Jem...continues to grow in cuteness!

 I wrote about the wonderful event of Jem joining the family, but somehow he has escaped much mention since then.  So I am here to say that he, like all babies, continues to grow in cuteness!  So I want to add some pictures of that cuteness that I have available to me.  Unfortunately the pictures and time with this little guy have been somewhat limited by the Covid-19 limitations we are all dealing with during this crazy year.  He hasn't been blessed, we haven't had any family dinners and our other gatherings have been greatly limited by the continued problems with getting this virus under control. It is unfortunate, but has been unavoidable.  

I may add a few more before the end of this year!

Halloween 2020

 Here's the 2020 lineup of Halloween cuties!  We went over to Ferf and Ryan's to eat yummy food, lots of their Halloween candy, and to watch the BYU game that was on that night.  We're kind of bah humbuggers about Halloween anymore, but the good company, food and football game at least got us out of our house.  And we did get to see some of these cuties in costume live.  Others we had to enjoy via pictures only!  

Brookside to Baker - always a favorite little hike

Saturday afternoon we hiked one of our favorites.  We had hoped to see the leaves changing, but they were pretty much all off from a little cold snap a bit ago.  But it was still as beautiful as always.  No matter what the season, this little hike never disappoints.  We couldn't figure out why the water was so high after such a dry year, but when we got to the top we found that they are doing a lot of work on this old earthen dam from some damage that occurred a few years ago during a high water time and they are in the process of draining the lake right now. On the way back down we decided to try the little wild grapes that were still on the dried up vines.  They were so good!  We ate quite a few handfuls of them each.  There are a lot of seeds per each grape, but it was worth it.    It was interesting to see the work being done.  I always take too many pictures on this hike because it's just so pretty!  It was pretty cool and windy, but we loved it!

Eliza Rae Lillywhite - Baptism day - in spite of Covid-19

 We've enjoyed 3 baptisms of grand children this year, and all of them have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.  At Tahlia's we had to limit numbers and change the regularly scheduled date that it would have happened.  Trigg waited a few months until we could have a bigger group of people attend if we had it outside - he was baptized in a good friend's swimming pool.  And now Eliza had her baptism, Saturday, November 7th.  We had pretty small numbers allowed and other people watched it on Zoom (the other 2 had that option also), and we couldn't gather outside afterwards for treats as had originally been planned. (It would have been too cold anyway.)  One cool thing was knowing that just a couple of blocks away amid the wind and cold, the new Red Cliffs Temple dedication ceremony was underway.  It was a very few people could attend event also.  Hopefully it will be broadcast sometime.  Who knows, maybe Eliza will get married there some time in the future!  It was a lovely baptism and she seemed very happy.  Her dad baptized and confirmed her.  It's one of those "shout for joy" events that we are so happy to have happen.  And it's even better when it happens when life has been so crazy all year with this dumb disease disrupting so many things that are important in our lives.  So happy for Eliza!  

Here's some birthday fun!  

Another grand "edventure" date happens

 We are getting down to the end of the grand "edventure" dates for the year.  We started strong and went on lots of dates early in the year...and then Covid-19 shut us down for several months.  We took Brenden and Koen to a new miniature golf course in town and it was a fun date with them. Bean joined us for the fun.  Paul scobbed us all by getting 2's on almost all of the 18 holes!  Brenden was the only one to get a hole in one.  Koen scored a 2 on one hole.  These boys are growing up (11 and 12 now) and dates are changing the way they do when kids get older and busier.  We didn't think we'd ever find these guys free from soccer games at the same time.  Glad we finally did!  We ended the date at Arctic Circle  for ice cream and fried cheese curds.  

The Fall glow @ Pine Valley

Fall has been a little disappointing up on Cedar Mountain this year.  Usually it's my favorite place, but it has been so dry that the trees just didn't seem to have it in them to put on much color this year.  I love Fall; it's my favorite season, so to lose it makes me sad.  But we found some pretty up in Pine Valley on a short hike, thank goodness.  I always love this place too, and though maybe not as bright as usual, it was still in color that brought joy to the heart.  Just a little time there is so good for the soul!  And we had an extra that made it even better.  Paul spotted an apple tree there in the middle of these forest trees...and it had little yellow apples.  He was able to harvest a couple and they were delicious!  So funny to find and apple tree there!  We've hiked up here many times, but never noticed it before this year.  

