First Day of School

Once again the summer has flown by too fast...oh, wait - it's only August 19th -IT'S STILL SUMMER!!! Why do they have to start school so early? I can't believe the first day of school is already here!

Belle had her first day of school outfit picked out 2 weeks ago. We had a completely different first day of school experience with her this year than last. This year she just wanted to hop on the bus and go to school all by herself with Cole. I asked her if she wanted me to drive her there and make sure she made it to her classroom ok. She said "No Mom, I don't want it to be like last year." I was torn between feeling proud of her and feeling sad that she didn't need me there. But I went to school anyway. Not for them, but for me.

Belle wearing her paint splatter shirt and pants. Not my favorite outfit of Belle's but it's hers. Cole on the other hand just says "I don't care, just pick something out for me."

Getting on the bus. Nothing like bright, morning sun. Oh yeah, that's because it's only 7:15AM!!! Crazy.
I had my big lens on and shot this picture from across the playground when Belle first discovered that I had gone against her wishes and come to school anyway.

Belle and her friend Savannah. They were so excited to be in the same class this year.

My big 3rd grader headed to line up with his class. The funny thing was that while Belle was too busy talking with her friends to care about me, Cole, on the other hand, stayed right by my side until the bell rang. He was definitely the more nervous of the two. His teacher is Mr. Madsen and he is thrilled to have the "cool teacher". Mr. Madsen is very musical and is known to do a lot of fun projects with the kids throughout the year.

Cole at his desk. See ya after school buddy!

I wish I could remember what I did with the rest of my "first day of freedom!", but since I am technically writing this is November and back dating it to August, I can't recall what I did. It must not have been too memorable. Probably just housework. Boring.

Idaho Trip

This August we had a most excellent trip to Idaho. We started out going to Baumgartner Campground somewhere is Idaho-I'm not sure where we were exactly, all I know is that is was kinda in the middle of nowhere and 8 hours from home. We went there with two other families-Kara and Cory Pincock and Bryce and Kate Bell. Rich thinks the trails around Baumgartner are the best riding ever. He just loves it there.

We stayed there for 3 days riding motorcycles, hiking, floating the river, sitting in the hot-spring hot tub and enjoying the beautiful area we were in. While there, Kara and Kate taught me my new favorite card came called "nerts". Belle and I love it now and play it all the time, albeit according to "Belle's rules".

There is a natural hot spring that has been concreted in for a nice, huge hot tub. The campground workers let the water out every night and fill it up again every morning. It was awesome.
Our group in the hot tub.
The hot tub was hot, but the river right by it was ice cold. Rich is crazy, as we all already know and he jumped in it several times. Why, I don't know.

Rich and Cory with the kids floating the river. There were some rapids which scared the kids. Cole and Chachy did not like it and wanted off.

After Baumgartner, we left our friends and continued on down the road. Traveling in a motorhome is awesome for just hitting the road without a plan. We had a few days this trip without an agenda. It was nice to just drive and make spur of the moment decisions as we went. Three of the nights were spent not in a campground, but just off the side of the road somewhere that we could find a nice spot for the night. Idaho is great in that they have lots of pull offs for just that sort of thing.

We stopped in Sun Valley, ate pizza, did laundry, played tourist, and sat in more hot springs. We also visited a fun old ghost town. It was really interesting to see the old houses and how they lived in a gold mining community. Life was much simpler then.
Rich and Belle in a old house in the Ghost Town.
Cole and Belle running toward the old one room school house (the yellow one).

The school house had been restored along with 5 or 6 other buildings and most of the furniture and household items on display were original.

Being an old mining town, the kids were able to do a little panning for gold. The forest service lady who worked there was fabulous with the kids. They loved her.

You know those pictures when something in the background takes your attention away from the main person or thing in the picture? I think this is definitely one of those pictures. I guess I should have cropped this picture a bit. Sorry Cole.

We also went on a tour of this Gold Dredge. It is this huge boat thing that would dig out the river bed in search of gold. It hasn't been used since 1950 and is now a museum. It was neat to walk through. This particular dredge mined a lot of gold during it's operation.

Belle and I inside the dredge by the huge diesel engines. We were turning the motors manually with this really heavy metal pipe, which fell on my foot right after this picture was taken. Ouch!
When the lady who worked at the dredge found out we were from Utah, she went on and on about how some gold leaf she had in a little bottle was the same gold the Mormons put gold on the statues on the tops of their temples. We just smiled.

We left the mining town and had a day to kill before meeting another set of friends at Deadwood Reservoir, so we visited Red Fish Lake, which is now my new favorite place. It was this awesome, crystal clear, somewhat warm lake up in the mountain by Stanley Idaho. There was a cute resort with cabins, a restaurant and a beautiful beach and dock. You can rent paddle boats, bicycles and kyaks. The bottom of the lake was soft sand and the water by the beach was shallow for a very long way, making a perfect place for the kids to play. There are 5 or 6 campgrounds around the lake and they allow motorized boats. We are definitely going back there.
Rich and Belle on the dock.
Rich, Belle and Cole
The kids wanted to rent a paddle boat. Rich did not, but he gave in. We went for a short ride, which was "fun, but not that fun" according to Belle. The paddle boat was a little slow going.
Me on the paddle boat ride.

