Kaibab Campout

 We are loving our little trailer!  It's pretty great to be able to come in out of the cold and have hot chocolate and cookies at the little table, especially Jacob Lake cookies.  We wanted to leave in a hurry without much fuss, so we decided to just eat dinner at Jacob Lake.  It was pretty good.  The new owners may not quite be up to snuff, but it did make things easier than having to shop and prep before coming.  We found a beautiful spot among the ponderosas.  There are still patches of snow here and there and the roads had too much snow/mud to go to any of the view points this time, but we had a couple of nice  walks in the woods.  It was wonderful!  As we were packing up the back of the truck to leave I saw that there was a critter in there under stuff.  It was a little chipmunk.  It kept running around trying to hide and we had to take pretty much everything out to finally get it to get out of there.  Pretty cute.  We didn't have anything in there to eat, so it didn't do any damage.  We also found someone's day pack on one of our walks.  It had been there a few days it looked like and the animals had been chewing on it trying to get in.  There was a prescription bottle inside so we had a name.  I called the pharmacy in Glendale AZ and they said they'd call him and give him our number so he could let us know if he wanted the pack back.  It didn't really have much in it other than a lot of men's colognes, some brass knuckles and some notebooks with some writing in them.  Haven't heard anything yet, but we tried.  

First Campout of 2024...and in our camp trailer!

 We did it!  We went camping in our little camp trailer!  We bought it last year and just never got out in it with all of the stuff happening in Anna Lou's life, Bean's life and just life in general.  And we had to do some stuff to the the truck and the trailer...but finally, everything was ready and we went!  Yippee!!!  We went to the Big Sequoia and only shared the area with a group of students/instructor from SUU.  We got there first and found a great spot that would work for the trailer.  It is early, so lots of things weren't out yet, but it was still beautiful.  We had a few struggles setting up and taking down, but it was a great first effort and we are getting the hang of how to camp in a trailer.  Sitting there drinking our hot chocolate inside while it was so cold outside that night was pretty nice.  And getting up and turning on the heater in the morning was pretty nice too!  But, I don't want to give up tent camping either.  There are some places I still want to go that the trailer can get to.  The bed was very comfortable though!  So it's the start of a new era of camping I guess!  We took a great hike almost to the base of the mountain that evening and even ran into a little bit of snow.  Paul made us a fantastic pork chop dinner.  In the morning we checked out the sequoia and on the way down we stopped to look at the river at another camp spot and then went for a hike to the hidden waterfall which was really beautiful.  Had a little mishap after we got home when I left the trailer keys on the bed cover of the truck while unhitching the truck.  I left them and a rock I had brought home and then we drove down to pick up the car from the shop.  Paul brought the truck home to start unloading while I got the car.  When I got home he showed me how the rock had amazingly stayed on the truck all the way home from the car shop.  (He didn't know I had put the keys there too!)  Then I knew!  And we very quickly drove the route we had taken.  Only a little way along there were the trailer keys in the middle of Bluff Street at an intersection.  Our light was green so we drove out into the intersection and thankfully the other light stayed red long enough for me to jump out and grab the keys and get back in and drive through before the light changed!  Felt very blessed to find the keys, with no damage to them at all.  We had another little mishap coming out of the car wash after spraying off the trailer.  We were coming out and someone cut us off so we had to turn more sharply than we were going to and scraped the air conditioner on the side of the trailer on a post, but thankfully stopped soon enough to back it up and the guy got out of the way and we got out with no damage.  I had taken the blocks out from behind the wheels too soon at the camp site when we were hooking it up to the truck and it rolled back closer to the edge of a drop off than felt comfortable.  We are learning!!!  But, after all was said and done, it was a wonderful first campout of the year and first time in the trailer!!!

Easter Break - Manti Temple, etc.

 We got Friday and Monday off for the Easter weekend.  I had made a reservation to go to the open house for the Manti Temple on Friday.  It was an up and back trip, but it was great.  Thank goodness we had reservations.  That made it so that our wait time in line was just about an hour (instead of much longer without a reservation in the standby line).  I can't remember being in that temple.  I guess we were for Julianne and Roy's wedding though.  It is one of the oldest of the temples and had to be worked on to strengthen it for the long haul.  It was dedicated 17 May 1888 by Wilford Woodruff.  St. George and Logan are older than it. It is the fifth temple built and the 3rd temple built in Utah.  The woodworking is superb and the spiral staircases are amazing works of art and engineering.  We especially loved them and the lily chairs that were in several of the sealing rooms.  The murals were beautiful and a they were saved in the renovation.  I'm glad we got to see this temple.  It truly shows the love of the Lord, hard work and sacrifice that the people who built it had.  We had a nice trip in the cool semi-winter weather.  Luckily it didn't rain or snow on us, but there was a recent snow still on the ground on the way and in Manti.  We listened to a book and stopped in Beaver for dinner on the way home. 

