Merry Christmas

Just a few of my favorite Christmas songs. Merry Merry Merry Christmas!!!

GREAT DAY!!

I had a fabulous day!!! Mom and Dad came over and we spent most of it at the Salt Lake Temple attending a session and then a beautiful sealing. To top it off I also saw the movie Secretariat.

Wonderful Weekend

I guess we will start with an update and then move on to the pictures. Work has been crazy busy and I have been drowning instead of swimming at work. We just have a lot of new projects happening at work, doing a million interviews looking for the right people to join staff, then training the new staff, long surgery days that were unexpected, plus the normal routine of work. Still loving my job but was going crazy.
Now on to my heavenly weekend that restored my sanity. I have a great friend Megan who I get to work with but we also enjoy playing outside of work. Megan invited me down to Mayfield, UT. Her mom just had shoulder surgery so we went down and cooked several different meals that her mom could just stick in the oven and reheat. Megan's stepdad also took me riding. Thank you Lee!!! It was so nice to ride a horse. I think this did more for my sanity then anything. While riding I was able to take some great pictures of the leaves changing colors.
Plus in Mayfield was an Elk Ranch. I woke up one morning at 600 and drove down to the ranch and just listened to the elk bugle back and forth. I could feel the tension in my shoulders start to relax.
Thank you again Megan, Gabe, Tina, and Lee for a fabulous weekend!!!

Saturday morning I woke up to see deer in the field outside my bedroom window.



Now the wonderful color of Fall!!! Yes there is a ton of them and I didn't even put a 1/4 of the pictures I took on. :)

Their dog Bones with Lee and I on the ride.

Lee riding Star and I rode Torch.

Tina and Lee getting Lucky ready for Gabe to ride.





Cowboy Gabe!!

Carrie Underwood-How Great Thou Art

It is nice to see some of the "superstars" singing/talking about Our Savior in a public place letting everyone know what they believe. Plus this is one of my favorite hymns.

4th of July Colorado

In early June Carrie called and happen to mention they were going to be in Colorado for the 4th so of course I decided I was making the trip as well so I could play favorite Aunt. Sorry Carrie for butting in on your trip. Don't feel to bad for her because she was there for 2 weeks. I only got 4 days. So while I was there we went for 2 short drives on the 4 wheelers with Justin and Kaylynn where we saw bunnies (Kaylynn was very excited about this) and 3 bucks in a barley field(this is what I was excited about). We went across the street where there is an orchard and we saw 4 more bucks. :) We had a water fight where I didn't get wet because I had the camera!!! We had fireworks and ate yummy food and laughed a lot.

Grandma protecting Hanna during water fight

Grandpa's turn to protect Hanna

Justin getting soaked

Kaylynn completely soaked

Justin's turn with the hose

Beautiful Colorado

Miss Hanna

Hanna wearing her new pink Sunday dress

Hanna enjoying life

3 Bucks in the barley field just north of home.

Miss Kaylynn exploring

Grandpa, Justin, and Kaylynn leading the way to the Orchard

First we saw one

Then two

Then three. There was another one but I didn't get a great shot of the fourth.

Vacation to Colorado and to Escalante, UT

A couple of months ago Dr. Powell told me he was planning on going to Ghana, Africa again and would be gone for 2 weeks. I said cool then I am going to take those 2 weeks off as well. I called mom and dad and said I that I was going to come home the last week of April and the first week in May and that I wanted to go 4-wheeling. My dad doesn't hesitate for a moment before he starts planning this trip down to Escalante, UT that he has been wanting to do. This trip included a trip to get to the Hole-In-The-Rock of over a hundred miles round trip on an ATV in one day. I was tired just thinking about it. He was so excited that we were going that he started telling everyone about this trip. I think at one point we going to have 15-20 people going with us. As it came closer to happening people started to be unable to come and it ended up just being my Mom, Dad, Uncle Kenny, and I. So the first week of my vacation I went home to relax and get rested before we started this journey. We went for about a 40 mile ride just to get use to riding the machines and one night Dad and I went for a ride trying to spot some animals. For once the desert was quiet, even the coyotes were quiet except for a short amount of time. So we just watched the airplanes take off and land. Then it was time to leave for the 5 hour drive down to Escalante. The weather was just about perfect, except for the wind but I am use to that after living in Laramie for 4 years. Enjoy the pictures!!!

