Valentine's/President's Day fun stuff

We had such fun over this holiday week end.  Jay and Brynn and the girls came down!  And after they headed out we kept on having fun with the in town gang!  Lots of good times!  And we love you all so much!

Jay has such a cute flock of chicks to fill his nest! Madi couldn't figure out what that thing was that Grandpa was reading - a newspaper?  What's that?  She took a better look with Grandma's glasses.  

We love sharing our amazing Red Hill back yard with the family!  

Moss shared his childhood forts with the next generation - 7th Heaven, etc.  Plenty of sun and red dirt make for good times!

We visited Paul's latest job, ate ice cream on the counter and swung with the cousins!

On Monday the Borrowmans, Smiths and Paul and I took in the new art display at
 DSU and had a picnic at a sunny park.
(Why is Koen never in any pictures?  Does he hide from me on purpose?)

And here are some pretty darn cute Valentine's from the out of town gang!  Missed you, missed you, wish that we could have kissed you!

Kennis is growing up...to fast!

We were a little late to the party because of some home teaching that had to be done that night, but we did get to wish Kennis a happy #11 on her birthday.  She's leaving that little girl stage and moving on to being a beautiful young lady...slow down!  We love you Kennis.  Happy birthday!

I think her favorite part of her present, besides the pretty dress that we put in on, was a framed copy of the poem she wrote and shared on St. George TV for the Veteran's Day celebration!  So talented, smart and pretty!

The Smith kids hang out

These guys (Zade, Trigg and Tasia got to hang out while their mom and Kaebri went to YW/YM activity and their dad was at work.  They love to have army adventures with Uncle Bean!  Paul and I hardly saw them except to eat heart shaped pizza and to make a few quick Valentines before they left.  

Chinle Trail - done!

We did it!  We finished the last part of the Chinle Trail on Saturday!  The total trail mileage is only about 16 miles, but we have just been doing parts of it between doing the other trails in the area: Coal Pits Wash, Scoggins Wash and Huber Wash.  It intersects all of them at their north ends.  It has been a work in progress over the last couple of years taking this long because of the interruption of knee surgeries.  We loved all  of the last 12.7 miles of it (we didn't have a shuttle vehicle so we had to go there and back.)  It has "ahhsome" Zion views and amazing petrified wood deposits.  

We started at Crater Hill trail head and it took about an hour to get to the Chinle/Coal Pits Wash junction where we ate lunch and enjoyed the water.  

Crazy broken rocks, Zion thru' a knothole, itty bitty tracks, our turn around spot up Scoggins Wash, a cool rock, Ahh Zion views.  

The "golden hour" views on our way out.  

A huge petrified log in many pieces, and end of the trail views.  

Family dinner February 2015

Today we started up the family dinners for this year!  It was great to come together and eat and visit.  If noise was a good indicator, the kids had a great time too!  "Celestial Chaos" is the term I believe! Afterwords the term is peace and quiet...but we love our chaos!  We kicked off with Kalua pork and everyone brought yummy stuff to go with it.  Love these special times with the folks we love most! We always miss those who can't make it for one reason or another.  See you all next month!  (Missed Sarai and in the pictures somehow.)  Oh, was it the Super Bowl today?  Guess we missed it.

More baptisms and finishing off the week at Pine Valley

Wednesday we finished up the names we have found for baptisms with Kaebri and Tavin.  We are so blessed to have a temple right here in town and just a couple of blocks away.  We did the usual baptisms and then twist cones and fries at Arctic Circle!  What great grand kids we have!

And Saturday afternoon after Eden's baptism we took a drive up to Pine Valley to walk the trail and see what snow there was...not much.  The lake is starting to thaw too.  We saw an amazing bald eagle flying around and turkey tracks all over the place, but they must have been hiding out from the eagle! 

Eden's special baptism day!

It was so special to go to Eden's baptism on the 31st.  It was just her and another sweet little girl.  It turned out to be just Eden when the other little one got a little too timid to go through with it at the last minute.  That was too bad...but she will be fine another day.  Juge and the other mom shared some nice thoughts on the Holy Ghost and there were other good things said/taught.  So happy to see sweet Eden take this important step on her way back home.  So glad we could be there and share the joy!  

At the church and back at the house celebrating the special day!

These 4 guys are the next ones up for getting baptized - just a couple more years til their big days!

That will be a great year!

Brenden - last of the 6 year olds for the year

Brenden was the final guy to turn six of the four guys turning six this year!  He had a party with friends, treats at school, probably a party at the Key family dinner,  one with mom and dad and Eliza at home on the real day, and a little one with us here at the house for FHE!  That was a very well celebrated birthday!  It was fun to have him just to ourselves!  Happy #6 Brenden!  We love you!

The blue frosting made for some colorful smiles on those of us who ate it!  

Brenden is always so sweet to share with Eliza.  She is so funny the way she loves "boy toys" and plays with them just like a boy!  She loves her "Buddy" brother and tries to be just like him when she plays with boy toys!

Birthdays, knee check and more

Had a busy week.  Went up for Paul's 6-week knee check up (stayed with Jay and Brynn) and everything is great!  One more appointment at 1 year.  Fun to see Jay and Brynn other than that Essie and Tahlia were feeling crummy.  On our way home we checked out the Body Worlds cycle of life exhibit at the Leonardo on Jay and Brynn's recommendation.  It was really amazing as well as a little creepy.  So interesting to see and learn so much about the human body.  Then it was on to the Randall triple play birthday dinner/celebration!  

We finished of the week with a Friday afternoon hike on a trail around T-Bone Mesa that we had never done.  It was a beautiful hiking day.  

Saturday morning we took a little bike ride on a trail out in Santa Clara that had beautiful views.  In the afternoon we looked a model homes with Moss and Christie as they are trying to decide what one they want to build when they get their house sold.  Fun week!  

We gave Brady and Bryan passes to go tubing at Brian Head for their birthdays.  They sent me this picture to show that they did go and Brady told me it was, "Awesome!"

New section of the Chinle Trail for us

After a morning of work for Paul and laundry for me we decided to take the afternoon off.  We went up to Springdale and enjoyed a few more gallery visits for the Arts to Zion show and then did about 4 miles on the Chinle Trail in a section we hadn't covered before.  We went until we got to Huber Wash and then turned around.  It was a spectacular weather day for this hike and the views were awesome! Paul did well, but may have pushed it just a little as his leg was a bit more sensitive that evening than it had been.  But he was sure it was worth it! 

Zion views from a gallery.

Mount Kinesava dominates the views along the trail.  Awesome! (Didn't get a gate pic so borrowed one from Joe Braun.)

Other mountain views are amazing too!  And the changing light made it awesome too.

Just got into the petrified wood section of the trail when it was time to turn around.  Love this stuff!