Finishing up Yellowstone - Fall Break 2020

 We had one day at Yellowstone earlier this year when we vacationed in the summer up that way.  We needed a few more days to finish all of it that was open.  We decided to do it for Fall Break.  It turned out to be a really nice trip.  We left Wednesday afternoon and spent the night with Jay and Brynn and then took off the next morning.  We got there in time to have most of the afternoon Thursday to get started.  We came in at the West entrance and went south to visit the Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser basins on that part of the Grand Loop.  Our last stop for the day was Old Faithful and we were lucky enough to arrive at a time when we were able to see it erupt at 6:28 pm! (Earlier we arrived just in time to see another geyser erupt and also saw buffalo scattered around there.) It wasn't too crowded either.  Actually because of the time of year and because all of the Lodges and Visitor's Centers are closed for Covid, the whole trip was a little less crowded than it might have otherwise been.  Another thing that was great was that we did lots of walking to see all of the places so we weren't just driving and never getting any exercise.  It was cold!  We had light coats and no long john pants that first afternoon and we got pretty cold.  The next two days we were just right even though it was about 38 degrees, sometimes less, and snowed and rained a little.  We stayed in West Yellowstone for the first two nights.  Pretty crowded there in the evening, so the first night we just cooked chicken pot pies in the microwave in our room for dinner.  The hotels weren't serving regular breakfasts the whole trip.  They just had brown bag breakfasts that you picked up to eat in your own room.  We brought other food and ate lunches in the car as we drove around.  It was too cold to sit outside and eat!  

On Friday we drove the upper western part of the Grand Loop and visited all of the cool stuff along the way between Madison and Mammoth Hot Springs.  So many awesome things to see there!  Mammoth Hot Springs was probably the coolest thing that day.  It's so different from the other things you get to see.  We also took a long loop hike that day and saw all different kinds of hydro thermal phenomenon at the Norris Geyser Basin.  It's a really huge area of activity.  We drove clear to the North Entrance also so we could see the Roosevelt Arch at Gardiner.  I had always wanted to see it and it didn't disappoint!  Amazing stonework! That night we got lucky and found a really nice Chinese restaurant that didn't have an hour wait/wasn't crowded.  Really good food!  

Saturday morning we went to the Grizzly & Wolf  Rescue Center in West Yellowstone.  It was a really interesting place to learn about and actually see these animals up close.  They also had river otters and birds.  We were glad we took the time to take it in.  After that we drove up the west side to cross over at Norris Road and saw all we could of the Lower/Upper Falls at the Grand Canyon area of the park.  We got to hike a little to see it from different viewpoints.  We couldn't drive the road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt because that section was still closed as it had been earlier in the year when we came.  They just have to close full sections to do roadwork sometimes. That will have to be visited at another time.  After going as far as we could there, we drove down the lower east side (Lake and West Thumb section) and out of the south entrance through the Tetons to Jackson and then on the Pocatello to spend the night.  We got lucky again and were able to eat dinner at the Sizzler there.  It was really good.  

Sunday morning it was time to head home.  We took some I-15 and some backroads to get  home.  We listened to a couple of good books on the long drive parts.  It was a GREAT trip!

Happy Baptism Trigg!

 Covid-19 took its toll on even this.  Trigg's bday is in May, but at that time his baptism would have been almost impossible with the way things were shut down.  Trigg decided to wait a little while for things to open up so that he could have more people come and join with him to be part of this important step in his life.  Finally things are open enough that if he had it outdoors he could have the people he wanted most to be there and others could join by watching live in a Zoom session via computer.  Saturday, August 19th, we gathered in the backyard of a good friend to witness Trigg's baptism.  His dad did the honors of that and his confirmation.  It was very nice and good to see family there that we hadn't seen for a while from the Smith side.  All went well, and now we are glad that Trigg was finally able to do this!  

Here and there of late...

 One Saturday morning recently we drove over to Bryce Canyon and rode the Shared Use Path from Inspiration Point and down to Red Canyon.  It is and 18.75 mile paved trail that hikers and bikers can share.  It was very downhill in a few place and very windy/uphillish in other places.  We were surprised how much the wind slowed us down and made us feel out of shape!  We had ridden the very downhill portion during a family camp one year and I had been wanting to do the whole thing ever since.  Fun day.  Bean was our swag driver.  

