Sledding at Lake Creek

Another of my favorite places in the world would be Lake Creek, up above Heber Utah. This is another  place which holds fond memories of family traditions.  Every 4th of July for as long as I can remember or as often as it was possible, we would go to the stake breakfast, down to watch the balloon lift off, and the parade every once in a while, and then off to Lake Creek to go snow sledding.

My kids have been lucky enough to experience this a few times now as well and they think it is just as fantastic as I do.  The only drawback is the mosquitos up there are abundant and could carry you away.

 Spencer took right to the sledding and really enjoyed the ride, I am thinking he will be an adventurous sort, he really loves trying new things and is generally smiling from ear to ear!

The family trips down had to be my favorite.

         

Robert and Zach- they ended up way down in the cow cabbage.

Moi, my sister Annie and Eli whooping it up- Eli's face tells it all!

The wild flowers were in bloom and were exceedingly glorious, I made Papa pull over for this photo opportunity, and I am so glad we did.

My daddy with me and my gang; I am so grateful that my parents have taken the time to build memories with us and to teach us how important it is to stop and smell the roses along the way!

Goblin Valley

We stopped here briefly before entering into Goblin Valley... Oh I love Utah so much!!

We spent the day traveling from the Great Sand Dunes to Goblin Valley and yet again we arrived to the campground quite late at night. It is really fun doing it that way because it is always a surprise in the morning, and since this is the place where you verge on a fantasy land, it can't get better than to wake up and be in a dream-like place. I have so many grand memories from this place, from my youngest childhood days, all through the years, and now experiencing it with my own family. 

It is a happy place for me!

I think that my love of this place has rubbed off on my kids!

Spencer loves the sand and this trip certainly solidified that fact, as we had many sandy adventures!

Kaija on the "new(ish) turtle"

Alysha, Izzi, me, Zach, Robert and Casondra

Robert and Zachary in the horizon pose

This is the best place in the world to turn your kids loose to explore, a valley in a bowl shape that you can see from the picnic area. It is a great place to learn how to climb, there is a place for every level of skill.  It is becoming more and more popular, and according to the park ranger, the vast majority of visitors are from other countries- a wise decision on their part!

It is always hard to leave such a clever place, but alas onward we must go, 

more places and people to see and many more wonderful things to do!

Great Sand Dunes National Park

To begin our summer vacation, I picked Kaija up early from girls camp and took the kids to met up with two of my sisters (Barbara and Anne) and their families at the Oklahoma City Temple. Taking this southern route is new to us (I think we went through Albuquerque one time), but it was a nice diversion for making the trek out west and I had the added bonus of having extra people around to help with the driving and the dispersing of children! It makes a world of difference to travel together and having the awesome perk of traveling with cousins and the extra perk of having a sister in a motor home- which, yes if you were wondering makes it so everyone wanted to ride with her- thanks Anne for being so cool!

Day one took us to the beautiful Great Sand Dunes National Park, and honestly I had never even heard of it until my sisters mentioned that they had been there a couple of times. Though, in my defense it has only been a National Park since 2004 so I don't feel quite as lame for not realizing it even existed! It is very nicely situated near Alamosa CO. So there were flat lands and mountains and all sorts of diverse and wonderful things to see; one of which was the oil derricks, which Zach informed us, 

"gave him the creeps"- talk about random!!  

We made it  into the campground very late at night so we had no idea what surrounded us until the glory of the morning sunrise.  It is such a lovely place, and the juxtaposition of the sand dunes and the mountain ranges and the flat lands was truly breathtaking.

I opted to rest in the shade with Spencer and watch everyone else make the journey up the dunes, it was a perfect day to be there, the kids enjoyed it immensely and when all was said and done, they came back quite worn out!

 

So there is my brave sister Anne and her two humongous english mastiffs, Bunny and Titan. 

In the background you can see a few of the kids and Barb's dog C.C.

 Zach, Bella, Robert, Alex, Austin, Alysha and Palmer playing up on the dunes.

Master Eli tired from the trek in the sand

My crazy girls in the sand- see the shade from the shrubs, yep that is where I made my self comfy and enjoyed the cool breeze while they were dying and hiking through the sand! 

(Ha ha ha, I think I got the better deal there!)

Spencer is #1

Spencer has advanced into the big leagues now- he is ranked at #1.

This handsome guy is ranked #1 in this house hold for so many reasons:

He has a way of capturing your heart

He loves to be around his family

He makes us laugh

He has completed our family in a way we could have only dreamed about

He helps us love deeper and smile more

He reminds us what is important in life!

Joseph and the kids made his cake today (since I am still dealing with the dregs of food poisoning- that experience was my fun birthday celebration!!)- they did a great job and everything was made from scratch too! I am just counting my blessings that Joseph was actually here for the event- hey he even gets to be here tomorrow, and has the day off work- yippee!!

Spencer was not interested in diving into the cake, eventually Joseph got a spoon and fed some to him, then slowly he decided it would be OK to take over the spoon handling; alas still not a lot of action. He did however pause from time to time to scoop the cake from his belly button, a very important detail!

We love you Spencer!

