Camping

This year for our big summer trip, we went camping at the property for a week.  We haven't been to the property for a couple of years so it was good to go back and hang out with the family.

We spent a lot of time just lounging around in the shade, chatting, drinking Cokes, eating snacks, and having picnics. 

The kids also had a great time on the Merry-Totter.  My dad made this teeter-totter that spins over the winter and spring just so he could bring it up on the mountain for the grandkids.  They all love playing on it especially Charlotte and Brooklyn.  All Brooklyn wanted to do was play on the playground.  Emily was a good sport and followed Brooklyn around all day.

This was Brooklyn's first time camping and she loved it!  Well okay not her first time because we did go camping last year but she was too little to do anything.  This year she was old enough to walk around and explore, get dirty, and have fun.  We seriously had to watch and follow her all the time because she would just wander off into the woods or run down the hill and get going too fast and biff.  She didn't even care if she fell because she was outside running free.  She was so dirty at the end of each day.  She really like sitting in the hammocks, washing her hands in the water jug, and throwing rocks in the lake.

One day we went fishing at Deep Lake.  Everyone had their poles in the water and ready to catch a fish.  The water was really low so we though they would be biting like mad.  Sadly, it is just our luck and we got skunked.  No bites, and no fish.  This made the kids frustrated because some guy fishing a little way down from us and so other people fishing around the lake from us were catching them left and right.  I don't know what we were doing wrong but the fish just did not like us.  Charlotte gave up and walked down the bank a ways from us and just started entertaining herself by throwing rocks.  Brooklyn and Logan soon joined.  Emily and Colby were determined to keep fishing.  Then when I got tired of throwing rocks and making sure Brooklyn didn't get in the water, I put Brooklyn in the stroller.  She was not very happy about that.  We finally called it a day and headed back to camp without any fish.  Luckily we had hot dogs so we didn't starve.

Another fun thing to do on the mountain is four-wheeling!  Emily is getting pretty good at driving the four-wheeler except she hits every bump and rock in the road.  If you are riding on the back with her, like I was, you basically get whiplash or a bad back.  I kept telling her to try not to hit the bumps.  She said she was trying but it sure didn't feel like it.  Maybe I am just getting too old...

Emily, Logan, and I rode out to a lookout point and could see the whole world from there.  Well the whole city of Richfield and the surrounding towns that is.  On our ride, we drove right passed this little buck.  He was just laying in the bushes watching us.  We were probably only a few yard away from him and we watched him for quite a while before he got up and walked away.  It was like he wasn't even scared.

Russell took the kids on a big four-wheeling ride with the Hughes's and Grandma and Grandpa.  I stayed back at camp with Brooklyn and Logan.  Logan didn't want to go and we don't really have enough room for Brooklyn and me either.  The three of us had a good time at camp playing games and exploring the back forty of the property.  We hiked the four wheeler trail and found the boys' huts and cabins.  

I don't really know where they rode on the four-wheelers.  They were gone all day and came home super dirty with lots of stories to tell so it must have been fun.

On the 24th of July, Pioneer Day, we took a long road trip to the Morwood Reunion for dinner.   We started the trip in the morning and drove down the mountain in to Richfield.  From there, we took I-70 and drove to my parent's other property on Accord Lake.  I have not been to this property for many years.  I think the last time I was there was when Emily was one.   This is a nice property but it is on a big hill so there are not a lot of trees and camping spots.  We did stop here for a picnic though and it is perfect for that.  My parents are thinking of selling this property but they haven't had any offers yet so they are not really pushing it.  They really hope a cell phone tour will lease it from them and then they can make some money off of it but we'll see.

After leaving the Accord Lake property, we drove down I-70 some more to the Fremont exit (I think) and drove the back way around Fish Lake mountain to Fremont and then to Loa and Bicknell.  I had never been on that road before so it was cool to see some new country.  We made another turn off outside of Bicknell and drove through the mountains to Boulder Mountain.  This is where the reunion was held so we then had to find the campsite.  I was glad we were following my dad because I had no idea where we were or where we were going.  We finally made it to the campsite just before dinner which was perfect timing! 

At the reunion we all got together for dinner.  It was the first time we had gotten together since my Grandma died in May.  It was different not seeing her there but you could feel she was happy we were all together.  I think the only one not there was Mary Ellen and her family.  I thought it was a pretty good turn out.  

