This was our year to organize the Spencer F. Mack Reunion, and we decided to go camping (of course)! We are pretty spontaneous ourselves, and usually we decide to go have fun the moment the thought crosses our minds to go and have fun . . . so planning a reunion for an entire family is not really something we are especially talented at. Basically we finally decided to get things moving with the whole planning thing when everyone in the family started panicking and were begging us to give them an itinerary. This was like two weeks before we were supposed to go. Not that we hadn't thought about it before hand. We basically knew what we were wanting to do, we just hadn't actually pounded out the details yet.
Anyhows, we decided to camp at Frying Pan Flats near Fish Lake. We came up with a very loose itinerary where we laid out the main activities we would be doing, and the basic food assignments. We felt good about ourselves that we were being so responsible like, and actually planning something. All I can say is good thing we have people in our family who are less relaxed than we are, and who can help us remember all the little important things we may forget. I'm sure we will get better and better at it as time goes on. Anyways it was a blast and I will tell ya all about it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Independance Day
O.K. it has been way too long since I have posted anything on here. We have just been busy having way too much fun!
I have some pictures on here from the Fourth of July. In case you were wondering why most of them are pictures of our messy kitchen and random pics of food, it is because these pictures sum up the highlights of the day.
Lamon woke up in the morning and made some red blue and white waffles for all of us. I tried to make a flag with mine so I could take a cool picture, but it didn't quite work out.I tried for quite awhile but finally I just ate them.
Lamon later made a huge dinner for us which included some yummy chicken, rolls, jello, salad, and juice. How did I get this guy anyway? He is way too wonderful. The other night he even gave me a pedicure and painted my toe nails!! Not that he would want me telling the whole world that . . . but honestly, Lamon is amazing . . . have I ever mentioned that?
I have some pictures on here from the Fourth of July. In case you were wondering why most of them are pictures of our messy kitchen and random pics of food, it is because these pictures sum up the highlights of the day.
Lamon woke up in the morning and made some red blue and white waffles for all of us. I tried to make a flag with mine so I could take a cool picture, but it didn't quite work out.I tried for quite awhile but finally I just ate them.
Lamon later made a huge dinner for us which included some yummy chicken, rolls, jello, salad, and juice. How did I get this guy anyway? He is way too wonderful. The other night he even gave me a pedicure and painted my toe nails!! Not that he would want me telling the whole world that . . . but honestly, Lamon is amazing . . . have I ever mentioned that?
Friday, July 4, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Things I learned at Kanarraville Falls
1. Don't believe the online map. Even though it says that you can drive up to the trailhead . . . you really can't! You have to hike about .6 miles to the trailhead, which is quite an added climb seeing that the trail takes 4 hours. But that's O.K. because we are all tough!
2. I am tough! I carried Miss plump Ada ( along with all the water) almost the entire time!
3. Lamon is tougher.
4. Drew takes the pr
ize! He is the toughest of us all! Our little Drew boy is such a good hiker. He hiked the whole hike (more than 5 hours worth) without complaining, and insisting on doing everything himself. He is so awesome!
5. Hayden may be a lightweight, but he still gets heavy when you have to carry him for hours and h
ours on your shoulders . . . and . . . he does not like long hikes much . . .
6. Kanarraville is my new favorite hike! It is soooo beautiful, and we had so much fun. We loved it!
A House!!!
O.K., has it been long enough since we added anything to our blog? It has been a crazy month to say the least. We have been back and forth to Orem looking for a house, and it has been quite an experience!
The first house we found was over by our Aunt Nan's house. It was a cute little three bedroom house that had been remodeled inside, added on to, and had a basement. It was in a cute neighborhood where all the houses were older, but the yards were all kept up really nice. Anyway, we decided to make an offer. We decided not to use an agent, and have a lawyer help us. We thought this would give us more bargaining power because we would be saving the owner those real estate agent fees. Well, The house was going for 189,000, and we decided that we would offer 180,000 plus closing costs. After giving our offer, we went back to St. George, and all the way back we were so excited. We talked about the house the whole way, thinking for sure that we would get it. Well the next day the owners made a counter offer. They offered us 187,000 without our closing costs being paid. We thought this was a ridiculous counter offer! It seems like everyone is getting their closing costs paid for in this market, and we would be saving them money by not using an agent (at least we thought so.) Well we both prayed about it, and we both separately came up with 185,000 plus closing costs being paid as the best offer that we would give them. Well, we countered their counter offer and . . . they countered our counter! In their counter offer they raised the price back up to 189,000 and would include closing costs! What a joke! I felt sick inside! I wanted the house, but I knew that we had to stick to our guns! We told them that we would reject it as soon as Lamon came home, and that's exactly what we did. Interestingly enough, the owner called me that night and said, "We have decided to accept your last counter offer." Well, I told him that that was great, but we had already sent the rejection, so we would have to redo the entire offer. Well as if the whole experience hadn't been totally crazy up to this point, it would get even crazier the next day! The next day we sent the whole offer again, and later in the afternoon the sellers agent called and said, "I have some bad news . . . are you sitting down?" I was just thinking . . . "Oh brother . . . now what?!" The agent then proceeded to tell me that the owners had thought about it, and they realized that they just wouldn't be coming out ahead if they accepted our offer, so they were going to take the house off the market until next year. "O.k. then!"
