Mysterious and passionate. You are a survivor. Even though life has swung you some difficult situations you have a strong intuition that gets you through. Also, you have the capacity to sympathize and relate to a variety of different people.
Well I finally finished my last three adventures so here they are. The first one we did was the Nebo Loop. This is a scenic drive from Payson to Nephi. Neither Cameron nor I had ever done this drive so this one was a fun one to do and one I would recommend it. Blake was sick so he just sat there but Grace just couldn't figure out why we would just drive and have no where to go really. Oh well maybe one day she will get it. Like I said before you end in Nephi and that is pretty close to Fairview where Cameron and his brothers go hunting so of course since it was about a week before the hunt we had to go home that way to scout for deer and let me just say it was loads of fun. They town is really small and only has like two restaurants and it was getting dark so Cameron didn't want to sit and eat. They don't even have a McDonald's. The one gas station has a little grill but since it was 7 at night they were closed so we settled for hot dogs and pre-made sandwiches. Yummy! We got home really late and Grace just kept saying "Can I please go to my bed." That was how bored we all were with the scouting.
To get my stamp I had to go another day to the Peteetneet Museum in Payson, they are closed on Saturdays and that is when we went for our drive. The museum use to be a school and now has a bunch of different rooms with different themes, like a Payson City History room, an old school room, a war room from WWI and WWII, etc. In the basement they have a cowboy room and in it they have Rodeo Nation Finals Championship Saddle and it is amazing. I can't remember the winner's name but he is from Utah so he donated it and it is worth seeing and since the museum is free you could just go see that and nothing else and not feel bad. The older gentleman who gave me my tour found out I was from Georgia and felt the need to discuss the Civil War with me for twenty minutes. All about how no one in Utah really understands it. He is from North Carolina so I guess once a southern always southern. The picture below is outside the museum.
My second place was the UVU Woodbury Art Museum. This one I really felt was a waste of time and it was expensive. Right now they have a Da Vinci exhibit, which is kind of cool but for the price they should be the real thing not reproductions of his inventions and paintings and it should take longer than 15 minutes. Maybe it would if you didn't have two small children with you but I still think that this is the one thing I would not suggest to other people.
After I finished I went over to the Utah Valley Visitors Center to retrieve my prize and all I got was....a tee shirt. Oh yeah for me. I was a little bugging because the girl told me that if I had had books for the kids and they got their own stamps they too could have gotten a shirt too. I told her they were at every place with me but she said that they had to have a book. Oh well. The shirt is a little lame for all the work and money I spent but I am glad that I did all of them because most of them I hadn't done before. I guess next year I will know and get the kids their own books because yes I will do it again.
Last weekend marked the beginning of bow hunting season. All the boys get really excited about three months before and start shooting their bows, talking about where to camp and hunt and going scouting for deer. They then all head up the Friday before so they can set up everything and be ready for the opening morning. I however am not a fan of the hunt because a. I don't like deer meat. Elk is good but none of them get one and b. I don't like to sleep alone in my house. This year I got lucky and had an adult babysitter by the name of Leah come stay with me. I don't have pictures because Cameron took the camera but I was very happy to have her there and I tried to get her to stay a day longer. So did Grace because she loves her and Leah put Legos in her hair(really braids but Grace thought they looked like Legos so that is what she called them). We usually go up to see Cameron on Sunday for a few hours but this year he asked Grace if she wanted to camp out and she did not let him forget. So Monday afternoon the kids, two of my nephews and I drove up Fairview Canyon to see the boys and camp. Now if anyone knows me well you know I don't camp but my mother and father-in-law and my brother and sister-in-law have trailers so I am good.
Of course the first thing the kids did was dig in the dirt, since there would be no showers let's get as dirty as possible. And they went in and out of the trailers over and over.
Next they asked for a million rides on the 4 wheeler and since their dad is so nice he took them and me. He let Grace drive which I won't even do and they all made it back in one piece. Later we had tin foil dinners which were great.
This is all the kids Braxton, Blake, Grace and Dylan. Even though it was pretty cold I think all the kids had at least twenty otter pops a piece.
This is Grace roasting her first marsh mellows. I am just glad she did it before her pyro of a father got hold of the fire and turned it into a bonfire.
I was really concerned that the kids would not sleep very well but Grace was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Blake was up for a few minutes but went to sleep well and slept all night.
The next morning we all get up and came home. This is Blake peeking out the window to see who was out there, he was so cute up there that I had to get one last picture. We had lots of fun and the kids want to know when we can go again!
