Jacob wants to feel the beat!

Jacob is so funny. Anytime he hears music, he gets his little bum bouncing and then gets his whole body into it. When Joseph was practicing the other day, Jacob kept crawling over to him and planting himself between his feet and bouncing to the beat. It was so funny. When Joseph quit playing, Jacob would protest loudly until Joseph played something that he could move his little bottom to. Here's a little video clip....Joseph's just fooling around, but Jacob's loving it!

From Jacob and Joseph

Christmas 2009 Memories

Christmas 2009

My top 20 Christmas memories:

1. Santa snuggling Jacob (with his Dad close by for protection!)

2. Cousins playing together and having fun! Jonathan anticipating Christmas Eve when "My friend, Camille, eats with me downstairs!"

3. David and Ben getting out of bed so many times to check for Santa that they finally went to sleep at 3:00 a.m. and let us sleep until 6:30am (well from 5:00 to 6:30, at least!) Wow, what luxury!

4. Joseph, Samuel and Benjamin sitting engrossed in Samuel's 'Science' book Christmas morning--no one hitting or jabbing or punching....amazing!

5. David being Jacob's "reindeer" and pulling him on his new sled....tirelessly through the upstairs rooms.

6. Jacob dancing to Dad's "santa mobile" present----that baby can bounce!

7. Acting out the Nativity with Jeff's family and my family and Dad holding the 'star' over Camille, the angel's head--I thought he was holding his finger's behind her head, just like my boys would do in a picture!

8. Janele's pies, Cathy's candy, Cathy's enchiladas and rolls----umm, all the yummy Christmas Eve food!

9. My little "Buzz Lightyear" (Jonathan) 'talking' to Buzz Lightyear, the space ranger! Especially when Jonathan puts him back in his "rocket" (package he came in) and Buzz says "It's time for hypersleep." Can you sleep and be hyper at the same time?

10. Joseph in awe that his mom actually picked out 'good' soccer shoes----but also watching coveting Sam and Ben's basketball shoes----trying them on----hmm, guess I'll have to hide those!

11. Joseph's comment to Ben after watching him try on his new clothes---"when I was in 5th grade, Ben, Mom took me shopping at the D.I.!" Wanting to make sure that Ben fully appreciated 'new' clothes that he didn't have to buy himself!

12. David filming everybody with his 'camcorder'-----after he calmed down, because he thought Santa FORGOT him----his Santa present was too small, he couldn't find it. Quick mood recovery for David upon finding it and figuring out what it did!

13. Joseph's excitement in giving me a beautiful necklace and earrings----very chic, and him saying, "hopefully, you won't lose it." I did lose one earring...argh---but I'll find it!

14. Christmas lights---all my trees lit up and Christmas Eve with everthing lit up outside and inside-----you can never have too many lights!

15. Samuel and Ben's and David's excitement over gifts they were giving to their parents and family---it IS funner to give! David could hardly wait for us to open his "Big Mouth Frog" game that he'd made especially for us----complete with homemade bean bags sewn at Scouts!

16. Family time-----hanging out and playing games and laughing together (well, some of the time, at least)!

17. Can't forget the special "Christmas program" at church, the sunday before Christmas. Everyone singing the Christmas carols together.....it was beautiful! Also the "Mountain Aire" Christmas program---amazing and beautiful women!, my voice students singing at the Heritage Home (assisted living)---such cute girls and listening to Joseph play "Ave Maria" and "Jesu, joy of man's desiring." And Joseph attemting to sing "Baby, it's cold outside" with Ami Higley....so cute, even though he was so shy! Singing in the Messiah, listening to my boys play christmas songs on the piano, bass, viola, violin....amazing what they will do to learn a Christmas song.

18. Making pumpkin rolls and having Jonathan help me roll them up in their 'blankies' so they could 'sleep' while they were cooling off. Then delivering the rolls to neighbors and singing (well, the first half hour was good!).

19. My boys wrapping themselves up in Grandmother's blankets---Jonathan claiming Jacob's and unwilling to negotiate a trade---oh, well, Jacob doesn't mind!

