18 years

18 years ago yesterday, I became a mother. It was a great day. There have been many wonderful days and many days that I wonder what I was thinking and what I did wrong. But Peter is strong in the gospel, loves his family, cares for others and is great at choosing friends so I really don't have much to complain about. Now he's a man and time to see if I did an okay job.
Okay, so he was given a Japanese sword for his birthday so we'll see if he makes it to 19 . . .

Top of Timp

Hiking to the top of Mount Timpanogos has always been in the back of my head as something that I would like to accomplish some day. Last week Markee's best friend, Brittany Hanks, put together a hiking trip for Saturday and invited me. How could I pass that up?!
So, at 3am Saturday morning my friend, Tabitha (Brittany's mom) picked Markee and I up and we were off. We arrived at the Timpooneke trailhead and started hiking at 4:30 am; Tabitha and Brittany, Markee and I and five more of their friends, all excited for our adventure.

It was still dark and guess who chose not to search the whole house for a flashlight? I had to rely on those in the group that had flashlights and headlamps, but hiking in the dark is really pretty fun, I decided. It was a beautiful sunrise. That is the moon up in the top right corner.I am a fast hiker, not liking to stroll. I'd rather walk fast and then stop periodically to enjoy the scenery. I am also one of those hikers that people make fun of for taking pictures of flowers and rocks. I took well over a hundred pictures of our hike. This is one of my favorites because I looked up - and there was a pyramid! I made a couple of the boys go up the hill so they could flank my pyramid. This picture also captures a small bit of the fields and fields and fields of flowers. I have never seen so many wildflowers! It was gorgeous.

After running up much of the hike with one of the boys, we arrived at the meadow, waiting for the rest of our group, and someone coming down told us that we were only halfway there and pointed up at the very tip-top of the peak. We have to go all the way up there????! Yeah, I slowed down from there. Getting up to the "saddle" was pretty steep, but that was nothing compared to getting the rest of the way to the summit. Markee was scared to death and her ankles were hurting, but a really nice man asked how we were doing and took Markee by the hand when he realized what a hard time she was having. He guided us from the saddle to the summit, he and a couple guys with him. I am not afraid of heights, well, at least I never have been, but I have to say, that trail from the saddle to the summit was one of the scariest walks/climbs I have ever done. I could NOT look down - I was so intimidated - and I was very concerned about getting back down. Markee and I were so relieved to make it to the shack up at the top. Here are Markee and Brittany at the top and then our whole group just before we were ready to make the descent. It was so cold at the top because of the wind!

Fortunately we discovered that going down was MUCH easier and I had no fear of the height at all. Odd that what scared me so much as I was going up didn't even faze me at all going down. Hmm. Our whole group really scattered as we went down. I was with the front group at first until one of our boys decided he was going to scamper down a rock fall "shortcut" and ended up doing a somersault down the rocks. I stopped to do some first aid - he was remarkably unscathed - and we were left in the dust. We ended up in the middle group until we decided to sit and wait for the tail to show up. Finally Tabitha, Brittany, Bryce and Markee arrived at our waiting place. Markee was in excruciating pain - ankles - and Tabitha was just entirely done in. We let the others go ahead and we made our way down at the only pace Markee could endure - snail. I felt so bad for her! We didn't make it down to the trailhead until 4:30pm - exactly 12 hours round trip. We were all SO sore!

This adventure was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but so worth it. I fell, exhausted, into bed Saturday evening and my thighs are still tender, but I think now that I would like to do it again. Call me crazy!

Pioneer Day weekend

So, Pioneer Day weekend. This is our time each year to introduce our Japanese student (Yuki, this year) to a small-town Utah celebration in Beaver and a spectacular national park (Bryce Canyon). This year we were not able to camp due to timing and we were missing Peter because he was on a high adventure camping trip canoeing in Yellowstone. But we still made a great weekend, cramming our short time full of activities. None of us had time to get bored!
We started our adventure this year with a stop at Cove Fort to tour this almost 150 year old, well preserved, fort.

We arrived at Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon and, to fill the afternoon, we went swimming at the Beaver Pool and then went up into the mountains. The water was coated with algae so no one even wanted to wade and there were a lot of bugs, but Erik had to go explore halfway around the lake so we hung out waiting for him to come back. It was a beautiful evening and nice and cool up in the mountains - a nice reprieve from the heat of the valley.

