A New Twist On An Old Favorite - Ashdown Gorge via Crystal Springs

After taking it rather easy for recovery from shingles and bad colds for a few weeks, it was wonderful to get out on a great hike Saturday.  Juge and Lance had done this recently and it looked great...and it was!  We had never hiked the Crystal Springs Trail down to the Ashdown Gorge.  We usually do it from the bottom up to the middle and we have gone from the Rattlesnake Trailhead at the top down to the trail that continues down to Ashdown Gorge.  We have never done top to bottom because we never set up a shuttle car at the bottom.  Juge and Lance offered us their car to leave at the bottom and we drove our car the short distance up to the Crystal Springs Trailhead.  It was great because that made it a pretty much downhill hike other than one steep ridge and the final pull up out of the gorge to where the car was parked.  It was a beautiful hike starting out through the forest and then ending up hiking in the river in the gorge. Recent rains had made for many flowers and greenery and lots of cool changes in the gorge from so much water coming down.  Some places the river had completely changed coarse and there were some landmarks that had completely changed also.  It was as spectacular as ever!  Perfect weather made it great too.  We did about 12 miles, but it didn't seem tiring because it was so awesome and enjoyable!  It's one of those hikes that you can do over and over and still enjoy and wish every time that you could bring people along to see how amazing it is and enjoy it with you!  

Amazing views from the forest section!

And  in the river section!

This is waterfall is where Rattlesnake Creek joins Ashdown Creek in the gorge.

And this is where Lake Creek drops in to join it.  Notice the rappelers on top.  This was something we had never seen before.

Flowers, greenery, butterflies and raspberries!  

This waterfall has become completely filled in since we went a few years ago.  The top picture shows me with the waterfall above me  (and the other pictures).  The one with Paul shows how it is now just a small step up.  

Flanigan's Arch

The fun didn't end with the end of the hike.  Just as we were leaving from picking up our car at the Crystal Spring trailhead we met the Weavers along the road out.  They invited us to join them for a hot dog and s'mores cook out.  We drove to a good spot and roasted up some great dogs and amazing s'mores with the Grandpa's superior roasting skills. Eden reminded us that the s'mores were "the main part of the meal," and for her they were! Zion kept us smiling tromping around in his new boots and Sarai's pink shorts.  It was a fun way to end a great day! Many thanks to the Weavers for the lend of their car and for dinner!  

And here's this funny boy peeking out from the safety of dad's protection.  He's not quite sure about these strange people called grandpa and grandma.  

Perfect in Pine Valley

Saturday we knew we wanted to get out, but we didn't want go too far, so Pine Valley was the answer.  It ended up being a perfect choice.  It was 68 degrees when we got there and the recent rain was still evident in the cool dampness in the air and soil.  We decided to revisit one of our favorite little hikes - we call it the waterfall trail.  It isn't a maintained trail and had many fallen trees, but it was as beautiful as ever.  We found some very ripe raspberries along the way and what a treat they were.  We followed the waterfalls past where the trail ends until it got to be more bushwhacking than fun and then came back down and ate lunch at our favorite falls.  

After that we went over to follow the White Elephant  Saw Mill trail for a while.  We went along as usual, took a nap at a great shady spot and then noted some pink ribbons marking the trail further up the mountain...and they kept going, and going and going until we peaked out after some pretty sketchy scrambling here and there in some very steep spots.  We were hoping it would top out into the Whipple Trail but again, it just kept going.  We had no more time or desire for the scrambling, so we had to call it a day as we were not prepared to spend the night up there trying to see where it came to an end.  We were quite relieved to get down from the high part and back to the regular trail.  A fun day in a beautiful place.  We topped it off with a shared piece of strawberry rhubarb pie at Veyo Pie on our way home!  Mmm good!  

The healing power of the mountain air

I think Paul would be "well enough" to go camping if he were on his death bed.  It isn't quite that bad, but his shingles haven't made for an easy week.  Friday he had had enough of hanging about he house doing honey do home repairs and with the excuse of checking on a phony stone repair job in Brian Head we loaded it up and went camping.  He's also catching my cold and I'm still coughing and blowing my nose, but thank goodness we went!  It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect! You can be sick in the mountains just as well as you can at home!  

