Discovering "the Basin"

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 Where we live, there is a contest put on by the chamber of commerce and the newspaper companies.  They publish a magazine, "101 Ways to See and Do The Great Uintah Basin."  The contest is set during the summer and you simply try to complete as many of the activities in the Basin that are listed.  All entries are due tomorrow.  Guess what?  We decided to enter this year.  So all summer we've been on an adventure to "See and Do" the Uintah Basin.  It's been really memorable and fun!  It was also nice to finally get to explore this area that we've lived in for the past 5 years!  We found some fun places that we'd definitely visit again.  Although we didn't get all 101 things done, we were only short by 30.  That's pretty good considering how much we were gone.  I'm proud of us!  We'll see if we win something, cross your fingers! :)

Hello Hotel! Christensen Reunion Day 7 & 8, July 8 & 9, 2012

 The time came for us to migrate to another place, so it was off to a local hotel in Hurricane.  Some of the family reunion left to go to their various homes, but some of us were able to stay a night or two in this hotel.  We had a good time together and the added comforts of air conditioned rooms were a nice way to end the reunion.  We swam in the hotel pool, enjoyed the continental breakfast, and we had just enough leftover food from the previous days that we didn't have to spend money going out to eat.

The girls got to play with their cousins a little longer, which was nice because we don't get to see Elinn's family very often.

 I broke the cardinal rule of photography- never take pics of people while they're eating.  Oh well.  It's the only photo I have that documents our creative make-shift hotel kitchen/ dining room.

 Below you'll see the "taco bar" that we made using the room's microwaves to heat up the leftovers and the dresser as a buffet table.  It was messy, and made the place smell of taco meat for awhile, but there were no complaints.  We were together eating the yummy leftovers, where can you go wrong?

Creepy!

I took a pic today of this huge spider. I was on my way to show the girls the huge black widow that my mom killed earlier, when i came across this monster. This spider was huge and the black widow was just as big! Eew! I hate finding them near my house. Time to bring out the poison!

Zion National Park, Christensen Reunion Day 6, July 7, 2012

A nice picnic lunch

While I took care of Amara who was still trying to get better, Steve took Lily to visit Zion National Park with the others.  They had a picnic, a nice hike, and an overall fun time with the rest of the crew.

Arts and Afflictions, Christensen Reunion Day 5, July 6, 2012

I love the family talent shows.  It makes me smile to see so many family members willing to share their talents.  I got a few pictures, but only a few.  For much of the show, I was attending to my miserably sick little one.  Amara didn't get to share her poem that she had prepared, but Lily got up and shared hers.

Here's the poem she shared:

I Jumped Up

An Original by: Lily Christensen

I jumped up but couldn't get down,

So I casted a spell with my magic crown.

Down, down, BOOM!

There I was on the ground,

I will go to the doggie pound.

I will get a dog.

I hope it doesn't scare my hog.

Yay!  She didn't.

Now I can keep them.

I'm proud of Lily for her creativity and willingness to share her talent with words.  :)

Amara had woken up that morning with a fever and no appetite.  Soon after that she threw up, and then stayed in bed for most of the day trying to rest.  I tried my best to push fluids into her, and on occasion she would think she'd start feeling a little better only to end up back in bed.

By evening, it cooled off somewhat, and our dear daughter still wasn't feeling great, but she wasn't loving being in bed all day (in a hot-ish room), so we decided to take Amara to go see some of the "Rock Shop."  She loves rocks.  She sorta collects them.  I say "sorta" because she'll bring rocks home, but they don't all end up in a collection, I think they usually end up outside in the yard somewhere.

It was a pretty evening, and Amara enjoyed looking at the plethora of rocks outside.  Too bad she wasn't well for the talent show.