The Secret of Speed!

For the 24th of July, Steve's mom invited the family to go with her to Indian Springs. It is this beautiful location in the Manti National Forest. It's about 3 hours away and about 45 minutes of that is on a dirt road. It takes awhile to get there, but it is worth it! Steve's dad loved this location.



Here's the plan... everyone meet at Mother's house at 7am to load up and leave. So at 6 this morning we got up, dragged our kids out of bed, cleaned them up and got ready to go. We called just after 7 to say we were 5 minutes away. Then we get there. And waited. And waited. And waited.



We waited for over an hour just to finally receive a phone call from my sister-in-law informing us that they were leaving their house (20 minutes away), but still needed to stop at the store! An hour after it was time to leave. Yes an entire hour late! Can you say rude? 'Cause I can. Oh, and we have to stop at the store! Give me a break!



Thank goodness we had a 3 hour drive or I may have ruined every one's day by throwing the biggest fit you have ever seen! But I did manage to calm down! But seriously, an hour. By the time we actually left to get there it was 8:45.



Anyway, in much happier news, we had a great day riding the four wheelers! The girls really wanted to learn how to drive them. I was about Emy's age when my uncles taught me to ride 'em. So we gave it a try. Emily is remarkably good at it. She seemed to know exactly how to apply constant pressure to the gas, to slow a bit going down hills, speed up to make it up a hill, watch the blind corners and of course, go fast on the "straight-a-ways"! She was great! I was so impressed and felt pretty relaxed riding with her.



So I tried it with the others. It took Sariah a bit longer to understand the need for constant pressure on the gas. It was a little, no make that a lot, jerky at first. But she got it down.



Okay, this is great! Now I have the little one's: Nicole and my nieces Chayley and Cheyenne. And of course, they want to drive to . First up, Chayley (the littlest of the 5 year-old twins). She got in position, looked over her shoulder and announced, "I'm going fast!". Then she gunned it! Yeah, I'd say fast! I actually had to pry her finger from the gas and hold the brake when her turn was up. Now it is Cheyenne's turn. Did I mention they were twins? Because they did basically the same thing... except Cheyenne gave no warning! And again prying off her finger when her turn was up. I think these two have done this before. They were very confident. And fast.



So, finally we are to Nicole. When she got up for her turn Chayley says to her, "Nicole don't go fast!" What! Chayley is advising Nicole to go slow! It didn't work! She immediately hit the gas as far as it could go. And then she released it. And then she hit it. And released it! After a quick recovery from my whiplash, I had to actually hold her finger down to show her the need for constant pressure! And then like her cousins she was off like a little speed demon!



Grace, on the other hand was not a speed demon. Nice and slow. That's how she liked! And boy did she like it!
To help the girls pass the time between turns, Grandma made them play London Bridges. Just look how much fun they had, but when it was their turn again no game was going to keep them off the four wheelers.


So, for the bulk of the afternoon the theme was SPEED! Now if only we could get this family's need for speed to translate into arriving somewhere on time...Heck, I'll even be happy with 15-20 late.