Fun with old friends

L to R - At the arch (too bad William hid in the bushes), White Rocks overlook, on the trail, the men went up there - we waited at the bottom!

What a delightful visit we had on Saturday.  The Pipkins were passing through on their way to CA and were kind enough to stop in route and hang out and treat us to dinner.  We all enjoyed (I hope they did) a hike in Snow Canyon and catching up on life's happenings.  Then we had some great food and more time to visit over dinner at Benja's.  So fun to share time with such grand people. Makes me think what a grand reunion it will be in heaven some day when hopefully we meet up with all the people that have impacted our lives and then have gotten out of touch with for one reason or another.  It's nice that we can still touch base with some of them in the here and now and not have to wait for that grand reunion...will we be able to go out to dinner there?

Feast of the fast over family dinner

Good food, recuperation, puzzling and finishing the dinner. 

We've started the family dinners back up since the holiday madness is over.  We had to compete with the Super Bowl, but we still had a good turn out. Poor Zade and Koen got sick, and Kennis was in recuperation, but we still had a good time...good food and visiting.  We missed Ryan for work and Derek had a family party he had to be to.  Hope we catch them next time.  Thanks everyone.  See you next month. 

Cabin time with Grandpa, Grandma & Bean

Kaebrin enjoying the pie.  She chose which kind we would get.

The guys at the races.

Tasia's alcove

Zade's alcove

Help, were in jail!

Cozy time by the wood stove.

Kaebri's alcove

Kaebri, Tasia and Zade's mom and dad headed north for a teacher convention/parent get away.  The kids divided their time between Moss and Christie's, our place and their Aunt's house.  The Stucki's offered time at their cabin, so we decided to do an overnighter up there for the fun of it...and fun it was.  Genghis almost threw a monkey wrench in the the plan by sneaking out sometime during the day, but we finally decided he would be able to take care of himself for a night on the town and went anyway.  We had pizza, salad and a Veyo mountain berry pie, played the Camping Game and then watched Dolphin Tales for our evening activities.  Bean also taught everyone how to race cars on the Game-boy.  The kids were all so excited to sleep in the little alcoves that the Stucki's kids had decorated.  There were two girl and one boy one so it worked out perfectly.  In the morning we had French toast with strawberries, bananas and almonds on top.  We had hoped to drive down to see if the lake was frozen, but the truck was having water pump issues, so we decided we had just better head home.  Luckily there were no problems in route.  Kaebri and Tasia wished they could just "live there forever".  It was a grand "edventure" in a cozy, homey place. 

Scout Cave and up and over

Top point along the trail

Tried getting a picture looking back down the slot - hard to do without falling off!

Last time we hiked over here some crows sat high above us on this rock making fun of us!  Where are those sassy birds now? 

Views from the top of the slot

Views in a rain puddle

Beautiful blacks and reds

Views at the end of the hike

Yesterday afternoon Paul and I had a little free time so we decided to check out a hike that a friend told me about.  First you hike to Scout Cave which we had done before.  We left from the Paradise Ridge trail head.  Then you pass the cave and head to the north to a little slot canyon where you can shinny and chimney your way to the top and then continue on up to where you can connect with the Gila Trail.  We had thought about just going up the little slot to the top and then back down and trying out our new GPS skills (we went to a little class that morning at Sportsman's Warehouse) by using the backtracking feature.  After getting up there, we decided we didn't like the idea of going back down very well, so we did keep going and did find the Gila Trail and made our way back over to our car.  It was 9.76 miles.  We did use our GPS to track our miles and speed.  It was a really nice hike through some beautiful areas and we had perfect weather too.  I'm not too keen on the shimmy or chimney up thing, but I made it even if the seat of my favorite hiking pants is a little bit thinner now than before I left!

