Happy Birthday #37 Train Ride Bean!

 When we asked Bean what he'd like for his birthday, he said he'd like to ride the train from Durango to Silverton.  The official name is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  We put it off for a little while to be able to enjoy the Fall leaves.  We took that ride on Saturday, September 27th.  We picked up Bean in Cedar and drove over to Aztec to stay with Ross and Lerlyn on Friday.  Along the way we stopped in Green River for lunch at Arby's and then stopped in Durango for dinner at a BBQ place we like there.  Then we headed down to spend the night with in Aztec.  Ross and Lerlyn had decided they wanted to come along so we all got up and went to Durango to start the train ride at 9 am on the steam train.  It was a beautiful ride with so much amazing scenery to enjoy along the way and the Fall leaves were definitely part of that beauty.   We got there about 12:30 and went over to eat lunch and then hung out in Silverton enjoying the town scenery until it was time to leave at 2:45.  We didn't ride the train back.  We took a really nice bus instead which was a good thing.  It got rainy on the way down and it would have been hard to enjoy the scenery from the train in that weather, and we took a different route on the road, so we saw different scenery.  All of it was great! We spent Saturday night in Aztec and then got on our way Sunday morning.  We were able to listen to the Sunday School podcasts pretty much all the way home, so that was our church for this day.  We stopped in Page to eat our picnic lunch at a park and stopped at the Dam to use their bathrooms.  We had quite a bit of rain on the way home which we were pretty happy to have. We enjoyed more beautiful leaves on the way home especially coming over Cedar Mountain.  We dropped Bean off in Cedar and then drove the rest of the way home.  It was a great, quick trip!  Happy Birthday Bean!  We love you!  Happy #37!

Rodeo, Mini Golf and Fall!

 The morning started with the rodeo parade.  We got to see lots of fun things and also Zade and Trigg marching with their school band!  We had fun watching it with Beacher and the kids and her mom and brother.  Pretty fun!  The kids gathered up LOTS of candy!

Next we went mini golfing with Bean at Fiesta Fun.  It was lots of fun...and amazingly I won and even got one hole in one! After that we went to see new stores at a new shopping mall and ended up trying J. Dawg's for lunch and Duck Donuts for dessert.  Both really tasty.  Then we headed home for a nap and then I took Bean home to Cedar.  We went via some leaf looking up on Cedar Mountain!  It was so beautiful up there!  It turned out to be a really nice day.  

September birthdays - Juge #44 & Lou Anne #50,

 

Just these two have birthdays in September.  We got together with Juge on the Saturday and enjoyed crepes at Park Place.  She was getting ready for a backpacking outing with her family later that day, so we couldn't be long, but it was yummy! Happy Birthday Juge!  We love you!  The next Sunday we had a family dinner at Juge's and celebrated with Lou and a little more with Juge.  Happy Birthday you two.  We love you!  Happy 50th Lou Anne!  

Merry Christmas...at last! Helicopter ride!!!

The kids gave us a gift certificate for a helicopter ride for Christmas!  We wanted to wait until the best time to use it.  We thought about it earlier, but there were fires going and it was too smoky to see anything.  Now seemed like a great time! It was really fun to see things from that vantage point.  We did most of the tour over Canaan Mountain/Water Canyon area just outside of Zion.  They cannot fly in the Zion Park footprint airspace.  We saw the place where they used to do the mail drop over the cliff and also the notch where they dropped lumber down. We flew over Canaan Arch too. There were 7 of us (3 couples and one pilot) in the helicopter.  It was pretty tight, but good.  One girl got a little queasy with some of the turns, but I hadn't had any breakfast and that was probably a good thing.  It ended up being about 30 minutes long - 55 miles.  What an adventure!!!  Thanks to everyone for such a fun adventure gift! 

Afterwards, since we were up that way, we went to Zion and walked the Pa'rus trail.  It was really crowded up there, but we finally found a parking spot.  It was wonderful weather for it and so pretty.  Then we drove to Cedar City and had lunch with Bean and drove up to see Yankee Meadow Reservoir.  It's way low this year, very sad.  

A little more fun with Bean

 We had a nice weekly visit with Bean and enjoyed a beautiful car ride and lunch with him.  We drove over Cedar Mountain and then on around and back through Zion.  We stopped in at Mt. Carmel Junction and had lunch there at the Thunderbird restaurant.  It was really good.  Zion was grand as always and Cedar Mountain is beautiful as well.  It was a nice afternoon with him after spending time with Juge earlier for her birthday.