It's Fine. I'm Fine. Everything's Fine

As if 2020 couldn't get any crazier... 

So this story requires a little background. There is a gated community just south of our neighborhood. Gated communities have to be safer, right? We thought so too. That's why we sometimes encourage our kids to go over there to play. 

Second part of the background. Thursday, July 23 we had put the kids to bed and Tyler and I were watching a show. Well mid way through Caden comes out saying he could hear gunshots. We told him it was probably fireworks and sent him back to bed. So we went to bed a little while later and just as we were falling asleep we heard a helicopter flying around our neighborhood area. We looked outside but didn't see anything unusual. 

So, I woke up on Friday with a weird email from our Relief Society President asking everyone to check on the people in our ward who live in this gated community and see if they need help evacuating. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I talked to Tyler and read some news articles. 

Apparently a guy who lives in the gated community made a threats of a mass shooting at Culver's Restaurant the Saturday before because he claimed Culvers was harassing him. Then the next day he was outside his house with a rifle and shot the street lamp out across the street. So the police started investigating him and following his social media. They issued a warrant on Thursday and when they went to his house he started shooting at them. He tried to fire his gun at his fridge (I'll explain more later), but his gun jammed and he surrendered. So the police arrest him and start looking around in his house only to find that he had huge amount of home made explosives. 

Ok, so knowing all of this now, I can't believe how many angels were watching over us and our neighborhood. The kids play in that neighborhood a lot. They walk right past that guy's house when they go for walks around the block! Apparently the crazy guy was trying to shoot at the fridge because that's where his explosives were stored. Can you imagine if his gun didn't jam? I could cry thinking about what could have happened. All in our back yard. 

So back to Friday, July 24. The gated community was evacuated while the he bomb squad came in to investigate. Well they realized they couldn't safely move all of his explosives, so they decided they had to blow them up at his house. A guy from the city came to our house and informed us that for our safety, our neighborhood was asked to evacuate as well or shelter in our basement until the next morning. 

*Potentially explosive material found inside a home in South Jordan is being investigated by officers. Out of an abundance of caution, residents are recommended to evacuate the area from Bangerter to 3200 West and 10200 s to 10400 S. Residents that are unable to evacuate should shelter in their basements and stay away from windows. This evacuation is scheduled to last until 10 am Saturday, July 25. 

We were already planning on going to Hanna for the 24th weekend, so we just ended up leaving early, but talk about a heart attack! The news was there and live streamed when they blew up the explosives. Luckily no one was hurt and even though there was extensive damage to the guy's house, no other houses were damaged.  It was just so unreal that all of this was happening right by us. You always hear stories of crazy people, but you never expect it to be so close to home. 

Despite the stressful start to the weekend, we had a great time at Hanna. The sunsets were beautiful again. 

The kids played so well together. 

We had to teach Terry and Craig all about "Pie and Root Beer day" 

The kids woke up early and their favorite thing to do is to find grandpa and play games with him. 

We went on 4 wheeler rides up to the top of Tabby Mountain. 

And saw a moose on the way back. 

We played on the tubes and kayaks and went down the river a bunch of times. Makayla is getting pretty good at the tubing thing. 

Seriously, the views at Hanna are my favorite. 

What a crazy weekend. 

2020 needs to give us a little breather. It's fine. I'm fine. Everyone's fine. 

Our Fantastic 4th

This weekend was exactly what we all needed. We went to Hanna Land for the 4th of July and it felt like life was back to normal. It was perfect. 

Well... the ride up there wasn't perfect. We stopped at Chick-fil-A for dinner and ate in the car. If you remember, Makayla gets super car sick when we go long distances. As she has gotten older she is better able to control it, or give us warning so we can pull over, or throw up in the throw up bag. So we were literally 5 minutes away from Hanna Land and I heard her in the back say, "I need a throw up bag" so I grabbed one, handed it to Caden, and before he could even hand it to her, she threw up... like projectile vomit all over the car threw up. She was sitting in the back seat and there was Chick-fil-A throw up in the front of the car. Do you understand how bad this was? We pulled over and Makayla was COVERED in thow up, Caden started screaming because he had throw up in his hair, and Brynnli was crying because there was throw up on Uni (Her stuffed unicorn). All we had in the car was a few wipes and it wasn't near enough to clean up the mess, so Tyler told everyone to get in the car and we drove just a few  more minutes to Hanna. Tyler and I spent the rest of the night cleaning chunks of puke in all the tiny crevices of our 1 year old Buick. 

This was pre- vomit. 

I do feel so bad for Makayla. She was so worried and upset that she had ruined our car or our trip. Now that there's been a few weeks since this, I can laugh at it, but at the time I was so mad. 

The rest of our trip was a blast! Craig bought a few kayaks and we literally spent the whole weekend playing in the river. 

The kayaks and tubes were so much fun to go down. 

Then the next morning we had to wake up bright and early to run the Tabi 5K. We keep getting  more and more runners each year. This year Caden wanted to run it. 

Caden and Grandpa ran together and I think they had the most fun just talking the whole time. Makayla and Colton ran it together and they played the almost the whole time until the last half mile where Colton's only goal was to beat me and he ran ahead of Makayla. He totally beat me. Carson beat all of us with the best time of the family. I didn't do my best, but I did ok. Makayla came in just a little bit after me. 

After the run we went to the parade. It was the usual. They started late, went through twice, threw out lots of candy, and it was over in 30 minutes. And we loved it so much!

When we got back we headed to the river again and played all day long. Craig got out the huge float and we all spent hours relaxing. 

When we weren't playing in the river we played games with our cousins. 

And when on 4 wheeler rides 

This looks like it should go in a magazine. 

That night we went to fireworks. 

While the kids helped with dinner 

Tyler and I went on a 4 wheeler ride and I don't think I have ever been so dusty. 

The sunsets were extra pretty this weekend, so we got lots of pictures. 

She's always posing. 

By the end of the trip we were all pretty tired. 

Peace out Hanna! We sure love our home away from home.