept track of my kids and the neighbor kids too, and tended my kids while I went Visiting Teaching . We were spoiled by both of them! Here is some pictures of the boys playing with one of their treasures from Grandpa and Grandma! We miss them already!

This is now becoming their favorite thing to do first thing in the morning......watching the Weasel chase the ball all over the Kitchen floor. At least it's entertaining them while I get their breakfast ready.

Now back to our Anniversary. We had hoped to make big plans to go to San Francisco or something like it, being our big 10 years and all. Well, due to expense, we changed our minds and started looking at a small trip to Snowbird or Park City. That got scratched also. We ended up getting a sitter for half the day and taking a beautiful drive up to the Flaming Gorge area. While we were up there we had a wonderful dinner at the Red Canyon Lodge and spent some time just playing around. By the end of our evening Nate had asked me to marry him again....using a very suspiciously familiar wedding ring that had went missing from my jewelry box. Why was it in my jewelry box? Because I had a couple of broken prongs and was scared I was going to lose my diamond. I've been waiting and trying to get it fixed for about 3 years. Nate had taken the ring into a Jeweler that happens to be in our ward, and had it fixed and cleaned up! It sparks like it's brand new! Thanks again, Babe! I love it! I was so HAPPY and so EXCITED, I think some people(we didn't know we had an audience) thought we were really getting engaged for the first time! Afterward we went home and did what any old married couple does on their big Anniversary......sat down in front of the t.v. and watched the U.S.A Beach Volleyball Women's team beat China for the Olympic Gold Medal! We had a blast up at Flaming Gorge and I couldn't have asked for a better Anniversary! I Love You, Nate! Here's to 10+ more!

Here's My Handsome Man! Thanks, Hubby for a very memorable 10th Anniversary!

At the Red Canyon Lodge they have a beautiful lake and you can rent pedal boats or canoes and take a ride around the lake. So we rented a pedal boat and bought some fish/duck food and were on our way to a nice romantic night on the lake! It was so fun and it was pretty romantic! One of the many highlights of the boat trip was when we happened to see something interesting in the water. So we pedaled over to it and got ourselves stuck for 15 minutes or so over a big patch of seaweed looking weeds. Not a very romantic moment! Nate had to lean over the front and clean out the weeds over and over as we tried to move away from the "interesting" weed patch. While he was doing that I was sitting on the back of the boat trying to keep us from tipping over. Oh what memories we'll have to share with our kids! Let's just say Nate was drenched from sweat and stinky lake water and it took him a few minutes to get back into a good mood. There is so much to do up around the Lodge. There is Cabins, fishing, boating, hiking, scenic drives, camping, and picnicking. The weather right now is just perfect up there, no longer hot, but not cold either....just right!

There is all sorts of ducks and birds out on the lake and in the fish pond(kids 12 and under can catch and release fish for free from the pond) by the Lodge. While out on the lake we were getting followed by all sorts of ducks and coots( the dark grey birds above). We fed them a nice dinner by the time we were back on shore. When we stopped pedaling and were just floating around the ducks would come right up and surround the boat hoping for some good grub.

Big horn sheep! We saw lots of wildlife. We saw all of these: sheep, deer, squirrels, fish, ducks and lots of different kinds of birds. They are so use to seeing hikers and other people that they don't just spook and run away, but they don't bother anyone either. It was pretty neat to watch them.We took a small hike on top of Red Canyon and around the Gorge. This is just one of the awesome pictures Nate took! It was so pretty up there! There is a Visitor Center and a bunch of small walking trails that go all over the top of the canyon with little look out points and signs telling of neat facts about animals and vegetation in the area. If anyone wants to come and visit this is a great place to take your whole family.