The Fun and the Ugly

As I said in my last post, I've been gone to Bear Lake for the past two weeks.  A lot has happened in those last two weeks.  I think I'll start with June 30th, the day before we left, and move on from there.  

My Dad was released as Bishop of the YSA 7th Ward about a month ago.  He was called to the high council in the Ogden YSA 2nd Stake.  My Mom was called to the same stake as a relief society adviser.  I figured I would just go to the ward they went to so I could go to church with family.  So, on Thursday the 30th, I decided to go to the ward BBQ with my parents.  The food was good, the company wasn't.  About five minutes there, and in walks my ex-husband.  I managed to stay for most of the time so my parents could get to know kids (although when my Dad saw my ex, he asked me if we needed to leave).  Nik never spoke to me, but he knew I was there.

I was pretty upset when we got home, and it showed when I was helping my Dad hook the flatbed trailer to his truck.  My parents told me I could just go in and relax, that they could handle the rest (my cousin Bailey was there to help them, too).  I went in and worked on the 1500 piece puzzle that has been up for months.  My cousin walks in not five minutes later and says, "You have a visitor."

I was surprised, looked up, and asked, "Who?"

Nik walked in the room.  "Me!"

I looked back down at my puzzle.  I was so angry that I was sick to my stomach.  When I get emotionally stressed, I usually don't cry or freak out.  That stress exhibits itself through physical pain.  My family, either my Mom, my Dad, or Bailey, was there with me the whole time he was.  Still, he wouldn't leave!  Two hours later, I'm still standing over my puzzle, not speaking to him, hoping he'll leave.  What makes him think he has the right to come see me anyway?  He asked if I'd be around.  I told him I'd be at Bear Lake for most of the summer, and then in New York.

At about 11:30 PM, my ex-husband says, "Oh, well, I guess I'll go now.  But Chelsea, I want to talk to you, so will you walk out with me?"

Absolutely NOT! is what I was thinking, but I walked out with him.  He told me he missed hanging out with me.  I don't miss hanging with you.  He said he didn't want me as his wife anymore, but he wanted me as a friend. I don't want you for a friend.  GET OUT OF MY LIFE!


"And um, I never said sorry to you.  I was a real jerk."

"I know."

"You agree with me?"

"Well, I wasn't going to offer it, but if you're going to say it, I'm not going to disagree with you."

My Mom yelled out the front door that someone was on the phone for me.  I thought, Who's calling me at 11:30?  She must be just trying to get me away from Nik.


I said bye to Nik, and he said, "See you around!"

I turned around, and at this point so much profanity has run through my brain that if I look back I'm afraid it will all come out.  I pride myself on being able to keep my temper.  There's few people that ever bring the worst out in me.  Up until Nik, I didn't know that kind of fury existed.  I walked in the house.   I was sick for the next two days.

We went up to Bear Lake the next day.  I calmed down from the previous night's incident.  Nik wouldn't follow me up here.  I'm safe from him.  So, the weekend went well, as did the week after it.  I've got some fun pictures of people from up there.  My Dad has this really nice Nikon camera, and I used it a lot, but then the SD card got corrupted somehow, so we've got to send it in so I can get all my pictures back.  When that happens, I'll post those pictures.  I have some pictures on my little digital camera, though, that are pretty fun, and I'll post as the highlight of this post, because there's another downer part coming.

Jason Jr., my cousin Page's kid.  He's only one, but look how big he is!

Tajsha, my cousin's other kid.  Tajsha will be three in September.

Junior on the boat for the first time.

When we went four wheeling, we encountered a wall of snow that we couldn't get around. 

So much for going to Gators in Randolph for lunch!

Snow is all over on the mountaintops.

Flowers on the road.

Mom and Bailey

The mountainside.

Bailey after the ride.

Bailey and Mom after the ride, all dirty.

Me after the ride.  You can barely tell I went, I didn't really get dusty leading the pack.

The view from our house.

A chipmunk at Minnetonka Cave.

In Minnetonka Cave.

Me and Bailey after the tour.  She'd never been in a cave before.

And guys, she's fourteen, so back off...

Then Friday came, and Bailey and I decided to make jewelry.  She was beading, and I was working on a chain mail bracelet, when I heard, "Hey guys, what's up?"  I knew the voice, but I hoped I was just dreaming.  Nope, it was Nik.  He decided to drive up to Bear Lake so he could "take me to lunch."  See, the thing about that is, I'd already told him over both email and the phone that it would never be okay for him to take me to lunch, ever.  I thought I'd sent that message very clearly.  Apparently, not.

