Bryan & Brittney Austin: July 2010

Four Wheelin' and 24th Weekend

Monday, July 26, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Well we had a blast with my cousin Richard when we went out two weekends ago and went four wheeling. Rich brought his dirt bike and really got it dirty for the first time. He did great too. He was riding that bike like a pro.

(BELOW: We found these cool clay pits that had all sorts of colors of clay. We decided to climb on top of the pretty colored piles for some kodak moments.)

Well to start us off, Rich was supposed to be down to Salt Lake by 5:00 pm. Well it was more like 8:00 pm by the time he got there though. We had a few stops to make before leaving the Salt Lake Valley (gas station, Wal-Mart, Wendy's for dinner, and Smith's for firewood). Once we were finally on our way it was supposed to be a short drive to Little Moab just on the West side of Utah Lake that we were supposed to go. Bryan had been there once before and swore that he would be able to find it again no problem. We he couldn't find it. Typical man not to be prepared with directions. So we found a dirt road that we drove up for a bit and found a camping site just off the road. We were getting tired and it was almost 1:00 am by the time we finally got to the spot. We ended up just unloading the toys (aka four wheeler and dirt bike) and threw the sleeping bags in the beds of the trucks and slept while being eaten alive by bugs.

(BELOW: I try to take photos of the landscape but I am not the best photographer. Here are just some site seeing shots from us riding around the small valley and out in the open land we drove through.)

We woke up the next morning to find the four wheeler had a flat tire. GREAT! At least we were not far from a Wal-Mart and after Rich took his bike for a short ride up a hill (which he actually got stuck on and stalled out on and got stuck for about 10 minutes) we loaded up again and made our way to Wal-Mart. We also had forgotten bug spray (stupidly) so we had to go either way. Rich is such a great person to be around and he is so funny. He was obsessed with finding some soft serve ice cream and we were in luck because Saratoga Springs main had a Artic Circle and Rich got his ice cream that he was craving. It was also free fry day there so we also all got a free fry.

(BELOW: Bryan wants to be on top of the world with his toy so I snapped this pic while he was trying to get the four wheeler out of the truck.)

(BELOW: We got in so late that we slept in the bed of the truck without a tent. We got eaten, well I did, and I got this pic as Bryan was cleaning up the bed of the truck. I love how helpful he can be when he wants to be.)

(BELOW: Can you find Rich in this picture??? He stalled out while going up the hill and was stuck for about 10 mintues until he figured it out and got down the hill.)

(BELOW: He finally figured it out and made a good comeback.)

We then drove back out to find a good place to camp and drive for the rest of the day. This is when we found Burning Chair Pointe. The story behind Burning Chair Pointe is that sadly some campers don't follow the rule that if you bring it in, you take it out and to leave the campsite as you found it or better. Well when we found the spot at the top of the hill that we wanted to camp at there were beer cans everywhere, an old pre calculus book, and a folding chair. It was pretty obvious that this chair had fallen into a fire with the previous campers and after they pulled it out they just left it there. Rich found it appropriate to call the spot Burning Chair Pointe considering. We later that night built a bon fire with our "premimum wood." Rich made an awesome speech as to why we had all gathered around the fire and officially initiated the camping spot's name by throwing the chair into the flames. We all cheered! It was great. Again why Richard is such a great guy, he has a wonderful sense of humor. We fixed the hole in the tire of the four wheeler with the kit we bought at Wal-Mart.

(ABOVE: This is the infamous chair that gave Burning Chair Pointe it's name.)

(ABOVE: This is Rich's sweet set up.)

(ABOVE: Our awesome setup.)

(BELOW: Our view of the mountains.)

(ABOVE & BELOW: Bryan had to ride through a big water puddle. It was fun for him to get drenched.)

(BELOW: Rich enjoyed the shade and playing games on my ipod and we tried to stay cool in such hot heat.)

(BELOW: Want to see Bryan with heat stroke? Just look below. He had such a bad headache and he was sick and fried all at once. He was miserable.)

(BELOW: Just chillin' in the shade of the truck.)

Rich and I spent about two hours taking a nap after Rich and Bryan took a short ride. I had finished setting up camp. Bryan during our nap took a ride on the four wheeler without a hat, no sunglasses, and it was right in the middle of the day. Needless to say he got fried on his forehead, neck and arms. He was redder than a lobster who has been boiled. He was cooked. We ended up going for a great ride though after Rich and I woke up. We rode about 22 miles on this great trail that was fun as hell. It had some moguls that Bryan flew over and we got going pretty fast. It was a blast. Rich did awesome on his bike too going through them and he was moving out pretty fast. We went back to camp once to fill up again and we were off again. This time we went the opposite direction and we got lost. The trails we were following were ending and we kind of had to find our own way for a bit. It was also starting to get dark at that point and we were a little concerned for Rich. He has a dirt bike so it did not have a light on it. We finally found a trail that led us back to the right road after having to walk Rich's bike down a very steep rocky hill and we made it back to camp before the sun completely disappeared.