20. Listening to the Tabernacle Choir sing "O Holy Night" at the Christmas Devotional and at the Christmas concert....I don't think I've ever heard anything so beautiful in all my life! It was as if the angels came down from heaven and swept me up in a manificent force of beauty. I truly felt like one of the Shepherds listening to the amazing proclamation of Christ's birth---an unearthly experience!

It was a great Christmas.....we are so blessed!

Tribute to Grandmother and Grandfather

To my wonderful Grandparents who well understand the meaning of 'enduring to the end,'---you continue to be a wonderful example of faith and love! Thanks for setting such a beautiful example for all of us to follow! You are as beautiful and kind today as you were when I was a child. Thanks for all the wonderful memories....especially of Christmas! We love you!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO VIEW THE VIDEO CLIP!

I am grateful to be reminded to be grateful! And I am truly grateful that Heavenly Father doesn't give up on me and keeps giving me chances to improve, no matter how poor the progress I am making. I am grateful for my family that gives me a reason to be here---even sometimes if it's merely to do the wash, cook the food and the never-ending cleaning. I'm grateful that I can do it and that I'm needed. And I'm especially grateful that I get a new chance every day to do better and to learn more of why I'm here and what I'm supposed to accomplish. And I'm grateful to all of those along the way that make my path brighter, lift me up and carry me through. Love you all!

A perfect day for apples...

Our friends, the Iversons, came over today with their apple press to help us press our apples. Since they had already pressed 138 quarts of their own, we were especially grateful that they gave us one of their saturdays to press our apples. They had invited one of the athletic trainers from the High School to come with his family and press some of their apples, too. So we had quite the crew! It was a beautiful day!

Firsts for Samuel/Joseph

I've been in mourning that my camera isn't working----wow, I feel like part of me is missing! But I didn't want to let by some firsts that our family is experiencing!

Samuel has become a great Cross Country runner and came in 10th at the Malad meet. He also ran great today and was the 3rd Preston runner to come in. Yey, Samuel, you are amazing! I really need to post a picture of Samuel---noone would believe that the tall, lanky, hollow cheeked young man was the same Samuel that went to 5th grade last year. He's wry sense of humor really is funny. For example, I asked him if he had any friends at Junior High and he said, "Well, the girls think I'm hot!" Such confidence!

Joseph has turned 16 and was asked to his first dance (girl's choice) within the week. Wow, they don't waste time around here even if the dance isn't until the end of November! I guess the girl that asked him heard that there were other plans being laid for him. All he has to say is that he doesn't know why she wants to go with him, he never knows what to say around her. She just moved here from Germany about 3 months ago. He said his conversation opener with her yesterday was, "So do you know any Nazi's? Wow, I think he needs a little help with this....Shelby, we need you! Anyway, very strange to see my first one enter the world of dating, girls, uncomfortable conversations, etc. How could it have happened so fast?

Another testament video

Ya know, Lord, I'm really having a hard time down here......

I loved this video! Don't you just feel like saying sometimes....'ya know, Lord, I'm really having a hard time!...." Silly me, as if He didn't even know!

Farewell to Summer

My memories of summer......

Nightly swims at Riverdale with the family, helping boys pass off swimming requirements for scouts and pushing cute little Jacob around the pool....love it!

Relaxing at Bear Lake with family and friends.....gorgeous and fun

Watering and caring for our garden and flowers.....everything is better after you've spent a little time with the flowers...who can't help but smile at a bed of brightly colored zinnia's and sunflowers---so cheerful!

Watching Joseph try to develop soccer skills in his brothers....some more willing then others!

Hanging out with four of my boys at Suzuki camp.....watching them enjoying (sometimes tolerating) concerts, new teachers, new groups....and of course, checking the lunch menu (the most important item of the day!)

Waking up tired boys to move pipe....watching Joseph and Samuel become better working partners

Walks up in the forest....it's amazing that a beautiful forest is 10 minutes from my doorstep

Watching Jonathan and David catch grasshoppers to feed to the fish in our creek...it's actually quite entertaining to watch them gobble up those annoying insects!

Floating the Bear River with family on the 4th of July...so fun, even if I only got to take pictures---next year, I'm in!

