The Giving Machines come to St. George!

 It was fun to finally donate at the Giving Machines that the church puts out at Christmas time to help good causes all over the world receive donations.  100% of what you donate goes to very well vetted good causes.  This time we were able to give to some causes that have been personally wonderful to us and Bean.  We gave meals for the homeless to Switchpoint Community Resource Center and mental health help to the Doctor's Free Clinic here in St. George.  They are both really wonderful places!  It was great to see a long line of people excited to give there when we arrived!  

Ellie goes to the temple!!! - and more fun with family!

It was a wonderful day last Thursday, November 14th, 2024, because Ellie went to the temple to take out her endowments.  She's just 18, but wanted to do this now.  We are happy that she wants this wonderful blessing in her life and was ready and worthy to do it.  It's a "SHOUT FOR JOY" day for her and her parents and us as well.  Juge and Ferf and Paul and I were there as well as her Randall grandparents.  She went to the Cedar City Temple.  It was dark after we got out, so we couldn't take any pictures of the whole group unfortunately.  Ferf, Juge, Paul and I went to Park Place for some yummy eats and visiting afterwards.  So nice.

We spent more time in Cedar that week enjoying family time.  We went up Saturday and took Bean to The Best Christmas Pageant movie and dinner.  Afterwards we went to Afton's Silks recital.  It was pretty amazing and kind of scary with those girls up so high!  She and a friend did a really cute routine.  

"Oh say, can you see..."

 I really enjoyed our school's great Veteran's Day program this year.  In conjunction with Veteran's Day Snow Canyon State Park again displayed a giant American flag suspended across the canyon.  I have never made it out to see it before, but did this year.  It was so beautiful!!!  So glad I made it out there this time!  The canyon was a great showcase for it with its' red and white rock and blue skies!  

 

Lehman Caves & Zion Plein Air

 We had a great Friday and Saturday!  On Friday we made the long drive up to Great Basin NP where we had a reservation to go on a tour of Lehman Caves.  We got there in time to enjoy a little hike before our tour time.  There was a skiff of snow on the ground at the Baker Creek hike.  We didn't have time to do the whole thing, but what we did do was beautiful.  After that we did the cave tour which is always delightful.  This is a really nice cave.  Then we made the long drive home and stopped by to see Bean in Cedar City and take him to dinner.  It was a wonderful day.  

On Saturday we got up early and went up to Zion Park to see the Plein Air paint off at the lodge.  We had time to do some hiking while we waited for that to happen and it was so beautiful.  The sun was just coming over the top of the mountains shining on the Zion cliffs.  We enjoyed a beautiful day there and some of the paintings were really nice.  We especially liked Roland Lee's painting and one next to him of the lodge and the mountains behind it.  There were watercolor, oil and pastel paintings happening all around the lawn in front of the lodge.  It was pretty cold in the early morning when we arrived, but turned into a beautiful Fall day.  

Between Zion and Lehman caves, I like this quote about nature's way of making art out of stone:

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

October birthdays

Jared's birthday was kind of non-existent because he was out of the country on vacation.  I don't even know if he's home yet...but he turned 48 and we sent him a card and a gift card we hope he will enjoy.  Next came Koen's #16 birthday.  It was kind of a bust.  He has moved in almost exclusively with  his dad now and isn't too available.  We were able to set up a time to take him to dinner and what he ordered wasn't good to him so it was pretty crappy for him.  We got to visit some with him at least and then took him to DQ for ice cream that was more to his liking. He opened his present in the car. Tasia's #20 birthday was this week and she came down from school at BYU for the weekend.  She and Kaebri came over for a couple of hours of visiting.  It was so nice to see both of them.  They are both on good life paths and I'm so grateful for that.  She seemed to like her presents and I'm glad we got to see them for a bit.  The grand kids are so busy with their lives as they get older that it's pretty hard to stay connected it feels like.  We are trying.  

