First Camp Out 2015

I can't believe I forgot about our camping trip.  It did end up being a bit last minute rushed and I forgot my camera and only had the phone.  Maybe that's why.  But even so it was a good, if quick camp to the old quarry.  It's still too cold up high so we needed some place close and down low.  The quarry is always a good, secluded spot with a great level tent spot. We ate before we left.  We hiked around and then watched a movie and hit the sack.  I can't say that I slept all that well, but there were beautiful stars and some crazy birds that kept singing in the dark.  Had to hurry home to chores in the morning, but it was good to get out.  Love the crazy rocks and view of Pine Valley.  Also love seeing where they cut out lots of rock from the quarry.  

This and that

 It was a busy week with many meetings, but we grabbed a few fun spots in between.  Monday evening we went up to Brookside to check out the hike for the upcoming Webelos Day Hike.  It was a lovely evening walk in a beautiful place.  It's the perfect 3-mile hike for these boys.  

Friday early evening we got over to the Art Festival and enjoyed so many beautiful things created by talented people.  We also checked out a few of the new Art Around the Corner statues for this year. We'll catch the rest another evening.

Family Dinner/Easter egg hunt - March

Moss and Christie hosted the family dinner and an Easter egg hunt for March.  It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.  Yummy food, visiting and egg hunting for the kids made for a really fun evening. Kaebri presented her 3rd Place Science Fair entry to us which was very interesting.  Great job Kaebri. To practice up before the egg hunt, the kids hunted rolly pollys.  What an entertaining bug it is for little ones.  Thanks to Moss and Christie!  

Happy Birthday #1 Joel...plus a little

When you have a birthday on December 26th it kind of gets lost in all of the leftovers of Christmas. That being the case, Lou and Bryan decided to save Joel's birthday for a few months.  We ended up celebrating #1 on March 25th, 2015 instead.  And Joel was just as happy about it as he could be.  For sure his favorite present was his little Nerf basketball and hoop.  He was off to shoot hoops as soon as he got it!  Not even an amazing new fire truck could deter him.  When he took a break for cake he wasn't sure he loved that chicken cake as much as the real chickens.  He looked a bit tentative about it, but didn't mind eating it once it wasn't looking at him anymore!  Happy birthday Joel!  We love you!  Ellie added to the evening with a piano solo of some of the songs she is learning.  So excited to see her learning the play.  Great job Ellie!  

Sweet Sarai is 4!

Such a cute girl who enjoyed her birthday (a few days late to accommodate the grand parents) with excited intensity!  So glad we could join the fun!  We had a wonderful dinner of "losonya" chosen by Sarai, with all the fixin's and long with tasty chocolate cake to finish it off.  Sarai was very focused on opening each present and had plenty of help from her onlooker siblings!  She was in doll heaven with Tinkerbells fairies and a baby to feed and tend and a new scooter to ride too!  Oh one great answer from Sarai when Grandma Dorothy asked here why she was so wonderful (I think that was the question) was, "Because of my brain."  And she does have a very sharp little brain!  We love you Sweet Sarai!  Happy #4!

With sad hearts...see you later Justin

It is good that we are about to celebrate Easter and remember what our loving Heavenly Father and Savior did for each of us.  This day we got the devastating news that Supe's dear friend Justin Graham left us last night. Our personal associations with Justin were few, but they were sweet.  He came down with Supe and a bunch of other friends for Spring Break fun and ended up being here during a crisis.  He added strength to us and Supe in that time of need and continued to afterwards. He came other times and I was always so happy to welcome his pleasant, smiling, appreciative, helpful and fun loving ways around our house and his kind treatment of Bean. He came and helped Supe get his little fitness business up and running.  I think many of Supe's clientele for his business signed up simply because of Justin's charm in selling them on the idea. He was in the process of helping Supe yet again in a manufacturing/engineering project.  He had a kind heart and a smile to share with all.  He was always a welcome ray of sunshine for us and we loved feeding him bread and honey and brownies. He was one of those friends of our kids that we looked forward to following on through their lives. We are so sorry that we will miss seeing him and hearing what new thing he was up to.  Our hearts go out to his family and friends at this time of sorrow.  We are so thankful to know that through Jesus Christ the missing will have an end. "But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.  He is the light of the world: yea a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." Mosiah 16:8-9  Good-bye for now Justin.  See you later. Until then, we'll remember you with joy.

Justin and Supe had a good time with this little pranking activity.  We enjoyed hearing about it after the fact.

Desert evenings and Randall racing

We started the week off enjoying the longer evenings with a FHE walk to T-Bone Mesa and had our lesson/refreshments afterwards.  And then on date night we went to walk in the desert again at Snow Canyon where those cool rocks just a bit off trail caught our attention and drew us over.  Loving the Spring weather for walking.  Saw desert flowers blooming and met a long snaky friend who didn't like me to pet his tail (once I determined he wasn't of a poisonous nature) and crawled off into a hole hissing his disgust of my human touch.  

