The photographer

The only way to get Ivan in a picture is to take it when he doesn't know. He loves taking landscapes. I love this picture with the blue sky outlining him on the rocks.

 

Ben's new best friend

Ben decided that Josh was the coolest person ever. He declared to anybody who would listen that Josh was his best friend.

Holly told us that Ben is drawn to the oldest boys. He was very sad to see us go. We were sad too. This trip he actually liked me a little bit. Last trip he was still deciding when we left. Kade was experimenting and finding all the different ways he could express his own will. A very cute stage to watch someone elses kid go through. I remember I was exasperated and exhausted when mine were there. He is sure that he is as big as everybody else. I love them both.

 

I love these pictures. Ben happy to be by his best friend and Josh is happy to be the big cousin. In fact I think he enjoyed the adulation.

 

The red rocks

It's hard to know the shear size of the red rocks. Josh and Boaz look so small in the middle of the cliffs. They were so weathered that they provided remarkably good traction. All sorts of "cliffs" were climable by small boys.

 
 

Josh with the rocks

Josh is big enough to reach high ledges. Here he is testing the strength of a handy hand hold. It was his swing for a bit.

 

He is still small enough to crawl through the caves and tunnels. :)

 

He found a narrow niche to pose in, regal as an ancient king or saint.

 

Red Rocks of Dixie

I love St. George. Ever since I went to school there and learned the beauty of the red rocks and black hills. I love the white temple -- solid as a fortress. I love the college, now a university, where I learned how to be on my own and that I could do it -- whatever it was.

I have two great reasons to keep going back. My brother and his family live there, and my in-laws live there. This year I visited my brother and his family. (My in-laws were still in Idaho)

We decided to go hiking in the 100 degree + heat, on the red rocks. Boaz called it the death trap and didn't like it too well. But Josh still found it fun and full of places to explore. Boaz would like to go back when it's not so hot.

A fun part of the hike was finding nooks and cranies where you could hide from the sun. Of course the cameras came out to document the 4 cousins in various caves. :)

 
 

Kade, Ben and Boaz. (Kade didn't want his picture taken that day. I felt lucky getting this one.)

alt=''style='clear:both;float:left; margin:0px 10px 10px 0;' /> 
alt=''style='clear:both;float:left; margin:0px 10px 10px 0;' /> 

Visiting Kennecott

I have lived in Utah for most of my growing up years. I am discovering all sorts of places to visit that I never went to when I was a child. For example, Bingham Canyon Mine. The largest open pit mine in the world. Visible from space. I have seen it on the mountain for years. This past trip my sister, Deb, and I took the kids to visit. I was impressed with the size. Looking over the edge, the huge trucks -- the size of a small two story house [like the one I live in] look small until a normal size truck is seen by it.

This first picture is one of the boys standing next to a tire for the huge trucks. Just an idea of the size. I think we counted over 20 steps for the driver to climb to get to the cab.

 

Looking from the observation point into the mine.

 

On the tour, I was happy to hear about the millions the company puts into reclaiming the land -- and the herd of elk and other wildlife that live on that reclaimed land. I was impressed. :)

 

The prettiest girl at the park.

Driving two days to play in the water for one. We were so glad she decided to come.

 

Playing with the tubes at the water park

Seven Peaks in Provo -- a fun place. However, you must rent the tubes you play with. And then after renting them, you must keep track of them. So when a family with 39 people show up to play, tubes are rented and then stored for when Grandmas and Grandpas decide to go in the water instead of holding the newest baby. And tubes are rented even when they aren't planning on spending time in the water at all.

Well, my boys are big into the fort building stage. Extra tubes presented excellent building blocks for all sorts of designs. They started off simple enough, but by the end of the day, the fort was getting elaborate. :)

Boaz at stage one. Three single tubes stacks around him.

 

Experimenting with a tube posts and lintels. And then seeing if it was tall enough.

 

A good place to find shade on the very hot day. About 100 degrees.

 

Josh completed the fort with a door. He watched when part of his wall was taken for water play, and figured out how to repair the breach and keep his fort intact. After all day in the water, a 30 minute break was fun. We ended up riding all our favorite rides again. A water park is still all about the water. :)

 

Coming home early

Craig came home early yesterday. He surprised me. I was sitting at the table eating Ben & Jerry's Peach Cobbler ice cream. My favorite. Yummy.