Fall Break - Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Pinnacles and Lassen

 Fall Break was a wonderful dash to four National Parks - Kings Canyon/Sequoia, Pinnacles and Lassen Volcanic.  We had been to all of these places before, but wanted to see some parts we hadn't seen or wanted to see again this time.  We had been to and seen pretty much all of Sequoia before.  Kings Canyon we had barely seen any of.  We had been to the west side of Pinnacles when it was actually closed and we had never been to the north side of Lassen because the road had always been closed due to snow.  It was a wonderful, quick trip.  

We left on Thursday morning and arrived at Sequoia late afternoon. We came in at the south entrance - Foothills Visitor's Center. We had time to enjoy several stops and almost the whole Generals Highway drive that day. We saw Tunnel Rock, Hospital Rock, the Big Trees Trail and General Sherman Tree which we hiked to in a small rainstorm.  We couldn't hike to Moro Rock because it completely shrouded in rain clouds.  We stayed at the John Muir Lodge in Kings Canyon/Grant Grove Village that night.  I was quite disappointed in the lodge.  It wasn't very much of a lodge and certainly not a very quaint lodge type room.  But it was very expensive and inside the park. Being in the park made it easy to access the area early in the morning before the crowds arrived.  Overall, it wasn't really very crowded anyway.  

On Friday we went early to see the General Grant Tree and it was a great hike among the giant trees.  Then we drove the rest of the Generals Highway and then the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway road.  We stopped at many overlooks along the way.  The forest and canyon were beautiful where fire hadn't burned them up.  We stopped by and hiked to Roaring River Falls which was beautiful.  On the way back we stopped off at Knapps Cabin, Grizzly Falls and went on a tour of Boyden Cave.  They were all really great.  Unfortunately Crystal Cave in Sequoia was closed for some work.  Another time!  Then we headed on to the illusive town of Firebaugh for the night.  Google took us to the town, but our hotel was actually another 20 or so miles away.  It was still the "city of Firebaugh", but no where near it with nothing of the city in between.  Crazy and quite frustrating.  It was a good room though, thank goodness.  We were ready for it!  

We got up early Saturday morning to drive to Pinnacles.  It has very limited parking and we did find a spot because we got there early.  It was cold, but warmed up nicely while we were there.  Our main thing to see there was to hike the Balconies Cave Trail to the Talus Cave.  It was a nice hike up to it and through it.  Really interesting.  We also saw lots of work by the CCC at the Bear Gulch Resevoir.  We saw the amazing Pinnacles formations all around as well.  Then it was time to head to Red Bluff for the night.  It was the longest drive to the next destination of the trip.  We made it in time for dinner and a hotel that was good, but too close to the Freeway unfortunately.  We did some shopping for our next day's Sunday dinner that we would cook ourselves.  It was a nice enough town and the church was close to our motel and the ward was nice the next morning.  

Sunday after attending 9 am sacrament meeting we drove on to Lassen Volcanic NP.  It was a couple of hours.  We got there early enough to enjoy most of the day there.  We finally made it to some of the geothermal features of the park on the north side and also the Visitor's Center there.  We saw Sulpher Springs and then hiked the 3 miles to Bumpass Hell hot pots and steam vents.  It was a beautiful and sometimes steep hike and the hot stuff was really interesting.  We drove the Lassen Volcanic National Park Highway and stopped off at lots of overlooks.  We ate our picnic snack at Helen Lake at the base of Mt. Lassen.  We hiked the 3 steep miles to King Creek Falls and Cascades.  It was worth the hike.  We had downloaded the park narration for the highway and enjoyed learning about the many things along the way and stopped to see them.  Then it was on to Sparks, Nevada for the night.  This turned out to be a great extended stay hotel.  It had a kitchen with a big microwave, full sized fridge/freezer and a countertop stove.  It worked out to be the perfect place to cook our microwave Sunday dinners!  It was in a nice location with a beautiful park loop walk around a lake for in the morning.  It was certainly a case of saving the best for last and it was the cheapest place we stayed as well!  

