4-wheeling with Rufus...and his family

Friday afternoon we headed off for another adventure in the Kaibab.  The stake is planning to do a trek over there next year and we went over with Kris and Robyn Johnson to do some prelim checking out of routes.  We drove our truck as far as Kanab and dropped it off for stone to be loaded up and then joined them in their truck for the rest of the trip.  Their dog Rufus came along too.  We dined at Jacob Lake and then found our camp spot.  They had their camper and we had our trusty tent and airbed.  After some hot chocolate, cookies and a game of No Peaky, we all called it a night.  We woke to coyotes singing in the morning.  It is pretty interesting, but just a little disconcerting too.  We tried to record some of it.  After breakfast was done we loaded up on the Johnsons' 4-wheelers and started looking at some possible routes.  It was beautiful with rain in the air, and sometimes on us (but not too much) and everything fresh and vibrant.  We covered some beautiful routes through the forest and to the  rim of the Grand Canyon.  This was my first 4-wheeler trip other than the short rides I have been on at Family Camp.  It was great! The Johnsons are such fun, nice people that it really made the trip great!  I got to know Rufus the dog a lot better and he even gave me a turn throwing a smashed bottle for him to fetch and also gave me the opportunity to be his pillow once in a while in the back seat on the way home.  He is a funny fellow and made a great masthead riding shotgun on the Johnson's 4-wheeler.  He did get out and run some here and there just to keep in shape.  We stopped by Jacob Lake again on the way home to see if they had had a chance to fill our hopeful request for some of their amazing coconut cream pie...they did!  It was very crowded and we were in a kind of a hurry, so we just got it to go.  Mmmmm good!  We picked up our truck/load in Kanab and headed on home after a perfect trip.  We were glad that we had finished our scouting before a huge hailstorm hit the area.  It was crazy with hail pounding down and piling up along the road.  Rufus was not bothered by it and just slept peacefully on my knee.   Thank you Kris, Robyn and Rufus for letting us join your fun!

Good news...#22 is on the way!

Brynn tried to let us know via technology that they are expecting.  Since the pictures on my phone are way too small for me to see very well, I just thought she was sending a cute picture of the girls for me to enjoy.  Finally, after e-mailing it to myself (and because the other kids clued me in) I saw the official announcement!  Yip Yip Yipee is what we are saying too!  The big sisters are looking pretty happy about having a new little sibling too!  

Labor Day - Leisure Day

We have done a good job of combining these two this weekend.  Saturday we stopped off in Brian Head on our way home and measured up (in the middle of a rainstorm) a job we are bidding there. Monday we picked up an beautiful 800 lb. lentil stone to go over a front door on a house we are working on.  We also went up to Dammeron Valley and took pictures of a job we just finished.  The leisure part on Monday was a trip to Zion (this is the last month on our park pass) and hiked to a glyph site and also up the Many Pools trail.  We also got really close to a little herd of bighorn sheep. After that we went over to Glendale a hiked a little canyon - Spring Hollow.  Then we picked up our stone and headed on home.  It was a perfect weather day and we got all we could out of it.  We have also been listening to Ender's Game and started on Ender's Shadow while driving so we can get ready to see the movie when it comes out.  It has been a fun labor-leisure weekend.  

We love the old 1930s' stonework on the culverts.  We love natures' stonework too!

It was a perfect time to enjoy the Many Pools hike.  The recent rains had filled things up nicely.

We spied this up to you neck deep pool on the way up and decided to take advantage of the chance to cool off on the way back down!  The water was great! Paul took advantage of several smaller ones on the way up too.

These sheep were not as skittish as others we have tried to photograph in Zion.  They were almost curious at first and peeped at me from behind the bushes.  Big daddy ram was more interested in his lady love than in worrying about me taking his picture.  

It's a little hard to locate the trail to get in to Spring Hollow Canyon.  We finally had to ask someone. One of its' features is that the walls of the canyon are covered in carved names, some dating way back.  Someone even carved a marriage proposal into the wall!  Paul added a little of his own.  I would love to see the waterfall at the end when it is running.  

Here's the big stone that was the object of our labor.  

Plays and playing

Cool, fresh, vibrant, fragrant, clean - those are the adjectives I can use to describe this week, along with busy!  Lots of rain has made everything even more beautiful than usual on the Red Hill, at Snow Canyon, in Pine Valley and in the mountains.  We walked, rode bikes, camped and hiked to get out enjoy it.  We were happy that it didn't rain on the night we went with lots of family to see Mary Poppins out at Tuacahn.  We also enjoyed seeing 12 Angry Men up in Cedar too.  We redeemed both of our Christmas gift cards in one week!  It was a great week!  

