Business/a scary drive/camping/exploration

Friday we got things together to go up to Kolob and finish up the chimney repair on a cabin that Paul and the men had started earlier in the week. We had decided to make it into a working/camping trip. The chimney repair was accomplished. As we took off to go to Brian Head for the camping part, we found the the recently repaired power steering pump/brake job had failed-a hose clamp had broken and all the fluid had leaked out. The two systems are combined unfortunately. Down and up hills and around curves was the only way and none of them are good options with no power steering and very limited brakes. We decided to go home very slowly. I knew Paul could handle things, so I took a nap for some of the time leaving him to be nervous without my help. We did make it home without incident and still wanted to go camping, so we transferred everything over to the Toyota and went up the mountain once again. We got to our campsite (the place of the first family camp) and got things set up and dinner cooked and eaten and had a nice moonlit walk before sacking out. In the morning we drove up to High Mountain overlook to take in all the scenery. (Just before we left home we got the mail and in it was a book that Bonnie had ordered with a gift cert. from a former student - Audubon's Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Western Region. We had so much fun putting names to the flowers we came across during the outing.) On our way back down we drove through Cedar Breaks to check out how much snow was left - there are still some pretty big patches. We took the road from Cedar towards Enterprise and then turned off at the road to Pinto. Along the way we came across an old house/hotel/historic site - The Page Ranch House. Then we took a side road to check out Pinto Springs/Paradise Trail Head. It ended at a very pretty little stream and a picnic spot where we ate lunch. After that we drove down the road and over to the trail head to First Water (we call it Bridge Camp) where we have gone camping as a family/scouts. You used to be able to drive there, but they have since blocked it off to motor traffic, so we hiked the couple of miles to the old camp site. It was really pretty with lots of water in the stream this year. Then it was on to Veyo for a birthday pie for Moss and back home to cleaning up, taking a nap and getting ready for the evening's birthday/Father's Day celebration. We got the job done and had a great camp out too!

#26, #33, #55 & Father's Day...all in one

Saturday evening we got together to celebrate the three June birthdays and Father's Day. Songs were sung, candles blown out and licked clean of the frosting, three cakes were mostly consumed, presents were opened and a good time was shared. Thanks to everyone for their thoughtfulness and presence/presents.

Wonderlust

Mill stones at the rest stop in Glendale

Saturday after we took care of what needed taking care of we decided to drive off to see some places we had been wondering about. We took the long way around and saw lots of other stuff en route. We started by driving up through Cedar Canyon. It was so pretty with clouds and aspens out or just coming out and the rain/sleet coming down. It got colder and colder. We saw Navajo Lake looking very full. We stopped in at a little rest stop and ate our lunch in the cute little town of Glendale and also visited a little town arts & crafts gallery there. In Carmel Junction we visited a real art gallery and saw some beautiful work and some not so beautiful work. The lady was very nice to show us around. I think she was pretty disappointed that we didn't buy something. Then we drove on. Just outside of Kanab we stopped by a pond that had some beautiful lily pads growing on it.

Lily pond

Then it was on to Kanab. We had a candy bar attack then and stopped at the grocery store. A cute little old lady was giving out samples of crackers with cream cheese and this amazing raspberry-jalapeño jam. She got us...we bought a bottle along with our candy bars. (It's already half gone today. Supe seems to like it too!) Next stop was the old Pahreah town site. The drive there was really pretty, but there's not anything left of the town itself that we could drive to in the VW. The old buildings got burned down (vandals at work) unfortunately.

Pahreah town site

Then we moved on to see the Toadstools. At first it didn't look like there was much there either, but then we hiked around more and it was so cool. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Does anyone know the difference between a whoodoo and a toadstool? Is is size, formation or what?

Toadstools

After that we went back toward Kanab and took the Johnson Canyon turnoff. It's a beautiful canyon. There is an old movie set that you can see from the road, but unfortunately you can't get very close because it's on private property. (I guess that's probably good, and is why it's still standing and not burned down or hauled off by vandals.)

Johnson Canyon Movie Set

We drove as far as the pavement went, stopped for a nap, and then headed home via Zion Park. It was very pretty with clouds hanging around in the tops of the peaks. It was way past dinner time, so we didn't stop for pictures, but just enjoyed the drive through and came home to have eggs, bacon, fried apples and toast...with lots of raspberry-jalapeño jam. Now we have some of our wonderings satisfied and will move on to more some other day.

Relocating Cave Valley

Friday evening Paul and I drove out to relocate the cave with the petroglyphs at Cave Valley. We were trying to give directions to Ferf and Ryan in case they wanted to do a hike out there as part of their reunion with Ryan's family and realized we didn't remember exactly how to get there well enough to tell them how. It made for a fun evening walk in beautiful surroundings.

A threefer weekend

Happy #32 Lance!

