Chuck and I got out of town this past weekend. We took off to go to Moab. We went thru Canyonlands National Park. We were not too impressed with it really and Chuck was not feeling good so we didn't stay too long. We got up early early and went to Arches National Park on Sunday and we really enjoyed it. We watched the sunrise over the hills and arches. There was a lot to see and more to get out and do there. We hiked up too some arches (yes even me). I hope we got some great pictures. I would recommend Arches National Park to anyone. Now back to the reality of work and school....yipppeeeee!

Yep we got roped into coaching. We are coaching 2nd and 3rd graders in the Upwards Flag Football league. We have some great kids on our team and are having fun so far. Our first game is this Saturday so we'll see how that goes. Our team name is the Raiders (of course) so come see us play!

So the kids started school today.... I hope they have a blessed year. God bless all the kids and teachers out there. I pray God puts a hedge of protection around you and that God opens your mind to learning all that he has in store for you.

We had an incredible church service last night. We had service up at our new church property that is being built. We were all given a marker and a piece of paper that had the many names of God and their meanings. We wrote the names of God all over that building! It was awesome. Even little kids that could only write God (or Gob in one little girls case) were writing it on every steel beam. This will truly be a House of God!

So the staff from out church (which includes my mom) decided to rent a boat and do a group outing. So mom invited Chuck and I to meet them with our boat and hang out for awhile. So Chuck and I got up early and decided to do some fishing cuz we knew they wouldn't be out there till later. We fished for a couple of hours and Chuck caught only one little Perch. But gosh do I love fishing! Well we met up with the staff and found a great place to beach the boats so we could hang out and grill. Dad fell in the water and I think we all about peed our pants but thats a whole story in itself. Off to the left of the beach was some sandstone that was about an inch underwater so they were great to play on. On the edge of the sandstone was about a 15ft. drop off so the guys were diving into the water. Our youth pastor lost his wedding ring in the water...that was so not good! My dad grilled burgers and we had a great time. But.... men will be men and apparently men don't wear sunscreen! Chuck is sooooooo burnt. Had little blisters and he is peeling now. But he has been in pain since Saturday now! I've been there too so hopefully he's learned his lesson now.

In other news.... Tristan only had one cavity! woohoo and he is really trying to brush better now. School starts in just a couple of days. The kids are not ready to go but go they must. Alexander gets a laptop thru the school this year which should be interesting. I think it will be great for the students to have laptops to use but I just hope they take care of them as they are told.

Well thats all the Cook updates for now... Check back soon for more exciting information!

And I didn't post once! How rude of me!

July was busy but fun. Our oldest son Alexander turned 14! Its hard to believe I have a 14 yr old. He is a great son but growing up too fast. We took him bowling with my family and had a great time. Then left the next day for a quick trip to Albuquerque. The four of us had such a great time. We watched "Hancock" while we were there, went to Cliffs, swam at the hotel and then went to Hinkle family fun center. That place is such a blast! We played miniature golf, the boys rode bumper boats and go karts and we played in the arcade and then the four of us played laser tag! That was a blast! The next day we went to the zoo. I haven't been to the zoo in years and I love going! The monkeys were hilarious. We got some good videos of the boys having fun.

Let's see... a couple of weekends later we took the boys out on the boat for the first time. and now I did not fall off this time! They were so cute catching all the little fish. They really enjoyed the boat more than I thought they would I thought they would be scared, especially Tristan but they did so good. We've been to the rock wall climbing every week and I'm looking forward to getting to the pool one night this week hopefully before school starts.

So that was July.....whirl wind... but oh so fun with the family!

We just got back from the Holland (my mother-in-laws side of the family) family reunion. We left on Thursday to go down to Hurley, NM. We were all going to stay at grandpa Cook's house. The house has 2 1/2 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. Chuck brought our tent and sleeping bags knowing there was not going to be a lot of room. There were 12 people staying at the house the first night, which was manageable. We invited the other parts of the family over for a fish fry that night. It was fun. We set up tables and chairs outside and just made a night of it. It was nice to get to meet parts of the family that Chuck tells all these stories about. Then it was time to find a bed for everyone.