We went to the Art Festival and saw so much beautiful art of so much variety!  Always love seeing it!  We also (Paul mostly) put in a new bathroom fan, toilet and bidet in our big bathroom during the break!  Lots of work, but very nice to have done!  

 We also enjoyed a wonderful Easter!  They made it so we only have Sacrament meeting now and it was a great one.  G'ma and Ferf and Gaige joined us for a yummy Easter Feast.  We have been enjoying the week studying all about Easter in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and watching some of our favorite Easter videos.  The Church is counseling us make Easter more of a celebration like we do Christmas since it is of such crucial importance in the plan of salvation.  I love Easter.  It makes me think of Weed and how all is well with her even thought she's not here with us.  I know that we will be with her again.  It also gives me great hope for Bean.  I know that because of Easter he will be resurrected with a perfect body and no more of this terrible mental illness with all of it's problems to afflict him anymore.  I am so thankful for the infinite gift of the Christ's atonement that makes these things and so much more possible for me and everyone else in the world.  Hallelujah!!!  Happy Easter!

Yippee!!! Gaige got his mission call and more!

 Gaige got his mission call and lots of his friends and some family and neighbors came over (it was a packed house) to be there when he opened it.  They also streamed it on Facebook for everyone else.  He's going to the California, Roseville Mission and will start his MTC work on June 24th!  We are so happy for him!  That's near the Sacramento area of CA!  Can't wait for him to get started...on my birthday!  So proud of him for working hard and doing what's right so this wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord can be a part of his life.  Congratulations Gaige!  

Another congratulations is in order!  Madi got her braces off!!!  Doesn't she have a beautiful smile!

WE don't get to see these girls as much as the ones down here close to us!  Aren't they all beautiful in their matching Easter dresses!!!

Spring Break - last NP in CA and more!

California has nine national parks.  For Spring Break we decided to visit our last one - The Channel Islands.  It's a little more trouble to visit this one because you have to take a ferry ride to get there.  There are actually 5 islands that comprise this park, but we just went to Santa Cruz.  We left on Saturday morning, drove out there, found the church, our motel, the ferry place.  We went to Costco and got Sunday dinner that we could warm up in the microwave and ate at In-and-Out Burger.  Sunday we went to church in a really friendly ward in Ventura.  Afterwards we visited the Channel Island Visitor's Center which is on shore in Ventura.  It was really cool.  The next morning we boarded our ferry to head out there.  It wasn't a really big boat, but it was very full of people.  On the way some whales and dolphins were sighted and I went out on deck to see them.  That was where my trouble began.  I was near the front of the boat where it was bucking up and down a lot!  Pretty soon, the breakfast I didn't eat was still trying to come out.  But, I did see the whales and the dolphins even though they were too fast to get pictures of.  It was worth it! When we arrived at Santa Cruz I was fine and we enjoyed a beautiful day of hiking there seeing lots of what there was to see.  We were lucky to see the Island foxes and bluebird that are only found there.  It was a wonderful day!  It was so green from all of the recent rains.  I got a great tip on where to sit on the ferry on the way back so as to be less likely to barf again...and it worked.  Back of the boat, eyes forward or closed.  It would have been nice to kayak in the ocean at the island, but it would have been so cold, and expensive that we decided against it.  We loved what we saw and did!  Had dinner at Carl's Jr. this night (Monday). We spent 3 nights at a cute little motel in Ventura.  

Tuesday morning we drove on to Long Beach and our next adventure which was a visit to the Queen Mary.  Wow!  What a giant ship!  Now it's been turned into a luxury hotel, tourist attraction, etc.  It was a slice of history/transitioned into today.  We looked around on our own and then went on a tour with a great guide.  We stayed until we had seen it all and then took a pretty long drive to get to the Macaroni Grill for dinner!  Was it ever good!  One thing we found so interesting while driving into the city was all of the port equipment.  Long Beach has a huge port with so much going on.  We walked city and the beach some in the evenings too.  

