Lukes first day of Kindergarten

Wow how time flies, Luke started kindergarten today.

When we brought Luke home he had just turned two. He was so small and didn't talk at all. With the help of our pediatrician we started Early intervention. We said from the beginning that we wanted him caught up by Kindergarten. We were told very politely not to get our hopes up. Instead of saying "we wanted" we started to say "he will be" caught up.

Last week Luke went in for his evaluation to see where he tested for his age. It was thought he might need an all day Kindergarten for further help.

He tested right on par for his age!!!!!

I am amazed and humbled by the progress he has made the last few years.

Dewey and I spent an hour going over every thing we thought he might need to know for his big day. I'm pretty sure he knew we were just as nervous as he was.

At his evaluation Luke informed Dewey and his teacher that he would be taking the bus everyday. In my head....... wait ,what I'm supposed to put my baby on that great big bus by himself... no not going to happen. With my voice "really wow that will be fun and exciting.......sob"

This morning the whole family walked Luke to the bus stop (at the end of our property) to wait for the bus. When the bus pulled up Luke calmly walked on, sat down and waved to us through the window.

Impressive that I could take a picture while crying.

Ok so we let him ride the bus it doesn't mean I wasn't a watchful mother hen. We followed the bus to school to make sure he made it into his class. The principal was out front, I told him what we were doing. He just laughed and said we weren't the only ones.

Kolby and I went to school to make sure he made it on the bus. Notice the erasers in Kolbys hand he had to have a back back and school stuff just like big brother.

When Luke walked out of his class he was holding a little girls hand. He later told me that she was really scared of the bus so we was helping her be less afraid. I'm so proud of him!!

He just got on the bus like he does it every day.

And yes I jumped in the car to beat the bus home and wait for him :)

Climbing Timpanogos

WE DID IT!!!!!

We climbed Timp. For those that don't know Mount Timpanogos is the second highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range with an elevation of 11,749 feet.

This is a photo I took from the car driving past Timp on our way to Salt Lake City.

My brother Steve has always been really good at hiking and has recently gotten back into it. About a month ago he mentioned hiking Timp in August. It didn't take long for us to decide we should do it as a group. Steve and Miki, Liz and Gary and Dewey and I. Hailey and Dan were able to watch the boys. (they are way to young to hike that far but way to heavy to carry) Hailey happens to be one of their very favorite cousins so they didn't mind in the least staying behind.
We "woke" up at 12:45 on Sunday morning, Everyone met at Liz and Gary's at 1:30. We were on the mountain and hiking by 2:30 a.m.

It was an amazing thing hiking by flashlight. I think it was a really good thing that I couldn't see how far it was to the top. It was just "concentrate on the trail and put one foot in front of the other".

We made it to the top meadow just as the sun was coming up......a breathtaking sight.

Its so hard to describe the beauty of this mountain it honestly takes your breath away.
I LOVE this pic of Dewey with the sun just over the mountain.

Our group on the last push to the "saddle" (the top of the mountain)

Looking towards Provo, Orem and Utah Lake, stunning.

Funny what reaching the top does, you can't even tell we have been up all night hiking.

Looking to the North from the Summit.

A group shot that turned out great. I feel so lucky to be able to have done this hike with my family. To have us all on the top at the same time is something I will forever remember and always cherish.

Once you get to the saddle you can continue on tot he very top or the summit. Its another hour or so hike to the very very top. Its not for those that have a problem with heights, the trail gets a little narrow in places. (SCARY) A few of us decided to give it a try. Here I am at 11,749 feet.


From this little shack you can literally almost see forever from every direction, Utah county, Salt lake county and Wasatch county.
The part that looks like a saddle on the left is where the rest of the group is sitting. As were were hiking down we noticed mountain goats above us. Dewey and Miki (and beautiful flowers) looking up at the goats
I know this picture in no way does justice to the beauty but come on have you seen such colors?

My pics of the goats didn't really turn out but Steve was able to get this one.


In total we hiked 12 hours we were down the mountain and in the car by 2.30 p.m.

I'm not going to say that every part of my body from my pinkie toe to my head doesn't hurt right now. But I would not trade the experience for anything. Thank you Steve for planning and leading the expedition, an amazing time. Yea us for being able to do it!!!

We have a garden!!!!

You might not think that's a big deal but this was our fourth try (and definitely last if it didn't grow) so I didn't hold out much hope for this year.

I just could not believe I'm a vegetarian who can not grow veggies.

So this year we went big, we started in April planting seeds to grow inside the house. (part of the problem is our very short growing season)

This is the boys taking their gardening jobs very seriously.

We got through the first hurdle the plants (for the most part) grew. Here they are ready to plant.

Next Dewey put up hay bales on both ends to act as a wind break (another big issue here) and fencing to keep the chickens out.

Here it is with everything planted. The plants that you can actually see are from my amazing garden extraordinaire mother in law. She has a green house and a green thumb. Lucky for us she had to many plants for her garden so she shared them with us.

Like I said at the beginning even with all this work I sort of assumed the plants would die. So........ I may have planted WAY to many squash plants. I was playing the odds plant 10, if 8 die I still have 2. I love love squash so that was a must in our veggie choice. We did also plant beets, carrots, peas, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins.