!2 Angry Men, the Green Show, the gang waiting for Mary Poppins to start

Pine Valley, the Red Hill and Snow Canyon

We got to our camp spot in the Tushar Mts. just as it was getting dark.  There had been rain and hail earlier, but it let up long enough for us to set up our tent and go to sleep.  We woke to rain on the tent. It let up while we got breakfast ready and then we retreated to the cab of the truck to eat.  Then it went away for the morning. We were able to hike up to a different peak than usual to see to goats.  As always, they kept just enough ahead of us to make getting a good picture hard.  We herded them over the hill and down the mountain.  Then they took off to join the main herd on another peak where there were about 100 of them.  We were done chasing them and headed back down the mountain...just in time for a rain free lunch and then it started up again.  

We also drove the road to Minersville Reservoir to check out the camping up that way.  There are some pretty spots along the stream, but right now the reservoir is drained and while it is being dredged. We drove home over Cedar Mountain and Cedar Breaks was really pretty with clouds down among them.  

Happy Birthday #12 - Tavin!

Tonight most of our gang and the Borrowman gang gathered to wish Tavin a happy birthday and also to be there when he received the priesthood and was ordained to the office of deacon.  If was nice because they were able to do it at their home where we could all join together for this important time. He is the first grandson on both sides to receive the priesthood.  A great day!  Happy birthday Tavin. We love you and are so proud of you.

Happy #25 Bean

Friday evening we celebrated Bean's #25 with dinner and a "fruit cake" and presents. He had already gotten most of his present (glove shoes) before, but also got a Piano Guys CD and an electric toothbrush on the real day.  Happy Birthday Bean!  We love you.

Ride Zion, Ho-Made Pie, Hawaiian dinner

Yesterday was a day of variety.  Paul needed to pick up a rock in Kanab, so we decided to make it into a fun business trip.  We loaded up the bikes and got to Zion about 9:30 and road the Pah'Rus trail and then on up to the Temple of Sinawava and back - about 20 miles.  It was a great ride.  We stopped for a river plunge on the way back down to cool off a little. Found a good spot that was up to our necks. We picked up our rock in Kanab and then stopped in at Mt. Carmel Junction for some of their ho-made pie.  It was good, but not as good at Crowshaw or Veyo pie.  Then we drove home over Cedar Mountain. Unfortunately I missed a lot of that - don't know if that pie put me to sleep or if it was the tape we were listening too. Sad to miss most of that beautiful scenery.  After we got home and cleaned up we went out to a job Paul just finished up in Dammeron to collect.  It turned out very pretty and the lady actually decided to add some more work.  On the way home we remembered that there was a new Hawaiian restaurant a friend has just put in and decided to go and give them our business. It was really good!  It was a fun day, but I forgot the camera and the only picture I took with my phone turned out bad, so I just snagged this one so there is at least a picture to go with this post.  

First Star Party

The Randalls invited us to come up and join them at the star party at Cedar Breaks on Monday night. We met at their house and then caravaned up and found a nice camp spot close by.  We got set up, had a great dinner and then headed over for the party at 9 pm.  It was very well attended.  They had three telescopes set up for people to look at different things while waiting for the moon to set and the "fireworks" to start. I liked looking at Saturn. It was cool to see it rings and all.   A ranger did a nice presentation on the constellations too. We saw quite a few meteors shooting by and even saw the space station for just a little bit.  We stayed til about 11 I think.  The kids were sacking out then and us old folks were getting pretty tired too. Bean came up and joined us for the party too.  We headed back to our camp spot for a good sleep and then headed home early for Paul to get back to work.  Thanks Randalls. It was lots of fun.  Sorry we couldn't stay longer.  Hope the hot chocolate was good and warmed you up!

Snagged a couple of these pics from the Cedar Breaks site.

