Whiterocks, etc.

We decided a long hike might not be a good idea if we didn't want to get rained on, so we just took a short walk up to Whiterocks in Snow Canyon.  We knew the rain would have packed the sand for easier walking.  We haven't been up there for a very long time.  It turned out to be very pretty with water trickling down from pool to pool. After that we took a drive up to Pine Valley just to see what was happening with the weather up there and saw some really colorful leaves and ferns.  We did Chinese for lunch and also used up the rest of our movie pass to see Secretariat.  I highly recommend both.  It was a restful, enjoyable Saturday.  Sunday we took dinner over to Grandma Kurtz since she has a hard time driving with her broken ankle and couldn't come to our house.  After that we got to go over and help celebrate Tasia's #6.  Too bad I forgot my camera for that one.  Happy Birthday Tasia!

UEA 2010

We weren't sure we wanted to leave town after Moss got hurt, but after making sure he got through surgery well on Thursday evening and checking him out on Friday morning, we took off.  Our destinations included Canyonlands (the Needles District), Arches, a picturesque drive in Colorado and Dead Horse Point State Park.  We managed to get everything in and still make it home to wish Koen a happy birthday on Monday night.  We camped out for two of the nights and spent one night in a motel in Monticello so we could clean up and attend church there Sunday morning.  It was a great meeting with a really nice missionary report.  We had a hard time finding a camp spot the first night, but finally found one just outside Canyonlands.  It was just a BLM area, with no fee, but was really crowded.  It was a good spot though, other than too many people.  We had good food and a good sleep.  The next day we hiked to Druid Arch which is an amazing, huge arch.  We loved it.  We spent the rest of the day seeing other sights in that area of the park and then headed to Monticello for the night.

Next morning we took a scenic drive up in the nearby mountains seeing lots of deer, turkeys and beautiful leaves before church.  After church we took off stopping to make our lunch in a park in Delores, Colorado and did a beautiful drive up to Ouray and then back down to a nice camp spot below the La Sal Mountains where we made dinner to the tune of coyotes howling and had a restful night waking to a light rain that conveniently stopped in time for us to make breakfast and get on our way to Arches. (Notice the little Ophir Post Office - it's the one from the ruined oil pan/day before Juge's birth fame.  The old boiler isn't there anymore.  The road has been changed some and it must have been a casualty of that change.)

We hiked to the North and South Window Arches and then to Delicate Arch.  Such amazing rock formations everywhere!  We had seen the rest of the park on another visit.  After lunch in Moab we went over to Dead Horse point and took in the sights there.  Just as we were leaving a rainstorm came in...perfect timing.  We drove on home enjoying the scenery all the way and stopped off in Toquerville to wish Koen a happy birthday.

Genghis was very glad to see us and has needed lots of lovin' to make up for his lonely time at home without us.  We have decided to make UEA trips to beautiful places an annual tradition.

Lazy week end

Didn't do a whole lot this week end.  Friday night we walked down to get a movie and discovered it was another of the Friday night Gallery Walks they have every so often down town.  We really like going to them.  They start at the St. George Art Museum (you get in for free) and then continue on down Main St. with every gallery open from 6-9 pm.  It's such a feast for the eyes.  (The next one is on November 12th.)  You may be out of time, but if you haven't seen the Willie Holdman "Summoning the Spirit of the Southwestern Lands" photo exhibit on the top floor and the Botanical Illustrations: From Penstemons to Pines downstairs at the St. George Art Museum, hurry up.  This exhibit only goes through the 16th.  I don't know what's next (the little room at the end of the upper floor is also very interesting - Forgotten Places.)  That made for a fun, free evening.  Today we took a walk on the Red Hill, did some shopping, lawn mowing, etc. in the morning and in the afternoon went out to see if we could find some Yucca blossoms for hiking sticks that Paul wants to make.  We drove out behind Bloomington Hills to an area that overlooks the Gorge.  Found a few Yucca blossoms, saw a couple of mountain goats and got a flat tire.  There are some really sharp rocks out there - be warned.  Now Paul is working on some paintings.  He's getting back into painting which is good. It's something he loves and is a very stress relieving activity for him.  I got all that chicken we bought this morning bagged and frozen.  We are loving this cooler weather.  We are planning to have some good adventures next week end over the fall recess from school. 

