Thunder, lightening and perfect timing

Campsite views

We decided we'd better get in another camp out in the high country before it gets too cold.  We also wanted to do a little road rambling.  After work on Friday we packed up and headed for mountains near Brian Head.  Our chosen campsite was occupied, so we hurried to find another one to get settled before dark and hopefully before the rain set in since the clouds were looking very threatening.  Paul made a great dinner of Dutch oven stew and biscuits while I worked on getting the rest of camp set up.  It got dark, so we ate by lantern light...perfect food and surroundings.  The clouds were still very threatening, so we hurried and cleaned up and stowed the gear and headed for the tent to watch a movie on the laptop.  Just as we got everything squared away and were warm and dry in the tent the clouds let loose. After we finished our movie and sacked out it really started up with lightening and thunder and it even hailed some (we found ice outside the tent in the morning).

Leftover ice chunks from the hailstorm

It was so fun to just lay there and enjoy the noise and light while staying warm and dry.  It was a little hard to sleep until things quieted down some.  We made up for it by sleeping in and having breakfast in the tent.  After striking camp we went out exploring several roads we had wondered about over by Panguitch Lake area.  One of them was a real 4-wheeler challenge in our 2-wheel drive Toyota, but we satisfied our curiosity and found some nice future campsites in the process and managed not to get stuck in the mud or slide off the road. After all of our rambling we made the drive home through Zion. 

Yankee Meadows Lake from atop one of our road rambles

Bristlecone Pines on another rambling road

Piles, piles and more piles of basalt along another rambling road

It was a great day with loads of beautiful scenery.  We even had left over stew and biscuits to have for dinner when we got home!

Kolob Arch - Grand "Edventure"

It was hard, but they made it!  Since Tavin got a camelback type pack from us for his birthday, we thought we ought to take him on a hike to try it out.  Brynnli and Kennis came along too for the 14 mile hike to Kolob Arch.  We started at 8:40 am and made it out at 5 pm with breaks for snacks, lunch and some wading along the way.  (We discovered that those little black things attached the rocks in the water that look like some kind of plant are actually worms.)  It was perfect weather with cloud cover to keep us cool.  We heard some thunder a couple of times and felt a few raindrops here and there along the way.  The trail has some pretty uppity parts right at the end that really sap you when you are already tired, but with some promised cold sodas for motivation, we kept on keeping on and got out by the agreed upon time.  We had a good time wetting down in the cold water of LaVerkin Creek for the return trip.  We talked with lots of people along the way who had come long distances for the beautiful hiking in Utah.  There are some great campsites along that way that would be fun to try out some time. 

"Kolob Arch crowns Zion National Park’s lightly traveled Kolob Canyons District, which at 287.4’ across is considered the world’s second longest freestanding rock span. (The span of Landscape Arch in Arches National Park (290.1’) exceeds Kolob Arch (287.4’) by only 2.7'.) "

The trailhead

A grand vista

La Verkin Creek - a  lovely waterfall

We made it to the arch!

There were lots of little toads along the way.  This one thought Tavin was a toadstool.

More grand vista

Made it to the end!

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Supe and Bean came down and joined us at the family feast at the Smiths.  It was good food and good company.  After everyone else had gone we went over and toured Derek's classrooms and a few others at the high school.  Wow...there's some pretty cool stuff there.  Almost made me want to be back in high school!  Supe took off to Disneyland and the beach with Moss, Christie and Brenden.  Monday morning was cool and overcast, so Bean joined us and we took our walk on the Red Hill and got to see the sunrise.  They day continued cool so we decided to stay close to home for a hike out behind Santa Clara.  We hiked up some of the bike trails and then went bushwhacking over to the Gunsight rock that you always see through the Devil's Saddle on the black ridge.  It was nice with occasional sprinkles to keep us cool.  There are some spectacular views from out there.  After that we came back and Bean got ready to take off after we made our own flatbread and had some very tasty sandwiches.  It was an enjoyable respite.  Now its back to work. 

Ashfork is still there...

...and so are the cookies at Jacob's Lake. They have a new kind - lemon raspberry. They are very tasty. We went on our usual rock trip/camp out Friday/Saturday. It was good to get out of the St. George heat! We camped out with the bow hunters outside of Flagstaff. We saw a little rain on the drive and evidence of a lot more that we missed. We got our rocks and our cookies and had a great time listening to the second book in the Hunger Games series.  It's always fun to spend time together on our rock trips. Also, I finished up my first week back to school with the kids there. We have a nice class. Of course, they are still in the "honeymoon" period, but even so, they look pretty nice.

Our camping spot - it was cool but not cold.  We kept the windows and door of the fly open to let the breeze blow through.

This is our napping spot.  Paul needed a little rest from driving on the way home, so we pulled out in the shade and he napped and I snapped a few pictures. 

10 already?!

It's hard to believe that Tavin is already 10!  He got to celebrate on the day with dinner by Ryan (some really good pizza) and cake by Ferf (also really good) and some of the extended family...and presents, of course.  It's fun to see the grand kids growing up, but it kind of makes you feel a little old.  Happy birthday Tavin.  We love you!