Lots of January birthdays

The January birthdays came to an end with Brenden turning 3 last Friday.  There have been quite a few.  We took care of Eden early at the end of December.  Next was Bryan.  We didn't get to go to a party with him, but we did send him a perfect card I had found ages ago.  "Do you know what Beethoven is doing for your birthday? ...Decomposing!" So appropriate, don't you think?  After that was Afton - another missed party, but then came Brady and we invited ourselves up and enjoyed a very tasty dinner and joined in eating the rocket/angry birds cake which was very creative as well as tasty.  Brady was gone as soon as he opened Legos.  He could hardly tear himself away long enough to eat his cake.  It was a lot of fun and we gave Afton her presents too.  Unfortunately we were in such a rush to get there (after attending two sets of ward conferences that day) that we left the camera behind.  I'm hoping Lou will share some of her pics with us so that I can add them to this post.  Brenden was the final birthday for January.  We did get to go to his party and it was lots of fun too.  The decorating was great with the Cars theme to the max.  All of our local family came along with all of Christie's.  What a fun group of people to party with!  Pizza, pop and a Barrel of M'n'M's cake filled us up.  Kennis was on a lucky streak and won the prize for guessing how many pieces of candy were in the jar and also pulled the right string to open up the pinata and let the candy out.  Brenden got lots of Cars type gifts. We enjoyed the slide show that Christie made that showed such cute pictures of Brenden growing up.  I never thought I would say this, but kereokee (I don't even know how to spell it) is actually fun.  I was amazed by how much the kids, even the babies, loved singing/dancing along.  I don't have any desire to be the up front singer all by myself, but for a group sing, it is a lot of fun.  (Do you think we could do that at a Primary party?) We have lots of little singer/dancers among the younger set.  Brenden was looking a little beat by the time we all left.  Happy Birthday to all of you January birthday people.  WE LOVE YOU ALL!  Wish we could have made it to all of your parties and had a camera in hand.

Want some bubbles?

Afton loves shoes...even ones made of cake!

Another Randall creative cake!

 

Devil's Hole - we found it this time!

Some of the holes had bird and little varmint nests in them.  Some of them just had grand kid varmints in them!

 We had the day off school/work yesterday for MLK day, so we decided to try to find Devil's Hole once more.  Since the Smithereans didn't get to go on our last Grand "Edventure" we invited them to help us find it.  Bean came too which is a good thing since he's such a big help in getting us into some less accessible places.  We made the drive (even crossed the river) with no problems.  Then we started hiking to the area that we thought it would be in after checking it out on Google Earth.  It's not really that big of a formation.  We hunted and hiked and hiked and hunted and were just about to think we would miss it again when Paul spotted it in a place we thought we had already explored.  It's a little bit high and hard to get to, but with Bean down in and Paul on top to assist we made it.  It's a neat formation that makes you wonder how it was formed.  It's also a good place to get out of the wind, which was pretty cool out there.  It has a nice little window to look out of.  Even if we hadn't found it, the kids had a great time trying out all the holes and decided there were some real housing possibilities available.  On the way back Bean, Kaebri and Tasia rode in the back of the truck and Zade was Grandpa's backseat driver.  We gave the ones in the truck bed some fun by lifting the dump up and down a little every now and again.  Don't worry, we had them buckled in with a tie down.  Everyone came back into the cab after we got back to the regular road and we sang  and storied our way to Arctic Circle for some "squirrel cones" on the way home.  It was a fun "edventure" and we are glad that we have finally found the illusive Devil's Hole!  

Tooquerville Falls & Devil's Hole (almost)

We knew we wanted to get out some place on Saturday, but I had to be back by 3:30 for the stake baptism, so we couldn't go too far.  Friday night we stayed up until midnight playing Risk (my very first time) with Bean.  Of course, he killed us, but it did take him several hours.  Since we were up so late, we got kind of late start.  We decided that it had been a long time since we had been to Toquerville Falls.  It is a rough ride, but the falls are so pretty that it's well worth the drive.  I'd sure like to go there in the summer and play in the water when its not quite so cold.

Upper falls

Lower falls

Both falls

We didn't have much time after that, but we decided to try and find the Devil's Hole that Juge and Lance and the Ferf and Ryan have told us about.  It's out behind Toquerville.  We found it on Google Earth, but unfortunately didn't locate it while we were there and ran out of time looking...another day, another "edventure."  When we got home we looked at the map again and realized that we didn't hunt far enough east in the rocks to find it.  We did see some cool rocks in the vicinity though.  Luckily we got done with all of our outdoor stuff just as the wind hit and we could see the snow starting to fall up by New Harmony and northward.

Cool red rocks and some beautiful views - Zion skyline and some of Kolob Fingers

Eden turns 5 - a little early!