Autumn Leaves and a quilting cat

Family home evening was a trip to see the leaves and a picnic with Paul and his mom.  It was a beautiful evening...just wish it would have lasted longer.  Things at school are good.  Bus duty is interesting and some kids are a challenge.  While Paul was at Priesthood I put on a quilt to make for our stake's humanitarian project and Genghis was right there to help me out with it.  It was a pretty relaxed week at this abode.

Family Camp/Sleepover 2010

 The Family Camp/Sleepover for 2010 was great!  Sleeping, though much more convenient happening inside a cabin rather than a tent, was still somewhat  of a premium which always seems to be the case when small children or snoring are a part of the equation.  The meals were frequent and very tasty.  The clean up was minimal with just a button to push for dish washing to occur.  The leaves were perfectly beautiful and the weather ideal.  We had a great turn out with everyone, except Supe and Bean, being able to come for at least some of the time.  The inside activities were varied including Foosball, ping pong, pool, Wii Resort, Cranium, Malarkey, puzzling, visiting and various other fun stuff that the kids came up with to entertain themselves.  Grandpa told a scary bedtime story that ended with a laugh from all who heard the tale of a kissing bear.  Outdoor activities included a hike to Cascade Falls, a little spelunking and headbanging at Mammoth Caves, a search and find outing to Mammoth Springs (with a little poison ivy adventure thrown in), a visit to the top of Brian Head Peak/Vista Point, some 4-wheeling, leaf looking, marshmallow roasting and walk taking.  The cabin was very comfortable with plenty of room and beautiful views out the windows.  The kids were great with very little of fighting or biting. Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come.  Next year Lou and Bryan have agreed to be the head honchos for our get together.  I'm already looking forward to it! 

A pretty calm week

Monday night I had a new experience.  We went over to the Smiths and watched Derek cut up a hind quarter of elk.  The rest of us helped wrap and label.  I thought it might gross me out, but it didn't.  I was impressed with how little waste there was.  Today we are having elk roast!  Wednesday evening we went to see Tarzan and really enjoyed it.  We had the dinner out there too and it was very good.  Thanks to everyone for that birthday present.  It was the perfect evening - not too hot and not too cold.  Thursday we went to the temple and Friday we went to hear Al Rounds, the artist, speak at the Tabernacle.  It was very interesting.  Saturday was a hang around the house and get stuff done day.  I made some receiving blankets for our stake humanitarian project.  We also got to visit with Bean some (he came down for Garrett's mission homecoming).  Garrett dropped by and it was nice to visit with him.  He's gained some weight, but actually looks very good with a few more pounds on him.  He was such a skinny kid when he left.  He seems to have had a very good mission and has grown up a lot.  We are looking forward to hearing him speak today.  So, there's the weekly update. 

Here's a great date...we loved it

For a quick, cheap but so nice date go over to the Temple Visitor's Center and enjoy the Al Rounds art exhibit and the short explanation movie about him and his work. We have always loved his work. He will be speaking at the Tabernacle this Friday, September 17th, at 7 pm. It's free too. This picture of is one of our favorites. Go to allrounds.com to see his gallery of his work. We had a chance to buy a print one time and didn't and just kick ourselves for not doing it.