Charlotte made some new cousin friends while we were there.  These three little girls (Hattie, Capri, and Charlotte) had no idea they had more cousins their age.  They were fast friends.  They spent the whole night running around together and playing in the dirt.  Cousins are the best!

We drove back to camp that night and it was a long trip back.  We did stop at the Fish Lake Lodge on the way back, though, for our traditional, must-have ice cream!  Emily and Grandma even bought matching Fish Lake t-shirts.

The week was so fun that we didn't want to go home.  I wish we could just live on the mountain and have no responsibilities other than when it was time to eat.  Unfortunately we needed to go home to get Emily ready for Girls Camp and all of the kids ready to go back to school.  Why does the summer have to go by so quickly?

Summer : Part 3

Summer Part 3 is a little shorter than the last two parts.  This is mostly because the Fourth of July took up most of that time. 

This summer I really wanted to do a lot of things outdoors.  There are so many hiking trails and things to do in the mountains around our town and I wanted to explore a lot of them.  We have lived in the Cache Valley for 7 years now and we have not done hardly any of the hikes or seen many of the sights around the Valley.  We wanted to change that this summer. 

So our first hike was Richard's Hollow.  This trail is up Left Hand Fork in Blacksmith Canyon.  This hike was one I had heard about from some friends and wanted to check out.  It is also rated easy for kids so that was a plus.  The trail actually is easy up to the waterfall and then gets difficult and continues on all over the mountain linking it to Logan Canyon.  Its used by hikers and mountain bikers in the summer and snowshoers in the winter.  

We decided to just go up to the waterfall and then turn around making the hike about 3-4 miles.  The trail starts at a parking area across from the Friendship Campground up Left Hand Fork.  The trail is really well marked so the kids just ran up ahead of us.

 

Along the way we found this cool chair made out of rocks.  Logan and Charlotte had to sit in it and get a picture.  This was their favorite part of the whole hike.  We also saw this giant colorful moth on the ground.  Unfortunately it was dead but the coloring was so cool I had to take a picture of it.

About a mile into the hike, we came across this cool tepee made out of sticks.  This tepee was in a clearing near the river and looked like a camp of some sort.

Up to this point in the trail it was pretty easy going.  After this point though it started getting hard because it turned up hill.  The trail also had some rocky switch backs but we made it up.  We were not quite sure where we were going or where we wanted to end up but we knew the waterfall was supposed to be about 1.8 miles up the trail.  So we walked to where we thought 1.8 miles was and looked around for a waterfall.  We could hear water running so we climbed down what looked like a trail to the river.  From there, we saw this little spring waterfall coming out of the rocks.  It was pretty cool so this is where we stopped for a break.

The kids had a good time playing on the rocks and finding caves in the boulders.  Truly's nose was going crazy with all of the new smells so she wanted to run around smelling and exploring everything.  Brooklyn loved riding in the backpack and just liked looking at everything.  

We spent a little while here just resting and exploring before heading back down the trail to the truck.  The way back always seems shorter that going up.  By this time the sun was starting to shine through the trees so it was getting pretty warm.  It was a good time to head back.  When we got back to the truck and were able to get service on our phones, we looked up the Richard's Hollow trail on our app to see if we had gone the right way.  Come to find out the waterfall was actually about a quarter mile up farther than where we stopped.   We were bummed that we were so close but didn't go far enough to see it.  Well I guess that means we will have to go on this trail again some time to actually see the real waterfall.  I have heard that spring or early summer is a better time to go anyway because there is more water running down the waterfall.  Next Time! 

This hike was really fun even if the kids were angry that we had to go so early.  I hope we can do hikes like this more often.

Happy Birthday to Me.

Happy Birthday to me!  I am getting so old.  I turned 37 this year and its hard to say that...  I never really imagined what it would be like to be 37 and it just makes me realize I am not getting any younger.  Well the good thing is that I don't feel old.  I feel like I always have.  I am still able to do all the things I want to do and I have energy to do them.  Now yes by the time it is 8:30 I am ready for bed.  I am not a night owl anymore but that's okay with me.  

While everyone was at our house for the 4th, Jen and Ashley did a little birthday thing for me.  They had everyone sing "Happy Birthday" and then I blew out some candles on my flag jello cake.  They also gave me a pretty orchid flower.  It looks so beautiful, let's hope I can keep it alive for awhile.  It was so nice of them to remember my birthday!