(BELOW: Bryan driving the four wheeler and getting fried.)

(BELOW: While we were driving I tried my best to get some good photos and since Rich was the only real target, I took some photos of him driving his dirt bike.)

That night we made ourselves some hobo dinners and chatted around the fire. Bryan did not feel well at all from the heat stroke so he went to bed early. Rich and I spent most of the night just talking and dodging the bugs and embers from the fire. We had a blast though. The next morning we woke up and loaded up everything and made our ways back to Salt Lake where we ate at Rumbi for lunch, got some awesome Maggie Moo ice cream, and ate a delicious dinner at my mom's before Rich made his way back to Idaho. All in all a great trip.

Well we had another three day weekend this last weekend and we had a good time just relaxing around the house most of it. Friday we just laid around the house watching movies and staying cool. Saturday morning Bryan and I got up really early to go support my sister, Darcy, as she ran the 10K that was held on by Deseret News. She did awesome and ran the race in 57 minutes. That is really far. 6.2 miles. She ran it fast. I was really impressed and so proud of her. She is a great sister and knows how to set a good example. After the race Bryan and I made our way back to the car because we are not really parade people when we realized that I had dropped my car keys somewhere in the crowd. We retraced our steps and luckily someone had handed to a police officer. Thank you Jebus. We went home and rested for a bit before meeting up my sister. We went and saw Inception at the movies with my sister Darcy and it was a great movie. I would highly recommend it anyone looking for a good thriller. I love Leonardo Dicaprio in his new found dark films that he is in. He is really good at it. The whole cast was great and we really enjoyed it. Saturday night we hanged out with Bryan's family and went to Village Inn where Amber treated us to dinner. We had fun. Sunday we just enjoyed the day and took Blue and Daisy to the dog park across from Liberty Park. They had a blast and enjoyed their time with the other friendly dogs. Well some were friendly. This one couple had three dogs they brought and two of them had wolf in them. That really made me nervous for sure since one of those dogs kept coming after Daisy. She is not one to back down easily and will fight any dog that challenges her and this dog challenged her more than once. We had to leave earlier than planned because of it. Blue made lots of friends like he always does and he had a lot of fun. He is such a fun loving dog and so affectionate. He is really smart too. He is now learning to sit and shake and it is so cute. He just raises his paw without you having to ask and just putting your hand down. Gotta love them! :) Well that is all the latest with us and I will post a couple pictures of Darcy running later and more of the doggies too when I get my camera plugged in again.

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Just a Quickie

Thursday, July 15, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Well just a quick post for sure. I have officially given my notice at my second job. My last day at the Church Riverton Office Building cleaning poopie toilets will be the 20th of August. School starts the next week and I have to be done no matter what by then. Woo hoo, a light is at the end of the tunnel finally. I don't really know how we are going to make it financially, but we will figure it out.

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July

Monday, July 12, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Sorry I have not updated in a bit. We have been pretty busy with home improvements, hanging out with good friends, and ... sleeping. It is crazy how much more I sleep since working two jobs. It can put you out. Especially when your spouse keeps you awake all week with snoring, kicking, pushing, punching, and the most recently growling. Bryan has been scaring the hell out of me lately with his latest sleeping habit. One night, after spending all night watching scary movies and films, I was laying there not able to sleep because Bryan had kneed me in the back (I need to start wearing bubble wrap to sleep, I swear). I was staring into the darkness when I heard this awful growling behind my head. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me and turned around. I did not have my contacts in so I could not see what was growling. I reached out and touched Bryan's face and he jerked awake and we both jumped and well... I screamed. It scared me so bad, and he did it again last night so I just shook him like I always do to get him to roll over. I now understand why they all used to sleep in different beds. It makes sense if you really want to sleep good.

We had a good 4th of July weekend. We got to spend more time with Cassie and her boyfriend Todd and Cassie's family as well. They are doing pretty good considering that they only lost their dad a year ago. I admire how strong and great these women are. We went to the rodeo at West Jordan since we got free tickets to go for volunteering at the demolition derby the week before. They had some great fireworks that we got to watch from the stands actually and we had a great time hanging with such great friends. The rodeo was pretty good but for sure the bulls won this time because they only had one qualifying run. The barrel racers were awesome though. There was 19 of them and only two knocked the barrels over and rest were all really close to one another as far as time went. It was a close call.

