Kartchner Caverns/Saguaro NP/Titan Missile Museum - Happy 2025!

 We left on New Year's day to go to Arizona to do Kartchner Cavern's Rotunda/Throne tour and later that day to visit the Titan Missile Museum and do the missile silo tour. (We went to bed early on New Year's Eve!) They were both really awesome. We also did a quick stop by Saguaro NP between the two.  We had a nice picnic there and enjoyed seeing the Visitor's Center and the little scenic route drive to see the crazy cactus! We took the scenic route on the way to Arizona down through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon and a faster route for the way home.  Either way, it was a pretty long drive, but worth it.  Bean wanted to take a small vacation as a Christmas present, and going south to Arizona seemed like a good way to do that.  We have been to both places in the past, but were happy to enjoy them again.  (I didn't remember the museum visiting the museum at all.)  

We went through Jacob Lake on New Year's Day and it wasn't open, but on the way home, we did eat dinner there and got their delicious cookies and hot chocolate for dessert.  We stopped off at Navajo Bridge to stretch our legs both ways.  I love that view of the Colorado River from the bridge and of the amazing Vermillion Cliffs along the way to and from it.  It turned out to be a really quick, fun trip.  We left on Wednesday and came home on Friday.  (You can't take pictures inside of the Kartchner Caverns, so I don't have any here. This is a painting of an amazing formation inside the cavern - it's called Kubla Kahn. The other pic is one off the internet.  

Goblin Valley State Park...at last!

 It was kind of a spur of the moment trip, but it turned out to be awesome.  We had talked about going camping up by Oak Grove after a drive up there the other day.  Since we have our little camp trailer we have wanted to try camping out in the winter.  We can sleep  and eat warm inside and still enjoy the outside in our warm clothes. I have been asking and asking to go over to Goblin Valley for quite a while.  It's a long drive though, and it's kind of pricey for the gas for the truck...but we decided to go for it.  There were no camp spots available according to the the rec.gov website, but this time of year we thought it wouldn't be hard to find something in the dispersed camping nearby.  We left before noon after getting everything ready.  We arrived there around 3ish and found the greatest spot within a few miles of the park and off the road where you couldn't be seen.  Any other time of year it would have been full.  There was evidence of it being well used, but we had it all to ourselves. We got the trailer set up, ate a snack, and headed into the park.  We stopped in at the tiny Visitor's Center/park entry place.  It's a cool little place with plenty of info.  Then we were off to see some goblins!  It was still light enough to enjoy a walk around Valley 1 and some of Valley 2. It is so AMAZING with formations everywhere and none alike, and you just automatically try to figure out "what or who they look like" that you know in regular life.  It was cold, but we wore warm clothes.  It had rained some and snowed a little  before we were there, so walking in the sandy places was great because the sand was damp and packed.  When it got too dark, we went back and cooked a great dinner - grilled cheese sandwiches and clam chowder soup with leftover gingerbread/whip cream for dessert.  Then we played games, Paul dealt with the battery going dead, and then went to bed for a good night's sleep.  The battery fix lasted through the night thankfully, so our heater kept us nice and toasty warm.  It was a very cold, clear night and we enjoyed a little bit of stargazing. 

In the morning everything was covered in frost.  We went back and enjoyed some more of Valley 1 and 2 and then continued on the hike down to see Valley 3.  There are three square miles of thousands of goblins in the park and it's a 6-mile round trip hike to visit all of the valleys.  Each section has a little bit different.  Valley 1 is closest to the parking lot, is the most visited, and has the greatest concentration of the shorter goblins (scientific name is hoodoos).  Valley 2 has taller goblins and is more like a canyon and feels very tight in some places.  Valley 3 is much less visited and more spread out with lots open space between areas with formations.  Some areas have lots of short ones, and other areas have very tall ones. We found gypsum in the washes and petrified wood and selenite patches laying around here and there. It is truly amazing!  The hike actually turned into a 7-miler for us because of all our wanderings, but we were happy to see all we could.  

After that we did the 3-mile hike to see the Goblin's Lair and the another quarter mile over to see the Goblette's Lair which are big caves back in the cliffs.  It was harder hike with some very steep places, but the caves were awesome.  The Goblin's Lair takes some pretty sketchy scrambling to get down into/back out of, so I waited at the top.  The Goblette's Lair was fine for me to get into thankfully, with some minor scrambling.  After that it was time for us to take our leave.  We drove over to see where the Little Wild Horse slot canyon hike starts (a trip for another time) and then headed home.  We went over to get gas in Green River and stopped for a couple of naps and then for dinner in Richfield.  We got home about 8 pm I think.  What a great little trip!!!

