Almost Forty...

this is the coolest picture ever...i'm totally going to look like this

I'm almost forty.  Well, thirty-five, moving quickly to thirty-six.  Jake gets mad when I say I'm almost forty.  Probably just because he doesn't want to think that we're getting so old.  Getting old is not super fun.  Things I have noticed:  more gray hairs, less time (not sure how this works), more wrinkles (I really don't feel as old as I look), slower metabolism (I now have to limit myself to 1000 calories per day to not gain weight), tired a lot more (10:30pm feels more like midnight), wake up more during the night (never understood this but here I am).....  I could go on and on but I'll spare you.

Along with the above list, I suddenly find myself being old enough that I should have accomplished amazing things.  Things that I thought I would have done by now:  had five kids (can only handle three), paid my house off (so naive), gone to Hawaii (this may never happen), gone on a cruise (this will happen), not be worrying so much about money (I don't want to talk about this), had an amazing tenth anniversary tour of the world (this will be done at our 80th anniversary after we're dead), etc, etc.

Lest you think I've gotten even more pessimistic in my old age, I'll try to end on a positive note.  There are things I enjoy about getting older that I didn't expect.  These are:  a marriage that is better every day (we're finally figuring each other out), kids who I enjoy more every day (they're amazing), not caring so much what other people think (I love being ok with me - its only taken 35 years), eating what I want even though it puts me over 1000 calories, being in the best shape of my life (again, its only taken me 35 years), the little things don't matter so much (life experiences have taught me what really matters), the ability to go buy a trailer (had to put Tiny in here somewhere), feeling like I can do hard things (it might be nice not to know this).

I know this has been the most exciting post ever.  But old people can say whatever they want, for as long as they want.  Another nice thing about being old...

The Maiden Voyage

Sage and her bff Kami

Father and son mountain bikers

Jake's new bike

Some of the kids (we were so out numbered)

Rest stop on the hike

Well, we are officially trailer people.  Not all the time, just when we're camping.  As nice as having a trailer is, living in it would be not so fun after a couple of days.  I digress...We went camping, in Tiny, to Moab.  I got to experience the joy of packing a trailer, not the back of a truck.  It was truly blissful.  No more tetris packing.  I kept taking stuff to the trailer, thinking there was no way everything would fit.  And then it would, with room to spare.  As this was our maiden voyage, I was a little worried we would find out that something in the trailer didn't work.  Every time I turned something new on I held my breath praying it would actually turn on.  I'm happy to report that we had no trailer malfunctions.  None.  I had a slight panic attack when I turned the fridge on and didn't hear the motor start up.  I kind of freaked out.  Then I realized it was working wonderfully, it was just silent.  Amazing!  Why aren't all fridges silent?  We got to sleep on a nice soft mattress with a heater to keep the temperature just right.  Best of all, there was no pottying in a pit.  Hallelujah!  I was a little nervous for our first trailer dumping experience, but it wasn't bad.  I put a box of latex gloves in the trailer for just this purpose, thus I was able to conquer the dump.  Nurses can do anything with gloves:)  One of the best moments of the trips was when Jake pulled up to leave (an hour late as usual) and all we had to do was hook the trailer up to his truck.  There was no mad scramble of throwing everything into the truck.  This used to be the worst part of any trip.  Thanks to Tiny, we have conquered this problem.  Jake still doesn't jump for joy over Tiny.  He did at one point say that it was "convenient".  Probably the best I'm going to get.  I'll take it.

Anyway, you probably want to hear about our actual trip.  We went with a bunch of neighbors and it was great fun.  The kids were in heaven because they had so many friends to play with.  The campground was great because there was tons of space for the kids to explore.  We made s'mores.  Or I should say the kids made s'mores and the adults tried to grab any morsel they could before the kids gobbled it up.  Jake got a new mountain bike and was able to ride it.  He even tried his new bike lights at night.  Pretty cool I think.  We took Zack on the practice loop of the slick rock trail.  He loved it.  He would do it again in a second.  Jake's already dreaming of when Zack can mountain bike with him all the time.  We hiked, played at a park, rock climbed, and tons of other fun things.  The trip was a definite success.  I'm already trying to figure out the next place we can go with Tiny.  Now to get back to real life...