For you...free! Isn't this picture funny? Isaiah took it a few months ago, & I never forsaw an opportunity to use it until I found this kissing booth

Outhouse Duck

As promised, Christine... Here is the the timeless story of the Outhouse Duck,



otherwise known as, Cameron's Feathered Feces Friend...



The kids and I were in Idaho, near Yellowstone Park for a couple weeks this year. There is a million outdoor adventures and beautiful places to visit. Of all the places we went, Hebgen Lake, in Montana, was by far the favorite of all the cousins. We went there several times, and Cameron heard all about how awesome it was on the phone. So when Cameron managed to come up for a quick visit, that was at the top of his list. When we got there, the kids were prepared, swim suits under their clothes- they were in the water before the van engine was turned off. I pointed the way to the outhouse so Cameron could change into his.



I helped my Mom and Robyn get settled in some shade, and finished unloading our picnic lunch. As I was starting to set lunch out, I noticed Cameron and Isaiah whispering conspiratorially in the shadows. I heard Cameron tell Isaiah, if he told Mom- he wouldn't get his new Transformer. Isaiah had a pleased look on his face, and the I knew right away something mischievous was going down. Of course by gentle questioning and a little threatening, I was able to get the truth out of Isaiah. It all started when Cameron was in the outhouse. He looked in the toilet hole, and thought he saw something moving down there. His first thought was that some pervert was down there. As his eyes adjusted, however, he could tell it was some kind of a large bird- maybe a hawk. Of course, Cameron with his tender, animal lover heart, couldn't bear to allow the little thing to perish in the poop. What was his plan? To hold Isaiah by the legs, lower him down the pit to grab the distressed creature, and raise it up to safety.



Yes. You read right. Cameron was going to put his first born child, his only son, down into an abyss of feces, in attempt to help an unknown bird. And yes, Isaiah had agreed- in exchange for the measly compensation of a new toy from Walmart. Luckily I am skilled in the ancient matriarchal art of interrogation, and was able to put a stop to this plan before it could be carried out. Naturally, Cameron had rationalization for this crazy plan. Of course Isaiah would be safe, he wouldn't allow him to get any human waste on him, although he would be surrounded by it in a precarious situation. Nothing could possibly have happened to him. But I kept my foot firmly on the ground, and vetoed the unthinkable scheme. Cameron was truly upset. He had determined it was a duck that was trapped in the outhouse toilet, and he couldn't have any real fun at the lake with such a tragedy so nearby him. Soon he was back out of the lake over in the trees. I saw him working on something. It involved a long branch, a piece of plywood, and a bunch of fishing line. Cameron had a new plan. After a few modifications, the very first outhouse-trapped duck-elevator was ready for action. With help from his unwilling assistant (me), Cam was able to prod the duck onto the plywood platform and pull it to safety. He grabbed it inside a plastic bag, and released it into the lake. After I saw how happy it was to clean itself off and play in the water, before it flew off- I felt a little bad for being so antagonistic. Besides his plan to put Isaiah inside a crap hole, I was rather proud of my husband, the saviour of animals. (This is far from the first time he has gone to great lengths to help injured or distressed animals) The day ended well; the kids AND parents had fun playing at the lake, and the cute little duck waddled, swam, and flew once again.
Somewhere, John James Audubon is smiling.





If that wasn't entertaining enough... here's another funny addition. My dear Mother, Lana Gale, was a little less impressed at the days heroics. She said to Cameron, "You know, I think you are the only man in the world that treats animals better than his Mother-in-law." Cameron, of course, reassured her, "Lana Gale, if you were stuck in a pile of shit- I'd help you out too."

It's blast to the past day...
This has always been one of my favorite pictures. Ali was 1 1/2, and hadn't seen her Daddy for 6 weeks. This is right after his Basic Military Training graduation.

Recognize this chub?

This is Isaiah at almost one year. Doesn't he look so sweet and innocent? Those were the days. Like the hair spikes? They've been replaced with devil horns.

Injured baby

Just so our huge reader audience is aware, Cameron's account of yesterday's festivities are down below his annoying visual aids.