Pioneer Day always starts with the Beaver 5K. In years past the route has started from the mouth of the canyon and ended in the center of Beaver - mostly downhill - so we have nicknamed it the "Beaver Downhill". Last year, if you will remember, I won my age category with my best time ever. This year they played a trick on us all. They changed the route and it was half uphill! I wasn't prepared and only came in 2nd in my age group. :-) It was a nice course and I will be prepared next year! Nicolas and Yuki ran it too. Yuki came in 3rd in his age group. Jared's broken toe was not healed enough for him to really run the race, but he walked/ran with Nicolas. After he took this picture he stayed with Nicolas while I ran ahead. And yes, Nicolas did run in jeans and watershoes. We can't get those articles of clothing off his body.

After the run is the parade. A great small-town parade, the kids end up with a shopping bag full of candy. The fire truck signals the end of the parade, spraying huge streams of water in the air for all the spectators to play in. I love this picture because it is so joyful. It was a VERY hot parade day and the water was much appreciated. Even Jared got into it with the kids.

After the parade we go to the park in Beaver and have lunch and then we always head to the Beaver Swimming Pool for the "free swim". It was very crowded and we didn't get to stay too long because they had to have people leave to allow more to come in. We all had a great time though - even Dad came in the water with us!

The next activity on the agenda was a "barbeque" in the park with Alison's family. We have always had activities with Alison's family too and since this is "their" town, they run the evening barbeque and invite us. I love family and extended family and extended, extended family!! Yuki discovered exactly how big we grow people in America. This picture is so funny; it looks photo-shopped with the huge discrepancy in sizes - and Yuki is standing on his toes!! Jared Lowe is Alison's nephew and he is 6'8" at the time of this picture. At the time that I'm typing this he might be taller. ;-)

This year the highlight of the barbeque in the park was taking rides in the antique cars. Kitty corner to Pioneer Park is a house that had about 10 antique cars parked along the road. Christie took her boys over to see the cars and soon most of the family trailed after. The guy who owned the cars was excited for the attention and gave everyone ride after ride after ride. It was great. Meanwhile, Dad played soccer with Yuki, Jared and Jeff entertained Christie's youngest, Jack and Erik, of course, climbed trees.

Pioneer Day in Beaver always ends with fireworks. Mom and Dad's backyard is the best viewing loacation. Alison's family comes over at dusk and we hang out waiting for the fireworks. This year Mom has a very friendly neighbor horse that the kids had fun feeding. Even Yuki fed the horse a carrot. Bet he's never done that before!

We played with sparklers and, of course, had to make a pyramid. That seems to be the new tradition.

Erik wanted to be part too, but we only had Kennedy to be on the top so the pyramid is a little lopsided . . .

Sunday we were off to Bryce Canyon. Another must do - everyone has to pull off and stop at Red Canyon to take a picture. It's kind of funny. It's a beautiful little canyon, but we are always on the way to Bryce and don't want to take the time to explore so we pile out of the car, pose for a picture and jump back in the care to continue on. Makes me laugh. So here's our funny picture of Red Canyon this year.

And then we were at Bryce Canyon. This is our favorite place to go in the summer because it is a high canyon and so usually cooler. Not this time. It was so hot! We hiked Navajo Loop and although it was Mom that we were worried about, with the heights, it turned out that it was Dad who scared me to death. Mom was fine with the heights this time, not even getting nervous, but Dad was really showing his age and had to stop so frequently to catch his breath that I was afraid I was going to have to carry him the rest of the way up. Note to self, don't let Dad do that again.

After Navajo Loop we picnicked at Sunset Point and then drove to Bryce Point. It is a beautiful lookout and one end of the Rim Trail. I love the Rim Trail and talked Yuki, Jared and Nicolas into doing one last hike while everyone else drove to meet us at Inspiration Point. I ended up piggybacking Nicolas most of the way, but really enjoyed the hike and we got this great photo on one of the fins.

Our day at Bryce was over and it was time to head home. One more tradition, stopping to take a picture at the entrance to Bryce Canyon. I wonder how many of these we have now?

Cousins? Or twins separated by 2 weeks and a day?