Monday we hit the road and drove the long trip home on the backroads of Nevada.  We didn't stop except for gas and pit stops.  We had a great book we were listening to that kept us awake.  The road wasn't crowded like the freeways, so it was nice.  We got home in time for dinner.  We drove around 2,000 miles and it was worth the trip!  We have pretty much seen all of the western national parks now, so next trip we may be starting on some in the Midwest.  

Halloween Fun with Jem and Kaia

 Had a fun time with Jem and Kaia this morning going to the Scarecrow Walk at the Desert Garden.  There were lots of creepy and cute things to see there.  After that we had a little donut picnic and played Halloween Bingo and decorated little pumpkins.  Then we took a little hike over to the Scout Cave.  After that we came back to our house and read the Halloween books and played with toys until Supe came to pic them up.  It was a fun time with these littles.  

Here they are all dressed up to go Trick-or-Treating!  

President Nelson's 100th Birthday gift

 Russell M. Nelson 

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I am soon approaching my 100th birthday. One of the places where the Savior used the number 100 in the scriptures was the parable of the lost sheep. Though 99 of his flock were safely by his side, the shepherd went in search of the 1 who was lost.

At age 99, I have no need of physical gifts. But one spiritual offering that would brighten my life is for each of us to reach out to “the one” in our lives who may be feeling lost or alone.

Over the coming months I invite you to consider prayerfully: who do you know who may be discouraged? Who might you need to reconcile with or ask for forgiveness? Has one name been on your mind lately, though you haven’t quite known why? As you bring these questions to the Lord, He will inspire you to know how you can reach out and lift one who needs help.

What a beautiful example the Savior has shown us – that through each of us ministering to just one within our reach, we can spread the love of Jesus Christ throughout the world. #99plus1

Today in between general conference sessions they had a segment about President Nelson. It reminded me of something I wanted to record. He invited us to reach out to "the one" in our lives who may be feeling lost or alone. I remember thinking about how I could do that and not immediately thinking of anyone in particular that I could do this for. Later, however, I found someone. A lady who has been doing an amazing job on pedicures for me was basically put out of business when the place she rented in a mall was closed for renovations of the whole mall. She couldn't find a new place to locate her business. They closed down and her brother, her transportation, and son and parents moved back to CA. She didn't want to move because her daughter loves her school here. She moved a couple of her pedicure chairs into her apartment and is trying to make a go of it there for now. She texted me to let me know she was doing business at home again. I went to her and got the great pedicure I always get. I wondered how she was going to make it. Then after a bit I decided I could post about her on my FB page and also just text friends about her and how great a job she does for a great price. I had people message me if they wanted her contact info. It has turned out very well with lots of people asking me for her info and then going to her. I just had another friend tell me she had gone to her and loved her great work. Anna texted to to tell me thank you for sending so many people to her! I am so happy to hear that she got some new, hopefully returning, customers this way. I'm so glad I could help her just a little. It wasn't much effort on my part, but it's making some difference for her.

Leaf Looking 2024

I can love it over and over every year!  I never get tired of looking at the glorious colors of Fall leaves!  We even go to the same place to look at them.  Tradition!  Today was especially nice because of the clouds and even some sprinkles.  We stopped in and picked up Bean in Cedar City and then headed up the mountain.  We went through Cedar Breaks first and then turned right and went down that road.  We stopped and walked by a little stream we love, and then continued on and stopped off by the big lava beds for a little snack.  After that we went back via Duck Creek and stopped off for a walk at Aspen Mirror Lake.  It's always a favorite spot.  We saw a cool eagle nest along the way.  After that we went back via Navajo Lake road and then over to Brian Head and down to Parowan where we stopped in at the Dairy Freeze for great shakes and onion rings.  Really good!  Then we headed back down to Cedar City to drop Bean off and head home.  It was a really nice day with him and he seemed to be doing very well. Happy Fall!  

Paul and I went to Pine Valley yesterday and found a few leaves changing there.  It was just a little early for that elevation, but still so peaceful with the campgrounds closed for the year and the gates locked.  We just walked the paved to trail to the end and then walked part of the old Canal Trail back to the car.   Then we went to a beautiful reception with a sit down dinner and then to the Banff film festival for an evening of adventure films.  It was a wonderful day!