Rocky Mountain Nat'l. Park - final fling before school starts

True to form, we decided very last minute to take a little road trip.  Of course we needed to do one last one before I head back to school.  We decided on Rocky Mountain National Park.  It has been on our bucket list for quite a while.  We were not disappointed.  It is Colorado in all its' high mountain glory! We took off Thursday afternoon and made it to within about 75 miles of the park finding our camp spot just before dark.  It was just past State Bridge, Colorado.  We made it to the park in the morning and spent the day driving all but one section of road in the park.  We even did the 9-mile Old Fall River Road which is dirt, but well maintained.  When we had just a couple of miles to go on it a hail storm hit - the beginning of the afternoon thunderstorms of this time of year.  It got clear down to 32 degrees and hailed, sleeted and rained pretty hard for a while and then it was over and the sun came out again.   After our day in the park we drove through a whole bunch of other amazingly scenic roads on the way back down.  We spent a lot of time enjoying scenery and then hit some road construction that slowed us up. It got too dark to find another camp spot, so we opted for a motel in Fairplay, Colorado. The next day we continued our journey taking the long route so as to hit Wolf Creek Pass, Durango, Silverton and Ouray (lots of old favorites) on the way home.  We enjoyed it all made it home just after midnight. We got every minute's worth of good out of our time, and put on about 1600 miles in the process.  Happy final fling!

FYI - The highest major highway in North America tops out at 12,183 feet in the park.  Nearly one third of the park is above treeline which is 11,400 feet in the park.  The park holds 72 named peaks above 12,000 feet and Longs Peak, at 14,259 feet, is the northernmost "fourteener" peak in the Rocky Mountain chain.  

Amazing vistas in the park - stone masons at work are amazing!  

Didn't have time to do much hiking, but the rain stopped and we really wanted to get up close to this beautiful waterfall.

Did the short hike around Bear Lake. Didn't see the bear they warned us about.

Had to take a picture of Lily Mountain - even in the pouring rain! It was just sprinkling at Lily Lake.

Window shots along the way to the old favorites.

Molas Pass 

Bear Creek Falls

Cool buildings - all but one in Silverton.

Took these out the window along Hwy. 70 on the way there and on the way home.
Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Bike ride, quilt done and Family Camp 2013

It was a great, busy week!  Paul and I took a Saturday ride that was a bit longer than we have done in a while.  We enjoyed it, but found that we need to get in a little better shape if we are going to do that much.  We rode from home out to Snow Canyon and them up the canyon.  On the way home we rode by a few of the latest job sites.  It was a beautiful ride and we went early enough that the heat wasn't bad.

I couldn't find the kind of material that I like to use to make baby quilts (with squares already printed) so I did what I swore I would never do and bought and cut up fabric and then sewed it back together. I thought it did turn out pretty cute after all.  Hope baby boy Weaver will like it.  I also got a car seat cover made and the fabric even matches.

Wednesday it was off to our wonderful Family Camp 2013.  This year we had everyone there at least part of the time!  We revisited the Yankee Meadows site of a couple of years ago and it was just as beautiful as ever. We did make one addition this year.  Instead of digging our own privy, we hauled up a couple of port-a-pots.  It was actually very nice except that we had to stop and get a new tire and have one of the fenders welded back on in Cedar City.  They didn't check it over very well before they sent it out.  Ended up not having to pay for it.  The camp was from Weds. July 31st - Sat. Aug. 3rd this year.  The weather was perfect; a little breezy and cool now and then, but it didn't rain and the only bugs that bugged us were some wasps that wanted to eat anything sweet they could find.  The food was terrific as usual!

Whole gang shot - this is the evening before we go home, so don't mind the bad hair and beards. 

The funny face shot!

The campsite - getting set up, etc.

Eliza and Tahlia got some serious camera time!

These boys had a grand time playing and getting very dirty in the process!

Some funny faces showed up in camp!

Time at the lake - assorted boats were in use and the fishing was good too!  

Activities included mask making, scavenger hunting, a compass course,  making survival bracelets and even a gun safety/shooting clinic. Moss was even going to do a wilderness survival course, but some of the stuff didn't get here in time.  We'll take a rain-check on that one until next year, OK?Thanks to all who planned and provided stuff for the activities.  

Good times eating and hanging out at the tables - the food was fantastic!

The annual hike - we did Vermilion Castle Trail.  It was beautiful.  At the end Lance gave us a little geology lesson about the things we saw.  

After the hike we drove over and saw some dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs at Parowan Gap.  Lance even found us some fossilized sea shells in that area too.  Cool stuff!

The amazing talent show!  There was singing, dance moves, poetry, a play, juggling, jokes, karate, violin playing and interpretive dance...and then group dance!

Something new this year (besides the port-a-potties) were the devotionals before breakfast and dinner.  We had songs, prayers and the flag.  Thanks to Brynnli and Tavin for spearheading this.  It was great!  Of course there was game playing too. Nertz or Nuts was very competitive.  It was a GREAT camp!  Thanks to the Borrowman clan for making it all come together this year.  Smiths - you are up for next year.  

(A few more pictures hike pictures from Ryan and Derek)