I can't believe we've never been here

I've lived in Utah for 35 years and have never been to Bryce Canyon. Embarrassing right? So we decided to go this year. We also did something else we've never done before. Dave and I took our four kids camping alone ... with no friends or other family with us. We LOVE camping with family and friends but just realized we had never gone with just our little family, and it turns out we LOVE that too.
We stopped by Gunnison for a quick look at Mater. Someone has done a great job recreating the old tow truck, and T.J. LOVED it.

This was Home Sweet Home for four days. I know, I know ... MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD right here. Who agrees to stay in a Tipi? I realize it doesn't sound like me at all, but the kids thought it was the coolest thing ever, and honestly it wasn't bad. Plenty of room, and it was actually nice and cool during the day and warm at night. Those Indians were on to something for sure.
We left on July 4th which was a bit of a sacrifice. I LOVE being around home for the 4th. We usually do the parade, fireworks, boating, barbeque ... the whole bit. But this was when we could get away, so that's what we did.
Turns out Ruby's Inn campground/resort puts on an AMAZING fireworks show. It was a lot of fun, and it made it seem like a regular old 4th of July ... which we love.

We've been practicing our arms-length self-photos, and it still took three tries to get this one (i.e. top of Dave's head included in the picture, no double chins, etc.)




We went on the COOLEST hike EVER down in Bryce Canyon. It is the Queens' Garden/Navajo Loop hike, and Dave and I both agreed it's the best hike we've ever been on. It's only about 3 miles, but the scenery was unbelievable. The kids did great. It wasn't too hard, so even T.J. walked the whole way. If we would have had time, we would have done this one again the next day. And honestly, it's not every day that I would even consider that for a hike. Check out these pics from our hike:


















Awesome ... right? I'd love to do that hike again sometime.

So this was after me saying, "Honey, can you start a fire?" a million times and Dave pretending not to hear me. NEVERMIND. I got it. And basically I started an amazing fire. Yep. That's right.

We went EASY with food on trip. We didn't even bring a dutch oven or camp stove. I actually purchased hot dogs and cooked them over the fire, and I actually ATE a hot dog. Amazing I know.

Six years old and he still falls asleep in my arms. Love it.

We hiked to a waterfall and wished we had our swimming stuff with us. Next time ...


There is really is a lot of cool stuff to see in Bryce Canyon. We took tons of pictures.

That's right.
They were all excited about their new sticks they found and wanted to keep them.
And then we told them the Feds frown on thievery from a National Park ... even of sticks.




London (an obsessive horse lover) had been begging since we got there to "Go see the horses" and we finally did. We considered going for a ride, but at $55 per rider for a two-hour ride, GIVE ME A BREAK.

So there is a funny story here. On our second day down there, getting ready for our hike, we discovered, much to my dismay, that I had not packed SHOES. Ugh. Seriously??? I drive myself CRAZY sometimes. Everyone else of course had everything they needed ... CAUSE I MADE SURE THEY DID. And I had a lousy pair of flip flops. I thought Dave was going to go INSANE. So he drove me over to the hotel gift shop and we picked out a nice pair of hiking shoes ... FOR $90!!! What in the world? If I was going to spend $90 on shoes, it sure as heck wasn't going to be freaking hiking shoes. I can get those at Big 5 for $25. Good grief. I was SO mad. Keep in mind this was one week after having my toenail removed, and then there's my whole ankle situation. So good shoes were a must. And it turns out the $90 was probably well-spent considering the shoes are unbelievably comfortable and never felt "new" at all. I actually was quite pleased with them ... but $90 in a hotel gift shop. WHO DOES THAT???

So we had a great trip, and we're glad to know we can survive in the wilderness on our own. Where to go next? Hmmmm ...

Youth Conference and Injury Report

A couple weekends ago, we had youth conference for our ward. We took the kids down to Ephraim and stayed with the Bolli's. They were gracious enough to open up their home to 20 something people and they even agreed to come and hang out with us. We had such a great time seeing them. So no youth pictures on blogs (per our stake policy), so you get random pictures of the fantastic youth leaders and bishopric. Lucky you.

I had the task of pulling our ward's new trailer down with my Armada. I was a little nervous since I've only pulled a trailer one time in my life, but it wasn't too bad. Bishop Hunt made some crack about showing a lot of faith by following in the car behind me and watching me with his "baby." I thought he was talking about me having his wife and mother of his children in the car. Turns out, he was worried about his TRAILER. Haha. I got a few phone calls about slowing down, not changing lanes so much, slowing down, "Did you know there is a cop behind you?," and did I mention slowing down? Who knew Bishop was the nervous type?!?!

After a quick drop off of stuff, we headed up to Palisades Lake for a day of fun in the water (or under the shade canopy ... depends on who you ask). The kids had fun with the paddle boats, swimming to the dock, canoeing, and drowning each other in the nasty lake water. Fun stuff. It was a nice hot day ... perfect for a day at a beautiful lake with a great bunch of youth.

