Time with Tasia and Zade - grand edventures

 We love to go to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour movies every year.  It started years ago as something else - climbing movies - presented by Desert Rat, but now it's this.  We still like it.  It's full of great high adventure outdoor sports movies for the most part.  It's things we would never do, but it's so interesting to see other people's great adventures.  We've taken grandkids in the past and this year we took Tasia and Zade.  It's hard to find things that teenagers like, but they both really enjoyed this.  We wanted to take Koen, Gaige and Brenden too, but they weren't available.  It was fun to hang out with just the Smiths.  Afterwards we did DQ which always sweetens the fun!  Some of our favorite movies this year: 

BEAR-LIKE

Two adventurers engage in close contact with grizzly bears in Alaska experiencing first-hand the struggle for survival and dramatic fighting scenes. Driven by a desire to explore the unknown, the film tells a personal story of wilderness, framed through breathtaking footage of these amazing creatures.

My Midsummer Morning

Inspired by Laurie Lee’s book “As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning”, Alastair Lee sets out on his most terrifying journey yet - walking through Spain, earning money for food by playing his violin, being distinctly unmusical.

We've already taken Trigg on an edventure this year, so we didn't take him, but while we were there he was out having his own edventure - earning his brown belt in Karate!  Way to go Trigg!  Proud of you!

Great Basin camping (and frustration)

 I have been trying to get reservations for Paul's YM group to camp and go to Lehman Cave at Great Basin NP.  Their on-line reservation service leaves much to be desired.  I did get some, but the campsites may not be big enough, as we have found before using this reservation service, so we decided to go over and check them out.  And in the process we had to find a campsite for ourselves.  The online service said nothing was available to reserve.  Some campsites said they were closed.  We did find the last one available in one camp area and then afterwards found that a much nicer area that the site said was closed had many wonderful sites.  Thus, the frustration.  But the park was in the beginning stages of Fall colors and it was cool and beautiful, so that kind of made up for the other.  We checked things out and took a nice little morning hike and then some long drives to look for another possible site and also to drive by for a close up of Notch Peak.  It was a long drive, but in most ways, it was still worth it.  We had good food and beautiful scenery and perfect weather.  

In Search of Anderson Valley Cabin

It was a hard hike, and one that ended up not reaching the goal, but I was glad that I could still do it and the scenery on the way up was magnificent.  We have been wondering ever since the 2020 forest fire on Pine Valley Mountain if the Anderson Valley Cabin survived the fire.  The hike to get there goes from the big sequoia tree at Browse Guard Station on up the mountain and then over to Anderson Valley.  It is a very difficult, straight up hike.  There is one forest section that is really beautiful and the rest is either rocky and up hill, or straight up a very unmaintained and brushy, edgy mountainside.  The elevation gain is very big over a very short area.  Lots of stops to breathe take place.  We got a late start too.  We did make it to the top and then the fire devastation was so great that no trail was there and the landscape was completely changed...and we decided that getting lost and not finding the trail back down was not a great idea, so we ate our lunch and then went back down.  It's slow going down the steepest part because footing is tricky on the decomposed granite and the trail is so hard to find in the brush.  We took some side detours on the way up and a few more on the way down.  It ended up being about 11 miles.  And they were hard miles!  I felt them for the week afterwards.  BUT, the views of the Zion skyline and the Kolob Fingers section of Zion were so beautiful, that it did make up for some of the hard about this hike.  I finally found a blog post that said the old cabin had burned down and only the foundation is left.  Now I don't feel the need to do that hike ever again.  I hate to see so many great trails lost to the fires and erosion.  

September birthdays - Kelli, Juge, Lou Anne,

September birthdays started out early with Kelli 's birthday on the 2nd.  She's new to our line-up as Derek's new wife.  She's such a classy, nice lady.  Kind of hard to know what to get her as we don't get to see her much, but flowers (freshcutpaper) and a dinner card hopefully were a good fit for her.  Paul and I dropped them by to her on her birthday morning and had a really nice little visit with her.  She probably thinks it's kind of weird to have the parents of her husband's deceased wife give her a bday present, but I'm so grateful that she's a part of that little family now and filling in that empty spot in Derek's and the kids lives.  I hope it's going to be a good thing for everyone involved. I have a hard time getting pictures of her for some reason, but she sent us one saying thank you for the gift (of the gift).