Wednesday morning we got off early on a ferry to Catalina Island.  We landed at Avalon which is such a different place than the Channel Islands.  It is pure tourist attractions.  It even has a casino.  It is a happening, bustling place.  Our main thing for the day was a little ride on a boat that had windows below the surface so you could look out and see the fish.  There was only one other couple on that time, so it was pretty calm.  I was a little worried that I might get sea sick, so I kind of sat still.  I did well on the ferry ride over because I sat in the middle, in the back and looked forward.  It was a much bigger and less bumpy ride than our ferry to the Channel Islands, thank goodness.  Did fine on both boats this day. Our underwater tour took us out into some ocean reserve area where they then proceeded cause a feeding frenzy and then told you about the fish you were seeing.  It was interesting, but not terribly exciting.  On the way back they let you come up and enjoy the views from the deck.  Nice, but probably not worth the price of the ferry or the tour.  But I'm glad I've seen Catalina, at least the Avalon City part.  We spent the rest of our time there seeing the town sites which was fun. When we got back we had dinner at Panda Express!  Yummy!  

Thursday, the very windy day, we went to the Huntington Library and Museums but not the Gardens.  (They were closed because of the wind unfortunately.)  We did see some of the gardens as we walked by them to different buildings/galleries.  We started by doing a little orientation film where we learned all about how the Huntington came to be.  Then we went to the Library and saw so many historical documents through the ages and LOTS of books.  The most amazing thing there was probably the Gutenberg and Tyndale bibles.  So much work and sacrifice to bring the scriptures to "the people."  After that we went to the Huntington Mansion Gallery and it was beautiful and full of furniture, books, sculptures and European art.  We also saw the Western Art Gallery which was interesting, but not nearly as good the Getty.  They didn't have nearly as much or as beautiful art (my uniquified opinion of course).  Then we took a green break and went to the Botanical Conservatory which was kind of like an indoor garden with all kinds of growing areas:  a rainforest, a bog, a cloudy forest, out door stuff, and all about seeds.  Some was pretty geared to kids since the closed Children's Garden was behind it, but it was a beautiful break from the art overload.  Then we visited a gallery (The Boone) and saw some black artists work.  One of my favorite things of the whole place was seeing Blue Boy!  Unfortunately Pinkie wasn't on display at this  time.  

Friday morning it was time to start home.  We had been driving the Pacific Coast Highway and backroads when we could to see more scenery and get away from the traffic.  We continued doing that on the way home and drove to be able to stop in at Death Valley National Park along the way.  The day turned very cloudy and we could see snow happening in the Sierra Nevada's along the way.  One road we had planned to take ended up being closed, so we had to reroute.  And then another road was closed due to a fatal car accident, so it ended up being a little longer than we planned, but we had a nice, rainy stop in at Death Valley.  We didn't stay too long because it was late and rainy, but it was beautiful in a desert way.  They have a great Visitor's Center that we spent quite a bit of time at too.  Our reroute took us to Pahrump for a delicious dinner at KFC.  We got home about 10 pm.  It was a great trip!!!  Not everything went as planned, but it was still great!  And for the most part, the weather, though cool, was pretty much ideal.  

Valley of Fire and Hoover Dam day trip!

 We decided to head to the desert again while the temps are still good there and warmer than the higher elevations this time of year.  We had gone to Valley of Fire in NV a few weeks ago and spent a great day there, but ran out of time and missed a couple more things on the map that we still wanted to see.  Today that was our first stop.  We came in at the west entrance this time and saw Atlatl Rock, Arch Rock and some amazing petrified logs.  We also checked out the campsites there which were really great!  

Next we drove a new, very beautiful and full of amazing geology highway down to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  We drove through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area for the first time I think.  We went down one road to view the lake and then stopped by the Visitor's Center and got more information and watched a little movie and found out about a Historic Railroad Trail Hike below the Lake Mead Visitor Center.  

The 2.6 (one way) Historic Railroad Trail takes us back to 1931 when the federal government partnered with Six Companies, Inc., a consortium of six major western construction firms, to build nearly 30-miles of railroad connecting the Hoover Dam and Boulder City with cement mixing plants, quarry pits, a gravel sorting plant, and other resources in Las Vegas needed to build the dam.  The railroad tracks were dismantled in 1962. This trail was established in 1992, and connection to the Hoover Dam became open to the public in 2007.  The trail includes 5 tunnels.  We loved doing it and the views of the lake from it are beautiful.  

After that we drove over to the dam and walked out onto Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman bridge to view the dam.  It is really amazing.  Then we tried to go to the dam visitor's center, but it is being remodeled and isn't open.  But, we did get to go on the last dam tour of the day which was really interesting and then we walked out on the dam itself!  It turned out to be a really fun, interesting day seeing new places and learning about them.  We stopped in Mesquite on the way home for dinner.  It was a full day that we really enjoyed!