Grace started two new things this week and I am sure from the title you can guess what they are. The first was dance. Now last year she decided that she wanted to take gymnastics so I said ok and we signed her up. I was a little disappointed in the class and the gym as a whole. For those who don't know I was competitive gymnast for eight years and I coached for about five so I felt like I could have taught her more at home than she learned in class. Anyway her friend Blythe was taking dance and I took Grace to her recital and she decided that she needed to do what Blythe did and dance. I told her she had already made the decision to do gymnastics and she had to finish the year but next year she could dance. So the time came and her Sunbeam teacher just happens to own a dance school so I signed her up and now she is my dancing girl. She is very excited to have Teacher Levie as her teacher (that is what she calls her). She is disappointed though that she is not dancing on stage like Blythe. I have had to explain to her many times already that she will dance on stage but she has to learn the dances first. I think that this might be a long year.
This picture is of Grace and her friend Blythe at their first soccer practice since that is her second new thing. One day we were driving down the rode and she saw a big soccer net in a field and said to me "One day I am going to play soccer and Dylan and Braxton(cousins) are going to come watch and they are going to say Go Grace Go!" I thought it was so funny so I signed her up. She didn't really have any shorts to play in so I bought her new ones and put them on her for the first time yesterday and they don't fit. Every time she runs they fall down so she was having a hard time kicking the ball, running and keeping her shorts up all at the same time. She did give it a really valiant effort though but by her first game on Tuesday I will get her some new shorts.
They had lots of fun practicing and I can't wait till the first game because I think it will be quite fun to watch.
Day six was the last full day with my parents and we did lots of little things and most where part of my adventures so I got a lot done. The first place we went to was Camp Floyd and Stage Coach Inn. Now before receiving the passport in the mail I had no idea this place existed but I am glad I went and learned some more history. It was established in 1858 in Fairfield Utah which is on the far side of Utah Lake. President James Buchanan sent troops to Utah to suppress the "Mormon Rebellion". Brigham Young wouldn't let them settle anywhere else in the valley so they had to go there. Buchanan thought that if he sent soldiers from both the north and the south they would get along and maybe there would be no civil war. When the civil war broke out the troops left and went to fight mostly for the south since the man they named the camp after was a southern sympathizer named John B Floyd who was also the Secretary of war. This is way you see a confederate battle flag flying in Utah. The stage coach inn is restored with period furnishings and was also a route along the pony express. Of the camp only one building remains so the drove over to the fort is defiantly longer than the tour but like I said before I am glad I went to see it.
The top picture is in the Camp Floyd museum with a little cannon and the bottom picture is of the kids with my dad at the inn.
After we left there we had lunch and my dad decided he wanted to go for a ride so my mom and I decided to do a couple of the easy adventures. The first we did was the Provo River Trail and Park System. To get the stamp you have to go down to the Utah Lake State Park. It is quite a ways away from the actual canyon so I thought it was kind of weird that you have to go there but I guess they don't really have any place up the canyon for you to stop. The guy that gave me the stamp asked if I had actually been to the canyon and I wanted to say what person in Utah county has never been to Provo Canyon. But I just said yes I had floated the Provo River and we just had our family pictures taken up there on Saturday so he seemed satisfied and gave me my stamp.
Next we went to the Crandall Historic Printing Museum. It was actually suppose to be closed but someone was there and he took my picture and gave me my stamp. This museum has a working historic printing press and replica print shops. It goes along with the Provo Freedom Festival which is held on the fourth of July. Every city in Utah county has it's own city festival, Freedom Festival is Provo's. I didn't go to that festival but we did do the Spanish Fork Rodeo Days parade and Springville's Art City days, both are listed as other activities you can do so I counted them and got the stamp. I also learned while in the museum that the Crandall's are Cameron's cousins. I was pretty excited to tell him some family history but of course he already know. I guess I should have expected that.
Last for the day we went to the Covey Center for the Arts. This is also in Provo and doesn't really have a lot to see. There is a small art gallery but mostly they do performances here. It is the home of the Utah Valley Symphony, Utah Premiere Brass, Utah Regional Ballet, and the Wasatch Chorale. So now I have seven stamps only three to go.
After dinner we went to the Creamery on 9th and had ice cream with Jenna Wright(or Sister Matthews to some of you) and two of her children Spencer and Kathryn.
Day four with my parents was pioneer day so I will not write about that again so this will be about day five. Day five was my favorite day but also the hardest. It was also one of the spots on my adventure book and the reason I started doing the adventures in the first place so now I have three. I saw the pictures of the cave and wanted to hike to them so I thought it would be a fun thing to do with my parents. To get to them you have to go up American Fork Canyon and they are only opened from mid May-October. It is a mile and a half hike up on a steep but paved path. No strollers are allowed and if I had known this before the morning of I might have found a sitter for the kids. Also we didn't know that you can call ahead to purchase your tickets so you can know when your tour is and show up in time to hike up and not have to waste three hours like we did. To waste the time we drove part of the Alpine Loop and then turned off to go to Cascade Springs. It is really pretty with lots of little water falls and ponds. The picture below is of my parents there.