Well, we were back to square one. We decided to go back to Orem the next day and look for houses again for the next three days. Well, we found a couple houses that we thought we might be able to put offers on, but that would need some definite work! We were still wishing the other house would have gone through, but were accepting it. Well, at the end of our last full day in Orem we were waiting for an appointment, and we were just sitting around, and I said to Lamon, "Hey, lets call one of these houses on my list and just look at it instead of sitting around doing nothing!" So we called one of the numbers on my list, and set up an appointment. We went to go see it, and when we got there we weren't even sure that we were at the right house. There wasn't a sign. When the agent got there he said, "How did you even find this house? I haven't even put it on the MLS listing yet." I didn't want to admit that I was somewhat obsessive compulsive, and had looked up every possible listing there ever was on the internet. I was actually looking up a different house on Zillow.com and came across this dudes website and found it on there. Anyway, from the time we walked in the house we were questioning whether the price tag on the house was wrong. It was all older inside (wallpapered, and old carpet) but it was as clean as could be! The back yard was huge, and absolutelyl beautiful, and behind the garage was a workshop. Lamon was convinced at this point for sure! The house is in a neighborhood where down the street a few houses are half million dollar homes, and across the street on the other side are more huge beautiful homes, so the location is perfect! We decided to work on an offer right away. The home was priced at 195,000, and we decided to offer 185,000 plus closing costs (the same offer we had ended offering on the other house) We thought the house was definitely worth 195,000 and we were half expecting them the reject our offer outright. All the way back to St. George we were talking about how there was no way that we were going to get the house, and how we had wished that we had gotten it (speaking in the past tense the whole time as if the whole thing was done already, and they had already rejected it)! But just the opposite happened! They didn't even counter! They accepted our offer in it's entirety! We were shocked! Our closing date is August 8th, and we are not even going to completely believe that we have gotten the house until all the papers are signed! But when that happens I will be sure to put plenty of pictures on the blog!!
Has this post been long enough? Is anyone even still reading it???
The first house we found was over by our Aunt Nan's house. It was a cute little three bedroom house that had been remodeled inside, added on to, and had a basement. It was in a cute neighborhood where all the houses were older, but the yards were all kept up really nice. Anyway, we decided to make an offer. We decided not to use an agent, and have a lawyer help us. We thought this would give us more bargaining power because we would be saving the owner those real estate agent fees. Well, The house was going for 189,000, and we decided that we would offer 180,000 plus closing costs. After giving our offer, we went back to St. George, and all the way back we were so excited. We talked about the house the whole way, thinking for sure that we would get it. Well the next day the owners made a counter offer. They offered us 187,000 without our closing costs being paid. We thought this was a ridiculous counter offer! It seems like everyone is getting their closing costs paid for in this market, and we would be saving them money by not using an agent (at least we thought so.) Well we both prayed about it, and we both separately came up with 185,000 plus closing costs being paid as the best offer that we would give them. Well, we countered their counter offer and . . . they countered our counter! In their counter offer they raised the price back up to 189,000 and would include closing costs! What a joke! I felt sick inside! I wanted the house, but I knew that we had to stick to our guns! We told them that we would reject it as soon as Lamon came home, and that's exactly what we did. Interestingly enough, the owner called me that night and said, "We have decided to accept your last counter offer." Well, I told him that that was great, but we had already sent the rejection, so we would have to redo the entire offer. Well as if the whole experience hadn't been totally crazy up to this point, it would get even crazier the next day! The next day we sent the whole offer again, and later in the afternoon the sellers agent called and said, "I have some bad news . . . are you sitting down?" I was just thinking . . . "Oh brother . . . now what?!" The agent then proceeded to tell me that the owners had thought about it, and they realized that they just wouldn't be coming out ahead if they accepted our offer, so they were going to take the house off the market until next year. "O.k. then!"
Well, we were back to square one. We decided to go back to Orem the next day and look for houses again for the next three days. Well, we found a couple houses that we thought we might be able to put offers on, but that would need some definite work! We were still wishing the other house would have gone through, but were accepting it. Well, at the end of our last full day in Orem we were waiting for an appointment, and we were just sitting around, and I said to Lamon, "Hey, lets call one of these houses on my list and just look at it instead of sitting around doing nothing!" So we called one of the numbers on my list, and set up an appointment. We went to go see it, and when we got there we weren't even sure that we were at the right house. There wasn't a sign. When the agent got there he said, "How did you even find this house? I haven't even put it on the MLS listing yet." I didn't want to admit that I was somewhat obsessive compulsive, and had looked up every possible listing there ever was on the internet. I was actually looking up a different house on Zillow.com and came across this dudes website and found it on there. Anyway, from the time we walked in the house we were questioning whether the price tag on the house was wrong. It was all older inside (wallpapered, and old carpet) but it was as clean as could be! The back yard was huge, and absolutelyl beautiful, and behind the garage was a workshop. Lamon was convinced at this point for sure! The house is in a neighborhood where down the street a few houses are half million dollar homes, and across the street on the other side are more huge beautiful homes, so the location is perfect! We decided to work on an offer right away. The home was priced at 195,000, and we decided to offer 185,000 plus closing costs (the same offer we had ended offering on the other house) We thought the house was definitely worth 195,000 and we were half expecting them the reject our offer outright. All the way back to St. George we were talking about how there was no way that we were going to get the house, and how we had wished that we had gotten it (speaking in the past tense the whole time as if the whole thing was done already, and they had already rejected it)! But just the opposite happened! They didn't even counter! They accepted our offer in it's entirety! We were shocked! Our closing date is August 8th, and we are not even going to completely believe that we have gotten the house until all the papers are signed! But when that happens I will be sure to put plenty of pictures on the blog!!
Has this post been long enough? Is anyone even still reading it???
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