Bat Baby

While we were in St. George our kids aquired a new pet. Ryker really wanted to keep him. I told him that it could be dangerous because if he got bitten he would turn into a vampire. He said that he wanted to be a vampire he just didn't want to be bitten by the bat. He said, "what if I just cut two little holes in my arm and let the bat suck my blood so that he doesn't have to bite me?" He checked the porch first thing in the morning to make sure the bat was still there and unfortunately our new pet had run away. If you see him please call, Ryker really wants to be a vampire.

Fire

Driving home from St. George Sunday we came across a huge fire. These pictures don't really do it justice, I was taking them from a moving vehicle, but it was amazing to see. We came home to the fire in Herriman also, that was started by a Guardsman at Camp Williams training at the range.

Like a rock!

Eating in Springdale after a long day of hiking. We found a really yummy Mexican Restaurant.

Despite the look on his face, he loved his dinner!

That Chimi is almost as big as Lynn is.

The Narrows

Once you get to the end of this hike you can go no further unless you take one of these walking sticks and go through the river. We were not really prepared for this; Russell was wearing jeans and none of us had shoes that we wanted to ruin. But it was a really pretty hike and we definitely want to go back and go through the river.

The end of the road.

The hike to the river.

The Pulpit and The Pulpette

We saw a few groups of wild turkey. Supposedly we have wild turkey where we live in Lehi, but I have never seen them, so this is the first time I have seen them in real life.

Zions

They say that the canyon is changing everyday and that eventually these huge rock formations, (a lot of which set world wide records), will be reduced to the sand which they came from. Future generations will not be hiking in Zions they will be riding ATV's in the sand dunes.

Weeping Rock - Is a short hike, it is only 1/2 mile round trip, but it is steep and uphill the whole way. The weeping comes from above, in Echo Canyon. The constant weeing makes these beautiful hanging gardens and lots of moss which I have a fascination with.

The Three Patriarchs - Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

The sun was in my way, so I couldn't get a picture of Mount Moroni which is right next door.

We saw tons of Mule deer. They are not the prettiest deer but I have never seen baby deer before, so that was fun.

The Flora and Fauna in Zions was so pretty, these looked like petunias except that the flower was as big as a softball.

A Cuddle in The Shuttle

You can park at the Zions Visitor Center and ride the shuttle up the canyon, the driver will give you all the facts and dates and stuff. The bus stops at all the hiking spots, we got out at all of them and took our time doing all the hikes.

Springdale

On out way to Zions we stopped and walked through all the cute shops in Springdale. It is the cutest little town, it kind of reminds me of Park City except for that you can walk through all these artsy fartsy shops, see an amazing unique gift and actually afford to buy it.

Ouch!!

This guy was an odd duck, he was carving sandstone at one of the shops. He says he is on the Discovery channel all the time, (I'm not sure if I believe him). He talked Russell's ear off. He was actually kind of funny.

Two Worlds, One Family

Last year for Christmas, we gave Lynn and Russ tickets to the Tuachan and let them pick between a few different shows. They decided on Tarzan. We Left for St. George Friday morning. We stopped at Subway for lunch. After getting to the hotel we took a swim before going to Brick Oven for dinner and heading to the Tuachan. I loved the theater, it was such a pretty drive and it was amazing that this theater was built out in the middle of these red rock mountains. I was slightly disappointed with the play; I loved the set and all the acrobatics and special effects, the live band was amazing also. But other than the Phil Collins song the rest of the songs they sang were really not as awesome as I was hoping they would be.

This is one of the gorillas from the play.


Tarzan, Jane and Turk, AKA, Russ, Lynn and Rick.

They have this man-made river all the way from the parking lot to the theater.

Lookin For My Lost Shaker Of Salt...

Taco Tuesday Conversation

Jimmy Buffet comes on the radio...

Rick: Man, I love Jimmy Buffett, he's my role model.

Me: Jimmy Buffett's your role model?

Rick: Yes, he's awesome, he sings about REAL stuff.

Me: He sings about alcohol, and sand??

Rick: Yeah I can relate. You know his song, I blew out my flip-flop?

Me: No I am unaware of such a song, but I do remember when you blew out your flip flop in Cancun and we had to fix it with my hair elastic.

Rick: EXACTLY! See I can relate.

After thoughts...I don't want to say he's lived a privileged life or anything like that, but at least he can't relate to Eminem or anything in country music.

"Sore" Like An Eagle

Russell at an Eagle Scout court of honor.
Russell was advancing so I had to get his uniform in order. His old shirt was getting a little to small so I went and got a used, worn and stained one for $25, (Boy Scouts is a non-profit organization right?????) It took me 5 hours to sew all the new patches on to his shirt and sash. My fingers were so SORE after, and......dun dun dun nah...he got a handful of new patches that night.
Enough about me...congrats Russ!
He loves scouts so much and his leaders; Ryan Barker and Nate Allen
could not be more awesome! They are great leaders and awesome people!