Next up was Juge for her #41!  Paul and Bean are working up at New Harmony right now and they drove in and met Juge for lunch at Park Place.  I had hoped to come, but it was on a day I work and no other day/time would work for her/me at the same time.  They had a nice time and I'm happy Juge was happy.  Again, sadly, no pictures were taken, but one was sent by Juge.  We got her a lightweight backpacking pillow/chocolate and a nice card.  It seemed to be a good fit, especially since she got a matching ZOX bracelet to go with it from someone else!

Paul and Bean are still working in New Harmony, so for Lou's birthday I drove up (I don't work on Friday's), picked them up, and we drove in to Cedar and met Lou for lunch on her birthday.  It was a nice time to visit with her without her having to be taking care of her family too.  Then she invited us up for her birthday dinner on Sunday too, so we had a double good time with her for her #47th birthday.  

A great Tushar Mt. campout/hike

 We wanted to get out for another campout before hunting season is in full swing and we wanted to get away from the heat in St. George.  We decided on the "Beaver Mountains" as we call them, but it's really the Tushar Mts. above Beaver.  Whatever you call them, we love them!  We had hoped an early start on Friday morning of the Labor Day weekend would net us one of our favorite camp spots, but it didn't.  Too many summer parked trailers make that pretty hard to do now days.  But we found a great little new spot and worked out just right.  It was off the road just enough to be private, but not so far to be too long a drive to get other places.  The weather, after 113 degrees in St. George, was a wonderful 65 degrees.  We needed to jacket up in the evening and morning.  We tried a new meal (using what we already had in the house to cut down the cost) and enjoyed an amazing pork chop, mashed potato, corn on the cob dinner with baked raspberry turnovers for dessert.  Breakfast was also delicious.  We had omelets with hatch green chili and swiss cheese, fruit, toast and hot chocolate and another turnover!!!  Paul does amazing things with a Camp Chef and a Dutch oven.  

We did have one glitch while driving down unknown roads looking for a campsite.  We ended up high centering and getting quite stuck in our new truck down one little road.  Should have taken a picture, but I didn't think about that while being stressed about being stuck and about how it might damage the vehicle.  But, if you're going to get stuck, it's really good to do it with Paul.  With a jack and some rocks we got out after about an hour's worth of work and no damage.  I'd rather not get stuck and add the stress, but if you do, it's awesome when you get out!

On Saturday morning we did the drive over to Big John's Flat and up to the peak.  All of this area is so beautiful!  Then we decided we'd hike up to see the goats/Delano Peak since we could see the goats from our parking spot.  I was worried.  Wasn't sure I was up at all for a hike at that elevation after a week of walking and bike riding on these legs.  It was a hard uphill start, but we made it the 2.5 miles up with an elevation gain of 1098 feet.  The trail was better than ever before and we saw the goats from a distance (didn't want to scare them off) and then made it up to Delano Peak.  I was glad we went then and surprised that we did so well actually.  Afterwards we drove to the next viewpoint and ate our lunch and then headed home.  We listened to a great book, Shaking the Nickle Bust by Ralph Moody to and from and some in camp.  It was a great, cool, restful, beautiful campout/hike!

Back to school!

 

I started my final year of school on August 11th.  The first week is the time when kids come in for individual testing with the teacher.  The actual first day with all of the kids there was August 22nd.  We were pretty stressed about a couple of autistic boys that are assigned to our class.  They were pretty all around the room/loud when they came for testing.  (You really feel for parents of these very challenging kids.) But one ended up transferring to another class and the other one will spend most of his time in the SPED room and come in sometimes with a full time aid to help him.  It will still be a challenge, but not as much as we thought.  We have two others that are super challenging, (they both probably have something going on, but don't have IEPs yet) but they are learning how to get along and follow the rules when they aren't shouting, "It's not fair" or having a melt down about something else.  Lynne is a master at finding anything and everything positive to praise them about, and it's helping them a lot.  

