Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Steve (my brother) Miki and the girls came down. We got up early on Sat and went to our towns annual Easter Egg hunt. I would like to say I took pictures, but sorry no. For one thing it was c..o..l...d and two it was over in less then a minute. Luke LOVES the excitement of a gazillion kids running for eggs. Kolby not so much, as soon as the running started it proved to much for him he wanted no part of it. Not even the promise of candy filled eggs was enough to propel him forward. It was a good hunt for "tiny" hailey she won the grand prize for girls a full size pink locker.

Because it was cold, wet and windy in Cedar we decided to drive to St. George and go for a hike. Its the perfect time of year for one of our favorite "The red rocks". We failed to take into consideration that it was Easter weekend and others might have the same idea.... It was so crowded they made us park in an overflow parking lot. A lot of people might change plans at this point. Not us, what a two mile hike to get to the hike...bring it :)
This is me and "Tiny" (the boys nickname, they have two cousins named hailey this one is younger) Hailey hiking to the hike.

Smiling happy boys faces
They were old enough this year to walk in the water more then they have been able to in the past. They were pretty proud to show off their skills.


A big thanks to Miki for taking most of these pictures, I liked this one showing all of us.


Normally when we get to this point of the hike we climb up and around the rock using a rope. With the crowds of people it was just not going to happen this time. That's not to say fun can't be had. Keanna found some by jumping in the water. She's on the right hand side of the photo. BRAVE girl!


My little family on the way back. We decided to bring the back carrier just in case....
As it turned out it was a good thing we did. Both Luke and Kolby did really well specially considering it was twice as long as normal. But Kolby just could not make it the last little bit. Not a bad deal for him he got carried and got to take a nap.





I'll post next about our after hike picnic at the lake.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

"Mom, mom look at me"

I hear this at least 52 times a day. I have learned that its not always good so I better stop whatever it is I'm doing and LOOK. This time it was Kolby climbing halfway to the top of a tree in our backyard.

He was actually pretty high up for the size of tree. I don't think it would support much more weight then the boys.
It was a no fear, simply enjoying climbing moment

It reminded me of how much I LOVED to climb trees when I was a kid. And how I had not thought about it in a long time. There was a tree at my grandmas house in Las Vegas that had the best branches for sitting in. I would stay up there for hours reading.

Just look at this happy boy, making simple memories

Once Luke noticed the fun to be had he was quick to join in.

I do have to admit that with two boys climbing up on skinny little branches we had both me and Dewey standing below to catch any falling kids. Just because I'm happy they are climbing doesn't mean I'm not crazy neurotic at the same time :)

But there were definitely more "wow look how high you are" then "gasp what are you doing get down this minute"

For some reason I just really like these pictures (a may have taken a LOT of them)

None of our tress are big enough for a tree house, but Dewey has plans in mind to build a fort. The boys have been asking for one, so hopefully it will be a summer project.

Love those rare warm spring days on our little farm :)

Grandma's Visit

My Grandma flew up from Texas for her annual visit. She spent most of the time in Salt Lake with the "northern" family :) but was able to come down and stay almost a week with us too.

We had a fun visit doing a lot of ordinary things and a lot of nothing things. But the highlight of her visit had to be last Sat when we took her to Bryce Canyon.

The weather even cooperated and it was blue skies all day. I think I mentioned in the last post how its nearly impossible to get the boys to "pose" for a picture, case in point look at their faces...god grief How cute is my Grandma?

I was playing with my phone app on my camera, I didn't realize what a big difference it would make in the pictures .....washed out (but I still love it)

Actual red of the canyon.... and boys funny faces

Bryce Canyon is stunning and the best part you can drive almost right up to see this. Making it the perfect place for grandma. There are hikes which are h...a...r...d that we have done a few times luckily for us they are closed during the winter.

One of my favorite pics of me and grandma

B....e..a...u...t..i..f..u...l

Of course we had to find a place to pull off the road that was a safe distance from the canyon for boys (all three of them) to climb rocks.

Red rocks blue sky, gets me every time.

We really had a wonderful day we stopped at the historic Ruby's Inn for a very nice lunch.