On Friday more family was expected in town that afternoon. We got everyone up and showered and Chuck, the boys and I went to the Silver City museum. That was fun. We bought the kids these cute hats that were animal heads. They were a big hit. Then we went and bought flowers and put flowers on all our grandparents graves. I have one grandma that is buried there and he has all four of his grandparents buried there. That is always emotional for me. So then we got back out to the house and the rest of the family had arrived. It was good to see Chuck's sister Desiree from Phoenix and her kids. I miss them and my boys miss them dearly! We got to cooking and had a big BBQ with the whole family again. Meeting more family. Video taping Brian playing the guitar. Watching the kids get to know the other kids. Eating some great food! It was a nice night. Then it was time to find a bed for the now 19 people staying at the house.

On Saturday the plan was to have a picnic with everyone out at Little Walnut. I remember going there as a child and it hasn't changed a bit! It was fun. Again, had great food and sat around talked to everyone. Listening to stories from way back when. They got some teams together and played some horse shoes. Then the wind started kicking up and a big storm rolled in. It rained for over 3 hours which crashed our plans and almost the tent. So we took our fun to the bowling alley. That was a blast for everyone! The kids loved it, the adults had a great time. It was a wonderful way to end the reunion. We shared addresses and said our good byes. And hit the road to home on Sunday morning. It was overall a great trip. It was fun to get to meet everyone and hear some funny stories, but like the end of every trip it is always good to be home!

Well since I have last posted we have been very very busy! We had some events with the Royal Rangers that had us tied up. We sponsored a "One Club" golf tournament and then that same afternoon we had a Fishing day at Farmington lake. Both events went great, we had good turn outs and I think everyone had fun! On Sunday June 8th, Chuck and I left for our one year anniversary... Its hard to believe it has been one year already. We left early early in the morning and took the boat down to Lake Powell. We got out on the water and did some fishing. I caught the first fish in about an hour. A small bass that we decided not too keep. Chuck caught one awhile later and that was it for the catching! The weather was beautiful. There was lots of debris in the lake with the water level rising each day. We decided to call it a day about 3 in the afternoon since we weren't catching anything. Then the fun began.....

We pulled up to the dock and Chuck told me to hold on to the dock cleat so we didn't bang the side of the boat. So I did... I'm holding the cleat. Well then the boat starts drifting away from the dock and I'm still holding on. And it keeps drifting. Chuck tells me to just let go but I didn't. I'm still holding on and the boat is still drifting away. Well I finally let go of the cleat but by that time it was too late. Chuck tried to pull me back into the boat but I just did a flip right off the side of the boat right into the water. Thank God I still had my life jacket on and there were no other boats tied up to the dock. Chuck couldn't get me back into the boat and I couldn't climb up onto the dock, so I had to swim my happy little butt down the whole dock and get out and walk back down the dock to the boat. Needless to say...... It sucked! I ended up with a horrible bruise that went all the way down my arm. It looked really gross. We had a quiet night from then on.

The next morning we got on the water ready to fish! There were lots of people on the lake, skiers, tubers, cruisers and boats with huge wakes! I'm not used to being on the lake with such big wakes and I was quite scared! We fished around Halls and didn't catch anything at all. Not even a bite! We tried up in Moki Canyon. It was beautiful up in the canyon for sure and Chuck got a couple of bites but never landed anything. So fishing was a bust! We called it a day and went back to the trailer. We headed for home the next morning and were excited to share our anniversary gifts to each other. I got Chuck a large print of the picture he had up in Time Square and the week before he picked out a new guitar he wanted. Chuck got me a beautiful diamond necklace.... I love it! Over all it was a wonderful anniversary and I am so very blessed to be married to this man.