As you can see the squash took over!!! No more neat little walking paths between the rows. One whole corner we can't even get to. But look at all that green. Everything grew, YOOHOO!!! We only had to add a few more hay bales and more fencing, sneaky chickens found a way in.

We have a real garden!!!

Now that we know we can do it we have all kinds of plans for next year to fix everything we did wrong this year.
In the mean time we pick this much squash every other day. Anybody have any good squash freezing recipes? As it is we are eating some form of squash every night for dinner. And I'm pretty sure people pretend to not be home when they see us coming with bags of squash. Who knew not everybody loves it?

4th of July!!!

We have had such a crazy busy last few weeks. The week before the 4th my Grandma visiting from Texas was able to stay with us a few days. The boys just loved having their G.G here to play with them. Luke even had her out playing baseball.

For the 4th weekend my brothers amazing girlfriend Miki arraigned for all of us to stay in a condo in Park City. (which happens to be one of my favorite places in Utah)

This is Steve (with the scary mountain bike face on) Me, Miki, and Kiena waiting in line to ride the ski lift. On this trip down Dew stayed with the littles.

It was a BLAST!!!!!! I LOVED speeding down the mountain with he wind in my face enjoying the wondrous views. On the next run I went with Steve and Dewey, we did a harder switch back run and I'm happy to say I only wrecked once with no visible damage.

Dewey took Hailey Luke and Kolby on the lift to ride the Alpine slide.

Unfortunately when they got to the top they were told he needed one more adult to be able to ride the slide down. So there walk down the mountain not near as much fun as our ride. We were all able to go down the next day. Luke yelled the whole way down "Go faster, go faster". And Kolby just laughed.


They did have some Kiddie rides that the three littles could not get enough of.

On Saturday Liz and Gary hosted our annual family BBQ at their house. It was so fun seeing everyone. We were able to see Grandma one more time before she goes home. Liz and Gary did an amazing job, the BBQ turned out great. Whats not to love about mondo big marshmallows to roast over the fire.

One of the boys favorite cousins is "big" Hailey (we have two haileys big hailey is big by virtue of being the oldest) Luke took tons of pics of her and her husband Dan. This one is so cute, sorry Dan I swear I didnt take it.

On the way home on Monday we stopped at Sundance in Prove canyon........beautiful beautiful ski resort.

The mountains in this area just take my breathe away away every time I see them. An amazing weekend!!!!! Thank you so much Miki, and Steve it was a weekend we will never forget!!!!

Coin toss drive

One of our favorite things to do is take a "Coin toss drive". Dewey and I did our first one about 20 years ago and ended up in rural Idaho, we had a blast. Now we try to do them every couple month's. You start by picking two directions and assign one to heads and one to tails. In our drive last Sunday we picked North and East. We ended up going East over a mountain. It was a beautiful cloudy day.

When we got over the mountain out came the coin with the choice to go North or South, South it was. Out only other "rule" is we have to see something we have not seen before. We ended up in Kanab a beautiful little town we have been to quite a few times. But we found a museum that is made up of old western movie sets. A place we had never been to. Luke just happens to be a huge fan of Westerns right now. Both boys were beyond excited to see "real cowboy stuff" .

Their favorite was the house that was in "The Oulaw Joise Wells".
The funny thin about this picture is my legs, see how far apart they are? P90X is doing something for me. I have Luke on one knee, I'm holding Kolby up with my arms and leaning over to my hole. Twister here I come.

The "boys" hamming it up by the Livery.

You can't have a cowboy village without a stagecoach.

This was from the set of a Disney movie.

And of course we had to check out the antique farm equipment.

It was such a fun little place, a perfect find on our coin toss drive.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Our favorite Hike!!

Dewey's Birthday was two weekends ago. (I know I'm a little behind in my blog posts.) Cassidi was able to come down for the weekend. It just happened to be the perfect time of year to do one of our favorite hikes in St. George. We only have a two month window every year to go. To early and there is too much water. To late and the water is gone and its way too hot.

It really is a stunning hike with red rocks and pools of water.

Dew, Cass, Luke and Kolby at the first water pool.

This is the top but to get here you have to climb.......

This!
Dewey wore our hiking backpack that in previous years has carried the boys but for this year was used for this spot. (Kolby was able to hike the whole hike on his own other then this area) I went across first then Dewey carried Luke over and went back and brought Kolby over. Kolby is just looking around smiling the whole time.

Cassidi had her own way of climbing across.

There is a small slot canyon that you can keep hiking if you are willing to drop in and swim at times. Cassidi and I went as far as we could without swimming, just beautiful.

The boys had a blast jumping in and splashing in the stream.

Red red rocks and sun, whats better then that?

Luke showing off is dive moves.

Would you ever guess the water is literally two inch's deep?

A beautiful woman with a beautiful backdrop.

And one picture of me climbing back down. I'm sure its bad lighting or something my legs can not possibly be that white :)

Cass coming down with a better view of the waterfall.

And one last picture by the bottom pool.

We all had so much fun, a wonderful day.