North Rim/Jacob Lake rain get away!

 We just wanted a quick, beautiful getaway!  We got a one night stay in a little cabin at Jacob Lake and spent a day at the North Rim.  And...it rained!  We got everything we had hoped for!  Beautiful walks at the Grand Canyon and at Jacob Lake, rain falling and beautiful views and fresh, rain washed air, and forests and flowers!  It was GOOD!  The day we got back we had a fun "Pie and beer - Pioneer Day" family dinner at Juge's.  We had great food and fun times playing her Pioneer Cranium game.  No pics. 

Summertime walking & riding, Liberty Village and Kayenta Art Village

 I just recently started riding my bike again!  I had it tuned up last year for my birthday, but with school starting too early for me to ride in the morning, I just never did ride.  Now I'm not going to be going back to school and I have time in the summer, anyway, so I have started riding again.  It's hard, but I'm glad to be "back in the saddle again!"

Another thing I'm getting back to with Paul is walking in the hot summer evenings at the golf course.  We were getting to where we were just watching movies in the evening or playing games.  Getting out to walk is a much better thing.  The golf course is much cooler, especially when they have the sprinklers going and you can walk through them!  I'm glad we remembered this nice evening ritual and are reviving it!  If we find golf balls, we play hand golf too!  

A couple of other places we've enjoyed are Liberty Village and the Kayenta Art Village!  Love getting out to enjoy new places!

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.