Wheeler Peak, Lehman Cave & Parowan Gap Petroglyphs

We got all the good we could out of our time this weekend.  Friday after I finished up helping with check-in for Webelos Day Camp Paul and I took off for Great Basin National Park.  We ate dinner in Cedar. It's quite a drive from Cedar through Minersville, Milford, Garrison and Baker (some very small towns) with lots of empty country in between. We had hoped to camp in the Wheeler Peak campground which is at 9,886 ft.  It was very nice up there at about 61 degrees around 8 pm, but it was full, so we ended up getting the last campsite and setting up in the dark at Lower Lehman Creek campground at 7,300.  It was pretty warm there, but we got some sleep and after eating and cleaning up we were at the trail head at 8 am.  The starting elevation is 10,160 there and the peak is at 13,063, the second highest in Nevada.  It's an 8.2 round trip with a gain of 2,900 ft. most of it during the last 3 miles.  It's a great trail.  It was very windy once we got above timberline until the last 400 ft. when we were on the leeward side.  There were lots of clouds blowing over the top while we were there.  We shared the honor of first ones to the top that day with a couple of varsity scouts with a lot of other people arriving soon after. It took us about 2.5 hours up and 1.5 to go down. On the way down we stopped off at Stella Lake for lunch.  We decided rather than hike over to a couple more lakes and some bristle cone pines to go back down to take a tour of the Lehman Cave.  It was an interesting tour because their were several deaf people, their dog and their interpreter with us.  The cave, of course, is very interesting as well.

 After that we checked out a few other campgrounds and then headed back home.  On the way home we saw a turn off to Parowan Gap Petroglyphs.  It was only 2.5 miles over, so we went to see them.  They are pretty amazing and it was worth the time. 

 Just so you know, you don't have to pay to get into Great Basin National park.  There was a fee to camp and you do have to pay to tour the cave.  I think we got our money's worth out of our time. 

Sweet Sarai's blessing

Since we were all in town for Grandma's do, Juge and Lance took the opportunity to make it easy on all of us and bless Sarai down here at Lance's folks house. Steve and Dorothy were gracious hosts to the whole gang from both sides for the blessing and for a delicious meal afterwards.  Sarai received a beautiful blessing from Lance with many priesthood holders there to lend their support.  Sarai is a sweetie and didn't make a peep.  

Afterwards Supe brought out all of his gifts for the family that he brought home from Africa.  The patio served as the family dressing room for trying on all the shirts...over our other clothes of course.  They are some pretty sweet shirts.  The kids all got cool necklaces and Supe brought a couple of fine hats. Then it was time for everyone to be heading home again.  We've had some great gatherings of late.  Now it's back to school and work. 

We were so busy trying on the shirts that we forgot to take pictures of the process...darn.

Grandma's birthday wish

This is the whole gang that was in attendance except Ethan Powell.  He got cut off.  Lerlyn disappeared behind Kirt in every picture unfortunately.  The next picture up has Ethan - he was where he could be seen, but several  other people disappeared behind  other heads then.  I think we did pretty good for such a big group! (Double click pictures to see them bigger.)

Saturday, August 13th, Grandma (Lillywhite) Kurtz got her birthday wish - minus just a few people.  Her 80th birthday was earlier this year in February.  She told us all that she her birthday wish was to have a whole family get together sometime during the year.  With lots of people's cooperation, we were able to make her wish come true all but for a few people.  It took quite a bit of effort for some people.  I think the Wardell's win for the longest trip.  Thanks to everyone for taking the time and spending the money to make it happen.  She was so pleased...and it was lots of fun for all of us in the process.  What a great group of people to have a chance to reconnect with.  Happy 80th Grandma!

Here are the family with Grandma shots that we took.  

Some random shots of the cousins

Family Camp 2011

There was a lot of hanging out in the hammocks

On the way to Hidden Haven

 Last year we decided to have every family take a turn being in charge of the family camp starting with Lou and Bryan for this year.  They did a great job from finding a perfect spot to having some really fun planned activities including a compass course for the kids, a family program night, and a perfect hike. The movie night was extra fun too. The weather was perfect and the food delicious.  We went to a place up by Yankee Meadows above Parowan.  Maybe next year Supe and Bean will be able to join us for a full crew.  Thanks to everyone for your effort to get there.  Let's do it again next year.  Jay and Brynn...you're up!

Just a few of the cute faces that were there - one really dirty face!

Lots of fun stuff going on here!

The honey was really cold and hard to get out, cute shirts alike from Costco, "THIS ISN'T WHAT I WANT FOR BREAKFAST!", funny little singers, etc.  More fun!

Rocking and rolling...at rock trip

Paul and I went to Ashfork Friday to pick up 3 big rocks that will be cut to make the hearth, mantel and sides to the firebox on a big fireplace that we are working on right now.  They were really nice with lots of moss and so big.  We camped out just outside Jacob's Lake on the way home at Lillywhite's Bed and Breakfast on wheels - the truck and tent. It was so nice we didn't hardly need a sleeping bag and if there hadn't been a pretty good chance of rain, we would have just slept under the stars. We made breakfast on the tailgate and took a nice walk in the forest before we left.  On the way home we dropped the rocks off at a stone yard in Fredonia to be cut.  (That one picture shows the giant saw they will use for some of the cuts.)  After we got home we drove up to Cedar Mountain to check out the site for Grandma's birthday party.  Lots of beautiful scenery to see during our travels.