Just look at all of that smoke from only 5 candles.  I think the chocolate teeth are a nice look, don't you?

Sarai was in a happy mood! The couch pillow hats are always good for some entertainment with Grandpa.

Before the Weavers headed back to the frozen north country we had dinner and celebrated Eden's #5!  This is starting to be a traditional event.  That way we get to be there for the singing, blowing and present opening.  I think it's a good tradition.  I think the dot-to-dot book and new crayons were the hit of this years presents.  Happy Birthday Eden!  We love you. 

First post of 2012 - Grand "Edventure" at Kayenta/Hell Hole Canyon

We decided to get out one last time on the school break and take grand kids along with us.  Too bad the Smiths were sick and couldn't join in.  We missed them.  Bean came along and it was a good thing.  We got to the point in the trail where we have always stopped and turned around, but with his help with pulling/pushing people up and finding good routes we went on quite a bit further and enjoyed some pretty sweet scenery including going through some cool rock fall caves.  Since the water was down this time of year, we didn't encounter some of the slick, mossy spots that have stopped us before either.  It was a great day with shirt sleeve weather and blue skies.  The kids, especially Gaige, did great.  We did what is becoming a tradition at the end - stopped by Arctic Circle for some "squirrel cones".  We are helping these kids get the good out of those new walking sticks that Grandpa gave them for Christmas, and in the process they are keeping us in shape!

2011 - the final post of the year

There has been a lot going during the final days of 2011. December birthdays were part of the goings on.  Brynnli, Paul and Gaige did the shared party thing a little late for some and a little early for others. We love them all.  Happy #12, 59 and 6!!!

Next on the agenda - Paul and I went up and saw Ellie in her first dance recital. There was quite a bit of the recital that I would have been OK with missing, but it was worth sitting through to support Ellie in her debut on stage. I'm not sure she was totally thrilled about debuting, but she did it and we were proud of her!

The Friday afternoon before Christmas Christie invited the girls to get together for lunch at Bear Paw and then to go over to her house for manicure/pedicure fun. I also brought along a make it yourself Christmas craft.  We had so much fun at lunch, eating of course, but also playing a fun game that Juge came up with.  We had Christie, Brynn, Weed, Ferf, Juge, me and Grandma.  Wish Lou could have made it. Too bad someone forgot the camera for this activity.  I have a really sweet looking crackle fingernail polish job and some very soft, well-soaked feet too.  Thanks for putting such a fun time together Christie :o)

This is the only picture I got of this activity and it was with my phone.  Notice Christie's beautiful curls.  Brynn showed us how to do that with a flat iron.  Sweet! 

Next is Christmas!  It is so hard to get pictures of all the goings on while so much is going on.  Jay, Brynn, Madi and Supe were here at the house with us for the holiday.  The Weavers were down from the frozen north too.  Everyone came over for Christmas afternoon and the kids put on such a nice nativity program.  They also thrilled Grandma by singing her remakes of some Primary songs...brought tears to the eyes.   After that we all munched on all the good things everyone brought, played games and visited.  Thanks to all of you for putting it all together.  Jay and Brynn gave us all a really nice present...the announcement of #18 grand baby in July.   The holiday continued with more eating, visiting and game playing.  Paul and I made a real haul for Christmas with so many thoughtful gifts from everyone.  Many thanks to everyone for all the gifts and even more for just being the wonderful people that you are.

Juge planned a fun game for the adults to play!

One afternoon after Christmas Lance put together a nice little hike for those that could make it.  Some of the kids got to try out their new hiking sticks in the process.  We saw petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks and old ruins (Babylon) along with enjoying all the beautiful scenery, water and sand along the river.  It was good to get out in the sun for a while.

The petroglyphs

Actually, we didn't have to hike very much to see what we saw.  Mostly we rode. 

 

Babylon ruins

One of the tracks we saw

The good times continue despite this nasty cold I picked up. Paul, Bean and I went bowling with the Weavers and the Sheffields for Eden's birthday.  She decided that bowling was what she wanted to do.  I haven't been bowling since Lou was a baby and my skills haven't improved any since then. Paul was pro.  It was a lot of fun and I may have to do it again for a date some time.  It can only get better at this point!  Maybe the third time will be "the charm", and I will do a lot better!  (I will add bowling pics when I can get some from Juge.)