I nearly finished my bracelet, and then changed into decent clothing (at this point I was still in pajamas).  My Mom said, "Why don't you take Witter (my cat, Lex) on a walk down the beach?  He's been wanting to go all  morning."  Side note, yes, I do take my cat up to Bear Lake with me.  He doesn't really care for the car ride (what cat does?) but he loves it once he gets to our cabin.

Well, my Mom told Nik he should go walk with me.  We went for an hour, and no more than twenty sentences were spoken, and most of them were voiced by him.  He told me he missed Bear Lake.  I told him I knew he missed the lifestyle my family afforded him.  That shut him up for awhile.  I called the kettle black.  On our walk, he picked up a stick, and then broke it up into small pieces and started throwing them at my cat!  I was really angry, and I'm pretty sure it showed, because when he saw my face he stopped throwing them until later.  The fact that he even threw another stick at Lex again after a few minutes should be a testament to how thick my ex-husband can be.

We got back to the cabin, and I tethered Lex and sat outside on a picnic table.  He finally asked, "You really think that I miss the lifestyle your family afforded me?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't miss it.  I'm happy with my life."

"I hope you are.  I hope you get your life put back together."

"It is put back together."

"Okay."

"So, do you want to go to lunch?"

"No."

"Oh, okay."

"You realize that the first time I told you no--over the phone--that meant no, never?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then what's all this?  You know you're never going to win me back."

At this point he got a little upset, and said, "Chelsea, I was done trying to win you back the moment I started dating Andrea."

Andrea is his ex-girlfriend now.

"Good." I said.

And that was pretty much it.  We went inside, and he talked a little longer.  I told him that the best place to get a shake in Garden City was still Hometown Drive In, and he left.  So, he drove 2 1/2 hours to come talk to me for 1 1/2, and then get a shake and drive back.  I hope he's learned his lesson.

The rest of the day was nice, however.  We went on a boat ride, and I got ridiculously sunburned.  Most of me is now tan, but there's still a bright red spot on my chest that I think is just going to peel and not tan. Oh well.  Next time I'll know to apply that 90 SPF once every two hours instead of once every four.  Saturday was full of Waverunner riding, tubing, and packing things up to leave.

Overall, it was a good trip.  I got to tan, eat good food, play in the water, oh, and I forgot to mention light some fireworks.  Then there was crocheting, watching good shows and introducing Bailey to Pinky and the Brain and the Animaniacs, laughing with family, and making jewelry.

And what else besides write this awful long post did I do today?  I made Rosemary Lemon Chicken, Rosemary Lemon Thyme Potatoes, and a Garden Salad with an herb dressing.  Tomorrow, I'm going to make a Kiwi Lime Sorbet.  I'm going to make some more mint lemonade, too.  And I plan on trying to make a Mango Sorbet and a Lemon Sorbet.  So, if you read to the end of this long post, good for you, you got to read a list of the yummy stuff I've made and will make.

And Megan, if you took the time to read all this after already hearing the narrative, bless your heart.  I'm sure that the written narrative was much easier to read, and follow, because it was minus all the profanity.

When My Dad Has His IPhone...

Pictures will be taken.  Labor Day weekend was no exception.  He always brings his IPhone along when we go four wheeling, even though he doesn't get service anywhere we go.  When we stop at random places in the wilderness, he whips out that phone and takes pictures!  Actually, they're pretty good quality pictures.  I finally got some of these pictures after I fixed my email in my Dad's phone so he could actually send them to me.

My mom wasn't overly thrilled about pictures.  She was tired from how long we'd been riding.

Ryan looks pretty awesome.  That's mainly because he just can't look terrible.  He's a fashion statement even when completely covered in dirt.

I was happy to be four wheeling, but I don't look so cool.  I do look terrible covered in dirt.

My brother was the smartest of us all, because he kept his helmet on, and it hid how dirty his face was.

And if it weren't for my Dad always carrying that phone of his around during odd times, we would never have any pictures like this to show.  I guess we should be grateful that he finally caught up with the technology of the times, and is capable of using it!

Play One Day, Sick The Next

I woke up this morning with the flu.  I've never experienced pain quite like it.  It felt like every rib in my chest had been broken, and I wished that I didn't have to breathe.    I'm glad it's over now.  Hopefully that's the worst case of the flu I'll get this year. 