Paul cooked a great stew and dumplings for our dinner.

In the morning we hiked and coughed our way up the Twisted Forest Trail.  Love these gnarly old trees and the awesome views from the top.  

I guess these are different stages of pine cone formation as well as a cute little baby tree starting to grow.  

We also stopped to hike another bristlecone pines trail, saw turkeys and beautiful flowers and awesome views.  

Happy Birthday #9 to our Sweet Ellie!

I don't know if Ellie got any of her presents on the real day, but she seemed fine with getting some before and some after.  We were part of the after gang and went up for dinner/party. Next year she's into the double digits...growing up way too fast.  She got quite the variety of gifts - clothes, girl legos, cute little fuzzy animals, and a game.  She seemed quietly pleased with everything. Thanks for letting us join the fun Ellie.  We love you! 

Family Camp 2015 - the 10th year!

We had a GREAT family camp with Juge and Lance in charge this year.  We went over by Escalante, Utah and pretty much had the Blue Spruce Campground all to ourselves.  We went from Wednesday July 8th - Sat. afternoon July 11th.  Everyone made it this time except Bean.  As always the food was yummy and we had a lot of fun playing and visiting in camp.  The kids really enjoyed the little stream running by the camp and that kept them all pretty much entertained along with all of the other natural entertainments of the outdoors.  The men put up a swing that they enjoyed too and Bryan's hammock is always a hit, though it may have seen it's last days this time.  The Borrowmans had a bit of car trouble, but it worked out in the end thankfully.  My only complaint was our herniated airbed and the airbed we brought for Supe and Beacher that developed a major leak.  But we all survived and enjoyed ourselves anyway!  The weather was wonderful.  It was so green from recent rains and we had just a bit of rain here and there in the day and some at night to keep things cool and the campground was very shady.  It was actually a little too cool sometimes and I can't remember having any flies or mosquitoes to bug  us at all!

Our outing to Upper Calf Creek Falls was so much fun!  We saw beautiful scenery on the way there, had a tailgate lunch and then hiked down to the falls and played in the pools above it.  It was a pretty hot hike so the cold water was bearable.  We ended up with quite a few of us doing the cliff dive and slide after Supe checked it out for safety and showed us how it was done!  Then we hiked out and went over Hell's Back Bone Bridge on our way back to camp.  Being wet was great on the hike out and it wasn't nearly as hot then anyway!  Such a fun day!  Moss and Christie had to come late and they missed out on this part of the fun unfortunately.

On Friday we hiked Lower Box Hollow and found a place where some rappelling could be done.  We were short on time, but Brady, Eden and Tasia took the challenge and did a great job with Supe and Moss to help them.

Saturday morning Juge, Lance, Zion, Lou, Brynnli, Tavin and I did a quick hike at Upper Box Hollow.  It was really pretty and we found a couple of sweet waterfalls along the way!  Then we all ate leftovers for lunch and called it a camp out!  Thanks to Juge and Lance for being in charge this year!  Moss and Christie are up for next year's fun!

More fun times!

4th of July fun!

For the 4th of July we got up early and attended the ward flag raising ceremony and breakfast and then took off to see a place Lance had told us about - Red Creek Reservoir and a drive over the mountains to Panguitch.  It was a beautiful drive with showers to brighten everything up.  We lunched overlooking an awesome, deep canyon with a creek running down to fill the lake in Panguitch.  It was so pretty we ended up hiking down to get a closer look.  After that we stopped by Cedar Breaks and enjoyed the Wildflower Festival.  It was a glorious feast of color - impossible to capture in photos.  It was so pretty we decided to bring Anna Lou up the next evening to see it and to enjoy a picnic!  And then we came home to fireworks with the Borrowmans and the Smiths up on the hill!  A really fun day!

We weren't disappointed!  If anything, it was even prettier and almost no one was there since it was a bit rainy.  We came home through Parowan and saw the Jesse N. Smith home (a pioneer relative of Paul). 