I don't take (never post on social media) pictures of the kids in the class, but these two little girls begged me to take a picture of their button creation.  We have new math centers this year where the kids get a box of things (rocks, shells, shapes, etc.) and can use them to create whatever they come up with.  These two made a fountain (the pink buttons in the middle) with water around it (the blue buttons) and the brown buttons are pennies to throw into it and etc.  So creative and cute.  They were having such a good time.  Some other kids just sit and can't think of anything to do and say they are bored.  Hopefully they'll get over that and start to find their creative powers.  

I can see that it's probably time for me to retire in some ways, but in others I know I will so miss the opportunity to help out with these littles.  Some of the first kids I worked with are now late teen/early twenties and I even got a wedding invitation from one the other day.  Some have been on missions and some were in our YSA ward when we served there.  It's been a long and everchanging adventure.  So much has changed since I first started working.  Last year was a great change - we went to all day kindergarten.  Over the years the curriculum and expectations for these kids have gone up so much that we were down to just pushing learning so hard/testing constantly and trying to teach a full day's curriculum in a half day, that going to a full day and having some time for some of the fun learning things was such a great blessing.  Last year we also had "the perfect" class with so many kids from families with older siblings we had taught all of and great, supportive parents, etc.  It was the perfect way to start in with the all-day scene. 

Lynne (Ms. Godfrey) is an amazing, always looking for ways to improve teacher.  She is a master at classroom management.  The kids love her even when she's making them follow the rules! She says this is her last year, so it's going to be my last year.  I've always worked with her and can't see myself working for anyone else.  Too old to learn a new gig I guess!  Happy last year to me!!!

This year we have Sara.  We had her cute, smart, fun brother last year.  Sara is even cuter, smarter and more fun.  She is so curious...and smart.  She's always asking why this and why that.  She's also a bit mischievous.  She has cut her hair twice this year, at home, so it's very short now with a cute little cut with what's left of it.  Besides being super smart, she's a little athlete.  She can do the most beautiful cartwheels ever and is even working on doing one's that land on one hand. She's pretty amazing in most every way.  She's pretty much my favorite even if she sometimes pushes the limits a bit.  

August Birthdays!

It's too bad this cutie (Clara Lenae) doesn't live closer so we could do more than just send her a present and talk to her on the phone for her birthday (#6).  Here she is in her birthday finery and with her beautiful cake.  She got a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. from us.  Not much fun to open on her birthday, but it will be fun to get in the mail for the next year hopefully!  Happy Birthday Clara!  Love you!

We had a fun evening celebrating with Bean for #34!  We went mini-golfing and he played the best game ever and beat both of us.  Then we went out for dinner at Panda Garden.  Yummy!  Then later on we enjoyed homemade cookies/ice cream - Bean's choice of bday cake - and opened presents.  It was low key, but very enjoyable.  Happy Birthday Bean!  We love you!

Tavin had to get his birthday present via the postman since he's going to school at BYU right now.  Happy #21Tavin!  Love you lots!  

Torin's birthday is the day after Tavin's!  We celebrated both of them late/together.  It was great to have Tavin come down from school.  Seemed like forever since we'd seen him.  (The first picture is from his bday up at school when he opened his card...and before he was so happy to have Ferf give him a haircut!)  So Happy to be able to celebrate with both of them.  Tavin #21, Torin #8!!! Love them both so much! 

Since Torin's magazine isn't going to show up for a while we told him we'd take him out for ice cream. Their lobby was closed, so we went to a nearby park and had some fun climbing around in the rocks with him.  He needs a bit more attention at this point in his life.  The divorce that's going on in his life is pretty hard for him.  Lots of angst with his dad trying to drag it out and cause contention however he can for these poor kids to deal with.  Wish he'd just let is be done and get on with life instead of trying to cause as much hurt as he possibly can for everyone involved.  It was nice to be able to just spend a little one-on-one with him.  He's a sweet little kid.  