I waited for him to come and find me and have a bite or two. Josh was still at Day Camp and Boaz was upstairs.

Craig walked in, his eyes got big, he took the spoon out of my hand, snatched the ice cream, stepped back two paces and took a big bite. He watched me warily -- to make sure I wouldn't deny him the pure goodness of Ben & Jerry's. Truly, he was ready to fight me to keep it. After several bites, he relaxed and gave me back the ice cream.

I just smiled at him. Sharing your favorite ice cream with your favorite man really is sweet. :)

Drive to Utah

Craig had a golf tournament on Saturday. So we planned to meet him on the other side of Salem and head to Bend. We took two cars, because I was staying longer than he or Thea could stay. They both had to go to work on Tuesday.

We head out, Craig and Thea are in front and I am in the back with the boys. I relax and start to eat a bit of jerky. We headed around a bend in the road, the trees overhead held the road in dark shadow. I snapped to attention when I heard something smack the undercarriage of my car. I had run over something, but I had no idea what. I still don't. I pulled over to look at the tires. I heard a hissing, but thought it was the air conditioner. I couldn't see anything and got back on the road. Less than five minutes later, the tire pressure gauge lit up. So I pulled over again, and turned the motor off. This time I knew the air conditioner was not running. The hissing was loud as ever. :(

We cleared the back to get to the spare, and Craig put on the donut. We knew we couldn't make it all the way to Bend on the donut so Craig and Thea headed back to Stayton to get new tires. I took the white car and headed to Bend. I did a bit of shopping -- water socks for the boys. I headed out to Burns with Craig just 30 minutes behind me. Les Schwab was great. They got him in and out in record time.

We ate at McDonald's in Burns and switched cars again. Craig drove the white car for less than 30 feet when he was out looking at the wheel. The right front wheel, the same one that I had slashed when I drove over something. It was only half inflated. And it had been driven that way for some time. (I was driving about 75 mph on the way to Burns.) The side wall was worn with the abuse. It was after 9 pm on a Saturday night in a rural town in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Oregon. Craig found an air hose, and filled the tire. He decided to drive for a half hour and see what the tire would do.

Thirty minutes later, it looked okay still, so we continued on to Winnemucca. There isn't a whole lot on that Nevada road. Just rabbits. Thea and I talked while she drove. I pointed out the rabbits I saw. Some of them apparently had a suicide wish. We watched them dart toward the tires of the car Craig was driving. I don't think we hit any live rabbits. I didn't count the road kill. Craig thinks he got one.

We pulled off in a lonely truck stop about 2 am and slept for about two hours. I tried too, but I listened to Thea breathe. If I was in the other car, I would have heard Craig and the boys breathe instead. Then we were on the road again -- headed to Tooele, well actually Erda.

We made it just in time to shower up for the last two meetings of Church. We were there for Ronda and Zach's bishopric change. And after the meeting, we were there for Brandon as he was ordained to be an elder. I was happy to be at Church, but I don't really remember much.

Yummy dinner and Craig slept on the comfy couch while I poked my finger binding the quilt. Zach had an air compressor and we filled the tire to drive to Provo.

Monday morning, they took the car to Les Schwab and two new front tires, because you can't buy just one. Six new tires for this trip. I told Craig, I didn't know I was so expensive. He said he knew I was, he just wasn't expecting it on this trip. With that kind of start to the trip, I was afraid of what would happen next. But we settled into the plan and finished the rest of the trip without incident.

We had lots of fun, but I'm glad to be home. I'll post pictures and stories of the trip itself later. :)

Quilt for Cadence

I didn't give myself a lot of time to do this quilt. But, I sewed and sewed and sewed and I finished the quilting the day we left for Utah. (I ran out of thread, or I would have had it done the night before.) My plan was to bind it in Utah. I bound it Sunday after Church. Then we headed down to Provo for the water park. I crashed and then got up and finished it that morning. I don't know why I have to work until the deadline -- or why I make the deadline the absolute last minute. Oh well, it turned out darling. The fabric is from Brenda. She tries to get me to widen my quilting horizons. I just picked up the light value fabrics and the quilt is stunning.