Christmas Day 2024

 Christmas day was a great day of visiting with the kids as we went from house to house as usual.  We started out by picking Anna Lou up from her place at BeeHive Homes and then having a nice breakfast and opening presents at our house with her and Bean.  Bean was down for the holiday from his place in Cedar City.  Jay and Brynn gave us cool gifts they got for us while on their Ireland trip - a sweet hat for Paul and a lovely plaque for me.  We miss seeing them on Christmas day, but we enjoyed visiting on the phone and getting some sweet pictures from them of the holiday!  

Then we went to visit Supe and Beacher and kids.  This is the only place where there are still little ones, and it was fun to see all of their excitement over their new toys.  So cute! It brings back memories of times past!  Jem was super excited about his new Ninja Turtle electric toothbrush.  Kaia had a cute duck with babies that would follow it and they had a brand new Hungry Hippos game to play!  

Next we went to Moss and Christie's and enjoyed visiting with them for a little while.  While we were there we opened our gift from all of our kids...an amazing helicopter ride over Zion Park gift certificate!  Christie was able to put the opening of it on a zoom call to Jay and Brynn and Moss put it on Facetime to the rest of the family to watch us open it.  Cool things can be done with technology if you just know how!  We are so excited to go on the helicopter ride! After that stop Anna Lou was ready to go back to her place.  She's not an early riser and gets tired easily too.  (She said she hopes this is her last Christmas. She's pretty tired of being here.)

Next up was Derek and kids.  We had fun here with Trigg showing us his funny mini microscope gift.  There's always some sweet nostalgia of Weed there as well.  They talked about finding gift bags that they have used for years that still have Weeds cute nicknames for everyone on them.  There are ornaments from years past that remind them of her, etc., etc.  It is wonderful to know that because of the gift of Christmas we all know that Weed will be there waiting to welcome us home. It's good to see these kids doing well - Tasia at BYU and loving her classes and work, Kaebri with a wonderful job at Design to Print where she has a great future in a field of work she really enjoys.  Zade and Trigg are doing well in school and at church.  Derek has a great job doing what he loves as well.  They are blessed and it feels like Weed is always watching over them.    

Ferf's house was next.  All of her kids, except Gaige, were there along with Brynnli's boyfriend/fiance, Ryan. (Gaige was on the phone with them when we got there and we got to talk to him.  He seems to be doing really well on his mission!) They all seem to have a lot of joy in getting together.  The divorce has left some big scars on this little family, but they are working through and pulling together. Ferf is blessed in her work as well, which we are grateful for.  

We headed home for a little nap and after that Juge, Lance and family dropped by.  They always come down to go to Lance's folks for dinner, so we do our Christmas with them at our house.  It's always fun to visit with them.  Juge made all of them the cutest Calvin and Hobbs PJs this year!  

We ended the day at the Randall's in Cedar City.  They are always so nice to let us come and join them for dinner.  We enjoy visiting, opening presents and usually playing a new game they got for Christmas.  It was the usual fun evening! Then we took Bean back to his place and headed for home and called it a  GREAT CHRISTMAS!  

This year we gave every family a copy of our Storyworth personal history books.  They all seemed excited to get them.  We also gave a Broadbent Family cookbook that had family history stories as well as recipes.  It actually had a recipe for how to cook a ground squirrel that gave everyone a big laugh.  We gave most of the kids Conscious Step socks. The older kids got the traditional family car blankets which they also seemed to like.  It was kind of a stressful Christmas for me.  I don't know why I let it get to me, but I hope I can do better.  One of the big stresses was that I ordered all of the kids socks early, November 5th, and felt so glad to have so much of the shopping done.  And then they lost the order and didn't know it for a few weeks and by that time most of the socks I had ordered were out of stock so I had to reorder the whole thing with socks I wasn't as excited to give.  It finally all worked out with a lot of stress and back and forth.  I'm just getting old and big events kind of stress me out.  But in the end it is all worth it and I love them all!!!  Merry Christmas 2024!!!

Christmas Adam and Eve 2024

We didn't really have the Christmas Adam get together on that day, but it was the Sunday before.  Juge invited everyone up for a bring soup and something dinner at her house.  Afterwards the adults got together for games and the littles went upstairs and played X-box games, etc.  It was a really fun evening.  I was not up for hosting and was grateful that Juge volunteered.  (We had Ross and Lerlyn for a quick visit to see Anna Lou on their way home from their son's house in Provo. They left Sunday morning.)  The food was wonderful and the games were really fun.  Moss and Supe and Jay's families couldn't make it.  But we had fun with who we had.  Kennis and Tavin were already down for Christmas from school up north, so it was fun to have them there with Ferf and her other kids. (Gaige is on a mission.)  

