Everything since the last post

So this is what we have been doing since we last posted. I took Ginger skiing for the first time on Christmas eve.

We all went to get tacos after. Erin didn't ski because she was quite preggos (9 months and 1 week along).

 

Erin had the baby 2 days later in our bedroom. He was 8 lbs and 2oz. His name is Miles Corban Johnson

Grandma Johnson with Miles.

Ginger and her cousin Lily went skiing together.

Family photo on Miles' blessing day.

We went to Disney World in May.

This is the hotel we stayed at. They had an enclosure with lots of African animals.

I think meeting Cinderella was Ginger's favorite part of the trip.

You can't see it, but there is a rabbit in the bushes. Ginger thought he might just jump right into her arms.

We went down to St. George for the eclipse. Yes, I am taking Miles through the Crack in the Rock. He loved it

We drove up to Kanarraville for the actual eclipse. 

Ring of Fire!!!

This picture illustrates how things generally are around our house these days. Ginger loves Miles, and Miles loves Ginger, but is always scared to death that she will hurt him. She tends to be like that girl on the Tiny Toons show that was on when I was a kid.

Guatemala

So we finally did something internet worthy. We just got back form Guatemala a week ago. My friend and his wife work down there with the Peace Corps (the "p" and "s" are silent, fyi). So me, Erin, my friend Scott, my friend Scott's girlfriend Katy, my friend Scott's sister Maria and my friend Scott's niece Mikayla went there. We went down there and met Kyle and Liz (our Peace Corps friends) and then started our adventure. Here's some pics:

Boat ride to our first hotel, Iguana Perdida on lake Atitlan.

A waterfall on our canopy tour

Some kid selling stuff to Maria. Poor Maria. She would have bought an empty soda can if these kids asked her to.
Our volcano guide, Victor, roasting marshmallows in a hot spot on the volcano Pacaya
This is an important part of our trip. We did a lot of driving. There is not fast way to get around guatemala so we were in the car quite a bit. Notice that Kyle has an extra ear. Weird.

Cave tour by candlelight at Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey

We did lots of other stuff as well like stayed at the Earth Lodge but I didn't have any interesting pictures of that. It was a fun trip. Thanks, Kyle and Liz for showing us around.

Draper Days!!!

Draper days was last Saturday, the 16th of July. For those of you who don't know what Draper Days is, I say, what you live under a rock? It's only the biggest event to hit Draper every year. We used to go every year and watch the parade but a few years ago they changed the parade route from 13th east to fort street so we quit going. This

year Ginger actually enjoyed it. Last year we put her on a pony ride and she got scared and wanted to get down. But this year she really liked it. while there we watched the miniature horse show where the horses play soccer and sit on furniture, so as you can imagine it was hilarious. Afterwards they let the kids get pictures with the horses. They said Ginger could sit on that guy in the picture above, but I was worried he might fold in half. That's Miss Rodeo Draper in the picture as if you didn't already know. There was a lot of royalty at Draper Days this year. Miss Teen Draper and her attendants were handing out information about their cause, Tourette Syndrome, and encouraging people to visit a website.

But Draper Days wasn't the same ol' stuff this year. There was a new attraction. This:

I've always wanted to walk around in a giant hamster ball, so I thought this looked pretty fun and so did Ginger. She insisted that she wanted to do it. I was certain that she would wimp out, but when her turn came, she climbed right in:

So she just floated around in it. She didn't try to walk or do anything, but she enjoyed it so it was good she did it.

After all that fun we watched fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Erin and I went biking and Erin was convinced I was trying to kill her, so we all had a good laugh about that.

Loa

For my parents 40th anniversary, they wanted to do something really special with all their kids. My dad used to regal all the kids with tales of his summers spent as a director of a summer camp: rafting, camping, canoeing, fishing, playing battleship with radios... Sadly, once he came out west his outdoor gear was exchanged for a suit to practice law in and he rarely got to the great outdoors that made up so much of his earlier years. So, for years he has promised us a fishing trip. And this year he delivered...at least the best you can deliver when 9 of the 22 family members are little kids.

Loa is in the middle of Utah, near Capitol Reef, past Gunnison (if you have any idea where Gunnison is). So, "what does one do in Loa?" you may be asking yourself? You go fishing, you go paddle boating, you eat good food, you sleep in a big barn, you play with little cousins/nieces/nephews you haven't seen for a long time, you go hiking, you feed baby cows, you learn the difference between dairy cows and cows raised for meat, and you may go horseback riding (only if the rancher who is taking care of you doesn't have to go up the mountain to save a bunch of cows who strayed into a place with no water).

This little lake was down the road from the barn we were staying in. We spent a morning fishing there and an afternoon doing paddle boats. Charlotte caught a fish within the first 10 minutes. Then Connor caught a second fish much later.






Cows, cows, cows. We got to give milk to the baby cows one morning. The kids all loved seeing the cows gulp down the bottles.



Tractor ride. This pic is of Ginger, Macey, and the rancher. Blake seemed to be in heaven riding on the tractor--this was part of his birthday celebration.


Fun inside the barn

It's still far away

In answer to the question posed at the beginning of the previous blog post I say yes. Yes it can. Yesterday I woke up and saw about 4 inches of snow in my yard and I thought to myself, "well I guess I better go skiing." Whatever other option did I have? So my brother and I went up to Brighton and skinned up to the top of the Millicent lift (Brighton closed a few weeks ago) then we had to boot pack it up to the peak. On the way up we noticed this sign so Chris stood next to it for a picture.


That sign is usually over six feet off the snow and as you can see, it's about waist high now. Chris told me that this is a record year for snowbird with over 700 inches of snowfall.

So anyways, we went up to the peak and skied down the main chute on the front side of Millicent. It was amazing snow. It wasn't wet and heavy like to would expect the snow to be on the last day of April. I think what was best about it was that we had the mountain to ourselves and didn't have to worry about anyone else being up there. Fun day all and all

When winter comes can spring be far away?

I must have heard my mom say that phrase 100 times while I grew up. And this month I have said it 100 times--I honestly am so ready for warm weather. I don't seem to get anything done when it is cold. In fact, the only thing that keeps me sane in the winter is the fact that Jeff likes the snow so much. He is like a kid on Christmas every morning when it has snowed. It is hard to complain when it makes him so happy.

Winter

Our wonderful neighbors gave us some cookies that you can draw on with food markers. Don't they look delicious?!
Sledding up at Scott's cabin (we spent the night with Jeff's friends when everyone was in town for Thanksgiving). It was so fun to see all of them. We missed Liz and Kyle who are in Guatemala with Peace Corps.
Ginger's second birthday! She's loving the cake!

Building a snowman after the first snowfall