EaR TrOuBle

It was Saturday night at Last Chance, we had just turned out all the lights and settled down into our cozy beds. The kids were all sound asleep and the Erskines were sleeping in the room next to ours. All of the sudden, Rick starts screaming like a MAD MAN! He jumps out of bed and is flipping his head in all directions -- "A moth just flew into my ear, A moth just flew into my ear!" Jason and Lisa come running in to see what all the commotion was about. Jason, being the calm-collected friend, started to work on Rick's ear. First, he yelled to Nurse Lisa to grap the tweezers. He pinned Rick down on the bed, shinning the flashlight into his ear and tried to pull the moth out. It was pretty funny to watch Rick "bucking"Jason off everytime the moth started flapping next to his ear drum, as he was trying to perform surgery. When the tweezers weren't working, the next idea was a vaccum. I wish I had a picture of this: Jason with the dust buster vaccum attached to Rick's ear trying to suck up the little bugger. No dice! Next was a water bottle inserted into the ear to try to flush it out. Nope, no success. So off to Tooele Emergency Room we went. Rick entered the hospital like a Tourette's patient. He would be just fine walking, then the moth would start to flap, and he would start going into convulsions like he was having a seizure. I thought he was going to rip his head off.

The nurses were all entertained by Rick's behavior and even the doctor was amused. He was a pretty good sport, given the fact he was being tortured.

They put mineral oil into the ear to kill it. Finally, relief!

Then they irrigated it out with a syringe and water. Pretty easy procedure for such a HUGE CRISIS!


Here is the little bugger that sent Rick over the edge!
He explains it like this: Just think of a helicopter next to your ear drum while someone is tickling you in an inappropriate place and it doesn't stop. The funniest part is that he had a very sore neck for about a week after from all the convulsions!
Love you Rick!

Last Chance for FUN!

School is about to start this week, so we thought we better get in our LAST CHANCE for FUN! Soon all our babysitters will be in school.

Liz made her delicious spinach dip and we licked the bowl clean! We had so much fun chatting and snacking. My abs are still sore from belly laughing. We have such a fun group of friends. Everyone gets along so well and we all seem to have the same sense of humors. I love being with a small group of moms who appreciates the time we have to ourselves more than anything in life right now. We have the opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life with children. Not that we don't love our precious little ones, but I really believe I come home a better mom after having had some "ME" time.

Now, we did get a little bit scared. There we were all ALONE out in the middle of the desert. Who knows what could be out there. We really freaked ourselves out. We were sure someone had come to kill us all when we heard "chimes" outside. After about 20 minutes of screaming and thinking of all the possibilities of horrible things that were about to happen, we figured out that the "chimes" were the base of the table shaking that we were sitting at. Boy, were we relieved to find out the Last Chance Serial Killer wasn't going to come knocking down the door.
Liz and Tara were ready to protect us all!


After we wore ourselves out laughing, and devoured all the snacks it was time for nighty night.

Not a surprise to wake up to GLASS ... it's just like that at Last Chance!

Melanie did a great job learning to ski and wakeboard. She was out there having so much fun that she completely wore herself out. She could barely pull herself into the boat. Way to go Mel! Are you ready to go again?

Lisa, in her superhero wetsuit! She was pleasantly surprised to find out the water wasn't as cold as she thought with her best friend

(a.k.a Purple wetsuit.)

Rick surprised me and got me a new ski -- the Radar Theory. I absoultely love it -- just as much as I love my children, Rick, and my boat:)

Me attempting to wakeboard. I am really trying to learn how to do a few tricks so I can do something when I am done skiing!

We hated to leave the warm sunshine and face the reality of meet your teacher night, school supply shopping, and new school routines. Oh well, I'm so grateful for fun friends, an amazing husband who helps with the kids so I can leave, and GLASS water.

