Monday, April 18, 2011

My Trip to Hurkin, A Woman from Hungary was Hungry, and the Best way to Kill a Red Ant

Word progress for TEAM TAMALE: 7/40,000


Yes, you read that right, but there's a very good reason. I forgot to tell you all that the day after I started the Chimichanga Challenge with Bree Despain, I went on a family vacation. So, the first five days are going to be rough. 


By the way, the seven words I wrote were: "She wakes up and senses a problem." Are you totally intrigued? What problem would she immediately sense? Had she been snoring?


Are you hooked?


... okay, I know. I'm a slacker.


So, I'm out of town in beautiful Hurricane, Utah. (pronounced You-Taw.) Oh, and for those of you not from Utah, "Hurricane" is not pronounced "Hurr-ih-cane." It's pronounced "Hur-Kin". No Foolin'. It's one of those Utah quirks. 


Hurricane is one of the towns near Zions National Park. We paid $20 dollars to get in, to see scenes like this:


but really we spent the day doing this:

Kid C and his cousin Necie. Buried together, just the way the like.
About five minutes into our hike, the kids saw a pile of sand, and 3 hours later we were still there. What is it with kids and sand? Makes me think I should've remodeled our house with sand. It would've saved us a lot of money and provided an endless source of entertainment. Vacuuming would be a thing of the past. 


The only problem would be the red ants. You know what happens to red ants when you stomp on them in the sand? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Smothering them in sand doesn't work either. The only thing you can really do is wet the sand under them and then stomp on them, so the wet sand creates a hard surface. 


This technique took me about 3 hours to perfect... after which Kid C, with tears in his eyes, informed me red ants have families too. 



I distracted him by throwing sand in his eyes. Then he was crying for a different reason. A better one.



The crew. Plus two friends.

Kid C was excited to learn that many of the tourists at the park came from different countries. He started asking people where they were from. He got answers like Australia and Jordan, but he was confused when he asked an older woman - who didn't know any english - where she was from.



The woman smiled and motioned to her son to answer Kid C's question, but before the son could interpret, Kid C spoke loudly and slowly to the woman again... "DO... YOU... KNOW... WHERE... YOU'RE... FROM....?"


Because speaking loudly and slowly is the universal language.


The son replied, "Hungary."


Thinking the boy answered "How are you feeling right now," and not "Where are you from", kid C just looked at me and shook his head. He was lost in translation. He gave up.


Blogging will be sporadic this week, as I have discovered that Wi-Fi is not one of the naturally occurring elements in Zion National Park. I still don't understand how it is not universally available. 


How's all y'all's week going? Is it Spring Break for anyone else? Anyone going topless in Cancun?

9 comments:

  1. My parents met and fell in love in Zion National Park, so it has a special place in my heart. Sniff a butterscotch tree for me, huh?

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  2. Have fun. Our spring conference last year was at Zion. It was hard to pay attention to the training classes with the distractions coming from the windows.

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  3. Half of my family is on spring break, the other half is not. Who makes up this crap?

    We are dying Easter eggs, no lie, for the very first time in my existence as a mother of little people. Since the oldest boy is turning 12 on Thursday, I figured we should do it before he became the "stay. away." kind of boy that he's nigh becoming.

    Good luck with the wi-fi. I think it is a basic human right and we should storm the government until we get it in droves!!

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  4. Laughing SO hard over Kid C and the woman from Hungary! I love that question: Do you know where you're from!!?? Great to see you other day. It's rained like crazy here - be glad you're in Hurkin. ;)

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  5. Hi Brodi - I stumbled on your blog while blog surfing. You look so familiar to me and then it hit me, I think we may have been in Israel at the same time 94. (Leslie Hartley, now Sloan). If I'm right, it is really fun to find you on here and I hope you don't mind if I visit your blog every now and then! :)

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  6. I'm so mad! I've lost my comment three times!

    Okay, one more go. This time, I'm doing the fast version.

    Robin- I will sniff away! By the way, what is a butterscotch tree? Oh well, I will sniff everything until I come across one.

    Donna- What sort of distractions? Was it Robert Pattinson? Or were you referring to the beautiful scenery of Zion. Now that I think about it, it was probably the latter.

    Sally- I am so not looking forward to my kids turning 12. They become inhuman for about six years.

    Cath- Good to see you too! I saw your celebration post about the end of tax season. So cute! Congratulations on the return of your husband.

    Leslie- Of course! So good to hear from you! Please stop by the blog even more than every now and then. I promise we are all very nice here.

    p.s. Can you believe Israel was almost 17 years ago? We are so old.

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  7. I promise the original comment was way funnier. And about three pages long. :)

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  8. Ha ha! Kid C is hilarious. I read the story to Corey and he nearly died from hacking up his lung while coughing. (He's getting over pneumonia.) So, yeah, your kid almost killed my husband! Thanks a lot!

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  9. It looks so fun and warm. Well except for the red ants. They don't look/sound/feel fun or warm. :)

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