Another Saturday we drove/hiked out into the burned area off Cottonwood Road to see how it's doing.  It was good to see that the desert is doing its best to recover.  There were green grass, Yucca and Cholla and other green shoots coming up from the old burned plants.  It was encouraging to see that.  

Last Saturday we drove over to see the fire damage in the Jacob Lake area.  There were lots of burned areas, but there was still a lot of pretty forest available too, thank goodness.  We drove to our favorite vista point - Timp Point - and even though the day was very smokey, we were still able to Thunder River waterfall way across the canyon.  We enjoyed the day until on the way home the transmission started going out on the little truck.  We were very relieved to get home without totally losing it.  And of course, we did enjoy cookies from Jacob Lake!  

This morning we rode the West Canyon road in Snow Canyon.  It was pretty damaged from the cloud burst storm of a few weeks ago, but still OK to ride if you kept your eyes out for washouts and sandy spots.  The weather is getting a little cooler, so it was good to go and get out into the canyon again.  

It's a little hard to go many places right now.  The forests and lakes are crammed with people trying to get out of the house since you can't go out to eat, go to the movies or many other things.  We spend way to much watching TV at night since church activities are kind of still curtailed.  Life just feels a little shut down right now.  And there are fires going everywhere in the western states right now making it hard to take a little trip to get away.  So these little outings help.  

Beaver Camp Out and Miner's Park Bears!

 Next week it's back to school for me, so we decided to escape the heat and camp up in the Tushar's above Beaver.  I hate the getting ready, but I'm always glad afterwards.  We had wonderful food because of Paul as always - his BBQ chicken stew with garlic cheese biscuits and for our first time, Woofem's (or whop, whops as the Brook's call them) for dessert.  Then we had leftover biscuits and hashbrown  omelets, and applesauce for breakfast with hot chocolate to warm with while we waited for it to cook.  All very yummy!  We took a nice evening walk to look for elk, but a 4-wheeler passed us and probably scared anything we might have seen away.  Also, I was crabby about 2 trailers parked for indefinite periods of time in a couple of favorite camp spots.  And when we checked another one there was a tent and camp chairs there.  On the way back from our walk when it was getting late to be coming back to camp Paul walked over to check to see if anyone was really camped there and found the tent was empty...just an old one and old chairs left there as a camp place holder by some other selfish person.  I so wanted to take the tent and chairs and put them in the woods where no one could see them and I also wanted to write on the trailers with a permanent marker expressing my thoughts on leaving trailers parked on public lands for long periods of unused time!!!  I probably would have except that Paul and Bean just ignored my rants.  But, we did find a new, pretty nice spot and did fine there.

After putting away camp in the morning, we drove over the mountains via Big John's Flat and then down to Mary'sville and  up to Miner's Park.  We looked around there and then Paul and I hiked  up to see Bullion Falls.  It's kind of steep, hot hike with just a far away view of the falls unfortunately.  (We tried a different trail to see it that became dangerous and impassible first.)  After lunch as we were driving back down to Mary'sville we came around a corner to see a mother bear and two cubs in the road.  Looked like they had come down to get a drink from the stream at the side of the road.  Paul was able to get a few pretty good pictures through the windshield.  Crazy.  First time seeing bears like that.  They hightailed it up the hillside into the brush very quickly as we inched closer to get a better picture.  It was a steep hillside, but that didn't slow them down a bit.  We've seen people bear hunting up in that area before.  Now we know there really are bears up there.  We didn't see any goats as we came over the pass from Big John's unfortunately.  We had a nice back roads drive home and then used a birthday gift card for some yummy dinner.  Great last fling before getting back to the grind.  

Unfortunately, with all of the Covid-19 restrictions we are going to have to deal with at school and after last year's pretty awfulness with the new administrations demands for constant testing and interventions, the teacher's crabbiness/stress because of that, feeling caught in the middle of the interventionist and the teacher, and the stupid things they did to mess up our OEK lunch routine, I'm not overly excited about going back to school this year.  I've always been looking forward to it before, but if I didn't want to pay off the car with my earnings so much, I might not have even gone back.  I'm of that high risk age group and would really be justified in just quitting altogether.  So, I'll give it a try and see how it goes, but if things go south again, I may quit.  We'll see.