Ashdown Gorgeous, etc.

This is a little out of order.  The Saturday before Kai was born we took the amazing hike to Ashdown Gorge.  We were a little worried that we might miss the coming out party, but luckily he waited a week!  This hike NEVER disappoints us.  It is just the best of the best.  We were a bit concerned when it started to drizzle a bit as we ate our lunch.  Being in a canyon when it's raining is not necessarily a wise thing.  We kept watch on the water level and color pretty close and nothing seemed too bad, so we finished the hike.  We only did a short version for lack of time, but we made it to Flanagan's Arch and the Lake Creek and Rattlesnake Creek waterfalls.  That's all we had hoped to do and it was totally worth it! It was the perfect hike for getting out of the heat since we were in the water pretty much the whole day. On the way home we took the long route. We drove on up to Cedar Breaks and caught the wild flowers there. Then we drove up to Brian Head to check out the remnants of the recent forest fire...sad, but thankfully not as bad as expected.  They were still mopping up. Then we drove back through Zion and stopped in at Oscar's for dinner.  It was a full and beautiful day!  (And we did our cleaning assignment at the church before we left!)

Cedar Breaks for July Birthdays!

It is always pretty cool, and even has a few sprinkles sometimes, but oh how good it is to get away from the heat to celebrate July birthdays at Cedar Breaks!  We sang to and opened presents for Beacher, Tahlia, Supe and Ellie this year.  Jay and Brynn were on their way back from their CA trip, so we made it our monthly Sunday dinner too (only on Saturday) so everyone could come and join the fun (Derek and kids were in Hawaii).  Juge was in charge of the food and she brought the most amazing pulled pork.  The rest of us brought stuff to go with it and Brynn made beautiful cakes - purple for Ellie and a unicorn for Tahlia.  (Supe and Beacher just joined them on this).  We ate, walked over to enjoy the wild flowers and basked in the coolness of the evening! Afterwards a few of us stopped by Juge and Lance's house to witness Supe's haircut and just to hang out!  Fun stuff! Happy Birthday to all...we love you mucho! (This all took place the same afternoon that Kai was born!  

Malakai Moss "Kai" Lillywhite!

Saturday, July 15th, at 2:42 in the afternoon, Malakai Moss "Kai" joined his earthly family here in St. George, Utah!  He came a few days later than expected, but we are all so happy that he arrived safe and sound.  Everything went well for Mom too!  He arrived with a crowd there to welcome him.  The Key family always has a big turn out for the coming out party. The Lillywhites are a bit more reserved about it and after a crazy morning taking care of Grandma and cleaning the church and getting ready for the afternoon family dinner, we arrived soon after the party got started.  We think he looks a lot like Brenden (8) without the red hair.  He and Eliza (4) both seem so very pleased to have this little guy join the family!  We all are!  Congratulations Moss and Christie!  

The coming out party!

First visit to our house!

The latest family picture!

Lillywhite chicks fun!

Brynn and girls stopped off for a couple of days on their way to their "family camp" down in CA. Jay had to leave early to be there for some business meetings, so the girls were on their own.  We had lots of fun with them!  All who could came for cooling off and popsicles at Nisson Park one evening.  The next day we visited the Desert Garden with Juge and kids and swam with them at the Sheffield's pool. That evening we took the girls - Madi, Tahlia and Essie - for their Christmas edventure date to Veyo Pool/Crawdad Canyon.  (We took Brynn and Clara too so they could see the place and Supe and Beacher.)  We caught crawdads and fish, swam, ate and then partied with Beacher for her birthday.  It was a full day.  In the midst of all of this fun we were checking in on Grandma Kurtz in the rehab center.  That made it just a little crazy, but life happens unexpectedly and you just deal with it.  After all of the fun we had to send them off on the 2nd leg of their trip.

Clara mostly came for the ice cream!

July 4th fun 2017

Well, it started out well and ended well, but in the middle it wasn't the most fun!  The starting out part was stopping by Kolob Fingers and getting my Senior annual national parks pass for life...for only $10.  Found out that next year it goes up to $80, so I'm glad I got in on the final year deal!  Then we headed up the mountain to go get a small load of wood at the Bulloch's property...and we got a flat tire on the little truck.  So we put on the donut tire, which isn't in the best shape, and drove back down the hill to Cedar City to try to get the tire fixed.  None of the tire stores were open, but we finally found a gas station/mechanic shop that would fix it.  And it was too bad to be fixed.  So the guy hunted up a new tire (they are a crazy size) and put it on.  It was expensive and not that great a tire, but it was the only option we had!  Then we headed back up the mountain and got our load of wood.  It was really pretty and hard work.  Then we drove over the mountain which was really pretty! We had one more truck adventure when we tried to drive all the way around Kolob resevoir...it can't be done and especially not in our little truck.  Lucky Paul is good at getting us out of bad situations!   We got home in plenty of time to watch the fireworks with the Borrowmans and the Smiths up on the hill. They have moved the shooting off location to the university stadium, so our seats aren't as grand as they used to be.  We had rootbeer floats and it was fun!  