Having everyone over for the past weekend was really fun but also really hard for me.  I was exhausted.  Don't get me wrong I love having people over and the kids really enjoy having their grandparents and cousins over to play with, but it is a lot of work.  Hosting everyone took a toll on me and I needed time to be alone, quiet, and away from everything and everyone or I was going to lose it.  So as a birthday present to myself, I took a long bike ride.  

 

I rode 37 miles, one for every year I have been alive.  It was the best two and a half hours I had spent in the last week.  I just cruised up to Hardware Ranch, gazed out over the meadow and just enjoyed the solitude before heading back down the canyon and home.  The ride really made me feel free and young again.  

 

I was hoping the craziness of the weekend would all be gone by the time I got home. When I got there, Russell and the kids were already cleaning the house and had it pretty much done.  Yeah, another great birthday present!

For my birthday, we decided to go kayaking at Porcupine Reservoir.  This was first time we had taken our kayaks out this year so it was a much needed trip.

We all had a great time floating and swimming around in the water.  I got a new Garmin watch before the Little Red Ride because my other one died.  With this new watch, I can do a lot more functions so I tried out the kayaking function today and kayaked around the lake.  I tracked one mile of kayaking before heading back to shore.  It was really fun just being out on the lake alone seeing how far I could row.  

Like I have said before, Brooklyn is a fish.  She loved the water a little too much because she kept trying to get in and swim away.  I don't think she realized that she doesn't know how to swim, she just wanted in the water.  When we put her on the kayak, she was in heaven.  She didn't want to get off.  We floated her around for quite a while and she loved it. 

The kids just love swimming in the water.  They mostly use the kayaks for flotation devices to get out to the deeper water.  They will kayak for a bit but them just swim the rest of the time.  I am the opposite, I would rather float around on the kayak than actually swim in the water.  Oh well we all have a good time.

The day spent at Porcupine was the best.  I love hanging out with this family of mine.  Mostly I love just relaxing in the shade, and watching them have fun.  This was a great day for me and a great birthday!

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July, Independence Day, is probably my favorite holiday. It always has been. Maybe it's because my birthday is the next day, maybe because of the fireworks, maybe it's the family time,  maybe because it's what summer is all about, or maybe it's because we are celebrating our freedom. Whatever it is, it's the best!

This year we spent the Fourth at home and the Farnsworth's came up to stay with us for a few days.  For our first fun activity we headed to the CCC camp to go wading in the Blacksmith Fork river.  The water was cold as usual but it felt really nice on this hot day.  Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth joined us as well as Tyler, Ashley, and Mavis.  We had a good time.  

On Saturday we headed to the Cache Valley Cruise-In to see all of the awesome cars in the car show.

Apparently we like red cars!  These were some of our favorites.

There were so many more cars at this Car Show than at the Hyrum one because this is a bigger venue and a more popular show.  Of course the Corvettes were still my favorite.  Another cool car was this old truck motor home like vehicle.  It was restored so nicely and the camper portion was really nice too.  Russell and I decided that we needed this vehicle when we retire so we can just cruise the country.

That night we drove into town to watch the Cruise-In cars drive up and down Main Street.  Watching these cool cars drive up the road was so awesome.  We loved seeing the vintage vehicles cruising like in their heyday.  These were some of our favorite cars:

The red Lightning McQueen car was painted just like the car in the movies.  There was also a Pizza Planet truck like in the Toy Story movies.  The pink Cadillac was pretty awesome as well.  The boys' favorite car of the whole show was the Lamborghini!  We had to watch this car drive by a few times because it was so amazing.

On Sunday we all went to church.  Brooklyn was being really restless so I wondered if she would like going to Nursery to play with the toys.  I have never taken her to the Nursery before because she is not yet 18 months old so I planned on staying to see how she would do.  As Brooklyn ran down the hallway I guided her to the Nursery room.  As soon as she walked in, her eyes just lit right up!  The look on her face just told me "Why have I never been here before? The church must be true if it has a room full of toys!"  Brooklyn was so happy to go to Nursery.  She walked straight in and started playing.  Like I said before, I was planning on staying but Brooklyn was so happy to be there, she didn't need me and didn't even notice that I left.  I was so surprised.  I walked to the Sunday School room for class and didn't look back.  When class was over, I went back to the Nursery to get Brooklyn and she was happy to see me then.  The leaders said she did amazingly and didn't even cry once.  I hope this happens every week!

