Great Basin NP is...GREAT!

After taking the Cedar kids back home we continued up the road quite a ways to Great Basin NP to spend the day enjoying the awesomeness there.  We got there about lunch time and after a picnic in the cool we hiked up the Glacier/Bristle Cone trail.  It was cool and beautiful and even had some patches of new fallen snow in many places. After that we hiked the Alpine Loop trail to see the lakes.  We needed our jackets!!!  I love the rocks and trees and streams and green and everything!  We didn't make it to the Visitor Center or the cave.  We would have needed more time than we had.  As it was we didn't get home until bedtime, but what a wonderful, refreshing day!

Grand edventures for 2019 - mission accomplished!

Friday night we enjoyed a circus event with the final four grand kids we needed to take for a date.  Torin and Noah have been hard to catch - we've tried more than once on  both of them.  We were just waiting for the right thing to do with Sarai and Afton and this seemed like that fun thing.  And it was fun!  Luckily Juge was coming down from Cedar and brought those 3 with her saving us a lot of back and forth driving.  We enjoyed a pizza dinner and then we were off to the Circus with Bean helping by coming along to drive and enjoy it with us.  There were a lot of fun things including orange and white tigers, elephants, dogs and horses.  The juggler was hilarious and the lady who could change clothes in nothing flat was funny and amazing.  The ladies in the silk and other up high events were cool.  The man on the balance wheel was scary and the guy who was shot out of the cannon was crazy!!!  There were lots of little acts beside these too.  I didn't enjoy the huge effort and time spent trying to sell food, rides and toys, but other than that it was a really fun evening.  Afterwards we came home for hot chocolate and donuts (it got a little cool for the second half of the show with the Hurricane wind blowing a bit).  In the morning we took the thee Cedar kids home for their soccer/Saturday activities.  And we are done at last.  We love doing it, but it does get a little hectic sometimes trying to get it all in and work around so many busy schedules.

Finishing up the grand edventure dates for 2019

It's been hard to find a time to get together with some of the grand kids for their dates.  Especially Noah and Gaige.  Lots of busy things in their lives.  We usually take Gaige and Brady together since they are close in age and interests.  Finally got them together - not in the usual more outdoor/active way, but it was a fun evening.  We took them to see The Fighting Preacher - a really excellent movie about Willard and Rebecca Bean's 24 year mission for the Church in Palmyra, New York.  We had fun visiting with Gaige up and back to Cedar and Brady en route to the movie and over french fries and ice cream afterwards!

Spring Creek and over the mountain drive

Paul and I took a beautiful drive up Cedar Mountain to Spring Creek and then over to Spring Creek and over the top of the mountain there where we then drove down to Yankee Meadows through all of the burn area there.  We had a great picnic below Yankee Meadows reservoir and then went back over the top and took a really pretty little hike (without a camera) up the mountain.  Then we headed back down and enjoyed seeing the sheep in the area.  It was a beautiful, get out there some day.

Lazy Saturday discovery drive and mini golf fun

Paul, Bean and I spent the day revisiting some old places we hadn't seen for a long time as well as enjoying some new spots we hadn't seen before - Lion's Mouth Petroglyphs.  We drove out the Pinto Springs road, saw the springs/campground and walked around there - very pretty.  Then drove on and found the petroglyphs - it was a cool spot with great rocks and a neat place where the glyphs were, but they were really in bad shape and had what looked like modern additions and graphiti unfortunately.  We stopped at an old pioneer house that's really cool and then we drove on over the back roads to New Harmony and then up to Kolob Fingers where we had a snack at the picnic tables at the top.  It was so pretty and cool.  Then we headed home.  

Also a couple of weeks ago we got a new Starving Student Card and used the BOGO to go mini golfing one evening.  It was a beautiful, sprinkly night and it was a lot of fun!!!

September birthday girls!

It was a big weekend with Brynnli and Braden's wedding and since lots of folks were in town for it we decided to add family dinner to the line up on Sunday.  It turned out it was Juge's actual birthday and she was willing to host and provide cake for the event.  Jay and Brynn were the food hosts and the rest of us added our part.  It was a beautiful, fun dinner with perfect Cedar City weather to make it even better.  We ate and blew out the candles and did presents.  It was nice to continue the visiting we started the day before.  Lou and Juge were the birthday girls!  Both wonderful women that we love, admire and appreciate and hope for good things for in the coming year.   Happy Birthday to both of you!!!

Brynnli and Braden...to infinity and beyond!!!

What a great day it was seeing our oldest granddaughter, Brynnli "Bucket" Borrowman, marry her sweetheart, Braden Robert Figgins, in the St. George Temple.  It happened on Saturday, September 7th, 2019 at 10:40 am.  We were so happy that her younger brother and best buddy, Tavin, was able to attend because he was able take out his endowments the Thursday before because of his mission call.  I call this a best day ever-shout for joy event!   Besides doing the right thing for them, Brynnli and Braden set a great example for all of the younger grand kids in our family.  It's kind of sad thinking of her away up north and leaving our St. George nest, but that's life...and we are only going to see more of it happening all of the time as the family grows and grows!!!  Braden is just right and his family seems really great too.  Feeling very blessed and hoping for wonderful things for these two as they start their life together.  

Tavin and Torin - #18 and #5

Big birthdays for both of these guys.  Tavin became old enough to go on his mission and Torin is old enough to start school.  We got to celebrate with both of them!  Good times with good peeps!  Love them both so much!  In some ways it's hard to see both of them growing up. 

Lou and Bean - oldest and youngest b-days!

As soon as we saw that the Scarlet Pimpernel was going to be part of our season play tickets to the St. George Musical Theater, we knew we wanted to take Lou to see it for a birthday present.  It just worked out that the day we could do it we would also be celebrating Bean's birthday, so we took him too.  It was really fun!  It was early for Lou, but this way they got to have a yummy birthday dinner together - our oldest and youngest!  After the play we had birthday dessert at DQ!  What a fun evening.  We actually had birthday dinners most of the week for Bean so he could have the many different things he wanted to for his birthday dinner!  Happy #31 for him and #44 for her.  

Last Camp Out before school starts!

It was the last camp out before school started!  At first we were afraid we would not find a camp spot because it was the beginning of the bow hunt, but we ended up in one of our favorite former Family Camp spots. It was lovely and cool, no bugs, great weather and tasty food by Paul.  When Paul and I got up in the night we saw the stars and heard the coyotes howling nearby.  A little bit creepy...made me want to zip up in the tent!  But it was cool too.  The tops of the mountains still had snow and the lakes were full to the brim.  The flowers and green were still  going full blast.  It was a great get away from the heat of St. George.