A Father and Sons to Remember

Well, this past Friday our ward had our annual Father and Sons campout. This year's was definitely an memorable one. I ended up taking Dallas, Braden, Tyson and Dakota (I tried to have a strict must be at least 3 age limit but there was no way I could leave him). We camped at a place near Lake Lavon and conveniently located right next to where they couple and decouple train cars.

We arrived first so we got first dibs on where to locate our tent. Like any good father, I chose to setup our tent in a patch of poison ivy so that I could help my boys develop a resistance to the stuff. (Truthfully, I didn't even bother to look and had no idea it was even there until much later in the evening). Luckily, we must have a pretty good resistance to it because no one came away with any rashes.

Any frequent camper knows the very important dilemma that you face every time you setup your tent - to put on the rain fly or to not put on the rain fly. I had checked the weather prior to leaving and there was no rain in the forecast until Saturday afternoon so I chose to leave the fly off in an attempt to keep the tent cooler. We got everything all setup in the tent and then it was dinner and play time. We had our very nutritious dinner of tube steaks (hot dogs) and cheesy Pringles and topped it all off Famous Amos cookies. The kids played with friends, there was a campfire program with some classic (aka corny) Boy Scout skits and then it was off to bed.

The kids fell asleep fairly quickly and I did the best I could considering the humidity and the noise from the trains. There was a decent breeze and I was happy with my decision to leave the rain fly off. Somewhere around 3:00 AM or so I started to feel drops of water hit my face. Braden had woken up and said "Dad, it's raining". I told him that it was just sprinkling and to pull up his sleeping bag and go back to sleep. I sat there mulling the various options in my mind and wondering if this was going to be a classic Texas thunderstorm or a classic Texas false alarm. It was dark so it was hard to really see what the sky was doing but I noticed some lightening in the distance and I decided that I wasn't going to risk it.

I knew I wouldn't be able to get the rain fly on my myself so I decided to just get dressed and pack everyone in the suburban. After I had carried all the kids to the car (I couldn't have them walking bare foot through the poison ivy) I grabbed all of the sleeping bags and then the sleeping pads and just stuffed them in wherever they would fit (thank goodness for suburbans). By the time I had everything but the tent I knew I had made the right decision because it started raining pretty hard. I left the tent where it was and we drove a few hundred yards away from the rest of tents and spent the rest of the night in the Suburban (the AC was fantastic but there really is no way to get comfortable in the drivers seat....I'm sure that's by design). In classic Texas thunderstorm style, it rained fast and furious for the next couple of hours. Around 6:45 AM we drove back up to our tent site to assess the damage and to decide if we wanted to stick around for breakfast.

The wind from the storm had collapsed our tent and it had several gallons of standing water in it. Luckily none of the poles had broken and the water was drained easily enough. We decided to stick around for breakfast and it was great. We had some breakfast burritos and the kids got to eat as much sugar cereal as they wanted because mom wasn't there (and dad really didn't care at that point). :-) The storm had chased away about half of the attendees so there was PLENTY of food and we had a great time eating and talking with the other survivors. Of course, when we got home Brooke gave me a hard time about not putting the fly on but in hindsight I'm not sure that the result would have been much different with how much the wind was blowing (except that we would have been in the tent when it came down). It was definitely a memorable experience and I am looking forward to doing again next year!!

He's Finally Here!!!

Well, after 6 extra days of waiting, Owen was finally born at 10:42 AM this morning. He was 9lbs 7oz and 21.5 inches long. He is our heaviest baby by a full pound and it took a bit of extra work to get him out. Mom and baby are doing great and we are excited to be able to move on to (and through) the newborn stage. We haven't decided on a middle name yet but we'll keep everyone posted. Here are some pictures:

Owen ??? Williams


Dakota and Owen


Tyson and Owen


Braden and Owen


Dallas and Owen


Bailee and Owen

Raise Your Hand If You Have A Broken Collarbone!!

I do! I do!


On Monday, as we were getting ready to go camping with some friends, we were in the kitchen doing some things and we heard a thud. It turns out that Dakota was sitting in our office chair and was being spun around by one of his brothers (who shall remain nameless). The thud was him losing his balance and falling out of the chair into the hardwood floor (this is not the first time this has happened with the aforementioned brother). I picked him up to calm him down and do a damage assessment and nothing seemed to jump right out but it didn't settle down like he normally does. Brooke took him while I went to shower and he kept crying and saying that his neck hurt. We decided he needed to go get an x-ray and were pretty sure that he had done something to his collarbone. Well, we were right. He has a slight fracture on his right side.



Brooke took him to a specialist yesterday (I took the rest of the kids camping and she came out after the appointment) and they said that he would be fine in about 6 weeks and to try and keep him from being too crazy (we'll see how that goes). He still favors it a bit but I'm sure he'll be back to normal in no time.

11 Heaven

In an effort to get caught up, here are some pictures from Bailee's 11th birthday on Jan 29th. I can't believe that she is 11 already. We are excited to be able to be able to use her as a babysitter in short spurts and are looking forward to when we can default to her all the time. She got some Legos and and a few other things. She also chose to have Kitty cupcakes but I think hers was the only one that really ended up looking like a cat. :-)

Pinewood Derby

Ok, so we (I) haven't posted for a REALLY long time. Sue me!! :-) Dallas got to participate in his first Pinewood derby this year on Jan 9th. Unfortunately, with the busy holiday season and going on vacation we didn't have a whole ton of time to work on the car. He finished 3rd in his Den and was very happy with that. We plan to get an early jump next year so hopefully we can improve on that. Bailee also built a car and got to race it a few times down the track after it was all said and done. I think her car might have been a little faster and we worked on it less so I obviously don't know what I am doing. :-)