The next day, we met up with a different group of friends at Deadwood Reservoir. We have been there several times before and we love it every time. It is a hot spring fed reservoir and once again, the water is surprisingly pleasant for as high up in the mountains as it is. We met JP & Meredith Stoddard, Steve & April Slider, Pacome, and Tara & Lynn Ethington. It was a fun group and the weather was perfect, so we had a great time there as well. I taught the gals nerts and we played alot.
The kids playing on the beach. Our campground is right by the beach.
The kids catching frogs. We call this campground "tadpole heaven" because every time we come, there are thousands and thousands of tadpoles and tiny baby frogs all over. The kids think it is great. We ended up bringing 5 home and they lived in a fish tank on our porch for about 2 weeks until they all disappeared one day. I think a bird discovered them. Sorry frogs.
Because we were going to be done for so long this trip, we took the dogs with us. They were great and behaved themselves very well. Meredith's six month old baby, Mikelle, loved Oakley and would giggle and smile when ever she came around. Watch out Mer, she might be the child that finally persuades you to get a dog!
Rich and Belle looking over the edge of the damn at Deadwood.

The one sad spot on our trip was the unfortunate sinking of JP and Meredith's boat during the night. How it happened is a mystery. Sorry guys! It was a huge bummer, but after pulling it out with 3 trucks, we managed to salvage the rest of the trip.

It was a very fun trip, one in which I would not mind repeating next year.

Lake Powell and Blessings

Anyone who knows us much knows that we love Lake Powell. We make it down several times a summer, which never seems like enough. If we lived a bit closer we would be in serious trouble of never working or getting anything done and just being there.

As the mother of 2 young kids, I am well aware of the dangers associated with vacationing around deep water and boats and cliffs, etc and think of them often while there. Over the years we have had a couple of scary moments that make you count your blessings, but nothing compares to the near accident we had this trip.

We met the Nielsons and Burrs at the lake. Jared Burr and his siblings rented a houseboat. Our boat wasn't working well the entire trip. It kept randomly stalling, and to make matters worse, the starter was acting up. So several times a day, it would stall and then not start and we would have to sit where ever we were for a bit until it felt like starting again. Very annoying.

We had been having a very fun few days despite the boat issues when we decided to pack everyone up into 3 boats and go up a canyon for lunch. The particular canyon we were in was just wide enough for 2 boats to pass by each other safely.

Being a popular canyon, boats had been coming and going all day causing pretty big boat waves to bounce back and forth. We were the lead boat with Damon Nielson right behind us traveling in our wake which helps smooth out the choppy water. We each had boats filled to capacity, mostly kids. As soon as we emerged from the canyon, our boat decided to die.

Damon, traveling close behind us, had only a split second to process what was happening and make a decision. He made a hard left turn, nearly flipping his boat over and avoided a collision with our boat-or so we thought at first. Everything happened so quickly that Rich & I were still looking forward, so we had no idea he was that close to us until we felt this huge wall of water come crashing into our boat, while simultaneously seeing the underside of his boat go by just inches from us.

At first I thought Damon was messing around trying to be funny-which standing there with me and everything in my boat completely soaked, I did not find funny in the least. It wasn't until Damon came back around, completely shaken, asking if our boat was ok from the hit. We said "What hit?" Upon further inspection, we saw a gouge in the left back corner, a missing cleat, and a bent bar on the bimini just 3 inches from where my head had been.

Damon said that as soon as he realized what was happening, he had several options about what to do go through his head all at once-whether to cut the gas or turn right or left. Had he chosen to just cut the gas, he would have still been going fast enough that he probably would have gone over the top of our boat killing everyone in the back. Had he not turned sharp enough left, he would have hit us more directly, probably tearing huge holes in both boats and sending people flying.
Damon said that he has never had his boat on that steep of an incline before.

As we talked about it later on, we came to realize what a truly close call to complete disaster it had been and how lucky and blessed we were to have been kept safe. Damon said that for the rest of the day he kept having flashbacks over and over again and didn't sleep well that night. He was really shaken up by it. I'm just glad that he made the right choice and had the reflexes to react like he did.