So there's a couple of funny stories here. Marion and I went out shopping for all the food/supplies for youth conference the week before. We were wondering about getting a first aid kit ... just in case. She was like, "Well we could get one, but most likely nobody will get hurt, it's only two days." And I said, "If anybody gets hurt, it will be me, so let's get one." So we did ...

And the second funny story is, Bishop Hunt had asked the week before that we all be in SHOES and not flip flops for our activities at youth conference so as to not have any injured feet. And guess who threw the BIGGEST fit??? Ummmm ... that would be ME. I reminded him that it was June and hot and we'd be wet and that I HATE socks and all that. Blah, blah, blah. He relented ... but he definitely had a smirk on his face when he did ... almost like he was just hoping for this smart mouth to be humbled. Weird.


So for our grand finale funny story, Tiffany and I were racing a couple of our young women in a canoe. And I would just like to state that were were kicking some TRASH! And then we made a fatal error. We both (with our massive muscles) paddled on the same side of the canoe at the same time and we literally FLIPPED it over. No rocking, no warning, just a very quick DUMP into the lake. WHAT THE??!?!?! We screamed, we grabbed the oars, we DID NOT drown, and we started swimming for shore. I think I've made it pretty clear how I feel about nasty fish-bathroom lake water being on me and in my mouth, and EWWWW!!! Nasty. There was definitely some girly screaming.

So on our swim into shore, I kicked a LARGE rock and thought I had stubbed my toe. Turns out I all but removed my toenail by flipping it back. UGGGHHH!!!!

So guess what happens when you have a toenail flip up most of the way, but not all the way? You get to go and get it removed after limping around for a week. That's right, shots of anesthetic INTO MY TOE and pliers. ACCKKK!!!! Grossest thing ever. And now I have one toe WITHOUT a toenail ... which is NOT CUTE. Dr. Scott says I have to wait two weeks before just painting the skin on my toe to match the others. YES I did ask him that and YES I am going to do that.

So Bishop Hunt, rest assured, I have been humbled. There's a lot of good lessons to be learned here about listening to your priesthood leaders, being prepared, being humble, setting a good example for youth, etc. Don't worry ....I HEAR YA! Lesson learned ... let's hope anyway. :)

Yes we are holding up NUMBER ONE fingers. That's our story and we're sticking to it. We were totally ahead of the girls at the time of the crash. And I would just like to point out that we both kept our sunglasses on, and my earrings were in. Priorities people.

An interesting note here, our men-folk did NOT run to our rescue. In fact, they TOOK this picture during the above mentioned drowning incident. What is up with that? They did however yell to us, "Get the canoe!" To which we responded "GET YOUR OWN DANG CANOE!!!" That must have been the lake water talking ... because that is not very respectful. Ooops. Perhaps if it wasn't a couple of smart mouths out there drowning. It's almost like they were trying to tell us something. They said they thought we had it covered. And apparently, WE DID.

Time to dry off in the sun (my favorite thing to do).
How is it that I look like a drowned rat and Michelle looks like THIS? Simply beautiful.

So that night we went to the Manti Pageant after a quick stop by FAT JACKS PIZZA for dinner. I was trying to convince my girls and everyone else that Fat Jacks has the greatest cheesy breadsticks (a.k.a. Fat Sticks) on earth, and now they all AGREE of course. Yum. Brought back Snow College memories. Awww ....

Me and Tiff on our walk around Manti with our girls before the pageant started.

We did a ropes course the next day. Climbing walls, rope swings, trust falls ... the whole bit. It was awesome to see the youth and leaders working together and depending on each other. The kids encouraged each other and banded together in such an inspiring way. I love our youth. They are a great bunch of kids. I feel so blessed to have these amazing experiences with them. And no I don't remember what the expression on my face in this picture was about. Sorry about that.

Our bishop volunteered to be the first one on the trust fall, and the kids weren't zipped up quite tight enough. They did manage to break his fall, but there was definitely contact with the ground. Ooops. Sorry Bishop. I would just like to point out that I was not in on the catching that time and therefore cannot be blamed. I also recommended that he do a quick check to see if anyone was mad at him before he fell backwards into their arms. He didn't think that was necessary. Haha. Anyway, being the amazing leader that he is, he got right back up there and did it again. This time they caught him nice and tight.

So Tiff, Marion, and I apparently do not hide our anxiety well. I'm not even sure who was falling on this one ... but apparently we were nervous for their well-being.

This was after Tiffany's trust fall. She was way nervous, and she DID IT! Way to go Tiff! So proud of you girl. Honestly I was scared to death when it was my turn. I think it was really good for the girls to see that we were scared too. And it gave some of them the courage to be able to face their fears. I am so proud of all of them. They did some scary hard things that day, and they were all AMAZING.



The amazing youth leaders from our ward, our bishopric, and the Bolli's. So grateful to all of them for an amazing weekend. We had a great experience with our youth, and I know it was a memorable one for them as well.