The fourth of July celebration at our community park----yummy food, family, water slides and 'live' fish ponds----loved watching cousins enjoy each other

Entering our 'crops', rooster and bunny in the County Fair...if only David would have been satisfied with his second place ribbons and not known about Jonathan's first place ribbons (although they both entered exactly the same things)

Get togethers at Papa Joe's Farm.....dinners, egg hunts, watering Dad's garden, lawn, and flowers, and discovering very unusual varieties of acorn/zucchini squash

Jumbo cherries from our tree (no lie---the size of very large marbles), sun-warmed strawberries eaten on site, picking raspberries, yummy food out of the garden----corn on the cob, green beans, fresh lettuce, zucchini smothered in butter and cheese, fresh tomatoes...sooo yummy!

Rodeo days----chasing candy at the parades, watching delighted smiles at the Carnival (and a few sick ones as well!), eating snocones, cotton candy, hamburgers and soda, walking to the car through the dark streets together

Mowing days....getting those boys to get all this grass cut with one small lawnmower---not sure if I'll miss that or not---but I love the look of freshly cut grass

Movie night at the Worm Creek Opera house---a free movie, popcorn and drink for a little volunteer work---we look forward to these nights all week long

Laying on the trampoline and watching all the beautiful stars in the sky....it's quite overwhelming, I feel like I'm being swallowed up in an amazing aura of light...hearing Samuel say, "Holy Cow....I just saw a shooting star!"

Feeling the cool breeze of the canyon sweep through our windows at night---chasing away the hot stuffy air of the summer day...love to sleep with the windows open

Late 'brunches'---if I made them wait long enough for breakfast, I could get away with one large meal for breakfast and lunch!

Motorcycle rides, Sunday afternoon walks to Grandma's, Jacob and Jonathan's delighted smiles on the 4 wheeler with their Dad

Visiting with family---weanie roasts in our orchard, birthday treasure hunts, family reunions----families are the best!

Goodbye summer....we'll miss those lazy days and ways.......

Back to school!

Benjamin, Joseph, Samuel and David doing their "Bee Gees" interpretation! (They look a little strange!)

Four boys back to school! Yey!

We had quite an unforgettable morning. Everyone was dressed and eating breakfast and David got up and said his stomach felt kind of funny----he made it to the hallway and then unloaded everything all over walls, carpet, doors, kids and himself! What a mess and only 5 minutes before the bus was due! He was so worried that he wasn't going to get the "Attendance" prize this year that he hurried and washed his mouth out, cleaned his clothes up, brushed his teeth and headed out the door. He looked very pale and subdued, but he wasn't going to miss the first day!

Hmmm....I wonder if this shows dedication to education on David's part, or if the lesser of two evils was going to school, rather then staying home with mom and missing the excitement of the first day. I hope we're not all that sick of each other from summer! It's good to get back to a routine, but I'll miss the summer days....they flew by way too fast this year!

Joseph becomes an Eagle Scout!

Sunday, August 23 at 7:00 p.m. we are celebrating Joseph's becoming an Eagle Scout at his Court of Honor. The Court of Honor will be at the Mink Creek Church house. We hope you can attend this event!

Congratulations to our new Eagle! We love you Joseph!



Joseph just walked in and noticed that I have not posted that he has made the Preston High Varsity Soccer team! How could we have missed that?! He is thrilled to have made the team and will be starting defense at the game this Saturday, Aug. 22 at 1:00 in Preston. Congrats, Joseph!

Bear Lake Summer Party with Jeff's family

We had a wonderful 'reunion' at the Lake at the end of July. Highlights were the fun ski-doo that Brenda and Keith rented and let ALL the kids have a turn riding in 2 hours (quite an amazing feat in itself---they had a good system--thanks for sharing!), the wonderful feast that Grandma and Randy and Janele and Catharine provided, the amazing soccer games, sand castles, sand burials, shell collecting and of course swimming in the water (it was cold!) but fun!

I love the lake. It seems like every time we go, life slows down a bit, everyone is happily occupied and we get to simply enjoy each other---a little bit of heaven!

Posting Bloobers and such!

Apologies to anyone who saw the last title of my 'post-in-progress'! I was in the middle of writing something and for some reason it posted the title, which didn't make any sense! My bad!