Teeker The Streaker

Teeky riding his lawnmower down the driveway.

If I don't cover Teeks diaper with clothing the second I put it on, he will rip that diaper right off.

I changed him and went to through his diaper in the outside garbage, he escaped and left his diaper in the garage while he went streaking.

Goal

Before we moved to Lehi we lived on about 3/4 of an acre. We got the kids these soccer nets for Christmas to use in the backyard, well then we moved and now we have very little yard. The kids found them in the sports closet and took it upon themselves to make a goal despite our yard size. They did a pretty good job. Rick was playing goalie and offered a dollar to anyone who could get it past him, I think he ended up owing each of the kids several dollars!

Hiking Timp

Matt and Rick both had work off for Labor Day so they took the kids to hike Timp.
Chase and Russ had no problems whatsoever, Sounds like they practically ran up the mountain. Jade did great also. Brooke and Ryker both went through a few rough patches. Rick was giving Brooke a pep talk and after he got done she decided to pray for help, she made it the rest of the way just fine.
Day after: Brooke and Jade can barely walk, they want to be medicated. Brooke's toenails have all lifted, I don't think she is going to end up losing any of them, but they are hurting her.
Rick is very sore and Russell claims that he is not sore at all and that anyone that is sore is a wimp. You better run Russ your "wimpy" Dad is coming after you!

Looking down at the valley

Lyrical Labyrinth

Everyone makes mistakes when it comes to lyrics. Some of the ones I've heard are

Alanis Morisettes, You Oughtta Know: "of the cross I'd bear that you gave to me"

Some people thing she was given a cross-eyed bear, ha ha!

Or Santana's Smooth: "Man, it's a hot one, like seven inches from the mid-day sun"...man it's a hot one like seven midgets in the mid-day sun. Or Nirvana's, Smells Like Teen Spirit; "Here we are now entertain us" being heard as, here we are now in containers. Anyway you get the idea. Well one day I was singing Taylor Swift Picture to burn and Ryker started singing with me and he was saying, "you're just another picture of Ferb" I said, "what's a ferb, that's not even a word?" He said, "Yes it is, Ferb, as in, Phineus and Ferb." OK, Taylor Swift through a child's eyes, he doesn't understand a woman scorned wanting to burn a picture of her ex-love, but he does understand someone wanting to burn a picture of that little trouble making misunderstood animated boy Ferb.

Playing Offense!

In an attempt to thwart Teeky and his ability to make my house look like a natural disaster hit, I bought these bins that lock for mine and Rick's nightstands.
I knew Rick would be annoyed by them, he likes to have everything he needs right at his fingertips, even opening a drawer is too inconvenient for his taste. He hasn't made me get rid of the ones in his drawer yet, of course he has only had to open them once so far, I'm sure one more time and they will get the axe, until then I am relishing in the fact that my bedroom does not look like its pockets have been turned inside-out!


Teeky first realizing that he has been sabotaged! He was not happy! He couldn't even get the bins out of the drawer to try and open them...tee hee hee.

When he got discouraged enough he threw himself off his his ladder aka Spider-man bike and threw himself a tantrum/pity party on the floor!

Poor Teeky!

Weapon Of Mass Destruction

Give me an award, cause George W. Bush I have found your WMD's!! He may look innocent but this boy is trouble!

One of Teek's favorite things to do is take my heater vent off, then empty my nightstand drawers into them.

He uses my socks as basketball's and the bathtub as the basket and empties my sock drawer shot by shot, sock by sock.

He also uses my socks as sponges, he'll dunk them in the toilet and then suck the water out of them...sock Slurpee anyone?

Any chance he gets to escape outside he will and time after time I have found him half way down the street or face down in the gutter sucking up the water like a human shop vac!

Not only is he destructible to my home and all its contents he is destructible to himself...the word NO, is NOT in his vocabulary, if he gets told no he throws himself backwards slamming his head into the tile, cement, etc. If there isn't a hard surface under his feet he'll bang his head into the wall! Can't wait for the terrible two's stage, maybe he'll open up is arsenal and show me what else he's made of! Snips, snails, puppy dog tails... I think not, try, dynamite, pit bull fight, and venomous bite!!

Go Jade!

Give me a J--J, Give me a A--A, give me a, D--D, Give me an E--E, what's that spell? JADE!!!!

Jade's first game. She still won't admit to liking cheer, but she sure is cute in her uniform.