Later, we discovered our missing cleat stuck into the bottom of Damon's boat. Before every trip we take, we always have a prayer and ask for a blessing of safety. We spoke with our kids about it, reminding them of our prayer and pointing out that our prayer had been answered and that we had been watched over.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Grandpa and Grandma Warner came up for the night to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Mason and Jaxon came up with them. It is a beautiful temple and it is fun to watch the kids reactions. I especially loved the murals and the huge double staircase right in the middle. I think it is a neat experience for kids to be able to see what the inside of temples looks like. I still remember going through the Denver Temple with my family when I was around 10 years old.
L to R: Grandma and Grandpa Warner in back. Mason, Jaxon, Belle and Cole in front. L to R: Jaxon, Belle, Cole and Mason

Denver temple under construction. The tiny people who you can't see well are my Mom, Me, Trevor, Allison and Amy. Apparently my Dad is taking the photo. I believe this would have been around 1985. Go 80's!! I'm not sure I like seeing the 80's style coming back in. It wasn't very good then. Let's not repeat it.

24th of July

This year for the 24th of July we worked in the yard all day (yahoo!) and then went to our friends, the Burnhams, neighborhood party in Cedar Hills. Their neighborhood throws a great party with a tons of food, a zip line, inflatables, live music and really good fireworks. I didn't want to go originally because I didn't know anyone but the Burnhams, but it was fun and I'm glad we went.

Belle and Cole together watching something on Cole's itouch.

Weekend in Cedar City

Belle, Cole and I spent a few days down in Cedar City and St. George visiting my side of the family. We had a great time and loved seeing everyone.


The first night, Allison and I took the four kids (Belle, Cole, Mason and Jaxon) to see Annie at the Tuacahn Theater in St.George. It was a very fun play. The kids were glued to it the whole time. It was however hotter than Hades. When we pulled in the parking lot, my car said it was 110 degrees and it didn't cool down much by the end of the play. Being an outdoor theatre, the heat was miserable. By intermission I was willing to pay $2.50 for a snow cone and $3.50 for a soda just for a little relief from the heat. Hats off to the actors and actresses who endure it every night.



After the play, the cast was waiting to give autographs. At first Cole acted like he didn't care, but then it was he who insisted that we wait in line 1/2 hr to take a picture with Annie!


The next day we met Trevor and Jodi at the Washington pool for some swimming. Grandma and Grandpa Warner came with us as well. It it a fun pool almost exactly like the Lehi Legacy Center. Mason, Jaxon, Belle and Cole took off on their own while I pretty much just watched. They didn't seem to need me and it was kind of nice. Watching Trevor with his two little ones reminded me of how nice it is that my kids can swim and touch the bottom!

L to R: Cole, Trevor, John Henry, Mason

Grandpa Warner, bless his heart, hung out in the heat and humidity just to be with us.

I love this picture of Belle and Cole.

It was the grand opening of the pool, so channel 2 news was there filming a news story about it. Cole and Mason were hilarious. They were bound and determined to be on tv, so they were constantly positioning themselves right in front of the camera. Note the two of them in this picture. Sadly, we didn't think to record the news, so we never saw if they were or not.

After swimming we all went to Trevor's for dinner. It was nice to visit and hang out with everyone. Cole, Belle and I spent the night there. The next morning we visited with Amy and saw her new apartment.

Belle is very cute with John Henry and plays with him a lot. John just eats it up.

Finally we made our way back to Cedar City and went to my parent's Ward BBQ with them. Dad's big hobby in life is Mountain Manning. He is part of a group that goes to rendezvous a half a dozen times a year. He is really into it and enjoys it. He was the entertainment for the evening by dressing up in his mountain man outfit and telling a few fun stories. He did a really good job.

L to R: Mason, Jaxon, Grandpa and Belle

My 34th Birthday

Wow I am getting old! How did I get to be 34? I did have a really great birthday. Rich and the kids suprised me in the morning with my birthday gifts. They bought me a new purse and the new IPhone. I was very excited for the phone. It is the latest and greatest thing right now, but years from now when my grandkids are reading this, they will be laughing at our latest technology. Hey grandkids, your grandma still remembers vinyl records and 8 track tapes!!

My very nice friends took me out for lunch. It was great to sit and talk and enjoy a "mom" meal. They also gave me a gift certificate to a cute store in which I bought a new necklace.

Later that night, Rich and I, went on a double date with Bryan and Susie Bassett. Susie and I share a birthday, so it is fun to do things together to celebrate. Rich and Bryan suprised Susie and I with a nice dinner and show at the Desert Star Theatre. We had a wonderful dinner at TGI Friday, my favorite restaurant besides the Thai House. As usual, I ordered the Jack Daniels Chicken and Shrimp. After dinner we went to the Theatre and saw James Blonde Casino Real. The Desert Star specializes in saterical comedy. It was very funny and the actors did a great job. Rich wanted to make up for being lame on my last few birthdays and he did it. I had a great time. The Bassett's are great friends, so it was a very fun evening.
Pictures should never be taken first thing in the morning, but I like this picture showing my kids excitement to give me my gifts.

We forgot the good camera, so we had to take a few with the new Iphone. They aren't very good, but they'll do. These were taken at the Desert Star Theatre.

Susie and Bryan Bassett