Anyway, the REASON for the silly title on my blog blooper was that I was in somewhat of a slump on Sunday after I'd changed the time of our little Mink Creek 'Mountain Air' singing group 4 or 5 times to try and accommodate everyone's schedule and the conflicting Yoga class that is the hot new Relief Society activity--meeting 4 times a week for 90 minutes each---(I sure can't figure out how to schedule around it.) After having 4 of the ladies tell me point blank that they 'just didn't want to do it anymore (the singing group),' I thought, "Well, let's just be honest, shall we!"

I think I was having wallflower complex on Sunday----you know that feeling when you'd go to a dance and stand there talking with your friends until all of them had been asked to dance except you and you tried to act like it really didn't bother you, you were having a marvelous time anyway? So, after hanging up from the last lady that just gushed, "I just don't want to come to your group, no matter what time you change it to,..." and looking at my completely wrecked kitchen (after Sunday dinner blues!)....I was beginning to question my purpose on this planet! But, oh well, you get what you get and don't throw a fit... right Rebecca?

Anyway, onward! Yesterday, I was wondering if perhaps there was a hex on our house, or what is going on! It all started 3 weeks ago when the sewer backed up into the basement. I think my husband was actually glad because he finally had a reason to dig up the yard again----okay, that's going a bit too far, but he did look like he was having a good time out there digging with his Dad and brother on the backhoe. So today, with that supposedly fixed,
*the dryer finally bit the dust and the washer quit agitating,
*the 3 vacuums that we've kept running through the miracles of duct tape and a lot of luck finally gave up the ghost,
*the fancy new sprinkler I bought that cost WAY too much money (because it wasn't free) lost it's timer button and wouldn't run anymore,
*the lawnmower caught something around it and my darling son, in attempting to fix it, turned it upside down and all the oil ran into the carburetor which rendered it useless,
*the soaker hoses in the garden quit 'soaking' 3 of the rows,
*I misread my recipe while making a double batch of raspberry jam and put the sugar in FIRST, instead of the pectin---so now I have raspberry syrup,
*Jacob learned the fine art of messing your pants and rubbing it all over the carpet before Mom clues into why he's having so much fun in his room with his brother and then pops the bath 'duck' in trying to get him into the tub,
*Jeff's cousin's wife, Necia shows up with her son for a 'visit' (she looks quite glamorous, I just got out of the shower), so I reluctantly let her, dusted the cheerios off the chair and onto the floor so she could sit and watch me try to save my burned dinner, feed the kids in 10 minutes and get swimming suits on to go to the pool---and why can I find everyone's suit except my coverup---I do NOT swim without a coverup!

I think I forgot to mention that all of the above events (except for the sewer) happened YESTERDAY! Is this possible? At first I cried when the washing machine wouldn't agitate, but by the time I was trying to get rid of all the smoke in the kitchen from the burned taco meat, I don't think I dared even breathe, for fear of what other fun event was waiting around the corner. I SHOULD have stayed up last night after we got home at 11:00 and tried to start in on the mess, but the invitation to enter a comatose state by hiding under the covers of my bed was too persuasive! And believe it or not, it didn't look quite as bad when I woke up this morning to look at it!

Okay, I've whined long enough, but I thought maybe I'd better start THIS day off a little differently.....so here are some things I was grateful for this morning when I woke up:
*the darkness hiding the dirty dishes and crushed cheerios on the floor
*Jeff' ability to read the instructions on the sprinkler better then I and being able to at least get it started !
*My swamp cooler is still working----wahoo! AT least I can be cool as I'm stressing!
*I discovered if I only put 2 or 3 items in the washing machine, it will agitate, a little----this could be a very long washing day---but at least I don't have to resort to a scrubbing board, yet! And I do have a line to hang clothes on, and it is hot enough to get them dry quickly!
*We also discovered that the sewer is NOT backing up in the basement, as I feared, because my dear little Jonathan has compacted so much laundry detergent down the drain, that it couldn't possibly backwash (I wondered why my laundry soap was going so fast!)---the washing machine has simply developed a leak---(probably because it doesn't want to agitate!), and so the water is collecting ABOVE the drain---we can simply scoop it out!
*Jeff at least 'discovered' what the problem was with the lawn mower---now he just has to 'spend some time with it'. I'm so glad someone has mecanical skills in this family! (I think mechanical skills must be math related!)
*I discovered a little sweeper vacuum in the computer room that Jonathan claimed as his at Christmastime and promptly broke with his enthusaistic vacuuming!If I can figure out how to change the belt, it will probably work for a little while!
*And if all else fails, we can go swimming and I can
**watch my biggest kid (Jeff) squirt everyone with Ben's birthday present while the lifeguard tries to kick him out of the pool (unfortunately, for the lifeguard, he's one of the young men in our ward, so Jeff just ignores him),
**be thankful that my kids can splash and play in the pool until their exhausted and then put their jammies on and go to sleep
**laugh at my cute little Jacob's crooked smile as I place him on the side of the pool and say 'ready?' and he sticks out his chin, squeezes his eyes tightly shut and holds out his arms as I let him 'jump' to me in the pool----soooo,cute, I really need a picture of it!

