Mother's Day and Zade's #5

I had a great Mother's Day - got to talk to all the kids, Paul cooked dinner and made dessert, church was shortened to just sacrament meeting because the gym floor refinishing made the building reek (got to take an afternoon nap), got to spend time with family...it was all good.  It even extended over to Monday evening when we got to join the Smiths for Zade's #5 birthday dinner/party and throw in some Mother's Day celebrating too.  Thanks to all of you for the great day, presents and most of all for being great people.  As I looked at all of the family pictures that day, I thought, "What could be a more wonderful Mother's Day gift than having such a great family?"  Love you all.  Happy Birthday Zade! You are such a cute kid.  Love you lots!

Here's all the fun plunder people gave to me.  Paul also got me some new zip off pants that are being exchanged for a different size.  Thanks to everyone.  Such fun stuff!

Genghis Khat - in fond memory

Unless you are a cat lover, or lover of any pets for that matter, you probably won't be able to identify with this.  I don't know that this post can be classed as a present good time, but it is an acknowledgement of past good times that will be remembered with fondness.  Last Tuesday morning, May 7th, was the last time we saw our Genghis Khat.  It was a rushed morning and I asked Paul to bring him up from his chosen place to sleep in the garage, missing our usual good morning pets and purrs and the over the shoulder ride up the stairs.  He was in a hurry to get outside and get on with his business, so I didn't get to greet him before he headed out the door.  I remember thinking at the time that I missed saying hello, but would catch him on his next pass. Looking at this logically I realize that he was with us for longer than most cats I've had.  He joined the family in the fall of 2007 when he was about 3 months old. For nearly 6 years he added his personality quirks to the house and brought a lot of laughs, peace, expenses, worries and love to us.  We will miss him and will wonder how he left us, but we will remember him as the crazy, grand cat that he was.  Good hunting Genghis. I hope there are plenty of people around to turn on the water in the sink for you to get a drink. 

Paul took me out for Mother's Day!

He took me out camping (at my request) to Pine Park.  It couldn't have been any better.  No one else was there, the weather was not to hot and not too cold, the bugs weren't out other than bees buzzing, it was absolutely peaceful.  We set up camp and while dinner was cooking we took a walk.  After dinner we took another one and then enjoyed a movie by the fire before heading off to bed.  It was cool enough that we needed that extra sleeping bag on top, but it was perfect sleeping weather.  In the morning after breakfast we walked down the canyon/stream where we saw loads of polliwogs, fish and evidence of beavers recently at work.  Looking on the map, we found that this stream empties into Beaver Dam Wash - thus the name.  There were several little dams just in the little way that we hiked down the stream.  Wish we would have seen one. After driving over to Beaver Dam Wash Camp Ground (just to see what there was to see) we drove home stopping in at Marv's in Enterprise for lunch.  It was such a relaxing, beautiful trip. Thanks for the great Mother's Day outing Paul!

Fun with the Randalls at Red Cliffs

Paul had a court of honor to attend, but Supe and I got to go up and join the Randalls at Red Cliffs for dinner and a little hiking.  It was a beautiful evening at a beautiful place with some of our favorite people.  They had been camping out  up there and provided a great dinner.  After that we hiked up the canyon.  A little rattlesnake along the trail added some not so welcome excitement, but other than that it was spectacular.  Supe, Bryan, Brady and I went up the moki steps and on up the canyon a little ways.  Felt a little guilty leaving Lou behind to make sand castles with the girls.  Hopefully she will get up there another time.  After the hike we had a fire and s'mores.  Ahh, that fire smelled so good and the s'mores were yummy.  Thanks for sharing you fun with us Randalls.  It was a great time!  (I forgot my camera, so hopefully I can get a few more pictures from Lou to add to this one.

Got this picture of Afton with my phone before it died.

I love this place.  It is so pretty!  

Ironman, visiting & birthdays

It was a fun, busy weekend.  It was the Ironman 70.3 and Paul and I got the plum job of being on the dock at the finish line with Moss again this year.  Very few people needed to be pulled out, so mostly we were just there to enjoy the beautiful morning and the excitement of the race.  It seemed pretty tame after last year's terrible weather at the lake.  We went out Friday evening to check in.  We didn't camp there this year because we were lucky enough to have Jay and Brynn come for a visit this weekend too.  They just had to take care of themselves until we got done at the lake in the morning.  We hung out and enjoyed visiting and seeing how much Madi and Tahlia have grown.  Saturday night some of us went out to dinner at Benja's.  Very yummy as always.  

First pro male to come in - 1.2 miles

First pro female

Evening and morning at the lake

Sunday we had the family feast of the fast over and celebrated Kaebri and Trigg's birthdays too.  It was a fun weekend with some of our very favorite people.  Happy late birthdays Kaebri and Trigg.  We love you!

  

Date night at Lamb's Knoll

We have been wanting to get up to Lamb's Knoll for quite some time after hearing about it from Supe.  Tonight we took our dinner and went.  We found a great camp spot where we ate dinner and then went on to see some really beautiful things to explore among the rock formations there.  We didn't want to hike too  far because of Paul's knee, but ended up doing a bit more than we planned.  We found a cool  little slot canyon and went up it as far as we could.  Paul couldn't get past one point, but helped me get past and I went up just a little further until that was all without ropes.  In the process I scraped a hole in a pocket which my phone fell out of.  Didn't figure that out until a little later and backtracked and found it buried in the sand just below that scraping spot, thank goodness.  It was a very tight squeeze right there.  That is such a cool area that we are going to get back out there (after Paul gets his knee brace) and have a better, longer look around.  

Views from the camp spot

Left picture looking down the canyon.  Right pictures looking up - bottom one from above the hard to get past spot where it widens out and then ends...unless you want to go up.

Other sights in the vicinity

More good times at Dolphin Arch

The Weavers came to town to enjoy our warm weather and we went on an outing with them, the Smiths and the Sheffields to show them Dolphin Arch.  They followed us out and then parked and loaded up into the back of the Toyota to drive to the trail heads.  We visited both sides of it to get the whole view.  It was a fun outing.  Glad we got to get out with everyone.  

Happy Birthday Christie...at last!

Christie is our one and only April birthday and she waited patiently until the family dinner to get her present.  We had the feed at Weed and Derek's this time and it was yummy of course.  Ferf brought some homemade cookies for dessert and they doubled as a birthday cake, candle and all.  After the food and present we played some fun games.  Weed came up with some crazy Mad Gabs for all of us to decipher.  She's pro at them.  Thanks for the good food and fun times everybody.  Happy late birthday Christie.  We love you even if we are slow to show it!  (Sorry for the blurry pics.)

Sweet Sarai...sorry we missed out

The present got there, but we didn't make it, so pictures will have to suffice for this birthday.  Sweet Sarai turned two without us.  Heard it was happy.  Love you Sweet Sarai!

The Naming Cave...we made it!

After a couple of false starts we made it to the Naming Cave.  It is a really cool place and it was worth the repeated efforts.  Even without the cave it is a beautiful area.  We took the wimpy way out and went up by ladder instead of around the edge.  I'm sure we could have done the edge, but the ladder felt a lot more comfortable.  We were surprised at the traffic in the area with a whole group of people coming out just after us and several driving by.  If we go out again, we will brave the edge.  

The picture of me right below the ladder is the edge where where you can come up and over instead of using the ladder.  It would be a piece of cake if you just didn't have that 30 foot drop to stir up your imagination.