Great things happening for Zade lately! He got his braces off!!! Lookin' so good! He participated in a Skill's USA Knowledge Bowl school competition in SLC where his team took 2nd place!!! And, he got a 35 on his ACT test...a 36 is perfect, so he came pretty close! That means a lot of colleges will be willing to invite him to come and offer him scholarships. Way to work hard and be smart and have fun Zade! Proud you! Now I need of pic of you playing in your Jazz Band!
It had to be a quick trip because we had a wedding reception to go to for the Akita's son on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't quite sure why they invited us. We don't know them well, but they lived in Weed's neighborhood when she passed away and were so wonderful to the whole family in their time of need. For several summers after they moved to Hawaii, Trigg went over to spend time with them and their son who was a childhood friend of his. I think Becky was like a mother figure to him when he really needed it. It turned out to be such a fun reception. The Akita's are Hawaiian and the bride's family had Tongan and Samoan roots. After the yummy Polynesian dinner there was lots of hula type dancing by different family members to honor the bride and groom. As they were dancing, people started coming up and throwing dollar bills around the dancers and even putting it in their clothes! We found out that instead of giving gifts, this is a way to give to the bride and groom as they start their lives together. They actually had to sweep up piles of bills after each dance. It was fun! I had already given them a gift via Amazon. Becky came over to our table and shared some of the money she was going to throw so we could have a chance to participate in that fun little tradition. There were lots of really nice people! The little girl in the picture with Kaebri has Lenae's name as her middle name. So sweet. Becky wanted us to meet her for sure. Lenae has other namesakes as well. Lenae Fawson, in our homeward is named after her too. She is the sweetest, kindest and prettiest little girl and smart to boot. Love seeing these namesakes!
This morning before church, Paul and I took our walk on the Red Hill to see if there were wild flowers since we had a little rain the other day. There weren't tons, but there were some and it was so nice to see them. 
Oh what a great first campout of the year we had at Pine Park! No one was there except us until just as we were leaving. We went on Friday afternoon and came home Saturday afternoon. We got there about 5:30 and got everything set up and took a walk up to overlook the canyon and then made a delicious dinner of pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy and fresh green salad, and ate it outside. We had some some wonderful Costco Danish for dessert. After dinner we took a short hike up the South Boundary Trail and then came back and enjoyed watching the full moon rise and sitting out and enjoying the cool evening with the frogs croaking in the stream nearby. We slept quite well in our little trailer bed.
In the morning we took a hike up one canyon until it got too impassable and then went up another until we wanted to get out of it. The streams were full of little fish and things were starting to green up. The manzanita was blooming. When we wanted to be done in the canyon we found a good place and climbed up and out of it. We saw bright red Indian Paintbrush up there. Then we went over to enjoy the amazing white rock canyons hiking through them on the way back to our camp doing about 4 miles in the process. We love the amazing rock formations there. They are made of bright white volcanic Ash-flow tuff in hoodoos, pyramids and mushroom shaped domes and undulating slickrock basins. These spires have eroded from thick deposits of white volcanic ash-flow tuff known as the Tuff of Honeycomb Rock . An ash-flow tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash, rock, and gases derived from explosive volcanic eruptions. Pine Park lies at the edge of the ancient Pine Park caldera--one of dozens of calderas spanning from southwestern Utah, across central Nevada, to the border of eastern California. Back at camp we ate leftover Danish and green salad. We took a nap and then it was time to pack it up and head home. On the way home we made a stop at the Mountain Meadows Memorial site. It's such a sad thing that happened there.
Paul had a doctor's appointment for his knee in Park City. We went up on Thursday afternoon and spent the night to be there for the 9 am appointment. We stayed in Heber City at a quant little motel that night. The appointment went well. Afterward we decided to spend the rest of the day sight seeing. We ended up going to the This is the Place Heritage Park and spending the whole rest of the day there. It wasn't entirely open since this is the slow time of year, but we enjoyed what there was. We saw the National Pony Express Monument and the Mormon Battalion Monument. Then we moved on to the Pioneer Center and This is the Place Monument and the Pioneers of 1847 Monument. Then we took the little train ride around to see where all of the other park features are. There were lots of them including the Native American Village, the Andrus Halfway House, the shaving parlor, the Huntsman Hotel & Grill, the ZCMI Kid & Candy Shop, The Savage Livery Stable and Petting Corral, the Blacksmith Shop, the Deseret New Print Shop, the B. F. Johnson Saddlery Shop, the Social Hall (which is also the Brigham Young Donut Shop - we got some and some hot chocolate), The Children's Monument and the Ship Brooklyn, the gift shop and more! It was fun where there were people dressed up in period clothing to explain and demonstrate things about that site. It was a cold gray day, but in our coats we did just fine. After that we went into Salt Lake and looked around at Temple Square. When we were all done we went and saw James' house with all of the remodeling and then went out for dinner with him. That night we stayed at Jay and Brynn's house. They are on vacation, so we had it to ourselves with the dogs. Saturday morning it was time to head home. We took the long route home and ended by driving through Zion which was a beautiful as ever. It was a fun little trip.
Wow, what a great Spring Break we had! We left Sunday afternoon after Stake Conference and drove to Ross and Lerlyn's in Aztec, NM. We had such a beautiful drive with amazing scenery getting there. Monday morning Ross, Paul and I went over to Chaco Canyon and had a great day walking among the ancient ruins there. It was a bumpy drive for the last 13 miles of dirt road to get there, but so worth it. (Lerlyn didn't feel up to the hiking and stayed home and made a wonderful dinner for us to come home to.) We spent another night with them visiting and playing games and having a great time.
Tuesday morning we left to head over to Canyon De Chelly. It was another scenic drive to get there and then we spent an awesome day visiting all of the overlooks into the canyon. You can't go into the canyon itself without hiring a guide, but there was a great young guy at the Visitor's Center that answered many questions for us both times we stopped there. It was perfect weather again for this wonderful day. That afternoon we drove over to Pine Top-Lakeside where we spent the night. We had some rain and snow here and there in the driving and overnights, but all of our daytime weather was just perfect for our outdoor activities.
Wednesday morning left and we drove over to Chiricahua National Monument via the Salt River Canyon, etc. We arrived with a few hours of afternoon left to start our activities there. We explored the Faraway Ranch section of it, watched the movie at the Visitor's Center, drove the loop drive and checked out the stops along the way, had a picnic, and hiked the short Sugar Loaf Mountain Trail and the Massai Point Nature Trail. Then it was time to head to our little studio/extended-stay motel in Willcox, which is about 40 minutes from the park.