So if noone wants to sing with me, c'est la vie! I guess I'll have to take up yoga!

Happy Birthday Sam and Ben

 

Samuel turned 12 and Benjamin turned 10. Happy Birthday boys! We got a picture of Benjamin with his cake, but Samuel was partying with Grandmother and Papa Joe, so we didn't get any pics of him on his birthday! But he said he had a wonderful time bowling, eating, watching movies and eating French Toast for breakfast! Benjamin got to haul hay, eat pizza at Grandma's and go swimming with his cousins! The next morning after retrieving Samuel from his cousins house we had a treasure hunt and Sam and Ben found their 'big' present-----a new trampoline! Yey! Actually, everyone enjoyed Sam and Ben's present as much as they did. Thanks for sharing with us guys! We love you tons!

Bear River Float on the 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July celebration with our family from the Jarvis side! We ate, visited, did the water slide and fish pond at the park. Then we headed to the Bear River for a float down the river. The evening ended with a barbeque and fireworks! Everyone was beat by midnight, but we had a wonderful day! Thanks for coming and celebrating with us!

Picture day at Birch Creek Road

 

Well, Saturday morning I was running (I'll clarify, jogging SLOWLY, jiggling, etc.) up the road into the Forest and I noticed that the waterfall that Jeff always wants to take a family picture at had just about the right amount of water. So in my hurry to get back home and grab the kids before the light was bad (the run back is all down hill), I was going a little faster then my usual jiggling pace and I biffed it so bad---right on my face! Actually, I felt my ankle go down as I skidded on the lose gravel and then I went down hard. I was stunned----I've never fallen that hard before, and I was literally stunned, I couldn't move. I wondered what to do.....so did Charcoal. She just looked at me like, 'why did you go and mess up our nice run?' Anyway, after a few minutes I hauled myself up and SLOWLY, hobbled down the last mile to our house. So.... by the time I got the kids fed, dressed and back up to the Forest (NOT on foot, this time!) It was about 11:30 and the light was not good. But since we made the effort, we took the pictures anyway. This is about the only one where everyone is looking straight ahead. Not the best, but at least the picture got taken. I'll put a few more on a slide show.

Yes, I'm still hobbling about with a very swollen ankle. Dang it! Oh well, next time I'll try to remember that I'm a middle-aged, out of shape runner (make that a jiggler), when I'm going down hill, instead of Superwoman, leaping potholes in a single bound!

Samuel develops Bass attitude!

 

Samuel had a great time with the basses---all 8 of them! He had a great teacher---Dominick Fiore, who put up with Samuel's dry humor and tendency to drape himself all over his Bass! Samuel was part of 2 orchestras and played in a master class and repertory class, plus his mom also made him take the Fiddle class, so he had to drag his violin around as well. Samuel had a great time although he thought the concerts were a bit too long and wished that he had more time to play at his cousins' house!

Benjamin--viola man

 

I can't believe this is the only picture I have of Ben from the whole week! I think I counted on Ben to take care of himself. He did a great job. The viola group is pretty small but they had lots of fun together. I think Ben's favorite part of Institute was Denise Willey's orchestra. They played some fun south of the border tunes and did a great job! She was hilarious! Benjamin also enjoyed hanging out with his cousins in the evenings---playing Wii, basketball and night games. Thanks to Mary and her family for letting us stay with them! They took such good care of us!