Escalante - One more campout before school starts!

Paul and I planned to do a last of summer vacation campout the Mon-Wed. before I went back to school.  We were having a terrible time deciding where because wherever we checked around us the weather forecast was for rain.  We talked about Cedar Mountain, Beaver mountains and about over by Escalante.  In the end, the weather that looked the most promising was by Escalante, so we went over there and had a wonderful campout.  We were going to do a dispersed camp, but found that the Blue Spruce Campground (one of our favorites) was empty and we ended up having the whole place to ourselves with the bonuses of a bathroom and water.  

We started off our trip by driving over Cedar Mountain and stopping by a funny little café where Juge told us has great fries...and they were!  Then for lunch we stopped over by Bryce at the Johnson's family campsite to check out their new kitchen.  We had a nice picnic in their covered picnic area.  Then we decided to check out a road over by Pine Lake and John's Valley campgrounds near Bryce.  It ended up being a beautiful drive to an awesome overlook near Powell Point.  There were bristle cone pines/limber pines at the overlook.  Such a beautiful drive!  Then we had to get going to our campsite...another beautiful drive.  We had an easy dinner and then enjoyed an evening hike up the stream.  It was perfect cool/cloudy weather.  

The next day we drove over the mountain, stopping to enjoy Hell's Backbone and then drove down and hiked to Escalante Natural Bridge/some ruins and petroglyphs.  It was an amazing little hike with perfect weather. We hiked quite a bit of it in the Escalante River on the way back.  Then we drove over to Boulder and ate our lunch at the church's outdoor picnic area there.  Next we drove the Burr Trail to the Singing Canyon.  What awesome scenery that was and the canyon was really cool!  Then it was time to head back over the mountain to our camp to make a delicious beef stew/biscuits dinner.  

That night the rain finally came.  We had to zip up the tent in the middle of the night.  It was great to be safe and dry in the tent with the thunder and lightening and rain going pretty good outside.  Luckily I made my bathroom trip just before the storm started!  The next morning everything was so fresh and clean and beautiful.  We ate an easy breakfast and packed up and took some backroads home.  It was such a great, relaxing little vacation!  And we did it in our new truck which was so nice and comfortable!  

Kennis flies the coop...to college!

 Kennis and Ferf flew back on Saturday, August, 13th, to get Kennis to the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, Missouri.  Ferf flew back late Sunday evening.  Kennis got a scholarship there for academics/wrestling.  She wanted to go away to school and she wanted to wrestle, so this is where is happens to be!  Wish she wasn't so far away, but hope it turns out to be just what she wants.  She was a little shocked when the welcome package they gave her included a condom.  We had a little popsicle/good bye party the Sunday before that some of the family was able to come to to wish her well.  

Pine Valley hike...in the rain!

We went up to Pine Valley for a little hike/picnic last Saturday and it was so wonderful after some much needed and long prayed for rain had been happening for a few days before.  We just hiked up a wilderness trail that seems to be getting lost in the foliage.  We went as far as we could and then crossed the river to come back a little different way after we ate our yummy lunch.  During lunch we could see the clouds moving in and soon after we started hiking back it started raining lightly.  It felt so good to have that coming down on us.  It's been SO LONG since this poor area has had rain.  Everything was looking revived and beautiful!  It was very reviving to us...but didn't make us beautiful! We are so blessed to have Pine Valley Mountain so nearby to revive us from the desert's heat.  

Notes for this picture:  I had never seen the little pink things that are on that log before.  After posting it on Facebook, someone wondered what they were and someone else told us.  They are Wolf's Milk Mushrooms - non-edible.  The picture of the 3 trees is trying to show, but is hard to see, that the 2 trees have actually grown together.  It was so crazy to see it.