June birthdays...and a broken hip

It was a real struggle to find a  time when we could all get together for the late June birthdays for Derek, Moss and me.  We finally found the best time...and it almost worked out!  The Sunday evening before the party of the following Thursday Grandma Kurtz slipped and fell down.  She landed hard on her hip.  She said it hurt really bad, but could still get  up and kept going until late Thursday afternoon when it just hurt too much.  I took her to Instacare and they found that she had broken it.  So then we went to the hospital and finally got her settled in there.  Paul and I decided that we wanted to be there with her...but the party needed to go on and it did in fine fashion!  So glad it turned out so well and so glad that Juge shared pictures of the fun!  Grandma had her hip replaced the next day and we are heading into the rehab phase tomorrow.  The party included crawdad fishing, a picnic, birthday presents and cakes and a swimming party (Supe kept the pool open late just for the family after everyone else left!)

Zade & Trigg - Christmas "edventure" at Veyo Pool/Crawdad Canyon

Our Christmas date "edventure" with Trigg included Zade.  They seemed to be the best match.  We went up to Veyo Pool/Crawdad Canyon on Friday late afternoon and went down to the river to try our luck crawdad fishing.  We had great luck and picked up a lot of little fish to boot!  The boys had lots of fun with that!  Then we went up to the pool and had dinner.  The boys tried Pronto Pups for the first time and they were a hit!  They loved swimming in the lazy river area right next to where we ate and were even happier when Supe found them some goggles from the lost and found!  After that we got into the big pool and had a fun game of keep away with the toypedo from that we still had from when we had a membership in the neighborhood pool and our kids loved playing with it.  Several other kids joined our fun too.  When it was time for the pool to close Supe treated us to twist cones.  I think the boys were pretty tired out after all of that fun!  It was just the right date for Trigg...and Zade just lucked out!

Fun with Trigg!

Since our sweet Weed passed away it has been a challenge to take care of Trigg during the day when people are at school.  He has gone here and there with different people.  Once sweet lady in Moss and Christie's ward offered him free pre-school for a year!  He has stayed with Ferf, Christie, Sis. Sandberg, Grandma Smith, Aunt LaTressa, etc.  My chance to help out during the school year was Mondays for the end of that first school year and then Fridays for the next one.  I would pick him up in the morning and spend time with him and then take him to school where I would hand him off to LaTressa for the afternoon.  One of his favorite things was being able to come to school and be a little part of the class for that few minutes of transition time.  Sometimes he just came and ate his lunch, but other times he sat on the carpet with the kids for the end of the morning class or went to a center table or played with puzzles, etc.  He called it his kindergarten class and Ms. Godfrey his teacher! The kids and Ms. Godfrey were always sweet to him.  Even the office people who know his situation have been really understanding about our little switch at school.  Here's Trigg eating his Happy Meal as school.  

 I tried to make sure we got to do something a little bit extra other than just hang out at the house as many times as possible.  Of course, we did enjoy just being at the house and doing fun stuff there too. 

I feel so sad when I think what he's missing with his mom.  He loved spending time with her just one-on-one when everyone else was at school.  I can't even imagine how hard this has been for this little guy.  He has grown so much since that first story time at the library that I took him to.  It hasn't always been easy for me to take the time with him, but I do feel thankful that I could help just a little to make Trigg's life fun in the midst of the sorrow.  And now he's going to go off to Kindergarten and I won't be a part of his week.  Bittersweet time, but good for him to be moving on.  I will remember our good times!  

Father's Day 2017

What an awesome dad Paul has been for our children.  He's also a great grandpa now and still a great dad to our children as adults.  Here are some of the cute things the kids put together for him!  Of course the most wonderful thing they could ever do and are doing for him is to be the wonderful people they are.  They make him so proud.  We love them all so much.

Brian Head camp...and then a fire started

We wanted to get to the high country for a camp out and chose Brian Head.  We went to one of our favorite spots and were happy to find it empty.  It was perfect weather...so much cooler than in St. George with flowers blooming and the aspens so beautifully green.  Paul made us stew and biscuits for dinner and then we took an evening walk.  The next morning we had a great hash browns, bacon and eggs breakfast and then cleaned up and drove to High Mountain and then took a little hike down to a beautiful little pond.  I swear Paul has a built in GPS and always seems to get us where we want to go and back while I'm baffled at how he does it.  It was a beautiful day.  When it was time to head down the  mountain we decided to go via Yankee Meadows.  The lake was so full from all of the snows this winter.  We found a little spot to park and eat our lunch and then as we drove back out to the highway we saw this huge cloud of smoke over the mountain by where we had just come from. The highway back up that way had just been was closed.  It has now turned into a huge fire started by someone burning yard debris.  So sad.  Hope they can save some of that beautiful stuff we love so much.