Day 4 Continued....

We ventured home after Darin returned from the Cable Mountain hike.

It's always hard to leave, but easier this time because we, along with Lisa and Emily, met Aunt Nonnie and Uncle James at

BRAD'S FOOD HUT

Darin and I splurged and ordered English Chips and Fried Mushrooms. When you are eating at a "Hut" you need to embrace the greasy goodness.

Thank you Aunt Nonnie for the quarter toys you bought for the kids. They boys are still playing with those huge bouncy balls!

We then had 4 hours of driving to get to my parents house for 24th of July fireworks!

We got to hang with Tater-Tot and Wy-Guy!

Uncle Jared supplied the entertainment.

He warmed us up with fountains but stunned us with a huge finale.

Colorful explosions one after another (18? 20?) that seemed directly above our heads.

I kept ducking thinking that the sparks were going to land in my hair.

Bub is skittish around fireworks and my screams of terror helped solidify his distrust.

Soren, however is thrilled by the noise and excitement.

Yea for Pioneers!!

We dropped Miriam off with my sister Sarah for an entire week and then drove the final 2 hours home.

Day 4 Cable Mountain

Darin went on this hike with Lisa and Craig & Craig's brother and sister-in-law while I stayed with the kiddos. Darin stayed with Soren while I went to Little Mermaid so I wanted him to be able to do something fun.

I don't know much about this hike since I didn't go, but this structure was how they lowered lumber down into Zion Canyon for the lodges.

I just hope the hikers kept a safe distance and did not lean or climb on the frame.

It's UNSAFE!

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