That night we attended the Hyrum Patriotic Program at the City Square.  Emily and Charlotte took part in the program with the City Royalty.  They were announced and got to set in front of the audience. The program was very appropriate and honored all of the veterans in Hyrum.  The children's choir sang a few patriotic songs and we listened to a really good speaker talk about her husband who had died in Afghanistan.

Monday was July 4th!  We started the day with the Hyrum City Parade.  We had a whole group of us at the parade.  Jen and Rick came up with their family as well.

These three are always funny around each other.  Russell and Tyler were comparing pocket knifes like usual when Jen walked over with Rick's pocket "machete" to compare.  Needless to say, she won the knife battle.

Before the parade started, Colby got a nice surprise from a bird.  As we were hanging out, we saw this bird fly over our heads when all of a sudden we see something drop out of the sky and land right on Colby's head.  Yes, you guessed it, he got a direct hit from a poop bomb.  The bird poop landed right in his hair.  It was so gross.  We could not stop laughing but Colby didn't think it was that funny.  When we stopped laughing, we wiped the poop out of his hair and told him to make sure to take a shower tonight.

Finally the parade began and the candy started to fly.

The kids spent the whole parade chasing the candy, Otter Pops, and string cheese that were thrown from the parade floats.  We were so busy gathering goodies that I don't think we even watched the parade!

We did pay attention when the Hyrum City Royalty float came by though.  This was the most important float of the parade because it was the one Emily and Charlotte were on!

This parade was more enjoyable for the girls because they had music playing and the little girls were able to blow bubbles while the bigger girls threw candy.  They all had a good time.  I was even able to pick them up on time so they were not the last girls to be picked up.  Parade #2 was a success!

After the parade, it was time to party with all the family.

All the girls loved playing with Mavis.  She has gotten so much bigger since we say her last.  Mavis enjoyed all of the attention and she is such a chill baby.

With so many people at our house, we shoved the kids outside and told them to stay out there.  We gave them about 100 water balloons and told them to have at it.

The water balloons did not last as long as I hoped but they had a great time anyway.  Soon they were just throwing water from the cooler at each other.  

Next Jen set up a blow up Slip-N-Slide and that was a hit with all of the kids.  We even invited the neighbor kids, Everett and Maverick, to come play.

The Slip-N-Slide was the best thing.  All of the kids had a blast sliding through the water and getting soaked.  Even Brooklyn liked sitting on the edge and splashing in the water.  The boys had competitions to see who could slide the farthest.

Sadly the Slip-N-Slide didn't last very long either because it got a giant rip and won't hold or spray water anymore.  The kids were bummed.  Instead they used the Slip-N-Slide tarp as a sun bathing area.  Then they moved on to the kiddie pool.

The kids did like splashing in the kiddie pool but soon got bored of that too.  Brooklyn and Charlotte on the other hand did not want to get out of the Kiddie pool.  They loved lounging and splashing in there.

Finally it was time for dinner.  We had a whole group of people over to eat.  We had the Phillips clan, Paul, Charlene, Calen, Rochelle, Kristy and her family, Stacey and her family, and Bryson and his family.  We also had all of the Farnsworths, Grandma and Grandpa, Tyler's family and Jen's family.  Sadly, the only one missing was Traci.  It was a good little get together.  We made BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches and everyone else brought sides, salads, and desserts to share.  We worried that we wouldn't have enough food but we actually had a ton of leftovers!

After dinner Paul and Calen put together a really special program in honor of Independence Day.  We did a flag retirement ceremony.

We all gathered around our fire pit in the back yard and listened as Paul told us the significance of the flag and the importance of honoring it and retiring it the proper way.

As he was explaining, Calen and Bryson unfolded the flag.  I thought this program was so good and so appropriate for the day. 

As they held up the flag, the ceremony turned a little spiritual in that you just feel the importance of this ceremony.  

While Calen and Bryson lowered the flag into the fire, you could hear sniffling and you knew this was such an important thing we were doing.  The respect for the flag and the proper way to retire it was made clear.  I was so grateful Paul brought up the idea of doing this ceremony.  It really put a cherry on top of this day and made us remember the true meaning of freedom.  All of the kids were also enthralled in the ceremony and you could tell they knew it was important too.

As it got dark, we settled into the back yard to watch the fireworks of the 4th of July.

We are lucky because the Hyrum Fireworks are shot off right behind our house so we have the perfect view.  I love watching fireworks and this was a great show as always.  This was a perfect ending to a great day.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!