The Harris Family: August 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

Oregon - Day 5

On our final day in Oregon was Elna's baby blessing, which was the main reason for us travelling to Oregon. We had pictures taken with the whole Harris clan, but they were not on my camera.

This picture is with most of the priesthood who stood in the circle.

Elna with parents and grandparents.

Proud parents

Harris Cousins.

Daddy and Daughter.

Grandpa Moose (as Callie refers to him) and Jace have the same color of hair.

Callie and Jace with G&G.

We flew out later that evening. It was fun to get together with everyone. Callie and Jace loved all of the attention they received and that there was people to play with other than mom and dad. Now when she plays pretend and we go on a trip, it is usually to Oregon.

Oregon - Day 4

On Saturday morning the family got together and had brunch at Elmer's. Then half of the fam went to a movie and we went to the park "Imagination Station." Callie loved this place. We took her there on 3 different occasions during our visit. She just couldn't get enough of it. Jace really enjoyed it as well, he is just a little more work to look after.

That evening there was a little jam session playing Rock Band (I think?)

Everyone was getting into it.

Callie showing her skills on guitar.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Oregon - Day 3

Since my children were stuck on Utah time and they never sleep in, we were always up couple of hours before everyone in the house. Callie would beg and beg for me to let her wake people up so she could play with them since she was sick of playing with me and had no problem telling me that either. Friday morning we let her wake up her uncle Chris. Watch how she likes to do it.

Later in the morning the entire family went to a trout farm to do a little fishing. Callie was able to reel in the first catch of the day.

She loves fishing, but since her only experience with it has been at trout farms where you usually always catch something, I am sure she will get really bored if we take her out on the lake where you sometimes don't even catch anything.

The trout farm had different ponds which had different sized fish in them. We started at a pond with medium-sized fish. This is the fish that Callie reeled in.

Callie also did a little fishing with Grandpa and reeled in the second catch of the day.

Callie loves worms and so she kept playing with and carrying around the worms we were given for fishing. Look how long this on was. I think she is going to be a little "tom boy" like her mommy was.

Oregon - Day 2

On Thursday we did a little photo shoot with baby Elna

Most of the family (except Chris and Grandpa who had to work) went to an all you can eat pizza place that has rides and games. The kids were in heaven and Grandma spoiled them with basically unlimited fun.

I just love this video of Jace. He was so into the game (and it was just the demo video playing)

Callie played this water spraying game at least 15 times

She also played this pirate game where you had to kill the monsters, bats, etc like 5 times. Who knew she had a little violent streak in her.

Jace playing a little basketball with daddy.

Baby Elna enjoying some time with Grandma

Jace checking out what prizes he wanted. I think with everyone we had over 2000 points/tickets and had we had more time could have gotten a lot more. Both Callie and Jace got plenty of little toys.

After the kids took a long nap, we all took the rafts out to a lake nearby and had dinner by the lake. Callie loved playing in the raft.

Grandma with her girls.

Thanks to Grandma we had life jackets for the little ones and were able to take them out on the raft. Both Callie and Jace ended up jumping into the water.

Jace really did not like his life jacket. Look how mad he was. I just thought he looked adorable in it.

Oregon - Day 1

Last week we had the opportunity to go to Oregon to visit family. It was the perfect opportunity for Callie to have her first cleaning at her Grandpa Moose's office. She was pretty nervous, but I think being in her Grandpa's office with a more laid back atmosphere really helped her.

She got to do her own suction and did great!

Later in the evening we all went to Brian's house and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in his backyard. Callie insisted on cooking her own hot dog all by herself.

Jace was wanting to wonder all over the place and Nate and I got tired of chasing him everywhere so we turned him over to Grandpa for a while.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Basement Flooding

Most of you know that we just barely finished our basement last fall. On Thursday, July 7 I walked out my front door to discover 4 feet of water in my window well. The City had just barely turned our water back on the day before from the water main brake and we are pretty sure there was too much pressure and it caused our PRV on our sprinkler system to burst. Nate was of course at work and I was at home alone with the kids, but I tried to get this under control myself. The tube for our Stop-and-waste was completely filled with water so I could not see anything to get the water shut off. Men were still across the street working on the water main brake so I ran across the street and asked them to shut off the water to the entire house.

Then the fun part came. I grabbed buckets and started to empty the water out of the window well. It was well past my waste. One of the water guys from the city came over to help me. My main concern was stopping the water from getting any more into the basement.

A neighbor came over with her daughter to see if Callie could play and I ended up having her take both of my kids so I could deal with this mess. I called Nate and told him to get home from work and then I went to the basement to inspect the damage. It was horrible. Our carpets sloshed when I walked on them are there was like at least 1-2 inches of standing water in the gym with more water trapped underneath the wood floor. I literally felt sick at the site. I grabbed our shop vac and tried to clean the standing water from the floor. My friend that had taken the kids sent an email out to the ward asking for fans and a bissel carpet vac.

We had a few neighbors come over and help, but when something like this happens in the middle of the day (in the summertime), everyone else's husbands are at work so you are stuck with women that are home with all of their children.

Nate got home about an hour after the discovery and we went to work cleaning up the water, tearing off baseboards and tearing out the flooring. Trying to dry out the carpets to save them and drying off the cement. It was the worst day ever and very long. We worked from 11:00am - 10:00pm taking short little breaks to eat and care for the children.

We contacted the city to try and get them to pay for the damage and we also contacted our homeowners insurance to see if they would cover the damage and still over 3 weeks later we are just waiting to see who will pay for it. Below are some pictures.

This is the wall the water travelled down.

Our cold storage.

This is how far the water travelled into our main room. Luckily our Love Sac and couched were far enough away so they did not get damaged.