A little more leaf looking included a Friday walk and Picnic in Pine Valley.  The gate is closed because they are doing some paving so we walked clear up the trail to the end and had a little picnic at that top campsite.  Along the way there is an old apple tree.  We saw an apple way up high on it and were able to harvest it with a stick.  After we cut out the bird peck, it turned out to be a really good apple to add to our picnic.  On Saturday we went up on Cedar Mountain again to a Single Adult dinner at Wood's Ranch.  Paul cooked up some great DO potatoes to go with the bishop's sloppy joes.  It was cool and nice up there and the leaves were so pretty.  Didn't get many pics in either place.  

 More Fall fun.  Hiked the little Brookside Trail to Baker Lake.  The leaves haven't changed much yet, but it was still so pretty.  We stopped at Veyo Pie on the way there and got chicken pot pies and pie slices and took them to Pine Valley.  We had a nice picnic of the chicken pot pies there and decided to take the pie slices home to eat with ice cream.  It was good to get out and see the pretty stuff.  Someone put tape on the open range cattle signs to make them into Oreo Cows like the ones at Pine Valley are. Funny!

We got our bikes out and went to Pine Valley for a Fall ride today.  We also added in a little hike.  The leaves had finally turned up there and it was beautiful.  The uphill part of the ride was a huffing and puffing event since it's been forever since we've ridden.  We did the return ride on the Santa Clara River paved trail and it was a downhill ride and so very nice!  It was cool and peaceful and beautiful.  

Beaver Campout

We had a great campout!  It's later than we probably would go camping up at Beaver because it's getting pretty cold now with Fall in the air.  But, since we have our little camp trailer and can be inside if we need to and stay warm, we went.  It was wonderful because almost no one was up there camping, except in our favorite spot, at Round Flat.  We went just a little down the road to another favorite spot which was great.  There were no 4-wheelers screaming around.  It was in the low 50's during the day.  We got there and got set up just in time to make a delicious dinner and ate it inside because it was getting pretty cold.  It's so nice to have the option of cooking inside.  We had clam chowder and grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit.  Later we had hot chocolate and a cherry turnover for dessert.  We played some games, listened to a book and hit the sack.  

In the morning we lazed in bed some until the sun was full up and then we drove up the mountain to see if we could see any of the mountain goats.  We hiked around a little and then a lot to look for them.  We saw some picas in the rocks.  It was a sunny but windy day, but with coats on we did just fine and had a great hike...but saw no goats.  We hiked to within a mile of Delano peak looking.  We had no water with us, so decided not to go all the way to the peak this time.  By that time it was time to head back and get the stew cooking.  It turned out really well and it was early enough that we ate dinner outside with the sun shining on our backs.  It felt so good and was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful.  

After dinner went down and took a walk to the dam and around LeBaron Lake.  That day we had seen a crew clearing the edges of the road with a cool remote controlled wood chipper machine.  We had seen lots of evidence of their work all along the road up.  They left lots of great wood all cut to size for people to pick up.  We saw people loading it up along our drive back to camp and put several pieces in to take home for firewood this winter.  Our dinner was again, so delicious.  We had the stew and yummy bread and fruit and then hot chocolate and the rest of the cherry turnovers for dessert.  We played games and went to bed.  

In the morning stayed in bed until the sun was up and then went for a walk and saw some deer.  In the night we had heard some coyotes yipping and early in the morning heard some elk bugling.  We didn't see any unfortunately.  We came back and got things packed up.  Then we drove down to Cedar and took Bean to lunch and then we went up and saw the new Visitor's Center at Cedar Breaks.  It's very nice.  Then it was time to head home and put it away.  At least it was only 96 at home.  Pretty hot after our mid 50's respite.  There were leaves just starting to turn up in the mountains.  Fall is on it's way and we are looking forward to the cooler weather coming.