Hike 3 - Cascade Springs

After running our errands on Monday, we drove up American Fork canyon to Cascade Springs. It was an eventful drive. That is the day that so many of the rivers in the Salt Lake area flooded. The river in the canyon was roaring. I have never seen it so high or fast. At one point, we had to cross what was usually a small trickle of water crossing the road. Instead it was several inches deep (maybe 6-10 inches) and moving fast. I was a little nervous to drive through it.

Then as we got to a meadow near the summit of the canyon, we spotted a moose eating. Because of the high water levels everywhere, the meadow was flooded.

This is the same place. If you look closely, you can still see the moose, but it was such a beautiful area, that I had to take a photo to remember it.

Timp peak showing above the closer mountains.

Brain and the kids with the moose in the background.

The kids at Cascade Springs. It was so pretty up there.

The springs running over the ground.

The river that all the water from the springs made.

If you look right in the center of the picture, you can see a trout. I was so excited to see this picture. I finally figured out how to use my polarizing lens! You can't even see reflection off of the water.

Just a cool knot in a tree. I had to take a picture

From Cascade Springs, we drove a dirt road down into Midway.
On the drive we spotted a hawk. I wish you could see him better in the picture.

And we pulled off the road to let the kids see devil's slide. It's always an amazing sight.

What a fun day!

Lehi

Last Sunday we spent the night at my parent's house so we could run some errands down there on Monday. The clouds were about to rain, and with the setting sun, they were gorgeous.

Looking west.

And looking the other direction, the skies looked entirely different.

Looking East.

And look at Timpanogos peak. you can see that the mountains in the front are reflecting the sun from the west, and the mountains in the back are not. I think it is gorgeous. Just had to share!

National Trail Day 5K

On National Trails Day, Brian and the kids ran a 5K. I was planning on running with them, but had been feeling pretty rotten all week, so I decided not to.

Les finished the race in 26 minutes. A new personal best! He did awesome.

Amber had a little harder time with the pollens triggering some hayfever, and was having a hard time breathing. It wasn't her best time, but at least she ran and had fun.

Hike 2 - Memorial Day Hike

On Memorial Day, we did another hike, this one was a bit more difficult, but we did pretty good. There was a stream that ran along the trail all the way up. I love the sound of the water.

The kids mentioned that we haven't done a Geocache for quite a while, so while we were out we found two. For one of them we had to be really careful that other hikers didn't see us find it.

And of course, we had fun just being silly.

A look out over the valley. Aren't the clouds pretty?

1st Hike of the Season

The night before school ended we took the kids on a hike. It was really a lot of fun to do now that we have kids that are big enough to walk that far by themselves. It was quite an easy hike, but still took some effort.

The skies were pretty dark the whole time and we know that it could rain on us at any minute, but it was warm enough that we didn't worry too much about it.On the way back down the trail, it did start to rain, but it never got too bad, and our jackets were enough to keep us warm and dry.

The clouds made gorgeous views of the valley and fabulous pictures.

Last Day of School

All the kids had amazing teachers this year, and all three were both excited and sad to be moving on. We will definitely miss their teachers, but they all have been assigned great ones for next year. We are looking forward to another good year ahead (And I'm looking forward to all 3 kids being in school all day. Am I really that old?)

Zak & Mrs. Winter
All school year long when Brian would ask Zak what he learned today, he would either tell Brian "nothing," or that he "couldn't remember." On the last Wednesday of school after the kindergarten program, out of the blue he said "I've learned SO much this year (what a relief, he won't have to repeat kindergarten!) And he really has. He is a good little reader, and a good counter.

Because he is the youngest kid in the school, I was a little worried about sending him to school last year. But he really did so good, he caught on quick to everything that was taught that he didn't already know, and he acted with all of the maturity that a 5 year old boy should. I was very proud of him this year.
Watch out 1st grade here comes Zak!

Les & Miss Phillips

Les really enjoyed 2nd grade. He improved his reading dramatically, and is very good at math. I think his favorite part of math was when they started working on their times tables right at the end of the year. He is going to be really good at math. He came home many times from school and told us that he had run a mile and a half when his teacher took them all out to run a mile. He is proud to be a runner. Les is so excited for 3rd grade, and he is ready to start any day if they would just let him, he is both a very social kid as well as an active kid. He likes the social part of the school year, and the outdoor part of the summer.

Amber & Ms. Thornock
Amber also had an amazing school year. Highlights of the year for Amber were winning he 5th grade science fair, and earning the Presidential Fitness Award. She is quite a social girl, and has had to learn to control her social time to appropriate times, but she is figuring it out. She always does well in school, and is excited to have one of her 5th grade teachers again for 6th grade.

Pool Day

Every year the local swimming pool opens on the last week of school for the local schools to bring their students. Sometimes it's warm, sometimes it's not. And so far for us, it has only been canceled due to weather once. This year was so cold that I had mixed feelings about it being canceled. One the one hand, the kids look forward to pool day and know that it means school is all but over. On the other hand, I think that it was only 70 degrees on this day, had rained cold all week, and the wind was blowing. It wasn't ideal swimming conditions. But the kids all had fun, and of course, that is what matter!