Joseph fiddling with Aaron Ashton's band

 

Joseph was a good sport to go to ISSI this year. He's feeling that he's getting a little old for it, but I think he still enjoyed it this year. His orchestra was amazing. He worked with the Fry Street Quartet and Michael McClean. In this picture he was playing with Aaron Ashton's band, with whom he had fiddle classes all week. His performing group did a great job with Dvorak's Hungarian Dance #2 and Romance by Wieniawski. He played 1st violin in his string quartet and also learned that it would have been a great idea to have his music mounted on stiffer paper since he lost it 3/4 of the way through the quartet, but recovered quite nicely! His master class teacher was Jenny Oaks Baker. I think he was a little scared of her----she packs a lot of energy into her petite body. She was wondering why she could get more sound out of Joseph's violin then he could---so they compared muscles----Joseph SHOULD be able to get out more sound! I think he didn't quite know what to make of her since he's in reserved teenage boy mode and she was in let-it-all hang out artist mode. But still, quite an amazing experience to be coached by someone of her caliber---she is truly an amazing violinist!

David at Suzuki Institute

 

David went to Suzuki Institute this year for the first time. He loved it! He especially loved his crazy master class teacher, Terry Durbin! Mr. Durbin can make any sound on the violin from race cars to seagulls to laughter! He was an amazing teacher and David just ate it up!

Jacob's car ride

 

Jacob is relaxing after a stressful first haircut!

Jacob takes his car for a spin!

 

Jacob got his first haircut and car ride on June 5. He's pretty impressed with his driving skills!

The empty nest

 

At the beginning of Spring, we discovered that a mama Robin had built a nest right outside of Jacob's window in the lilac bushes. Jonathan excitedly checked the nest every morning and night to make sure that those little babies were okay and that the mama was doing a good job feeding them. Every morning Jonathan would beg me to take a picture of the birds....so I would start to go and find my camera to take the picture and then of course, I inevitably got off track and forgot about it until the day I opened the shades to look out at this scene and discovered that I had waited too long and the birds had finally flown away.

So....I decided that the empty nest is a metaphor for my life. I sometimes feel like the mouse in "If you give a mouse a cookie". I head for the bedroom to grab my camera and notice the laundry on the floor, so I scoop it up and head downstairs to throw it in the washing machine. While I'm down there I notice that the garbage has been dumped over so I head out to the patio to find my broom to sweep it up and while I'm there I notice that I need to put one more coat of paint on my flower pots. I stop to give them a final coat and notice that I need more newspaper to put underneath them so I head out to the garage to get more newspaper and when I get there I find the bottles I meant to store up at Big Pa's house so I put them in the back of the car. I mean to head up the road, but notice that the weeds are overtaking my flowers so I stop to pull a couple of them out. By this time Jacob is tired and hungry, so we head back in the house to feed him and change a diaper, but then the phone rings and.......

Sometimes I wonder why I'm so tired at the end of the day and I have nothing to show for my efforts. That would be focus-----I haven't got much! I hope that I don't miss out on this season of my life, because I'm so easily distracted by the multitude of tasks that are continually before me----just as they are before any mom! So...I guess my hope is that someday I don't wake up and find that all my little babies have flown away and that I have missed the moments that I was going to share with them watching the robin mama feed her babies and teach them how to fly. She seems a lot more focused then I do!

First motorcycle ride of summer

 

Jeff finally got the motorcycle out for the summer and of course, everyone begged for a ride. I thought I was going with him, but everyone else beat me to it!

Benjamin's first 5K

 

Benjamin ran his first 5K! It was a hot muggy morning and poor Ben was purple when he finally crossed the Finish line! Some other runners in the race tried to persuade him to stop and rest, but Ben just kept on going! Yey, Ben, you are amazing!

Jonathan's first 1 mile run

 

Jonathan started out in the stroller with Jacob and me, but he soon hopped out and ran the whole mile run by himself! Way to go Jonathan!

Joseph breaks his record!

