Pine Valley Picnic and erosion

It was a last minute thing.  It looked like it was raining up in Pine Valley, so we changed our plans, grabbed our stuff and food and drove up to have a picnic.  It had rained, but was done which was good so we could eat outside at the Heritage Center.  Then we went down and got ice cream.  After that we decided to walk up the road a ways into the valley and see how they were coming on digging out the lake.  The rain from that day had been doing more erosion damage.  Until some plants start growing over on the burned areas, it just keeps on washing down and causing so much damage.  So very sad to see this beautiful place in  such bad shape.  The dam is washed out, the lake is just a place full of sludge right now that they are trying to clear out, but it keeps filling up.  Rocks keep getting washed down the hills from above.  It's going to take several years to restore it to something like it was before.  There are still a lot of trees that survived at least.  It was still a lovely picnic with the fresh rain washed air.  

Rain on Cedar Mountain...Grafton!

 Thursday we got the get out of the house bug.  It was looking like rain on Cedar Mountain so we made a picnic lunch, picked up Bean and headed up there.  We stopped off at the Bristle Cone hike and Paul did his first, after surgery hike!  It was only a half a mile, but it was wonderfully fresh from the recent rains up there!  It felt so cool and clean!  We ate lunch at Cedar Breaks picnic area.  We felt a few raindrops while we ate, but got all done and on our way before it started raining pretty hard here and there along the way!  So wonderful to see the rain!  We next drove over past Panguitch Lake and then on over to come down through Zion.  It was not raining there, but the skies were beautiful.  After Zion we drove out to Grafton, an old ghost town from the Pioneer days.  They have done a lot of restoration work there and it was pretty amazing to think how hard those people worked to make a "subsistence" living.  They finally left and moved down to Hurricane when times got better down there than where they were.  Flash floods were constantly taking out their irrigation systems and making life very hard.  The fear of Indian attacks was also a reason people finally left.  

Little bits of wisdom that I love

On my blog page layout there's a place called the sidebar-right.  It has things called gadgets.  They consist of a picture with some words...and they will not print in my blog books that I print every year.  I really like them, so I decided to put them on my regular blog as a post.  They take up a bit more room there than they do on the side, but I want them to print in this year's book.  Here they are.  I've been collecting these from the beginning of my blog years ago.   

Walk Lightly

"We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do." 

~ Barbara Ward

Wilderness

Wilderness is not a luxury, but a necessity for the human spirit! ~ Edward Abbey

Nature

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~ John Muir

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs

Flowers

The earth laughs in flowers. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Listen..

The earth has its music for those who will listen; Its bright variations forever abound. With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us, There’s nothing that thrills like the magic of sound. 

~ Reginald Holmes

                                                                              Colors

Colors are the smiles of nature. ~ Leigh Hunt

  

Snow music

The snow is melting into music. ~John Muir

Nature's peace

"Climb the mountains to get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."

~John Muir

                                                                        Nature's heart

"Keep close to Nature's heart...break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." ~ John Muir

Supreme Creator...

...all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. -- Alma 30:44

2 Nephi 4:34

"O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever."

Renewal of the spirit

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.  ~ Robert Lewis Stevenson

The finest workers of stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in, for it can be the means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope. ~ Wallace Stegner

Art

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ Pablo Picasso

America...

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.  Ether 2:12

America is another name for opportunity. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Little drops of water, little grains of sand...

We, ourselves, feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things. ~ Mother Teresa

Life...

isn't about waiting for the storms to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Being happy...

doesn't mean everything's perfect. It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.

Look fear in the face

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Gifts...

The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example. ~ Thomas Morell

Legacy

Your legacy exists in the lives of people you’ve touched.

Motherhood

There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one.

Love...

Real love stories never have endings.

illumibot evening at the Opera House...cool!

 On Tuesday, July 7, from 9 pm to 10:30 pm, outside the historic St. George Opera House is transforming into a massive, glowing canvas!  We're thrilled to welcome illumibot to town!  They will be lighting up the night with their jaw-dropping projections mapping technology.  As part of their national "illumiBeast" summer tour celebrating America's 250th anniversary, expect to see massive, mesmerizing patriotic tributes alongside breathtaking visual displays!  We went to watch this and it was really cool!  

Thank Goodness for Cedar Mountain/Lava Point

 We are so thankful that we have Cedar Mountain to get away to.  Pine Valley is pretty much on hold for the next year or more while the figure out how to put the campgrounds, picnic areas and lake/dam back together after the fire and then, even worse, the erosion it caused afterwards.  So, when we need to get away, we head for Cedar Mountain.  Today was one of those days.  After we got our morning stuff done, we picked up Bean and with a stop in Cedar for a KFC meal we drove up to 5-Mile Picnic area just out of Parowan and had a great lunch.  Paul and I did a little exploring around the site and found some sort of old stone oven. We also drove up to see Yankee Meadow Reservoir.  It's really low, but still very beautiful.  It made me want to go kayaking.  After that we drove over the mountain and enjoyed the beautiful display of meadows of purple flowers in Cedar Breaks.  We stopped there at the picnic area for our candy bar dessert.  We also stopped in at the Visitor's Center.  We saw lots of other flowers along the road, at the picnic spot and also at the Visitor's Center.  Their annual Wildflower Festival is going on right now!  After that we drove down the mountain and back home.  It was good to get to the mountains!  I kind of nodded in and out on the drive home.  

On Friday we went on another picnic...this time at Lava Point which is up by Kolob Reservoir.  It's actually a part of Zion National Park.  There's a beautiful overlook, a picnic area and a campground.  It was a nice day for it being a little cooler than here and especially in the shade where our table was. Afterwards we drove over to Kolob Lake but only as far as the road was paved since we were in our rental car.  Out truck is STILL in the shop.  Paul's foot has graduated to where he can now wear a regular shoe for part of the day.  It's making good progress, but we between the foot and the truck we are feeling like we are sort of wasting the summer away a bit with not any very exciting adventures.  I think it's time to take a trip...somewhere!   (The sunrise shot was on my morning walk on the Red Hill today!) 

Independence Day

 The 4th is on Saturday this year which would make it so people wouldn't get a week day off from work, so some places closed on Friday.  For me it did not matter...it just made me want to celebrate for two days!  On Friday Paul, Bean and I went to see the new Angel/Wonder studios movie, Young Washington.  It's a terrific movie and made me thankful for men who were called by God to do a work to help America/The United States become a free land where the gospel could be restored and where finally, all people could be free.  Today we are having a little get together with Ferf and her kids who are down visiting with her.  Moss and Christie and family asked to join us for the too.  Lots of good food, good visiting and fireworks (by the city) and a few that Brynnli and Ryan will bring.  I got up this morning and took my walk on the Red Hill and felt blessed to live here and be free.  I also posted an old picture I took and have as a side thing on this blog.  I found more pics of flags that I or others in the family have taken.  And I thought of the song we used to sing long ago in week day Primary: 

I love my land America with blue skies big and wide;

I love my land America with seas on either side. 

The prairie corn grows tall and green, the wheat is amber gold;

The rivers run from mountain peaks where the stars and stripes unfold.

I love my land America, and as long as we are good, 

the Lord will bless America, in love and brotherhood.

Here are the pics from our gathering.  The fireworks pics never turn our very well in the dark.  We also celebrated Kai's birthday as part of the evenings fun!  Good times with good folks!  We enjoyed meeting Kennis' friend, Aliya, and also Jared's daughter's Shelby and Koda.