Cori's accident

Now that Cameron has posted all those horrible unfunny posts, I guess I better explain what he's talking about. Yesterday, most of the day was spent preparing for pack meeting. We ran all over town preparing for skits, awards, costumes, memorizing lines, etc. At 5:30 when we needed to be at the church setting up for our campfire program, I left my scout partners house with the kids, stopped by home to pick something up, jumped back in the van and started backing up. Three things happened at the same time. 1. Isaiah said, "Where's Cori?" 2. I felt a bump, and 3. My heart fell to my stomach or beyond. I heard screaming, I didn't know if I would make it worse by putting the van into park, but I didn't have a choice. I ran around to the psgr side. and Cori was on the driveway, her arm still under the tire. She had blood on both legs, and a great big tire track across one leg. I was able to pull her arm out. It looked like she had no injuries in major areas, but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if I should take her to the hospital, or call the ambulance. I called Cameron, asked him to come home. Then I called him back and asked him what to do. I couldn't think, but Ali was very in control of the situation, and assured me I didn't have to worry because Cynthia (her friend) and she had just become doctors, so they knew just what to do... I couldn't think as it was, so her constant chatter was a little frazzling, but looking back was very cute. Apparantly they had spent the afternoon nursing a dragonfly. Unfortunatly it didn't end well for the poor insect, they ended up burrying it. I decided to call 911, and within a few minutes every Davis County emergency vehicle was on our street. Ali again stepped in and said, Don't worry, Mom... I'll tell them everything that happened and tell the what's wrong with Cori. Within a few minutes, 25 rescue worker-men and one woman were in our living room. I don't know what we would have done without them all. They took us to McKay Dee hospital in Ogden. Other than the needles, cold xray machine, and getting her scrapes cleaned out, she handled it all very well. Other than a questionable spot on the ankle or foot of the tire track leg, the xrays looked fine. They bandaged her up and sent us home. Pack meeting apparently went well. At least something did. Of course, we are extremely grateful. We are very blessed. Our home teacher and a friend in the ward came over to give us blessings. Brother Ward, the friend that came over to help with the blessing, lost his youngest son a few years ago under the very same circumstances. He backed his truck over him, and unfortunately the boy didn't make it. Of course that brought a whole extra level of emotions to the night.
Cori slept quite peacefully, and is doing quite well this morning. She is being carried from place to place, as she can't walk on her leg yet. Now, you can appreciate how truly unfunny Cameron's posts below are. He is just happy because he thinks now he'll be Cori's favorite again, since I'm the one who injured her. Poopy Pants Cameron.

Road Kill

Road Kill
Originally uploaded by CFA Mommy

Maybe this model in about the accurate scale to what it was like when Tara ran over Cori. No wonder she felt the bump.

Trolli Road Kill Candy - Discontinued

Trolli Road Kill Candy - Discontinued
Originally uploaded by SA_Steve

Cori might like these gummi snacks.

Road Kill

Road Kill
Originally uploaded by UnoLobo

I hope this doesn't hurt Tara's feelings I just thought these were kind of funny.

Armadillo Road Kill Spoon Rest Tea Bag Holder Catch All

Armadillo Road Kill Spoon Rest Tea Bag Holder Catch All
Originally uploaded by Texas Hill Country Ceramics

Tough little girl she is.

Illusion of safety

Illusion of safety
Originally uploaded by DrJoanne

cori as older girl maybe?

Road Kill Researcher

Road Kill Researcher
Originally uploaded by KQED.Radio

related photo

While I am here I should add something. Cori got ran over by the Van today. I can go so many different directions with this experience! I am so tired right now I will go with how I feel at this moment I guess. This is from Daddio's perspective. Ring... ring...
Tara: I need you to come home.
Cameron: Why?
Tara: I just ran over Cori.
Cameron: ARE YOU SERIOUS!
Tara: She's OK I think.
Cameron: How did you run her over?
Tara: Just her legs.
Cameron: Is she conscious?
Tara: Yes. Should I call an Ambulance or take her myself to the E room?
Cameron: Is she bleeding?
Tara: Not really not that much, no
Cameron: Uh... take her. No wait call an ambulance. No. Hold on, take her. Wait, call the ambulance just in case.