The same...only different

Last week when Paul and I found that cool little hike up in Pine Valley we decided it would be a perfect place to take our oldest grandkids on their first backpacking outing/camp out. We located a just right little campsite. On Friday afternoon we picked up Brynnli and Tavin and headed off to do the deed. Just as we were finishing off our sandwiches at the parking area, up drove several vehicles full of 11-year-old scouts. Come to find out they were heading the same way we were. We just knew they couldn't possibly be thinking of camping in the tiny little camp spot (there weren't any others that we even thought were a good possibility) we had picked out. They headed off a few minutes ahead of us. When we caught up with them, there they were in our camp spot. (I don't know how they all fit in.) We were pretty disappointed and no way did we want to camp anywhere near such a boisterous group of happy campers. Not to be quashed in our plan, we came up with an alternate that turned out to be just as good if not better and headed over to Water Canyon. Paul and I had checked it out earlier this year. It was a much longer hike, about 2.5 miles, to get there, but we got there in plenty of time to set up camp and enjoy a nice evening of star gazing. We also found a cool bug. As we were sitting around the fire a couple of bow hunters came by on their way up the canyon and visited with us for a little while. After hot chocolate, granola bars, M&M's, some story telling, toothbrushing and prayers it was off to bed. It was pretty cool, but we all did fine once we got our sleeping bags warmed up. In the morning the kids beat the old people out of bed and made the fire. We purified water and breakfasted and then played around camp some, packed up and then stowed our packs. Four more hunters on mules came by as we were cleaning up. Then we followed the trail up the mountain for a while picking out more good camp spots and passing the first bow hunter's campsite. It was perfect weather and beautiful surroundings. We hiked back down and put on our packs and headed back out. We saw a couple of other hikers on the way out. The kids did great with their packs, with sleeping under the stars and eating backpacking food. Grandpa kept them entertained with stories of his youthful adventures on the way home. (Grandma took a little nap during some of the tales.) We dropped the kiddies off and visited for a while and then it was back home to unpack and get cleaned up for stake conference. It was a totally fun trip and we look forward to taking more of the kids out when they get old enough for such "edventures" with grandpa and grandma if grandma and grandpa don't get too old first!

Labor Day peach picking & picnicing

Most of the time we spend Labor Day not doing much labor, but this time we managed to get quite a bit done and still had some time left for some fun. We got up and went out to the church peach orchard to join all of the many other gleaners. We brought home quite a load of peaches and then set to work making jam, freezing peaches ready to make jam later and freezing peaches for later eating. We got lots done and then headed off for a picnic at Christie's folks cabin in Pine Valley. We brought the Borrowman grand kids with us minus Koen. Ryan was on call so he and Ferf and Koen went on a date and stayed local in case he got called out. Moss and Paul cooked up some good BBQ chicken and Dutch oven potatoes and I burned up some corn to go with it (went outside to play with the kids and forgot about it) and there was also a really good Green River melon. We stopped in at Veyo Pies on the way and got pie for dessert. It was cool, uncrowded and relaxing. We took a little stroll down to check out some noisy cows that were not happy to have been taken out of a lush green field and corralled. They were protesting the situation with much mooing! Thanks Moss and Christie for the nice evening after our peachy morning labors.

Finish the chimney, load the wood & enjoy the waterfalls

It's been another really fine week. For FHE we took our dinner and went to Pine Valley to finish up a chimney by putting the chimney cap on and doing a little bit of caulking. It was so nice and cool. We didn't know where any electricity was, so we knew we'd have to make a return trip to put some screws in to help hold the chimney cap in place. We never mind going to Pine Valley, so that wasn't really a problem. We took our evening walk up a semi-closed trail and it was so nice, we knew we'd have to come back to that with more time. Wednesday night we met the Randalls up at Brian Head to pick up a load of free, already cut wood. It was beautiful up there - so cool and fresh. We each got a truck load. Brady and Ellie were great little "wood chuckers". It was really fun and we got some pretty good exercise in the process.


Saturday morning we headed back up to finish the chimney and to finish the hike. We took our lunch to eat along the trail. It turned out to be one of the prettiest hikes on Pine Valley Mountain. There are too many waterfalls to count. We went up the trail for a couple of hours (crossing the creek quite a few times) until it got to be a little too much of a bushwhack for us to spend anymore time - we need to go back with more time if we are going to go up further. There is one waterfall that we decided was the most spectacular of all we saw. We also found a really nice little camp spot that we are going to have to make use of in the near future.