July birthdays!

We had Beacher (26), Tahlia (4), Supe (30) and Ellie (10) to wish happy birthday to in July!  We love them all and hope they all know it!  We enjoyed Tahlia's long distance via pictures.  We joined Ellie and family at Mamoth Springs for a picnic.  Supe and Beacher shared their celebration of their week apart birthdays!

The little sheep decided to stand in the road on our way home.  He moved when he got good and ready!

Bear Trap Canyon Falls via Hop Valley

We didn't get on the trail until 10 am and it was getting hot.  The sandy parts of the trail, which are many, are not my favorite.  The scenery is beautiful though.  We were happy to get to the part of the trail where the river was running through Hop Valley and could escape the sand by walking close to the water.  This is not an easy trail.  The downs/ups are steep and sometimes rocky.  But when you get to La Verkin Creek it is so nice!  We ate lunch there and cooled off in the stream.  Then we continued up stream to Bear Trap Canyon Falls.  It is a beautiful water fall that reminds me of one in Ashdown Gorge.  Sources suggest this as a two day hike...and it was long.  We ended up with 20.3 miles on the GPS.  I'm glad we did it, but we were both very tired by the end, especially tired of the sand!

4th of July 2016

We started out the day at the ward breakfast/program.  It was great.  Then we decided on a hike to Taylor Creek/Double Arch Alcove at Kolob Fingers.  It's close, but cooler.  We had a great hike to the alcove and then continued on up the canyon until we came to an impasse, found a way up and around it and then continued until the canyon boxed and we would have needed to climb up and out about 60 feet to continue.  It was a great hike. That evening Derek and kids joined us for hot dogs and fireworks.  They changed where they let them off to the university stadium and none on the Red Hill anymore, but our hill was still a good vantage point to see them all over the valley; just not so up close and personal.  It was a great day!

We did come across a life and death struggle between a snake and a lizard.  It's hard not to want to step in and change the outcome.  Pretty sure the lizard was toast.  Later, back at the alcove we were eating lunch and some people across the way had a battle with a  crazy squirrel that was sure it needed to eat their lunch with them.  It was very persistent even when being tossed away by a hiking stick.  

Family "Glamp" 2016 - Moss & Christie

You will need to check out the final report at Lillywhite Family Get Together blog, but here are the camp collages.  We had a great time as always!  Many thank to Moss and Christie for being in charge.

PS - To say thanks to the Sheffields for lending us their cabin Paul made them an address post.  They had talked about wanting one some time ago.  After he got it all chiseled we had a little work party to unload and set it in cement.  It was pretty heavy duty, but with the help of Lou, Juge, Brady, Paul and I we got it done!

More Happy Birthday - Camping by LaBaron Lake

My birthday just keeps going on!  Friday afternoon (my actual birthday) we took off to go camping up in the Tushar Mountains above Beaver.  We had planned a backpacking trip up to Mill Flat, but since the mountains are in the midst of a forest fire up that way, the trails are all closed.  So we headed to Beaver instead to enjoy the cool green meadows and a lazy car camp.  We did it simple with just the bare necessitates so we could get on the road.  We ate dinner at Ernie's to have some of their awesome chicken nuggets!  We also picked up fresh curds at the cheese factory and some cherries at the market.  We we lucky to get our most favorite campsite with no one anywhere near us. It was so cool and peaceful.  So wonderful to leave our 106 for the 67 degrees and fresh, smoke free air.

After we got camp set up we went for an evening walk and at each meadow we passed we saw elk grazing and a few deer too.  The elk had some calves that were so cute as they went cavorting around. We couldn't ever  get close enough to take very good pictures even with zoom, but they were so beautiful.  

We had a wonderful, cool night's sleep and a simple but great breakfast and then drove around exploring until the roads got too iffy to go any further.  Lou called us when we were in a good spot and we decided to get together for lunch and the afternoon.  It was fun to spend time with them and explore some more of the beautiful sights of the area as well as the cool weather.  I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday!  

Father's day and June birthdays at the park

 For FHE we gathered at Nisson Park for a combined Father's Day/June birthday celebration.  It was hot, but the little water ditch provided a cooling off spot as well as entertainment for the kids.  Lots of wading and boat racing took place.  Dinner was bring your own pizza and something to share style. Birthday people brought their own cake to share.  It was all good!  Paul, Derek, Moss and Bonnie were the celebrated ones.  I can just use the old phrase, "A good time was had by all" to describe the evening!  Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful gifts to Paul and I.  We are stocked up gift cards for good times for the coming year thanks to you!  And Paul can get his favorite gear too!

Pressing Forward with the Young Women

Paul and I had a fun time joining the YW of the ward for a hike and a fireside up by Brian Head.  The hike was the Ramparts Trail at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  We went up Monday evening to check it out and found that there were several logs in the trail.  It was decided and approved for the YW to include a little trail clearing service project to their hike.  They did such a great job sawing the logs and hoisting them off the trail.  It's a 4-mile hike and very steep in places, but they all did a great job.  One sister and her daughter and a couple of leaders did have to go back part way into the hike due to some diabetic issues, but other than that, it went well. (She ended up being just fine.) It's a beautiful place to spend some time.  It was planned that Paul and I would give our little talks along the trail, but with some people leaving the hike early, we just put them off for around the campfire later that evening.  I'm not sure we did the best job.  The girls didn't seem too inspired to share testimonies after wards.  I'm pretty sure I'm not anyone who should work with the YW on a regular basis. I just don't connect very well with them.  That would be the only thing disappointing about this day. I wish we could have said something that would have hit the spot with them a little more.  And then again, maybe they were just plain worn out from the hard hike and the work of sawing logs! The YW leaders are great and the girls are too!  The theme for their camp was Pressing Forward With A Steadfastness in Christ.

Summer + Water = FUN!

Story time with Mrs. Mann, splash pad, Wendy's Happy Meals and the carousel...that was the start of grand kid fun this summer.  Zade and Trigg were first up.  Next up was Kaebri and Tasia and Kneader's Never Ending French Toast breakfast (no pics - too busy stuffing our faces.)

Next time we got more people involved.  Juge and Lance and kids came down for a Costco run and Ferf and kids  joined us for a great time at the river (less Brynnli and Kaebri). We played at little 500 with a soccer ball and a little Ultimate Frizbee.  The boys loved the tadpoles. It was too short!

Rock trip with quarry visit!

In all the years of rock trips I have never yet visited one of the quarries until this time.  It was cool to see where it "comes from."  We were looking for a very large stone and rather than move it in for us to check out, we just went out to visit it.  It was a whopper - 10 tons worth.  We ended up getting one that was in the yard that was a bit smaller and more what we were looking for. Quarrying stone is just plain hard, back breaking work.  At least now days they do have some big equipment to help out some.

Lance - #38 - sod laying and picnicing

It's probably what not you think of when you plan a birthday, but it was very satisfying and accomplished a lot to have a sod-laying party as part of the celebration day.  It was fun to see how quickly things moved along when several people, awesome neighbors included, helped get the sod in place. It was certainly a better thing than Lance laying the sod by himself for his birthday! We did it right - got the work done first and then played!  We headed up to the Crystal Springs turn off and had a great picnic with yummy food and brownies and cake with candles to finish it off! It was cooler and the scenery was beautiful. After the festivities we took a little hike.  I'd say it was a pretty great #38! Hope you thought so too Lance!  Happy birthday and happy coming year!  Love you lots!