Bryan took the time to put in our new front door which is now red. I love it. It looks really hot on our house. We have also been clearing all the weeds and built up dirt from the side of our house. All of it compliments of our neighbors that do not clean up their yard at all. We are slowing making our way to the back yard which is our next project to fix. Sod, sprinklers, new stairs out the back, and a dog run will be kind of pricey but needs to be done. We have made a few trips to the dump lately cleaning stuff out. We finally got rid of our evil Japanese elm that was growing the cement. Now to kill the stump. We also since the doors in front of the washer and dryer are straight but the frame around them are ridiculously crooked we found some curtains to hang and a nice rod to hide the crookedness. I am slowly but surely getting rid of all the hard water that is building up at our house in the sinks and toilet. It really sucks living in Magna with all the stupid hard water. It really blows. I spent 2 hours on the bathroom yesterday just cleaning the toilet and tub. I ended up taking a razor blade to both to get off the hard water. It worked great once I had my system down.

The pups are doing great. They are running around playing and getting dirty constantly. I think took about 3 pounds of dogs hair out of Daisy the last time I brushed her. She has such a think coat and sheds a lot. But they are loving life hanging out in the shade of our back yard and barking at anything that moves. Blue is doing awesome with his training too. He has learned to shake now and is perfecting it. It was so cute last night because when it was time for bed, we brought the dogs in to put in their kennels to eat and sleep for the night but Blue did not want to go to bed. He first tried his usual hug me and sweet eyes for a snuggle. But when that did not work. He sat and shook trying to get out of having to go to bed. It was hilarious to watch. What awesome dogs we have. We even took Daisy over to the dog wash by our house for a bath yesterday and she did awesome getting in the tub and sitting still to get a bath. I love that place because Daisy is way too big for our tub and you can wash them and dry them there for only $5. It is awesome.

Bryan is honing in on the kill for finding a job. He is exhausting every resource he has even and working hard around the house to help. I am excited though because I will be done with the second job by the second to last week in August because I start school then and my labs are at night. It will be nice to be done with two jobs.

So seriously, I am so pissed off at my aunt and uncle Ron and Donita. They are being kind of jack a's about my cousin, Nick's wedding. He is getting married the last week of the month and not me or Bryan, nor my mom and dad, my sister and Danny, not even my grandmother is invited to the wedding. Why you ask? Because Donita and Ron gave Nick an ultimatum telling him if he did not make up with his sister, which there is a lot of history there, then he could not invite anyone else but his parents and her parents and his brother, Richard. Who the hell tries to force someone to make up with someone and uses that person's wedding as leverage. That is just crap. They are putting the bride to be through hell! I can only imagine what they are going through and no one should have to put up with that. Ever! I don't care if they are fighting and he did not want to invite his sister, it is his and Andrea's wedding, NOT DONITA'S AND RON'S. The thing that really frosts my cookies is that they are trying to blame Nick for us not coming. That is called manipulative and narcissistic and I can't blame Nick for not giving into his parents crap. Donita even had the nerve to plan the bridal shower on a Monday so my mom could not go. We have always put wedding showers on the weekend for them and they had the nerve to do that to my mom. She is really hurt by all the crap they are not only putting Nick and Andrea through but also herself. Her own brother is the one preventing her from being at his son's wedding. WTF!! Well, all I can say last is Ron and Donita are burning a major bridge with this move and I don't imagine we will be seeing them much anymore. I am more than fet up with all this. I will never forget the time Donita told me that I could not get in the boat because I wasn't family. I am her niece and she does not think I am family. That freakin' hurt and she has never apologized. She never will either and oh well. I brushed it off my shoulder and have made efforts to be nice to her but she is messing with my mom and Grandma now and that I will not ignore. She will not be talked to at the open house at all and I am only going to show support to Nick and Andrea and that is it.

We are loving Netflix still and lately I have been watching some awesome horror short films. They are both from two series, Masters of Horror and Fear Itself. They are both seasons of just short horror films and I recommend them to anyone looking for good series. They are both created by the same guy, a Mick Garris. He is awesome in the horror section and does great with both series. Masters of Horror got started when Mick Garris invited all his favorite horror directors to a dinner and they all agreed to direct one or more of each short films and show off their mutual obsession with the horror genre. Fear Itself had the same basis of how it was created minus the dinner. They are all interesting and different in many ways with each short film.

Well that is the latest in our lives.

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