Joseph's Greeley Project

Just thought I would add this link of one of the latest organ instillations.
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110801/NEWS/708019953&parentprofile=

Joseph just loves being interviewed for these things, because they will inevitably use the clips where he says something crazy.  It is kind of fun though and there are some cool pics of the instrument.

I love this pic they took for the paper!

There is a video link right above the pictures where they chat with Joe (and Dorothy who is from the church- she is a wonderful lady). We were glad to be able to see the project when we stayed there for a week at the end of our vacation. It is beautiful, and I love to see Joseph so excited about how it has turned out. Admittedly he does excellent work, and the smile on his face really shows his delight when he plays the organ and pulls out all the stops!

It is really too bad that Joseph will miss the dedication of this instrument since he will be on another job in.... well now I don't recall- somewhere between St. Paul MN and Birmingham AL!

First things first

Yesterday was the first day of school and I always have mixed emotions. I am delighted for my kids to be able to go to school to learn and grow and develop their minds and create new friendships, but I really miss having them around too, and Spencer REALLY misses having them here to address his every need! There are definitely negatives to having a spoiled little baby, whom everyone in the household adores. Now I suffer the sadness of the wee one while the kids are gone.

So this year Kaija is in 8th grade, Isabella is in 6th which puts them both in the Middle School.

Zach is in 9th grade- yikes a freshman in high school. It is hard to believe that he could possibly be that old; but alas he is and he really enjoys it! He got sucked into doing band this year which means that not only does he get to start early morning seminary this year, but he in fact gets to do early early morning seminary like at 5:30 so he can be to the school for band during zero hour- so lucky!! At least he gets to do it with his friends, so that makes it a good time!

Eli is officially a "grader" now, as he would put it! He has arrived at the 1st grade, and not only that but he gets to go to the brand new school that is just down the street from us. Maple Grove is the name and it is a beautiful school. All the other kids are jealous that he is the only one that gets to go to a new school. He is also lucky to have one of our favorite people as his teacher- Alisa Collier, we go way back to Zach's 1st grade year when she was the teacher in the classroom next door to his class, she was also the room parent for his class, then Kaija got to have her the next year. 

We adore her and are looking forward to an awesome year!

Away for the Holiday

CELEBRATING FREEDOM

As I sit here thinking about the marvelous weekend we just enjoyed with my sister Barb and her family, I have to reflect on just how much I appreciate all the military families who have sacrificed so much and continue to sacrifice for our benefit.  We live near and associate with so many people in the military, and though Joseph does extensive traveling with his job and has lots of time away from the family, I don't have the same worries that others have.  I know that he is in a safe place and that all of his basic needs are being met, it doesn't make the separation any more wonderful, but my worries are different. I really try not to complain when he is gone for long stretches- I just remember my friends and the fact that their difficulties are far greater than mine and that I can carry on just fine.  Joseph hates being away and missing all the family commotion- some moments we would both rather trade spots, but in the end I am grateful for the moments to ponder and realize and count my blessings everyday.  We have so many friends and family members who have had some really difficult challenges to overcome during this last year and I just hope to be able to bear the burdens placed on me with half as much grace as I have observed them displaying!

Fireworks at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson

We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate the 4th with Barb and her family and friends from Nixa, MO.  We did a kid swap a week or so ago where I kept Wyatt- her oldest, and she took Bella and Eli down with her.  It was weird to have it so quiet around here- we accomplished a ton of stuff! 

Zach, Kaija and Wyatt painted a fence for some friends at church- they did a great job and survived working in this nasty heat!!

I miss my kids dreadfully when they are away, but we joined up forces again in Nixa and spent the whole weekend partying! Swimming everyday, hanging out with friends and eating tasty food, and going down to Branson for the fireworks display at the Big Cedar Lodge (Bass Pro resort). 

After the fireworks- Spencer was still a little gun shy- he loved the sparkles, but was a little suspicious of the sound!

Classic Zach waiting for the fireworks to start

There was plenty of loud music for us to enjoy since we were pretty close to the front of the party! The lodge was gorgeous and you just can't go wrong with Branson, the whole area is so beautiful- I would love to go down and soak up the scenery a little more... in the daylight!

Spencer didn't so much like wearing the goggles- he would have rather been eating them!

Eli was cracking himself up by leaving the fish patch on the goggles.  I think he became a fish on this trip!

We were able to help out and take a friend up to the airport on our way home- so we took advantage and stopped at the temple for a few minutes.  It wasn't nearly long enough- we will do that again when Joseph comes home!  I can't wait, the whole area is going to be so gorgeous- I want it to be done now!!

Not only is the temple beautiful, but they have made my joy even more full by lining the streets with Ginko trees. It is a bizarre fetish I have, but I think the world would be a better place with more Ginko trees! I fell in love with the tree at BYU then was consumed by love of Ginko in Japan, and reinforced living in NYC where the streets are lined with them.  I have spotted I think 5 locations in Warrensburg that have giant Ginko and now the temple...  ah, life is good, now I really just need about a hundred in my yard!!  I would make room- perhaps next year!!

 Also a big thank you to all the people who take Joseph in under their wings when he is out on a job, you help make being apart a little more bearable! You are an answer to prayers!

It really helps so he isn't lonely and so I don't worry as much!