And I finally got St. Patrick's decorations down (don't have many - mostly I just like the corned beef and cabbage part of it) and the Easter decorations up.

Friday evening the Randalls came to spend the night and be in town for Brian's St. Pats 10k.  I don't have all of the stats, but he did really well and had enough gas left afterwards to go on a little hike out to Little Black Mountain Petroglyphs.  We ate a picnic lunch in the shade and froze and then roasted on the hike in the sun!  I love that place as much for its' crazy carved rocks as for the glyphs. It was a fun time! Of course we needed ice cream afterwards and then we visited Paul's latest nearly finished job which has turned out beautifully (no pics). That evening Paul had to go and help with the dance so I cleaned house madly so I would be ready for Monday without starting out behind.  

Joel would only let G'pa hold him if he could hold him up to play with his favorite Easter decoration.  Lots of cute kids around the house.

Spring Break revised but enjoyed!

Our Spring Break plans had to be revised from the camping trip we hoped to take to a rock trip/sight seeing trip instead.  The weather forecast in our chosen camping spot turned out to be a bit too cool as yet and we needed to pick up some stone, so we just combined business/pleasure once again for a great time. We always wonder about the places that we don't have time to stop off to see on our way to get stone. This time we stopped and enjoyed some amazing things including Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano, Montezuma Castle and Well, Walnut Canyon and Tonto Natural Bridge.  We also stopped off by Marble Canyon to check out a canyon running down to the Colorado river and to get some pics of a cool old corral across the road from it.  We enjoyed cookies at Jacob's Lake, Navajo Tacos at Cameron and a couple of movies at the towns we spent the nights in.  We enjoyed cold/snow/rainy mountain weather and hot/dry desert weather.  And we just had a great time getting away for a relaxing, fun time together!  And before we took off I got the yard weeded and cleaned up and planted a hopeful little garden complete with setting up the drip system, house cleaning, laundry, shopping and cleaning out and filing last year's business papers and burning up a bin of no longer needed business papers.  And we took the older grand kids to the temple to do baptisms of some family names and that night we went and did some endowments and were the witness couple!  It was a week well spent and enjoyed!

Paul, Brynnli, Tavin and Kaebri before and after baptisms.  Afterwards we picked up some
non-sugar treats and headed the the "Skyline Cafe" to eat them!

Checking out a canyon that empties into the Colorado River over by Marble Canyon.

This old corral across the street was really fun to poke around in.

Wupatki was a really amazing site full of ancient ruins spread out over a large area.

The sister site of Sunset Crater Volcano is very close to Wupatki. We did a little hike there before it started to rain and we headed on our way.

We spent the night just outside of Flagstaff where we ate dinner and went to a movie.  The next morning we picked up our rock and then went over to visit Walnut Canyon - another set of ruins. These are different because they are built under the overhanging cliff walls above Walnut Canyon. Some of them were so high up I can't even imagine how the people got to them.  They did their farming up on the rim above.

We also visited Montezuma Castle and Montezuma's Well.  These were both really cool places too.  These people found ways to survive in what seems like some very inhospitable places.

Montezuma's Well was constant water source in the middle of the desert even during times of drought.  The Spring below it just bubbles up so beautifully and is still a source of irrigation today.

In the late afternoon we headed down to Payson looking for a good camp spot along the way.  Most of the roads out into the forest were still gated and it was looking like rain after we got to Payson, so I wimped out and got Paul to stay in a motel.  We had dinner and went to a movie before turning in for the night.  The next morning our last stop before hitting the road back home was Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.  This is really an amazing thing to see.  We couldn't do all of the trails because they were still closed due to high water, but what we did see was worth the stop and wait for it to open.  Then it was time to head home.  We lunched in Flagstaff and snacked at Jacob's Lake and made it home in good time.  Happy Spring Break!  

Oregon kids update

Since Supe and Beacher are off in Astoria, we don't get too much news by way of pictures other than on Instagram which I cannot copy off of.  I got a few pictures recently and decided do a little update on them here.  They seem to be enjoying life so much and even seem to do it in all of the rainy weather!  They are hitting the beach and finding all of these cool places they "need to take us next time we come up!"  We are so ready to do just that!

They have been getting to know some family memebers up that way that those of us down here haven't seen in forever or haven't even met.  That is so nice!  They are showing them the Oregon ropes and kayaks! Thom Cheney and Clair (Le Anne Wood's daughter) and her husband and kids. Looks like a really fun time!  

They found a great hike that comes complete with cabins to camp in if you want to sleep inside out of the ever present rainfall.  It's one of those places we "need to go" when we head up that way!  

After rain hike - Fern Gully

Did a great after the rain quit hike up Tuacahn canyon and over the top and down to Fern Gully yesterday afternoon.  Just a quick hike in the amazing rain-washed beauty and coolness.  Waded in freezing water til our feet were numb when we got there.  Saw Pine Valley way in the distance covered in snow.  Loved getting out and Paul did really great...getting better all of the time!