 

Joseph came in first in his division and third overall in he 5K. He has a new personal best in 19 minutes 33 seconds. Unfortunately, they ran out of medals when they were awarding the winners, so Joseph is posing here as his winning medal!

David's first 1 mile run

 

David surprised us all with his very speedy mile run! He's a natural! Joseph was quite impressed (intimidated?) with his time! Way to go David!

Seamons boys sweep the FCMC 1 mile/5K run!

 

Okay, so it's hard to be modest with all these 1st and 2nd place runners! Way to go guys! (Samuel was at a Scoutarama in Ogden---but he's sure he would have won, if he'd only had the chance----hmmmm---such confidence!)

Daffodils and Spring!

The Daffodils are finally here----so maybe Sping is too! Jacob had lots of fun exploring the grass and daffodils. By the time Jonathan got there, he was a little tired, but he put up with picture taking for a little while! Look how smug he was when he got his glasses off! We can't seem to keep them on him anymore!

Daffodils, Daffodils, everywhere!

Zion's Canyon pics

Camping at Zion's---Spring Break 2009

We had a great time during Spring Break. We visited Grandmother and then went camping at Zion's. Joseph chose to stay and work with Papa Joe on his farm----we missed him, but know he had a great time with Papa Joe.

We found a great camping spot outside of Zion's along the Virgin River. The first night it was nice and warm and the kids, of course, jumped into the river and got themselves completely wet and dirty before changing into their swimsuits and then getting them completely dirty also!

Jonathan and Ben try out the water

We got the tent up and had our wienie roast and had a great time freezing in the tent all night----I think that's what you're supposed to do when you camp---it's required! It probably wouldn't have been so bad if the air mattress would have stayed full of air, but one side kept deflating all night----fortunately, Jeff's side!

The next day was soaking wet! We drove around and looked at the beautiful canyon and finally summoned up enough courage to hike in the pouring rain. The first hike the boys did was a short one up to Weeping Rock. The next one was a bit more ambitious up near the Narrows and Temple of Sinawatha (I think that's right). We were rewarded for being soaked to death by beautiful waterfalls coming off the cliffs into the river. Jacob seemed quite happy to stay in the backpack, covered up in his winter snowsuit. There was even some snow on the tops of the gigantic canyon walls. Here are some pics:

Jonathan just woke up from his nap and is looking for the 'baby' in the waterfall (he overheard us say we were looking at 'baby waterfalls')
Climbing on rock formations along the Virgin---David, Ben, Sam and Jonathan


David's thinking spot---'Picture me' he begs!

Fancy Footwork by David and Jonathan

Finally, after getting completely soaked on this Sinawatha hike, we decided to go try out at the Visitor Center. There we found rain ponchos! Yey! Why didn't we hink of that sooner? So complete in bright red ponchos, we headed over to Emerald Pools. The 3 waterfalls on the lower pool were incredible! We got to walk right underneath them. The hike up to the second waterfall wasn't bad, but up to the 3rd waterfall, I was wondering if Jonathan and I would make it back down! But we did. I have never seen so much water at the 3rd pool---the wind was blowing the water al over the huge rocks and it was turning into ice on the rocks----it was pretty impressive. Cold....but impressive! It took us a little longer to get back since Samuel and Benjamin figured they were expert hikers and took off a different way back down the trail. Yes, we panicked, thinking they had somehow took a wrong turn and were high above us on a canyon wall that they couldn't get down from. But, of course, they found us----happy that they had beat us down pretty good----well, who wouldn't since we backtracked 3 or 4 times to find the 2 lost boys!

Benjamin in front of 2 of the 3 falls at the 1st pool

The next day it cleared up and was a beautiful sunny day. Benjamin and Samuel were set on hiking Angel's Landing. I could just remember being terrified of the heighths and dropoffs when I hiked it before. But, fortunately, Jonathan got sick and so I had an out. So off went Jeff with David, Sam and Ben. They had a great time hiking, taking pictures and daring each other---glad I wasn't there!

The view on the way up to Angel's Landing

Having fun in rock cavities!

We headed home late that evening and were thrilled to find warm food, hot showers and soft, warm beds at Grandmother's house----the very best part of camping is coming home and cleaning up! Yey!