Poulsen Reunion at the Brooks Cabin

After we left Supe and Beacher's we drove by Mt. Ranier and through some beautiful farm country to get to the Poulsen reunion at Janet and Tony's cabin in Washington.  Janet, Denny, Marilynne and I and our spouses and Denny's kids were there with Mom.  

Janet and Tony are wonderful hosts! Can't thank them enough for making it possible and comfortable for all of us.  And thanks to Marilynne for being our organizer!  It was great to be together and see how everyone is doing and enjoy time with Mom.  On our way home we spent the night with Jay and Brynn and the next day we stopped by Juge and Lance's for lunch and a visit.  This was a great trip for seeing lots of people we love to see!

To Oregon with the grand kids!

Paul and I and the three oldest grand kids - Brynnli, Tavin and Kaebri - made a trip to Oregon to see Supe and Beacher.  We had fun times along the way and a blast while we were there!  We took off early on Monday morning and made it to Ely, Nevada for lunch in the park and on to Klamath Falls, Oregon for bed.  It was a long day, but we did fine other than a ticket for Paul in Susanville, California.  We were enjoying the scenery and each other so much that we didn't quite keep track of the speed limit. On Tuesday we traveled on stopping by Crater Lake for a while to enjoy that beautiful place and other than the mosquitoes that mobbed us here and there, it was awesome!    

After that we visited a few waterfalls and traveled on seeing more green and trees than you can imagine and then arrived at Supe and Beacher's house in Astoria.

We took over the pallet couch cushions for sleeping quarters in the living room.  Paul and I loved the back porch.  Riding in the car with Supe is always a good time!  

Wednesday's outing with Supe (unfortunately Beacher had to work the whole time Paul and I were there) was to Indian Beach.  We hiked up to a beautiful overlook and visited an old military bunker en route.  Then it was back down to the beach to spend the day playing in the sand, seeing the sea creatures and climbing.  After that we checked out another beautiful overlook and then went home, cleaned up and went to dinner for my birthday!  What a fun 60th birthday!  I even put on some of those terrible climbing shoes and gave it a try.  Too fat to get very far, but it was fun while it lasted!

Brynnli thought the giant slugs were...interesting.  

Thursday we hit to road to Tillamook where we did another amazing hike through the forest to a beautiful overlook.  Then we went to the cheese factory and ate many samples and had ice cream. We bought cheese there and some cherries at the side of the road and made a picnic lunch of it with crackers at Short Sands Beach and then explored the beach.  Then it was back to the house where Supe made us the best chicken pot pie ever for dinner.

Friday Paul and I packed up for our trip to my family reunion at Janet and Tony's cabin in Washington.  The kids stayed on with Supe and Beacher for more fun.  The only thing that could have made our Oregon stay better would have been having Beacher be able to join us in our adventures.  Thanks to both of them for being such great hosts.

Father's Day, birthdays and the left over cookies!

Since we didn't celebrate for Moss and Derek's birthdays and Father's Day when we did mine we did we did it the following Sunday at Moss and Christie's house and had some of those left over cookies and other goodness for lunch. It was another fun time with people that we love!  Happy birthdays and Father's Day!  

A tricky #60!

They got me! I thought it was going to a combined June birthdays/Father's Day picnic/party at Oak Grove...but the connivers actually had a happy #60 party for me all set up!  It was such a fun, beautifully planned and decorated event!  They had it decorated with nearly all of the baby quilts - it was so pretty to see them all hanging out there in the forest.  They even found a way to find out what dinner I wanted - steak, sweet potatoes and yummy salads and watermelon!  And Brynn has connections and got recipes for every cookie from Jacob's Lake and every kind was available along with Lou and Bryan making home made ice cream - my favorite, lemon custard- and strawberry and chocolate!  It was a delicious feast!  Everyone did something to make it perfect!  So blessed to have such a wonderful, thoughtful family.  Makes me kind of weepy thinking about it.  For a final touch Weed illustrated and everyone contributed to a "60 Things We LOVE About MOM!" collection and then we played a guess Mom's favorite game.  Thanks to all of you for the giant effort you made to make this all come together and make me feel so loved and appreciated.  You are all the BEST, MOST WONDERFUL, family a mom/grandma/wife could ever hope to be blessed with.