 

Of course I can't just go with a boring back. I like the pieced look on the back too. :)

 

Sweet baby Cadence, with Grandma LuRose holding her at the water park. Her first Oswald reunion. Looking forward to many more. She was a trooper. :)

 

Job interview

Thea, ready for a job interview. She cleans up really good, I think. We are so excited, in one week, she will be moving down here to live with us. We've wanted her to live with us for years. Now she is graduated, she is finally moving in. The boys are excited, I'm excited, and her Dad is afraid to think about it. He will be on cloud nine. :)

 

Hanging with Thea

While we were in Philly, Josh and Boaz hung out with Thea and Karly and Auntie Brenda. I think they had fun. Drive-Ins and pizza and trips to the park, oh my!

 

Virus

My computer got a virus! I was off line for over a week, but that included the time I spent in Utah on vacation. Still, it was irritating. I am grateful for people who know about computers. I now owe some serious babysitting time in exchange. (Josh's friend's dad knows about computers.)

So today, I am working on laundry, watering the lawn, vacuuming, and filling the fridge and cupboards. A big list. Josh is at his first day of cub scout day camp. I go Wednesday. And I'm trying to get the info I need for my little bookkeeping job.

Naked in the park

This was the funniest thing that happened to us while we were back East. We were walking to the Penitentiary. Craig was giving me a hard time because he didn't really want to go to prison. I was looking at him and laughing. I turned to look where we were going and I saw this naked butt. A lady was bending over fixing her blanket so she could lay on it. She then turned around and we got a full frontal view. I started laughing. Craig tried to hush me, but I'm sure I could be heard for a long ways. The lady paid no attention to all the people that were at the public park. In all fairness, it was a very hot day. I'm a bit sad for her, because I think she had some mental issues. She was arguing with herself, repeating a fight she had had with somebody. Totally in her own world. It was a bit like being in one of those National Geographic photo shoots for a bit.

 

Delaware River

I love Navy Ships. How fun to fly into Philadelphia and see the ship yard and dry docks. It also happened to be fleet week. Sailors in town for the weekend. We made it to Penn's Landing for a free Philadelphia Orchestra Concert and fireworks. So I took a few pictures of the navy ships. I was also thinking about Washington crossing the Delaware escaping to Valley Forge. If I had more time, I would have liked to go to Valley Forge. Philly is a great place for a history buff. Across the river is New Jersey

 

 

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the ship in for leave lit up at dusk. It was beautiful waiting for the fireworks to begin. They were awesome. :)

 

The city of brotherly love

A nice couple took a picture of us while we were at dinner on our first night in town. We enjoyed a lovely Italian meal outside.

 

Love Park. A nice couple from England asked me to take their picture while they stood in front of the the Love statue. Of course I was happy to do so. They offered to take my picture. Craig was practising with the choir. I didn't want to be single under love. So I said thank you, but I'd have to get my husband there later. Honestly, I was happy with this picture.

 

Craig didn't want his picture taken hardly at all. I snuck the one at the prison. And the dinner picture came about because people took the camera out of his hands after he took one of me solo. He had to pose for that one. But this picture he wanted. Him and George Washington. :)

 

Friendship Gate in China Town

I thought I had already included this picture in a different post. This was pretty cool. There aren't any nails in this gate. The guide said it is put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

 

China Town

We wandered toward China Town on Saturday. We had no idea we would wander into a festival. We caught the opening ceremonies with the Lion Dancers. They had cute little kid lion dancers too. It was very hot, and I thought those poor kids inside that lion head, but maybe they enjoyed the shade.

 

I liked the tiger striped lion/dragon. The two red ones were a matched pair.

 

We had fun going into a shop. Lots of books and movies in Chinese. Lots of beautiful wood crafts. Of course I was drawn to all the expensive things. But we didn't have room in our bags. But it was really fun to look. I've decided that I like jade. I'll have to save up though. :)

 

They had 4 of these dragons as a sculpture. I knew Josh would like to see them. They reminded me of the dragons on the Avatar cartoon.