The next weekend we went to a friend's wedding. It was in Hesperus Colorado and it was such a pretty setting. Mountains in the background, a cool breeze blowing, beautiful sunflowers and friends all around. We took my family to get ice cream afterwards in Durango, a sweet ending to a sweet day. So you are almost caught up now..... How's things in your world?

Hope all you mothers out there had a great mother's day. Mine was good too. Tristan made me a birdhouse. It was very sweet. Church was nice and lunch with mom was great. Had dessert with my mother in law that evening and the day was done. It's just nice to think back about how blessed we are to have mothers. Mine is truely amazing to say the least. She was one of two ladies picked for mother of the year at the church. I am blessed!

I thought that since we bought our boat and summer activities are coming up I would start a blog to keep track of our stories for our family to read... So here it goes!

So we took the boat out for our first fishing trip this past saturday. We are so excited to get out on the water on our new boat! Well we hear that this is a bass tournament out at Navajo Dam this weekend. Being novice boat owners we decide to drive a little out of our way and launch at Sims Mesa Marina, thinking it would be less crowded. Chuck and I not having been to Sims Mesa in years and years "think" we know where the turn off is. Well we get out on the highway and we have been driving for quite some time, and we finally see a sign that says Navajo Dam. So we assume that is the road. Well if any of you reading this are familiar with the area, that was not the road to the Sims Mesa, instead took us across the dam itself and we ended up launching at the main marina. This turned out ok, since we got there at the perfect time. The early fishermen were already out and we had the ramp to ourselves.
Chuck backs the boat into the water (since I am not good at backing the boat yet). He is checking everything on the boat making sure everything is good and we haven't forgot anything. Well we then see water shooting out the side of the boat (bilge pump). He says "Pull the boat out I don't know what's going on" So we get the boat out of the water and we guessed the boat plug must have fallen out because it was not there anymore. Thankfully my husband is prepared for anything and he had a spare boat plug. He goes to put it in and finds the original boat plug...... in the livewell drain! That was one mistake we won't make again.
Being the novice fishermen that we are we did not dress appropriately either. We were on the water by 7 in the morning and the water temperature was 46 degrees. I now know why bass fisherman wear carhart gear in the mornings on their boats! We froze to death. Our fingers and toes were numb! We finally got up one of the canyons where we wanted to fish and tied off to a tree and just sat there trying to thaw out. It really hurt!
So after we thawed and were ready to fish, we had to find the fish. We tried many different spots and found nothing. Finally picked a good spot, I caught the first fish! And we continued to catch fish for about 1.5 hours. We caught 21 croppie over all. But about half way thru we began to think.... What are we going to do with these fish we have in our livewell. We failed to bring anything to put them in. So the search began. I had packed us a lunch in a small cooler and had our sandwiches in a plastic tub. Our livewell has a minnow bucket in it. So Chuck put the fish in the minnow bucket and took the tub and a knife to the bank to clean the fish. Well he put the minnow bucket on a rock just a little bit in the water. He had cleaned a few and everything is going good. Another boat cruises by and his wake of course makes a little wave hit on the rocks. Well all the sudden the minnow bucket starts floating away! Two fish escaped before Chuck could get in the water and re-capture our fish. And of course I laughed and he was not very happy. But the fish got cleaned and we were headed out.
So back at the marina now and it is busy! Lots of boats coming in and out of the water. So since I'm not good at backing the boat up Chuck did that. He came back to get the boat and I got in the truck to back it up the rest of the way. He got the boat latched up front and he wanted to guide the boat on the trailer as I pull it out so it sits on the trailer evenly. So he tells me to pull up. I proceed to push on the gas, not realizing the truck is still in reverse! So the truck went a little further into the water then needed and a quick STOP. We managed to get the boat on good and straight even.
Over all it was a great trip. We learned our lessons and I'm sure we have many more lessons to learn. So this is the end to the first Cook Adventure. Many more to come!