Tara: Ok got to go.
Cameron: Ok on my way.

My ride home in rush hour from Salt Lake to Ogden was interesting. I drove on the shoulder from the refineries to WX at about 65 then the shoulder narrowed and I got back into regular10 Mph traffic. So this guy drive by and I hear "Hey A@#!$##" accompanied by the bird. So I smiled and waved back. Then we passed by each other again and he says something else so I get really angry and say some stuff to him and invited him politely to pull off at the next exit so I could have a nice conversation with them. They tried to escape as best they could in traffic but I got the make, model and plate number. I'm going to see if my friend who is a cop can get me an address so I can send them a nice note.
Tangent sorry. So I get there finally and Cori is asleep on the hospital bed and Tara is there in her scout uniform looking burnt out, with her good friend Laurie Sundahl. It looked like the tire did not go over the top of her legs but went over the whole outside of her left leg ripping up the skin from the knee down to the ankle. She has a minor hand injury and some other bruising developing but her X-rays were break free. Until I got to the hospital I was picturing therapy, 20+fractures, two little casts for the next six months, pins, unsightly scars to carry with her and a phobia of parked vehicles.
I am going to let Tara tell her portion she has some other stuff to pass along stay tuned for our next exciting episode of "Cori got ran over by a Caravan"

32% Geek

Too Dllin, I lav yoo. I am vere preshis. lise I not peshis fum Ali

Translation,

To Dillon,

I love you. I am very precious. Lindsay is not precious. From Ali.

------------------------------------------------------------------

D col Smith

We really, really want go on a vacat if camrin dryg wo cmr wll stll go on are ishim, but wll mis him so so so so so so much. Frum Ali cmr drygs dodr,

Translation,

Dear Col. Smith,

We really really want to go on a vacation. If Cameron Dryg can't come, we'll still go on our vacation, but we'll miss him so so so so so so much. From Ali, Cameron Dryg's daughter.

(She drew him a fairy, because she thinks he'll like that.)

What happened to the energy?

Forget the energy I had as a kid, I'd settle for what I had two years ago when we moved into our fixer-upper! My naive dreams of finishing quickly dissolved sometime last year, but we're trying to plug away 1 project at a time.
This week is incredibly busy for us- nothing unusual for Cameron, but because I am in training with jetBlue, I am gone 9 or more hours a day. I am excited for this stage to be over. Driving clear to Southeast SLC every day is not fun for me. This is why we could never live in California. A 30-40 minute commute is too much for me.
The kids (including Cameron) are very excited to have the ability to fly again. We've all got our list of places we want to go first.
Although jetBlue does not fly to the may destinations Delta does, at least it gives us an opportunity to go places we otherwise could not have!
I am so tired from being in my training class until midnight and home at 1am I can't quite see strait. I am definitely not as thick skinned as I used to be!

Trouble

Did my husband seriously call me psycho in his last entry?

I made the best pork chops ever.

Today I made the best pork chops for Sunday dinner. Tammy and Leon said they enjoyed them but honestly I have trust issues so I just go by my own opinion of how I thought they were. A lot of the reason for these pork chops turning out so dang good was Tara's preparation of them with flavorings and the tenderizer technique she has. A mix between Rocky Balboa and Psycho. Anyway I throw them on the grill and wait for them to start bending or for the juices to start escaping through the topside. And after I flip them if they are dry I put some of the leftover marinade on them then flip them three more times depending on how they look each time keeping them moist with the marinade or barbecue sauce. You want to let the flame spend some time on the marinade or sauce because they have been in contact with the previously raw pork chop and you want to murder any possible microbes that may still exist. Awesome.

If you had any doubts about how she broke her arm again...

Ali never stopped climbing and swinging on anything she could find before, so why should a little thing like a broken arm stop her? Unfortunately, she went back to the Doctor yesterday, and the fracture is not healed yet... so she has at least another two weeks in the sling and wrap. Maybe if we tie her down to her bed...