However, yesterday was great.  It all started with the movie Lagaan at that ended at three in the morning.  Carianne Hirano brought it up to show us.  We had to watch it with subtitles, because it was a Bollywood movie, all in Hindi.  The movie was over three hours long, but it was fun to watch.  I tell you, trying to understand a game of Cricket that early in the morning wears your brain out when it is the first game of Cricket you've ever watched.

After a few hours of sleep, everyone got up for breakfast and then got ready and went out on the boat.  Savannah Combe wakeboarded first, and then Ryan Taylor went out and learned to kneeboard.  Then Carianne learned to kneeboard and then tried to learn to wakeboard.  Finally, I decided to get into the water to wakeboard.  The water was really rather cold for this time of year, but I acclimated to it after awhile.  I only wakeboarded a couple of times.  Ryan got seasick, because the boat had been stopped for so long and the waves were rocking the boat.  Carianne and I went tubing, and then Ryan and Savannah went.  Ryan felt much better once he got into the water. 

When we got off the boat and went up to the cabin, my mom's coworker Erin was there with her kids.  We got a veggie tray ready and some chips and salsa to eat before we went out on the waverunners and boat.  The water was rough when we got the waverunners into the water, and since one of our waverunners was not functioning correctly, Ryan and I ended up on the yellow two person boat in the choppy water.  This would have been fine, but it tips over really easy in the rough water with one person, let alone two, and it is hard to get back on when you are in the deep water.  Carianne and Savannah were on the four person "tuna boat" and so the ride was a lot smoother for them.  I guess I didn't tell them that they should stay close, and they went all the way to Cisco beach in the chop, and we followed them to flag them down.  It took that long to do so.  That's several miles in the choppy water on a machine that flies out of the water when it hits a wave of a large size. 

Ryan drove the waverunner on the way there and part way back.  When he stopped a wave caught the boat in the wrong way and we fell off.  It was a good thing that Savannah and Carianne were behind us at that point, because Ryan couldn't get back on our boat.  He kept falling off.  I jumped off and swam to him to get the lanyard to hook on the boat so I could drive by Carianne and Savannah's waverunner and let Ryan jump on the back of mine.  By this point the ride wasn't as fun as it was on the way out, because the wind was picking up and it took a lot of strength to stay on the boat.  This could also have something to do with the fact that I was driving and it took a lot more effort to stay on the boat.  Needless to say, we're both sore today.

We came in and switched waverunners, which was nice for Ryan and I, because then we were able to enjoy ourselves in the chop without exerting the last of our energy.  Then we came in and helped finish getting dinner ready.  We ate pork loin, corn, and dutch oven potatoes.  Awhile later we went on a bike ride.  My family has two beach cruisers and a tandum bike.  Savannah has a bucket list, and on that list was to ride a tandum bike.  She was able to cross that off her list.  Ryan and I rode it back to find out that the tires were running low. 

When Savannah and Carianne left, Ryan and I went back out for a last run on the waverunners.  The water had calmed down, and we had some fun before the sun went down.  Then we cleaned up and got raspberry shakes at Hometown Drive In.  It was nice to talk to Ryan, although I often feel that I do all the talking.  I feel like I pry when I ask questions, so I rarely ask them.  So, after we got back we got ready for bed and watched Merlin (well, in between sleeping) and then I let Dylan switch me spots and sleep on the airbed and went into a room to sleep. 

Then this morning the first paragraph of this post happened.  Ryan and my dad went home to go to church; they're coming back this evening.  Tomorrow, if my luck keeps turning for the better, I'll be able to go four wheeling with everyone.

Another Bear Lake Problem

For this historic 100th post, I present to you my brainlessness.  We get to Bear Lake without event, and my mom and I go about unpacking things.  Then we take a nap.  When My mom and I wake up, we go out to unload four wheelers.  There was a spare tire in between two of the four wheelers, so I unthinkingly put the keys on the front of one of these kawasaki four wheelers and got the spare tire off of the trailer.  One key rolled into the front of that four wheeler, into the part that doesn't allow things to slide out of it when shaken.

So, instead of letting me do what I wanted, my mom insisted I drive the four wheeler off the trailer to try and shake the key out of the machine.  I did as instructed, and guess what?  The key is lodged so far into the machine that I can't get it out without taking the machine apart.  I mean the battery and everything out of the front to try and get behind the steering wheel.  And did I mention that I don't have the tools to do it?  So, I'm stuck now, after using scissors and knives as screwdrivers, I thought I had it.  There's bolts.  Bloody bolts!  Really, I hope that this isn't how the whole weekend goes for me.  I just might lose it if it is.  Needless to say, I'm sure my dad is going to be plenty annoyed with the situation.