Mike's Birthday/Hill Family to the Rescue!

Yup,  you guessed it, Mike was about to get a whole lot wiser.  He was going to be turning 28!  Mike had been eyeing a ducky we saw at a garage sale for an old rafting company for over a year.  It was on a return trip from Boise where it all got started.  My dad recommended on our drive back from Boise we stop to look at the Malad Gorge, as it was worth seeing.  On the same exit, luck would have it there was a large sign for a "Garage Sale" posted and we decided to stop and check it out.  It happened to be a High Adventure River Touring company/campground.  It was here where Mike first spotted the ducky.  Mike fell in love at first sight and tried to convince me of how great a deal it was.  I was able to talk him into getting the man's number and thinking about it.  But after a year plus of delay, I decided I had delayed him long enough and was going to surprise him with not only the ducky but a trip to  retrieve it in good ole' Tuttle, Idaho. However, a series of events led us to rearrange the scheduling of our ducky trip.

At the end of April, after returning from a beautiful trip to France, Mark had an unfortunate accident...with a toilet.  Before leaving for France, Mark decided he was going to be leaving his job at the Post Register and start looking for work elsewhere.  Upon returning from France, he was going to work on odds and ends around the house to get it ready to sell.  One day he was going to replace the toilet and do some painting in the bathroom while the toilet was out.  Unfortunately, the toilet had other plans.  It attacked Mark and had sliced his wrist open.  Thankfully, Mark was able to think clearly enough to call 9-1-1 and get in a position to lose the least amount of blood as possible.  Carrie had been out at a doctor's appointment and was promptly notified.  She was able to call a neighbor to pick up Taylor as she raced back home. She arrived in time to see the ambulance.  The neighbor's husband gave Mark a blessing in the ambulance.  Fortunately, Mark was able to see a hand specialist who was quick to get him into surgery.  Mark was going to be OK with a little bit of rest and physical therapy.  However, Mark would not be able to live down the fact that he had just gotten worked by a toilet which severed three tendons, two nerves, and the radial artery.  Poor Mark.

On the 3rd of May, Mike moved up in the world though and was now 28. It hit him for the first time that he was closer to 30 and I was closer to 20.  For the first time, Mike realized he had in fact robbed the cradle!   With this realization, there was nothing left to do but embrace it and celebrate.  My dad happened to be in town and wanted to take us out to Rodizio Grill for Mike's birthday.  We obviously accepted and had a wonderful feast.  On the drive home we were rear ended, creating only a few small screw marks in the back of the Corolla.  Obviously we weren't too impacted as we rented "We bought a Zoo" and had a nice relaxing night.  Pretty easy going birthday but the real birthday party would come in a few weeks on our ducky trip.  Needless to say, with Mark being down for the next few weeks, Carrie needed some assistance with the house and that took priority over Haggerman.  Plus, in a few weeks it would only warm up that much more making the ducky trip even more enjoyable.  So Friday after work, Danny, Jon, David, Mike, and I all hopped in the Expedition with Papa Hill and made the trip up to Idaho Falls. Mama Deb had gone up a few days prior to help Carrie paint the kitchen cabinets.   We had a great road trip.  My favorite part was when we decided to play Karaoke with the iPod.  Only this time, the singer had to put in the headphones as the rest of the car tried to guess which song was being sung.  It was really funny and we got to hear some excellent solos.  We also stopped at Arctic Circle to grab some grub before arriving at Mark's house to do the real work.

We all pitched in as David worked on the sprinklers, Jon and Papa Hill spackled the playroom, and Danny, Mike, and myself painted several rooms, baseboards and all.  Carrie's brother-in-law also was able to do some odds and ends around the house as he had once been a contractor.  In between painting, we took a short intermission to destroy the shed in the backyard.  Jon, Danny, Mike, and I took turns kicking, running into, and our favorite sledge hammering the walls of the shed.  In no time, we had demolished the shed and had it loaded on a trailer to take to the dump.  We also made sure to take away that awful toilet and put it in it's place.  We showed it who was boss. The weekend turned into another great party with good food, aka Donuts and KFC, music, and just a good time.  At KFC, Mike decided to try the Double Down sandwich.  A sandwich made with fried chicken as the substitute for bread and even though it was dripping with grease it was surprisingly pretty tasty.   We also found out the honey isn't really honey after all.  Rather it's a "honey sauce", good one KFC.  Despite the disappointment with the "honey sauce", it was a rather successful weekend where much was accomplished.