So funny story, there is not much around Bryce Canyon especially this time of year when its still a little cold up here. But we noticed a HUGE building that said wildlife museum. I'm not sure why I thought museum would mean live animals but I did. To my credit there were cute little LIVE goats out front. We go in and there were oh I don't know 1000's of dead stuffed animals of every size shape and kind from around the world. UGH...... I do not like dead stuffed animals AT ALL. But it was my idea to stop and the boys thought it was pretty cool......but ick and sad. Since we were the only ones there, it had only opened the day before for the season. The owner let us go out back and feed his deer. They were alive and I didn't want to press my luck even asking what they were for. Oh and chickens too, which for our boys are no big deal.

Luke showed no fear and loved every minute

The deer seemed to like him too, or at least his corn

Kolby not as big a fan of the whole thing, he was pretty much next to me the whole time.

Great memories we made with grandma, a day I'll always remember.

Zions!!

Zions National park has got to be one of my favorite places. We had such a good time there with Kirsten. We had a delicious lunch at Zions lodge, yummers. Then went on a short walk to see this magnificent site.....

Zions is breathtaking all year round, I don't think I could pick a favorite season. This time of year has waterfalls a plenty with all the spring runoff. I'm pretty sure people are more then tired of me asking to take pictures so I'm trying to be more covert. I'm kinda liking the look of them.

Grandpa and Luke

Grandma and Kolby

I'm telling you breathtaking!!

You might remember Dew and I did a sibling hike to the top of Timpanogos mountain last summer. (my toenail is just now starting to look normal) We have decided to make an annual sibling trip. This year we will be...... Hiking the Zions Narrows. I'm so excited this is an overnight hike so it will take more gear. (meaning more to carry and heavy, grrr) But Zions Narrows is listed as one of the top 10 hikes in the country to do in your lifetime, so COUNT ME IN.

Exploring Grafton

We have had a BUSY past few weeks, I'm a little behind in posting our adventures.

While Kirsten was here we all (Dad and Winnie, Kirsten Dewey the boys and I) piled into our car and headed to Zions National Park. On the way we stopped at a little place named Grafton.

Anybody remember this classic?

Remember this part of the movie? It was filmed in Grafton. Gasp we walked where Robert Redford and Paul Newman walked...I'm hoping :) It really is a stunning little valley. And we all know one of my favorite things to photograph is old buildings I was in heaven.

I really like this Pic of Kirsten and the boys, they were never very far from her side.

And a rare pic of Winnie /Grandma without a grandson hanging on her.

I mean really how beautiful is this valley.

This was the only shot I could get of the boys holding still.

Stay tuned for pics of our Zions visit coming soon.

Kirsten's visit!!!!

A lot of you know Dewey's sister Kirsten is in the Air Force. Well I'm happy to say that after spending 6 years in including an active tour in Iraq and a tour in Afghanistan she is out and home safe and sound!

She actually lives in Texas but was able to come up for a week long visit.

She is amazingly thoughtful and brought us all back something from Afghanistan.

Look at this cute pic of her and Dewey wearing his new hat :)

For dad a hat and beautiful wrap. Authentic men's winter wear. And my favorite....gorgeous outfits including hats for the boys. Its hard to tell from the photos but the hats are beautiful, They are covered in hand riveted sequins. Don't they all look so handsome?

And a cute family photo!

She brought me a stunning black beaded pashmina, which I LOVE!

It goes without saying that our very favorite gift is to have her home safe.

We are so proud of her for serving our country. (and for being a strong amazing woman) Especially since she put her life on the line everyday in two different countries during active wars. Its an incredible sacrifice for our country that we will be forever grateful to her for. We love you Kirsten!!!

In honor of Spring...

For your weather enjoyment, yesterday in photos

This morning as we left the house.... snow

Still morning looking out our office window
Noon, looking out the same window blue skies are here

Afternoon ........snow

Home around 5ish blue skies and no snow.

You didn't think a day of snow/blue skies would be all for our spring enjoyment. The night before the wind blew ALL night long. According to the news the gusts were 50 mile plus hum I bet that could do some damage.

Like bend our neighbors flag pole.

Notice anything missing on our horse trailer?

Maybe the roof.... Which apparently was torn off the trailer and flew up and over the barn to land in the pasture. It might be hard to tell but this is a hard top that is to heavy for me to lift.

The neighbor across the street had his fence broken in several places and the house down from them had their shingles torn off.
Yep just another spring day in southern Utah.