Meeting Madeleine

June is a busy month for birthdays in this family. Madeleine will now start off the June celebrations. Lance comes next. We got the chance to do a little celebrating with him along with meeting Madi and visiting with Bean...thus the threefer weekend. We headed north after work on Friday and arrived in time to open presents and have cake and ice cream with Lance and the rest of the Weaver gang. We were greeted in the driveway by "Maid Marian" aka Eden in her pink towel royal robes. Lance got some pretty fun stuff with a Razor scooter the funnest of all. He's going to be pro on it before long if he doesn't break anything! He shared it with all of us. I think Juge and Eden are heading for pro status too. Noah got too tired and missed out on the scooter trials this time, but knowing him, he'll be scooting around too. Thanks for holding the party for us Weavers! We also got to try out Eden's new tramp. It is just the right size and should be lots of fun. Bean went off on a camp out which ended up being a bit of a rainy one, but he came back smiling and glad that he took his wool army blanket which kept him dry. After breakfast we went on a beautiful drive up behind Bountiful. It sure made us want to go camping! Then it was time to head over to meet Madi. Paul, Bean and I headed over there. It was so fun to meet this cute little new one. Mom and Dad are so pleased with her. I don't think we ever saw her with her eyes open. She just slept through the meeting for the most part and let us love on her. We took a really pretty walk around the neighborhood after lunch and just enjoyed visiting and holding Madi. Too soon it was time to head back home. Thanks to Juge and Lance for putting us up and letting us join in the birthday celebration. Thanks to Jay and Brynn for making us grandparents again and having us over for lunch and meeting Madi!

Madeleine makes her debut...yea for #14!

June 1st is another of those "shout for joy" days with Jay and Brynn becoming 1st time parents at last! Madeleine arrived at 11:01 pm on Tuesday, June 1st in Salt Lake City, Utah. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 ozs. and was 21" long. She even has hair! She is a darling baby. We wish she lived closer so we could enjoy her a little more often, but we know she will get plenty of lovin'. Welcome to the family, Madeleine. We are so happy you are here!

Pine Valley dinner with the Randalls

The Randall's treated us to a delicious Dutch oven cooked dinner of fried chicken and potatoes in Pine Valley on Wednesday evening. They were camping out there for a few days. It was so nice to visit with them and the dinner was soooo good. The campground was not crowded and it was just right weather. The kids showed us their personal waterfall, Brady demonstrated his fire building skills (he laid out a perfect log cabin fire for Bryan to light), Ellie hugged us to pieces and it was just a plain good time. I think they were glad they invited us when we showed up with a chocolate pie from Veyo Pies! We also toasted marshmallows over Brady's fire and enjoyed s'mores. The little campers were looking pretty tired after that, so we said our goodbyes and after an evening walk to the Pine Valley lake headed on home. It was a delightful evening. Thanks for inviting us Randalls!

Memorial Day Week End Fun

This is Gordon Lavine's stoneyard - one place we stopped for stone

The fun began with a trip over to Ash Fork for a load of stone. We left Friday morning and made our usual stop at Jacob's Lake for cookies. We lunched in Flagstaff at the mall and then picked up our load. We headed back and stopped in at Jacob's Lake for dinner. The place was very crowded with holiday Grand Canyon sight seers. We drove a few miles out and then took a dirt road and found a really nice campsite. It was pretty cool (there was ice in our water jug in the morning), but we were cozy in our tent and enjoyed a full moon/starry night walk before hitting the sack. In the morning we took another walk to see where we had gone in the dark. It was a beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest and was so cool and beautiful we hated to pack up. We went back to Jacob's Lake for a scrumptious breakfast and then headed home. Unfortunately I forgot the camera and only got a couple of phone pictures before the phone battery died :o(

On Monday we decided to hit the trail up to Mill Flat to see how the big snowfall had affected the area after all the fire damage. It was perfect weather. There is more water than we have ever seen in the stream this year because of the heavy snows. There was one really big avalanche area where the trail has been completely covered up by fallen trees - something caused by the fire/snow combination. We did make it to the top after many stream crossings and had lunch at the campsite which still had a couple of feet of snow. We only met one other group of hikers - Besty Fowler and some friends. After coming down we drove the Pinto road and on up to New Castle reservoir and then back to check out the new camp/picnic grounds at Pine Valley. We stopped off at the Heaton's up in the residence cabins to look at their chimney that needs repairing because heavy snow knocked it down. It was a beautiful day!

The last day of school...for a while...yea!

Wednesday, May 26th, was a combination movie/pajama day along with meeting your new teacher and Jackson's tasty cupcakes. I also got to participate in a mob hugging when Ms. Godfrey invited me up front to celebrate my summer birthday. It was a bitter/sweet day when you are glad/sad to see the kids go for the summer and move on to 1st grade. Today it's back to summer school with the pre-schoolers for 5 weeks.

Supe is home...let the face pulling begin

Take one good looking uncle and add several adorable grandkids and what do you get? This!