Paul and I started the day with a walk at the Town Square.  It is so pretty all lit up for Christmas.  Later we decided to go for a drive out Cottonwood Road.  (Paul had meat in the smoker and we didn't need to make Christmas Eve dinner yet.)  It's so beautiful out there with all of the different geology to enjoy.  After that we decided to drive over to see if Oak Grove campground was still open.  Along the way we took the little hike around the Children's Forest and old charcoal kiln.  The signs at the forest that tell about different plants had all been redone by children from an elementary school in Hurricane.  The last time we had gone they were all broken or unreadable, so this was really nice.  We went over to the old charcoal kiln that's there.  It's such a cool old historic building.  It turned into a really beautiful and relaxing drive.  Then was back home and time to get started on Christmas Eve dinner preparations.  

Brynnli makes her birthday apron!

 

Last year for Brynnli's birthday we gave her fabric, seam binding and Grandma Poulsen's apron pattern to make herself and apron.  She has been taking lots of sewing classes learning all about fabric and so many things, but hadn't gotten a sewing machine or made much of anything yet.  I was so happy, a year later, to get this cute picture of her in her finally made apron!  I think she's going to end up being an amazing seamstress!  Happy Birthday at last Brynnli!  Looks like you did a great job!!!  I'm so glad my mom's 1 yard apron pattern is being passed on to another generation!  

It's beginning to look like Christmas 2024!

 Paul and I have enjoyed this week of Christmas lights and other good things.  We started with going to the temple and then walking the grounds (with no camera for pictures) and seeing the lights and two manger scenes there.  Then we went to the Desert Garden another night and enjoyed the lights there.  Next, we finally went to the Live Nativity program at Tuacahn.  I have been saying I wanted to go for years, and finally just got tickets and we went!  It has been a lovely week of getting in the Christmas spirit!  

Spent some time with Bean up at Kolob.  He took some really nice shots of us with his new camera.  And I took some of him and Paul with my phone.  We took the little hike up to Timbercreek Overlook.  Usually there would be snow there this time of year, but not yet.  

Paul and Kaia birthdays - #72 & #2

 We got together on Paul's birthday with whatever family could come and celebrated for him (Dec. 4th) and Kaia (Dec. 9th) for their #72 and #2!  Kaia had her own little cake and she blew out her #2 candle and Paul had his favorite birthday cake, cheesecake, and also blew out his "golden" candle!  We love them both and are so happy to celebrate with them!  Unfortunately we missed celebrating with the other December birthday peoples - Brynnli #25, Noah #16 (he saves it until April), and Gaige who will celebrate his #19 on his mission!  

Thanksgiving 2024

Thanksgiving this year was at a stake center that Moss was able to reserve out in his area.  It was a great building and we had a good turn out.  We only missed Brady (he was working) and Gaige (he's on a mission in CA, and Bean was sick.  We ended up with 43 family/friends of family. Tavin and Kennis brought friends that they know from college and Brynnli's boyfriend, Ryan also came.  Grandma Kurtz came.  (I wish we could have gotten a group pic, but by the time everyone got there, we were ready to eat!!!  I just took table pictures instead.) Jay and Brynn and girls were able to come down and stayed with us which was really fun.  They helped us set up and decorate.  Brynn had some really cute things to make it look nice. Jay and Juge brought delicious turkeys, smoked and baked, and everyone else brought other wonderful food.  We had PLENTY to eat.  We used half of the big gym for eating and closed the door in the middle most of the way and had pickleball set up in the other half of the gym.  We ate and visited and played some games.  Lance tricked us all in Pit by keeping one of everything for a long while and then I finally got a corner with the bull anyway!  It was pretty funny!  

Other activities for the weekend included a fun morning walk over the the Desert Garden for me and Paul with Madi and Clara.  Essie and Tahlia had spent the night with Eliza.  We also went on a fun hike with Moss and Christie and kids to Glitter Mountain where we collected cool selenite rocks (Utah Ice/ gypsum).  We also went over and hiked around to see the petroglyphs at Black Rocks.  More fun was some family getting together at Moss and Christie's for Donuts and hot chocolate and another time we went out to the Alumni Creamery for ice cream...BRRR!  On Saturday morning some family went to the Farmer's Market with Supe, Beacher and kids and played at the park playground. Afterwards people came to our house for visiting/eating left overs and cousin time.  It was beautiful weather and we could even visit outside.  It was a full, fun weekend!