Day 3 Cascading Falls

This hike is just within Zion Park from the East side.

You just pull off to the side of the road, walk (or slide on your bottom)

all the way down to a wash.

Of course, since it's called Cascading Fall's there is water in the Spring that runs down the falls along the sandstone. Since this was late July, there were only puddles in sandstone holes.

but.... guess what else they were filled with?

TADPOLES and almost-frogs!

The kids screamed with delight when they caught them, and it was easy to catch them because there were THOUSANDS of them!

Of course we put them back...we are friends to nature, leave no trace and all that.

While Darin and Miriam explored further up the trail, Lisa, the boys and I sat and played in the silkiest, finest sand. I am a very tactile person and this was heavenly to me. I could run my hands and feet through it all day.

On the Zion Shuttle the day before I heard a snippet about how Zion Canyon use to be like the Sahara Desert is today. Gravity, water...whatever pressed it into sand stone, and now erosion turns it back into sand (the BEST sand ever). So my question is, which is older Zion or the Sahara? Is the Sahara what Zion will be in a zillion years or is Zion what the Sahara will be in a zillion years?

Before we hiked back up to the car we went into the tunnel under the highway.

It was cool, and breezy, and had more of that sand I can't stop talking about.

When we got home Craig made FAJITAS!! He is such a wonderful brother-in-law. He cooks AND cleans up, I am not making this stuff up.

Ended the day swimming with Emily. Sweetest 16 year old ever.

No pictures because I was wet!

Day 2

We hit the hotel swimming pool because, how can you spend all that money just to sleep?

Then we went to Zion.

Darin suggested that we pick one small hike and leave before anyone became too tired or hungry. That worked out well for us. The kids were happy and energetic.

The promise of ice cream afterwards helped.

We went to the saddest rock in the world.

We played in its tears and took in the view.

Then we explored the stream below.

Watched water skeeters, and tiny fishies.

We all had a great time, except when Bub accidentally bit Soren's finger while we were riding the shuttle and Soren screamed bloody murder for a few minutes.

That wasn't fun.

Just as promised we had ice cream afterwards.

I love the drive through the park to get to C & L's "Dream Come True".

The scenery is amazing and you get to drive through a looong black tunnel. It's one of those drives where the kids don't even ask for a movie because there is too much to see.

Southern Vacay 2011

Our first stop was St. George, my old college stomping grounds.

I had to go see Tuachan's performance of The Little Mermaid.

This story and I go waaay back. My Dad read me Hans Christian Anderson's original version when I was a wee lass. I adored it, sea foam ending and all. When I was a bit older we would rent a VHS machine and videos from Bill's Home Furnishings where they had an anime Little Mermaid (which you can watch piece by piece on Youtube). I would beg my parents to rent it every time we went and I cried at the ending each time they did. I specifically remember having an ear infection and my Dad bringing it home after work. The infected ear was worth it!

The Disney version came out in 1989, back when you had to wait for-ev-er for the video to come out. I think I saw it 4 times in the theater. LOVED IT my sisters and I had all the words memorized.

See? I HAD to go see this performance....and I was blown away by it.

It was magical.

Doug Wright, the author of the play, was there along with a bunch of Disney Execs so word must have spread fast about how great this performance is. I have heard that Tuachan is the first theater to have been given permission to put on the musical outside of Broadway. Its easy to see why since they do water scenes so well.

The play ended later than Bub's tolerance for pictures so he is not in any photos with the characters. He sat in awe and giggled through the entire film until the end fight with Ursula and then he wished (out loud) they would quit singing and be quiet so he could fall asleep.

Miriam is not going to like me documenting this but she was so overwhelmed she cried!

I should admit here that I did too.

Lawrence Cummings as Sebastian sooooo wonderful.

Michelle Pruiett as Ursula - my personal fav. She was fabulous!

The girl in white is Miriam's friend from Switzerland. She came up to Miriam before the play started and said "I like your face". They instantly became musical friends, talking during intermission, and after the show, although Miriam can't even remember what her name is!

Thanks for meeting us at the show C L & E, I am so happy to have witnesses to the shows awesomeness as well as it's bobbles. (trident troubles)

Darn Hippies!

Have you noticed all the tie dye t-shirts my kids have been sporting?

We've done our fair share of tie dye this summer. Miriam received a kit for her birthday so we broke it out this summer and made shirts, more shirts, pajama shirts and a few disasters.

Super messy, but fun craft.

