Blessing Outfit

Just wanted to share this cute picture of Alden in his blessing outfit. I love when he lifts his head, you can see a little better what he looks like without all the extra chins ;) Haha! We sure do love this boy.

The Newsies and The Narrows 2017

Julie, Katie, Hunter and I had a fun two days (filled with much driving) going to Saint George to see "The Newsies" at Tuacahn and then hiking the Narrows the following morning.

This is at the lovely petting zoo in Scipio along the way. The camel is my favorite!

We stayed at the World Mark in St. George. It was great! The first little tender mercy is that we made it all the way to St. George on 1 tank of gas. The reason this was a tender mercy is that I couldn't see the gas light when it came on (which was probably several miles out of St. George), and when I did notice it after we had arrived, it said we had a range of 4 more miles before we ran out of gas. The gas gauge is something I unfortunately am not in the habit of keeping an eye on. We easily could have ran right out of gas before making our destination. We were very grateful to pull into the gas station and fill up!

Hunter and Katie enjoyed a swim in the pool, and after our dinner of tacos at the condo, we headed for the theater. The Newsies at Tuacahn was wonderful!  They do a great job. It wasn't quite as hot as last time we went in August. There was a little breeze, and we were prepared with squirt bottles and cold water to drink.

We left around 8:30 the next morning for Zion's, and enjoyed spending several hours with our feet wet and sandy and a spectacular view every inch of the way!

Julie's friend, Annette, joined us. She lives in Cedar City.

"Floating Rock" - the end of the trail for us.

We drove home after the fun day and pulled into the driveway at 11 p.m.
So much fun! I had forgotton how spectacular the scenery is. Definitely something to do again! Next time we're bringing Scott, Mom, Norm, and all of you!

Big Sister

Hiawatha Bike Trail and Ceour D'Alene - August 2017

August 8-12, 2017

Our group consisted of Scott, Hunter and Me, Mike and Sherrie Webb and Julie.

Tuesday was a drive day - taking about 9 hours (driving largely through Montana) to get to Mullan, Idaho, where our house was located. We stopped in Lima, Montana for lunch at Jan's Cafe. We weren't overly impressed. We suggest going one city further (Dillon) for more options.

 Here's a pic of the house we stayed in (found on VRBO). We liked it a lot.

The kitchen

We ate dinner that night at the City Limit's Brew Club in Wallace- Hunter enjoyed his huge hamburger.

We left Wednesday morning for the Hiawatha Bike Trail. The trail was really awesome. The views could have been even more stunning if there hadn't been so much smoke/haze in the air.

We really enjoyed the new bike rack - 6 bikes? No problem!

We all enjoyed our bikes while Mike jogged the trail (jk).

There were several tunnels along the trail. Good head-lights or bike-lights were a must!

Beautiful scenery - albeit a little hazy.

There were several of these trestles. We loved them!

There was a charming little side path we took that led to this spot. There was a fun little ferret or some-such critter here too.

Wednesday night we went to the grocery store in Wallace and bought pizza and salad for dinner. It was enjoyed by all.

The next day we went to Coeur De'Alene and spent the day hiking, walking, and eating. It is beautiful there...but once again, it was a bit smoky/hazy.

Mineral Ridge Scenic Trail

We ate lunch at "Rustic" and highly recommend it! Great salad and sandwich shop.

After lunch we started on a hike around Tubb's Hill. Tubb's Hill is right close by this park and water-front area. It gives you a view of the lake for most of the hike, but it was rather a warm afternoon when we tried it, so Scott, Hunter and I turned back, but the others carried on around the whole "hill" and enjoyed it.

Mike helping Julie "duct tape" a blistering toe on Tubb's Hill - worked great!

Cooling off!

These beautiful geraniums were everywhere!

We spent the day Friday driving. We stopped at an interesting sandwich place in Dillon called Muffaletta's. I'd vote for Subway next time. But it was very quaint.

Great adventure!  Wish it wasn't so far away -- I'd do it again. You can even ride the Hiawatha trail twice in one day for no extra charge ($19 for trail pass and shuttle ticket). Fun, Fun!!

Las Vegas 2017

We made the usual bi-annual trip to Las Vegas. We started out with Sid and Adele and Brent and Dianne Francom. Both Dianne and Adele were laid up a little and couldn't do much walking. That left me pretty much on my own to walk around if I wanted to.

This time was also different in that when we got there we had no hotel reservations. Whoops! So we ended up staying at Treasure Island. That worked out fine.

Thursday night we went to a show. Dad went to Mystere by Cirque du Soleil. He said it was good. I went with Sid and Adele and Brent to see the Donny and Marie Show. They put on a really good show. We enjoyed it.

Connie Taylor was kind enough to pick me up one afternoon and we picked up some lunch at a little Mexican restaurant and then went to her house to eat and hang out for awhile. Other than that, I pretty much hung out in my room and read and did some family history work.

 One of my favorite Casinos to walk through is the Venetian. It feels like you are in Venice. 

The best part of the trip was coming home!

Hansen Park and Tony Grove

Here are some of my pictures from Hansen Park and Tony Grove. I feel like most of the pictures are pretty self-explanatory so I am not going to give you much commentary. :)

Hansen Park:

Breakfast!

 

Tony Grove was so beautiful!

Look at these three cuties. I promise Alden is in the blanket somewhere. ;)

The lake was SO crowded.

All the littles had a blast pushing Hunter in his hammock. I am surprised no one got knocked over.

The wild flowers were gorgeous.