The pictures above are of us all starting the hike up. On the ground there are these little gold circles the count backward from 80 something to zero at the top. My mom had Grace all excited about finding all of the circles, unfortunately that didn't last to long and Grace realized that we were going to be hiking a long time. She had also fallen at Cascade Springs and skinned up her knee really bad and had not gotten over that yet.
Periodically along the way there are benches to sit on and little Grace had to rest her legs at every one. Blake decided to pretend to nap. I am glad we gave our selves extra time because at this point I wasn't sure we were going to make it at all. They say to give yourself an hour and a half. We started up with two ours til tour time. The bottom picture is of me and with view of the mouth of American Fork Canyon. It pretty high up at this point and this is about half way. Also the drop off on one side all the way up is like 300 feet or something so Blake had to ride on Cameron's shoulders and was only let down at benches for fear he would jump. Grace was upset she had to walk and Blake got to ride so...
my dad gave her a lift for a little while. It wasn't as long as she would have liked and for the most part she walked all the way up and down. She did a lot of crying but she keep walking and we were all very proud of her.
This is a picture of all of us at the top waiting for our tour since we did make it with a little time to spare.
This is inside the cave. We didn't think about how cold it would be in the cave but after all that hiking 45 degrees kind of felt nice. The kids we good til right at the end and then they both complained a little about being cold. Oh well they forgot about that real quick when we started the down trip. The picture of the right is of the heart of the cave. It has a red light behind it so it looks more like a heart but my flash drowned it out.
The down hike was pretty easy and Grace did a little better and we didn't have to sit at every bench just every other. Cameron with his long legs left us behind pretty quick and he said about half way down he felt Blake's head bobbing. He pulled him off of his shoulders and he was asleep so he had to carry him down in his arms. Riding on shoulders all day wore him right out. Or maybe it was because he was up till 2:30 in the morning the night before with teeth pain. After we got down we went to lunch at the deli at Thanksgiving Point since it is right out of the canyon. Then we all went home and napped. That night Cameron and I got a much needed night out without the kids while my sweet parents watched them for us. We went and saw the Dark Knight. It was a good movie to pick after such a long day because there was no way I could sleep through that.
Before I finish the time with my parents I wanted to tell about one more fun girls night out I got to have on Tuesday. I was eating dinner and my cell phone rang and much to my surprise it was Leah. Now I have lived in Utah again for over a year and Leah has been here for a year of that and she has only visited me at my house once and that is because my sister Erin was in town. The only other times I have seen her is every six weeks when see does my hair, so that call was very unexpected. She said that she had Heather Valentine in the car with her and they were going to get her sister Rachael and get dinner. Well even thought I was eating I decided it would be fun to see them all so when Cameron got home I headed out. We ended up at Olive Garden and had a very entertaining dinner. I just had a fruit drink, very good. After it was almost ten and most things were closed so we just went to Barnes and Noble and got Heather a book to read on her return trip. We dropped her off and went in for a few minutes to see her husband Matt. It was a short night out but lots of fun. I love seeing people from home. I also love that my husband lets me do girls nights as often as I want. He is very good to me and I love him lots! The picture is of Leah, Heather and me. Rachael made me promise I wouldn't put the picture of her on my blog.
Ok so I am going to take a break from my parents trip and tell about the exciting events from last night. If you are unaware today is the release of the last Twilight book. For those of you who some how don't know what that is, it is a set of books by the author Stephenie Meyer about a girl named Bella and her vampire boyfriend Edward. This is the final book about Bella and very much anticipated by many people. Last year my sister-in-law Nickie talked me into going to the release party with some of her friends at Borders so naturally we had to go again. A group of about 20 of us all went to dinner at Magelby's and then we headed over to Borders. We hung out there a while and then some of my friends and myself went over to Hogi-Yogi for some ice cream. We then came back and got in line to wait for the strike of midnight so we could be some of the first to have this book in our hands. It was a long night but lots of fun. I haven't started reading yet but I am sure there are some from our group who went home at 1 am and read til they couldn't keep there eyes open, they have probably already finished. Anyway the pictures are as follow:
our group: back, Randi(my sister-in-law), Heather, Tiffany, Candice, Jodi front Chalan and me.
on our way to dinner
top: Randi and Nickie(sister-in-laws) and me
Bottom:Randi, Chalan and me
Top:Candice, Tiffany, and Heather
Bottom:Heather and Jodi