I have to say, I love, love, love, love that my kids are growing up with their cousins and are the best of friends. I love that they are such a support and have great love for one another. And I love that Markee and Tamsyn got to celebrate turning sweet sixteen together this year. Alison and I wanted to do something special for them, so we put together a mother/daughter overnight. We went out to eat, went to the movies, stayed at a hotel and went to the salon for pedicures and manicures. It was a great time for all of us!

To start our adventure out right, we started with dinner, of course. We chose Rumbi's because it was fast and near the theaters. Oh, and it's darn good. Yes, I ate the whole rice bowl (half bowl), except for the zucchini, of course. Tamsyn left her zucchini as well. :-) After eating, we headed to the theaters to see a movie. We decided to see "Despicable Me" for lack of anything else age-appropriate and interesting, but actually discovered it was a good movie. We all enjoyed it more than we thought we would. We checked into the Springhill Suites Marriott at Thanksgiving Point after the movie. Markee and Tamsyn explored every inch that they could of the hotel, but always ended up back at the workout room, which they both loved. They didn't come back to the room to stay until after midnight. Might have been because there were some baseball teams staying there for a tournament the next day . . . Alison and I kept ourselves busy playing card games. :-)

After checking out of the hotel, we took one more turn around Hidden Garden (which we had run into and explored in the dark Friday night) before heading to our next adventure.

We went to Capelli's beauty school for our pedicures and manicures, which was nice because, being a school, it had multiple stations and were were able to do our pedis and manis all at the same time. As you can see by the smiles, we all had fun. And I took a pictures of my pretty flowered toes. There were 3 girls students and one boy. I had the boy and I am the only one that got flowers painted on my toes. He must have been trying to prove something . . .

And here is the finished product. Even those of us that are ticklish thought the pedicures were fun. Thanks again, girls, for being so wonderful. Happy sweet sixteenth birthday!

I made this!

I feel like a little kid who just painted the best rainbow with her little watercolor paint set. I am not a crafty person - well, give me a pattern and instructions and I can follow - and not artistic at all, but I have really, really been wanting a sunflower wreath for my front door. My door is plain white and very dirty after 1o 1/2 years and it needed something to spruce it up. I have been looking for several years for the right sunflower wreath, but they are all too "fall-y". So I decided I had to make one myself. I have been gathering flowers and greens for several weeks and the other day I sat down on the floor with my grapevine wreath and wired and glued and cut and arranged for a few hours until I was satisfied. I love my wreath! Now let's see if I did a good enough job assembling when the next big windstorm comes . . .

Fire on the fringe

There is nothing more awe-inspiring than fire. It is beautiful and frightening at the same time, but never more frightening when it is coming toward you. We saw smoke up by the water tower around 12:30 and I figured it was a little wildfire that would be put out quickly. I sent Marin and Nicolas up the street to watch the firefighters. About 15 minutes later or so, I got a call from Diane across the street who tells me there is a fire - yeah - and that the neighbors up the street 2 houses are out of town and what should we do? Hmm, maybe not just a little wildfire. I looked outside again and saw flames right behind Elena's house. I immediately called her cell and she just said, "I can't talk now, come up and bring a shovel." A shovel. That means firebreak and that is bad. I hightailed it up there and found that there were tractors and brush mowers and regular mowers all taking down the weeds and my shovel wasn't needed yet. However, Elena's kids did need to get away from the scary chaos and Elena needed lip balm and everyone needed water. I can do that! I brought her kids down to "play" with Markee, Marin and Nicolas and thanks to NuSkin I had lip balm for her! The case of water I keep in the back of the car always seems to come in handy for emergencies. Elena and several neighbors were "evacuated" and I had to go through her house, gathering up pictures, photo albums and anything that looked like it need to be kept and wouldn't be replaceable. That is an eye-opener. What would you take, and have time to gather, if you were evacuated? Think about it now, because when it happens you won't have a lot of time. Then, it was over but the waiting. Because the fire was on Camp Williams property it could not be fought on the ground - too much ammunition and explosives that have been left behind. In fact, as we watched it sounded like a war zone at times. Sometimes it was the trees exploding, but sometimes it was definitely explosives and gunfire. So the fire creeped and sometimes ran down the hill toward my neighbors houses. No firefighters and no helicoptors. Hmmm. When the fire was about 20 yards away, the Utah County firefighters came down the dirt road that runs right behind the properties setting a backburn. Standing 20 feet away it was like standing on the sun, but only for about 10 minutes. The fire raced off to join the wildfire and slowly died. The properties were safe, no more danger of losing homes. What a relief that was! This side of the fire was contained and was no longer threatening us, and the wind, for once since living in Eagle Mountain, was our friend and kept coming from the south.