In baking news......I made homemade fig newtons tonight. The local food co-op came with a bunch of figs and they were going bad so I whipped up this recipe. There are very few things that I think are better store purchased verses homemade, but I am going to have to put these on the store purchase list. Along with cream puffs, and pie crust (I'm sorry it's just rolled out more evenly and it tastes the same to me).

The Actual Independence Day

We did all our Independence celebrating during the weekend, so Monday the 4th had huge potential for being a let down.

I was out of sorts all day, but Darin took the kids on a drive to Huntsville where they stumbled on a celebration in the city park. Bounce houses, local live entertainment, and cotton candy, not a let down for them at all!

Soren and I got the vacation laundry finished which is a reason to celebrate as well.

We lucked out with neighbors who took advantage of the lax firework laws this year.

There were fireworks exploding all around us as gatherings of neighbors in every direction were also setting off quite an impressive displays.

The sparklers were the scariest part. 10+ kids running around with burning embers on a stick.

We survived with minimal spark scorching.

{this is one of the wimpy fireworks....probably from the pack we brought}

Happy Birthday Aunt Ruth!

Unbelievably 80 years young!

Spur of the Moment Crafting

This is how my sisters and I operate.....If the event is Saturday, there will be a phone call on Thursday night saying "we should make such and such....". Julia and I get all excited (Kelly and Sarah go along with it all) and drive our husbands nuts running around gathering supplies. Then we stay up till 1:00 am the night before coming up with creative Mormon swear words to mutter as we glue glitter tulle to our fingers.

Here is this year's spur of the moment cabin craft!

Inspired by my sister in law Cristin's version

Here they are in action

Fishing and Canoeing

Bear Cave

The Parade

Yaking Scofield 2011

Miss Pleasant Valley Days Pagent

Book Club

Our first meeting of the summer book club.

Our June book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Everyone LOVED it, and Miriam finally agreed to watch the movie (she was traumatized by an accidental viewing of it when she was little).

We toured a local chocolate factory, of course sampling the chocolate, and then had lunch and discussion at a park.

Next up: Indian in the Cupboard

We Bounced Back!

Lagoon on a Monday @ 11:00 am

Pretty sweet, but it didn't last long, by 1:00 things were getting crowded.

We took the morning to ride everything Bub's little heart desired.

Went home for Soren's nap and waited out the heat of the day till Dad came home.

Miriam and I retured that evening. She was determined to face her roller coaster fears.

She wanted it documented that she rode:

The Bat

Bombora (a zillion times)

The White Roller Coaster

The Screamer

The Lady Bug Bop (twice)

The Swings

Tidal Wave

Wild Mouse

and my personal favorite The Flying Aces

We were there til the park lights started to turn off!

She is a thrill ride lover just like her mom.

Thanks again Mom and Dad, we wouldn't have bounced without you!

Girls Camp #3

As a Young Women's presidency, this was our year. The first year that no one was pregnant or had a newborn baby. The first year the WHOLE presidency could come together!

There was SO MUCH to take pictures of but when I don't have to keep track of our darling children and diaper bag (with diapers, sunscreen, water, treats, sunglasses, bandaids etc etc) I tend to not pack ANYTHING. Including my camera. So, the only thing I have a picture of is the Jedi braid my Beehive President tied for me.

Lovely eh? I also came home with a friendship bracelet or two and orange toe nails.

I didn't take pictures of jumping off the pier into freezing cold water, canoeing, kayaking, extreme water ballooning, zen sneaker yoga, leather working, Vanilla Ice impressions, a lingerie display, stargazing, dough boys, good night tent checks, campfire chats, a lost fingernail (not mine) and happy testimony tears.

For any future Camp Directors out there...Our theme was PJ'S

Prayer, Journals and Scripture Study. The girls got matching pajama bottoms and decorated pillowcases. Each night we had a campfire devotional about P...J...and S.

Father's Day

The awesome tie!

Our church was full of them since the primary kids made them for their Dads.

Pink feathers, googly eyes, pom-poms....it was great!

We tried to show Darin how much we love him by shining his shoes, letting him sleep in and then bringing him breakfast in bed (M was ready to start it at 6:45 but I held her off till 8:30), a fish taco dinner (recipe from Chez Moi...amazing as always), and then some dress shirts for work. Nothing says we appreciate how hard you work like more clothes to go do that work in!

He is our tower of strength around here. Our patient voice of reason with a very FORGIVING heart.