nothin but love

This semester I have been home 3 times already. That's 3 more times than last year. This morning, as we were on our way out to head to church, I decided to be nice and hold the door for everyone.

My dad was the first one out the door, and he fake elbowed me in the gut. My mom walked by next, and flicked me. My little sister said "thanks for holding the door retard" and my other sister limped out of the door due to a dance party injury sustained the night before. I realized in that moment, that our family has a funny way of expressing our love to one another. I attribute it to the fact that we have 3 boys as the oldest siblings in the family. Boys like to hit, punch, tease, fight, and do other things as forms of affection, and our younger sisters and mom have adopted this form of love with us as well.

For example, yesterday was our annual boys fishing trip to strawberry reservoir. During the day, when someone caught a fish (wish wasn't me cuz I didn't nab one till the end of the day) the others would say things like "nice fish, for a pansy" or "too bad you suck and couldn't catch a bigger one." Translation of these 2 phrases: That's awesome you caught the fish and I'm enjoying this trip.

I figure, if someone in my family started to ignore you or not give you crap anymore, you are really in trouble. But as long as they are punching, poking, hitting, name-calling, or annoying you. It's because they care. So just in case any of you readers out there have an encounter with the Bowen clan, here are some translations that might come in handy.

Hey homo = hey bro, good to see you
You suck at (any sport/activity) = wanna play (that sport/activity)
A punch to the chest = glad you are home
A flick to the nose/ears/head = I'm glad I'm related to you (usually flicks are given by the females)
That was pretty good for a little girl = well done, I don't know if I would have been able to do that
Sucky = pretty good/well done
You look retarded = you look retarded. (yep, we also are blunt sometimes)

So there you have it, family love is demonstrated in unique ways within families. My crazy family has the best way there is. So next time you are around a couple Bowen's and someone gets a dead arm, don't worry, were just giving each other a 'hug'

Left to Right: Krista, Steve, Kayli (sister-in-law), Kyle, Aimee, Mom, Matt, Dad

nothin but epic

Not Pictured: Drew Killpack, Chad Parson, Cory Brown, 5 Honey-dips

That's all I can do to describe this weekend. It wasn't supposed to start out that way. My plan was to go fishing with my brother and dad on Friday, then just spend a low-key weekend at home with the family. Well my brother had to postpone, so I ended up staying 'in town.' Friday started off with a 45-minute drive to Colorado City talking with 3 of my good buddies. We didn't even listen to the radio that how fun the conversation was.

Upon arrival we got kinda settled, then hit up the sand dunes on the 4-wheelers in the dark of the night. Well 15 minutes later and a mouthful of dust, we made it to the dunes and had ourselves a blast. After a few hours of riding, telling ghost and polygamist stories, we headed back to the cabin for the night. A few more hours filled with ninja strike, signs, a campfire sing-a-long, s'mores, and some good ol' fashioned rasslin, we got settled down enough to sleep for a couple hours.

Good ol' fashioned rasslin'

Ninja Strike

Now let me remind you all, that going to bed at 4 am and getting up at 8 am isn't a very good idea. But you can't waste a cabin trip by sleeping, so that's what we did. The next morning, a bunch of people had this crazy thing called 'work' so they had to leave early and get back to c-city. 10 of us however, did not. So you better believe we had some delicious cap'n crunch for breakfast, then a full day of 4-wheelers and sand football. (Didn't know I could get sand in some spots.) Well driving back from the dunes, Kacy is driving and I'm man-doubling on the back of the 4-wheeler. He gets a little confident (and by confident, I mean cocky) and starts going about 40 down a narrow path back to the cabin. Well on one turn, he get's a little to cocky and loses control around the corner. As we are headed right toward a dirt wall the only thing running thru my mind is "oh $#!^" We end up t-boning the sand wall. Going 40 mph. While I'm on the back. I can't hold onto him that tight, so I get launched about 10 feet and land on my hip. Kacy starts running over to me thinking he just killed me and I can't get up from laughing to hard. Later I felt the pain but at the moment it was just funny.

Get back Saturday, go bowling with some honey-dips, watch a movie and crash about 4 am. Get up early for church on Sunday. In sacrament I realize I'm running on about 8 hours of sleep the last 48 hours. Nevertheless, I made it thru the entire 3 hours without nodding off once.

Camie made some amazing brownies Saturday night

Sunday night we head to beav-town for some more cabin fun. Kacy and I get the bright idea to try and scare everyone in the house by dressing up in some coveralls, and putting some wolf skins on our heads covering our faces. The plan was for me to walk in front of one the windows, get everyone to look at me, then book it back into the woods while Kacy (wearing the exact same thing as me) came bursting into the house moments later. While running into the woods, I didn't see the 7-foot drop into a 1 foot deep river. Needless to say, I got owned. I learned that 1 foot of water is the perfect amount to soak you while not breaking your fall at all. Felt like I broke my tailbone. But no worries, mission accomplished. The girls we intended to scare, definitely had some shepherd's pie in their trousers. After my pride, hip, and tailbone were hurting, I managed to get another 5 hours of sleep that night on a couch.

The honey-dips in beaver

Next morning, we played some horseshoes, then proceeded to drive the hour back from Beaver to Cedar in a Jetta with 7 people. If you don't know what a Jetta is, well it's a car made for 5. NOT 7. We managed to make it back, and then Monday night we decided to cram 11 people in a Nissan Pathfinder and drive 30 minutes on a dirt road to a 'haunted house' Remember, my tailbone was already killing me. We got back from that around 11. Popped in a movie about the evil toothfairy, after the movie, a lot of chit chat, and some Black Ops, we got to bed around 3 am. Today has been dedicated to homework, fixing my car, and some touch football. Now it's nearly midnight, and I have 8am class tomorrow. So you do the math. 13 hours of sleep in 4 days, fredette about it. I'll sleep when I'm dead.