The first day there we went for a short ride and hiked to a couple of arches. Dad above thinking he is ready for the adventure. Uncle Kenny is thinking he is prepared as well. I think they both were carrying an extra 10 pounds with all the toys they had to bring. :)

Color in the desert I think is always more beautiful then anywhere else because you never expect to see it.

The first arch we found I can't remember what it is called.

More color!!

The second arch which is called the cover wagon arch. You can not tell it with any of the pictures I took but wherever we hiked the pathway was sand. I felt like I should be playing volleyball not hiking.

The next several pictures where taken at a place called Devil's Garden.

Our version of the hiking the slot canyons :)

Dad dancing in Devil's Garden :) I am telling the Bishop :)

The next day we woke up early and had a quick breakfast and started what would end up being 120 miles in one LONG day.

About 25 miles into the trip we come across this memorial for some boy scouts who ended up dying when their truck stalled out and rolled over trying to climb this steep hill.

A little bit further down the rode we ran into this plaque and looked up to see the Hole-In-The-Rock Arch
This is pretty much the type of landscape we saw as we were headed to the Hole-In-The-Rock. Just repeated over and over again for 60 miles.

We are getting pretty close now in fact if you look in the center of the picture below you can barely see a gap in the rocks.

We can now actually see where the rock was blasted a way. If you look close enough you can see the road we still have to travel.

This plaque just tells of the first day that wagons were lowered (is a kind word for how the wagons had to get to the bottom). In fact more than 83 wagon had to descend the 1800 feet to get to the bottom.

This marker is placed on the right hand side of the picture above just before you are able to look down to see what is below .

We could only go about a quarter of the way down because it has deteriorated so much you can't get down without repelling down.

Mom at the top trying to show how steep just the little bit we where able to do.

Above is a picture I took from climbing on the rocks on the side of the hole so you could see how far down it is. Can you guess what water you are looking at? Hint: Back when the pioneers actually did this there was only the Colorado River.

Above is Uncle Kenny dancing, pretending to be a bird, or just trying to scare my mom next to the edge of the cliff.

So then we started our journey back to camp. We stopped at the rock called Dance Hall Rock. This place was huge.

Dad and Uncle Kenny square dancing

We were all tired and ready to call it a day when we got back to camp. None of us felt like 4 wheeling the next day so we decided to hike to Calf Creek Falls. This was suppose to be a nice hike of about 7 miles, but remember I told you everywhere we hiked the trail was made up of sand. So I decided we actually hiked 14 miles that day.

Starting out we are all feeling pretty good. Stopping at the assigned markers to learn about the area like one guy was able to grow watermelons in this canyon.

Taking a break at one of the markers. Can't tell they are brothers can you?

COLOR!!!
In the picture above is a storage area that was used to store grain. Can you find it? Hint: See below to see what it looks like. (Have I mentioned that I love my camera!!)

Here is another one a little different that was further along the trail.

Butterfly. I will take any signs of color :)

More Color!!!

Then we started to see the creek and it gave us hope that we were getting close to the falls.

Then we started to see fish in the creek and it made us a little bit more happy knowing that we had to be getting close.

We rounded a corner and finally caught sight of the falls.

Getting closer. We were able to start to feel the cool breeze coming off the falls. It was heavenly.

We made it!!! It was the perfect place to eat lunch and relax for a little bit before we started on the LONG hike back :)

Dad, Mom, Uncle Kenny

HOORAY FOR VACATIONS!!!!!!