Kindergarten Program

Zak's class put on a little program at the end of the year. They all had a short speaking part, and sang several of the songs that they have learned. Zak's favorite is based on Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. One day when he was singing the song to me, I pulled up the speech on YouTube, and he watched the entire thing. He was amazed by it. Thanks to Mrs. Winter for inspiring him.

(I tried to upload the video of them singing it, but is was too big of a file for blogger. Bummer. It is a really neat song.)

Presidential Fitness Award

This year Amber earned the National Presidential Fitness Award. Only 4 girls received it from the whole 5th grade. The hardest part was running the mile in the required time. I am proud of amber for working so hard on the requirements for it.

Amber, Tessa, Haley, and Marci

The fifth grade has also been learning how to play the recorders this year. Amber didn't have too hard of a time since she already knows music, but she enjoyed learning a different instrument. The 5th grade played a couple of songs at the awards assembly.

Spring Soccer

All 3 kids played soccer again this spring. They have all learned so much and improved tremendously.

Zak just loves to run with the other boys.

I think that he scored at least one goal each game!

Les is really fast. He can beat anyone to the ball. He likes to play any position on the field, but is really good at forward and goalie.Amber has learned to be an intimidating goalie this year, and has gotten really good at forcing girls to feel like they need to take a shot that they really can't make.

Brian coached Amber's team this year. He sure had a lesson in girls and emotions.

He enjoyed some aspects of coaching these girls, and not others. He started last fall with a very inexperienced team, and finished with a lot of successes.

Over all it was a great soccer season, with good coaches and fun teammates.

Les and Zak have decided to play again next year, and Amber has chosen to put a little more time into her running, and take some time off from soccer.

Cove Fort

We also stopped at Cove Fort down in Central Utah on our way home. It was really neat.

Afterwards, we ate up all the food we had left with us for lunch since it was Sunday and we didn't want to stop anywhere for lunch. It worked OK, and they had a nice grass spot for a picnic.

After he got done eating, Les was playing Frisbee with his hat. It landed in the tree.

The Gap

On the way home from Cedar, we stopped to show the kids Parowan Gap. It has petroglyphs all through it.
We hiked around a little bit to look at them and to see if there were any others that weren't obvious, and we found a few more.

The kids were amazed at the effort it must have taken to carve into those rocks 1000 years ago.

Zak misunderstood the word petroglyphs, and thought that we were looking at the "picture cliffs." I thought that was a pretty good explanation of what they were.

We decided this rock must have been the "face" of the Indian that made the "picture cliffs."

The Farm

What could be more fun to two little boys than a whole farm to play and get dirty? Really dirty!

We went to Southern Utah last weekend for Brian to do the St. George Triathlon that he does every year. This year the kids and I stayed in Cedar at my Grandpa's house while Brian camped down at Sand Hollow Reservoir where his race was the next morning.

When I went out to check on the boys, I found them feeding the sheep. but they had tied the hay in a rope that they could dangle in front of the sheep so that they wouldn't get eaten in the process (yup, those are my city boys!)

And they could "drive" the tractor anywhere their little imaginations could take them.
They were in heaven. Fortunately for everyone else, the tractor didn't run, but that didn't stop them.

Last time we were there, my cousins boys showed them how to get to the fort. Of course this involved rappelling down into the silage pit and climbing back out. It wouldn't be any fun to do it the boring way by walking straight there.

This is my cute Grandpa. Bronx the dog came to visit this weekend too. He belongs to my cousin that lives with and helps take care of Grandpa.

A Garden

When we first moved to our house, we had a garden off the back side of the carport. But then one of our trees got too big, and that spot doesn't get sun any more. So for a few years, we haven't had a garden. Last year, Zak really wanted a garden, and we never had time to worry about it because we were redoing the house. So this year, we decided to give it a try.

We have a spot at the back of our yard that is sectioned off with railroad ties, that we think may have been a garden at one time, but since we have lived here it has just been grass. We also have a problem that our backyard slopes off, and so any watering that we do just runs off to the neighbors yard. We haven't known what to do. But we think that we have the problem solved.

Brian tilled the area. I now think that we should have cut the sod out first, but instead we just tilled it all in. The ground was SO tough, that this small section took about 3 hours for Brian to till. We found that it actually helped to break up the ground by the shovel full to help the tiller break down into the dirt. It took quite a while, but everyone helped.

And the boys "raked."

We got a load of compost and tilled it in as well as removing grass roots through a screen. I wish we had had time to do a better job of this. Hopefully the roots will just break down, and not grow grass.

Then we planted. We planted green onions, onions, carrots, beans, cantaloupe, tomatoes, potatoes, basil, green peppers, and still plan on putting in broccoli, garlic and cilantro.

For Zak's birthday last fall, Grammy and Gramps gave Zak garden tools, seeds, and a sign for his garden. He was ecstatic to get to use them all. And he even planted his sign!

Hopefully the garden will be productive and we can manage keeping it alive. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come.

We're going to the Zoo...You can come too!

Yesterday I went to the Zoo with the kindergartners. What a fun day.

On the bus (Zak, Peyton & Peter)

Sam, Peter, Peyton & ZakUp close is always the best way to see the animals.

But the baby elephant was the favorite! It was lots of fun, and the boys were so easy.