Observation: 30 foot flames are awesome as they engulf trees, but only when blowing the other way. Observation, a wildfire burning sage smells really nice, but afterwards just smells like campfire. So our nice green hill is now black and scarred, but new life will appear next year. And we are all safe and everyone is back in their homes with all their belongings unscathed. I swear it was because the elders showed up and helped where they could. Men in suits don't fight fire very well, but these ones inspire and their spirit helps protect.

4th of July - a whole weekend of fun

When you talk about Independence Day, you say "4th of July". But in Utah, when the 4th falls on a Sunday it becomes the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July. It was a whole weekend of fun, but, wow, was it exhausting! I love spending time with family and friends and it was great to have this excuse to spend the whole weekend together. Saturday evening was the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point. Sunday was the actual 4th and Monday was the Provo Freedom Festival parade. We definitely made the most of the whole weekend.
What started out as a sunny but windy evening Saturday, turned quickly into a chilly outing. We claimed our regular spot at the back of the Thanksgiving Point theater parking lot on the grassy parkstrip. This has been a great spot to hang out in and watch fireworks from. It was nice to have Mark's family and Mom and Dad there this year.

It was really windy so the kids spent some time in Mark and Cia's car and Alison sat in the back of hers.

You can see how freezing cold it was, by how we are sitting waiting for the fireworks. Someone forgot to tell the weatherman that it was July.

After the fireworks are done, the fun begins. While waiting for all the other people to leave so we don't have to sit in traffic, we play. This year, the kids entertained us with "what they can do". Of course, Jeff wouldn't be outdone so he did some hula hooping with the glowstick "necklaces". Unfortunately it was too dark for the video to come out well - the picture doesn't do it justice. Markee and Tamsyn did their breakdancing moves and pyramids were formed.

Holiday celebration on a Sunday - what do we do? Play games, of course! And what game do we play when we have a lot of people? Dalmuti, of course! Always a great photo opportunity. I broke out the skunk skin hat just for this occasion. I thought Josh would like to see his parents in skunk skin and flowers. These are for you, Josh. :-)

Fireworks with the Cooks. What more can I say. Craig is the firework king. He kept us very entertained, with his minions Maddie, Peter and Erik. It wouldn't be the 4th of July without "Fireworks by Craig". No fires were set, no doors dented and no major injuries this year, but it was a very good year.

We spend so much time with the Cooks, but we have so few pictures of the time we spend together. I just had to get one group shot of the kids after the fireworks were done. Unfortunately, Cameron wasn't with us this year so he's not in it. So, a strange parade experience this year. First of all, we didn't run the Freedom Run. I didn't register us early enough and I wasn't going to pay $100 just for Jared, Peter, Erik and I to run 3 miles. It was just as well since Jared broke his toe a week ago and can't run and Peter and Erik didn't really want to. But, the other strange thing was the weather. It was FREEZING in the morning - only in the 50s! We got to Provo at 6:15 and instead of laying out the blankets, we had to wrap up in them! It was nice and warm by the end of the parade, but not HOT like it usually is. All that global warming . . . But it was a pleasant time, surrounded by family and friends and old neighbors.

Markee and her BFF, Brittany Hanks with their matching shirts that we made, and then, flanking Tamsyn. Silly girls.

The Star Wars characters are always a favorite part of the pre-parade. I think they ARE my favorite part . . .

The afternoon was spent playing games, of course, while the kids played with cousins. Last year it was hot and the kids played with water all afternoon, slip and sliding, sprinklers, water bottle rockets, etc. This year, it was only warm and the kids played for a while outside but were shivering. Here they are chillin' in the "hot tub". And to finish off the weekend - of course, more fireworks. We spent about an hour setting off Mark's set of fireworks while the little kids played with the sparklers. Fun was had by all and I am sure everyone had a good night sleep Monday night. Next year, can we make the 4th of July just one day? Thanks, I'm getting too old for this. :-)