Happy Birthday Liz

I asked Liz what she wanted for her birthday, and she jokingly said she would love to learn to waterski! Well, you can't tell me that and not expect it to happen. Next thing I knew there we were, a bunch of moms, spending the night at Last Chance in the 5th wheel! We stayed up way too late laughing and trying not to scare ourselves.

It was so great to wake up to the smooth water and hot sunshine. Every single mom skiied and/or wakeboarded. There was something very empowering about just girls cheering each other on as each person took their turn on the water.

Tara popped right up like she had been skiing for years!


Lisa getting ready to ski

Heather was a pro from the start! She got right up and skiied great.

I think Lisa should do the Funions commercial. I'll probably send this picture in.

Smart Cookies for everyone, instead of birthday cake.

The best part of the day ...... Liz got up and skiied all over the lakes!

Happy Birthday -- we love you Liz!

Summertime Fun

We have been spending a lot of time out at last chance. It is so fun to watch this place coming together. It's neat how we really appreciate the little things ... like grass, the spiral staircase, the boat lift. It's kind of nice that everything isn't being done all at once, it really makes us appreciate each and every improvement.

Nicole and Lindsie enjoying the fresh new sand Cody dumped on the beach!

Priceless....

The kids favorite activity is jumping off the roof of the boat house. Lindsie and Nicole jumped constantly for two whole days -- over and over and over.
Ready, set.......

GO.....


Mallory is learning to ski


She's skiing right off the swim deck... perfect way to start!


Mallory dressed the kittens in their own shirts (they were her webkinz clothes)

What a funny sight -- I laugh every time I see these pictures
We said good bye to each kitten as we found homes for all of them. My kids were very sad to see them go, but the good news is that we suckered our friends into adopting them, so my kids can go visit them anytime!

Lindsie has been loving cheerleading. She has cheer practice three days a week and is getting so good at it.
Here they are warming up for the Saratoga parade

Troy has found his love with baseball. He is on a team with all of his neighborhood friends. I love watching Troy because the kid always has a huge smile on his face!

Don't ever let Rick tell you he hates cats! He secretly loved having the kittens. I caught him a few times playing with them and letting them crawl on his back while working on his computer!

This was one of the most amazing days of my life. Some friends of ours invited Shaun Murray (pro wakeboarder) out to Last Chance. Talk about TALENT! This guy not only was the nicest guy around, he put on the best wakeboarding show I have ever seen. He was flying through the air landing trick after trick so gracefully. Most of the tricks he did, I didn't even know if they were humanly possible. My favorite part was when he did the slalom course on his wakeboard and between each bouy he threw a different flip --- and he made all SIX balls! Wow -- there is no way I will ever forget what I saw this day.
Yes, Shaun Murray sitting on the back of my boat!

Another Amazing Day:: We are starting to put together the disabled waterski program. This was the first day we were getting training on how to use the equipment and teach the skiers how to ski.

Here is a below knee amputee tearing it up through the slalom course!
This girl was having so much fun on the sit ski. Notice the jet ski in the back ground. They follow her to help her if she falls and when she is finished skiing.

We are so excited for this program and can't wait to see it start coming together. It is so much fun to watch Rick put his knowledge of physical therapy and his love of skiing together!

So many of our friends came out to volunteer with this program. I have a feeling this is going to be the best part of Last Chance. I watched how appreciative these athletes were and how hard they have to work to have fun like this. It made me so grateful we have such a great facility they can come and use. Just to not have to deal with other boats in the water or choppy water makes such a difference!

Oh how I love SUMMERTIME!

Mischevious Mal

Okay Mallory, what have you done now....

Mallory: "someone shaved my hair with a razor"

Mom: "what!, who shaved your head?"

Mallory: "someone"

Mom: "tell me right now, you won't be in trouble."

So after hearing quite a few stories about how her friend's came over and did it when I was gone .... she finally admitted to trying out my razor during her morning bath. I would have loved to see her face as she reached behind her head with the razor and watched the lock of hair fall into the bath water.

What would we do without our Mallory?? Life would be pretty dull :)