Snow!!!

My boys LOVE the snow.  I love it... as long as there is nowhere that I have to be.  If I can sit in the house, watch Hallmark Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate....the snow is great!

Here are some pictures of our first 'real' snowstorm of the year....probably about 3 inches ....or so.

The youngest started building a snowman, when the snowball got too heavy for him to push, he enlisted his dad for help.

And....a brother to help.

Next....all of the boys worked together on a snow fort around the trampoline.

Then a snowball fight happened with the neighbors across the fence.

And finally.....they all worked together on a bigger and better snowman.

9 foot tall snowman.....known around here as Shaquille Snow'Neal.

It was a fun, day!!

Taco Seasoning

I just got my computer back from getting scrubbed!  I have a serious love/hate relationship with technology sometimes!!  When it is all working properly, I love it...but when it is not, it is SO frustrating!!!

Anyway, I finally got it back....just in time to print a bunch of pictures of this little guy for a school project.

Some of his favorites.....hanging with the family - cutting wood, hiking, camping, flying.  He said his favorite food is Hot Cheetos and Donuts...mmm!! :)

 

Anyways....Taco seasoning....

Usually when I make tacos, I just dump in some cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion...ect.  BUT...My sister-in-law gave me an actual recipe to follow!  It is delicious! 

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

 

Directions:  Mix all ingredients together.  I usually use all of the seasoning for ~1 1/2 pounds of ground meat, but add to your taste....more if you like it spicy....less if you don't.

1st Day of School 2015

I can't believe that summer vacation is OVER!!!  Summer goes by way to fast every year!! 

Left to right:  Hunter - 7th, Jake - Sophomore, Zac - 4th, and Ryder - 2nd

 

This year I get to drop the kids off at 4 different schools, makes for a crazy morning :)  Also....this morning....Ryder decided that he DOES NOT like any of his new school shirts!!  So he picked a shirt from last year...or maybe even the year before to wear today.  Whatever makes them happy right? :)

 

Now some pictures from previous years.....

WOW!!!  This is the best picture I got in 2014.

 

2013

 

2012

 

2011 - I love Ryder's fruit shake mustache in this pic....obviously he wasn't in school yet :)

 



Shaggy Denim Quilt

Here is another....blast from the past.  Originally posted on my other blog...soon to disappear(that is why I am moving things to this blog).This is the second quilt that I have finished for Christmas. Two to go...Jake's quilt is almost finished(working on the binding). Zac's quilt has 4 or 5 blocks done. I'll share those when they are finished.

 

Ryder enjoying his brothers left-over oatmeal - I sure hope he uses that napkin:)

For Ryder's quilt I cut my denim into pieces that were the same width, but different lengths. I sewed the pieces right side together to make long strips and then sewed the long strips wrong sides together. SO...the quilt will have shaggy stripes. Make sense? Doesn't make much sense to me either. Anyway, I backed it with some fun shaggy minky and sewed the top, batting and back together along each side of the shaggy stripe. It is a nice warm rugged quilt. Perfect for the 18 month old who will be destroying..I mean loving it!

 

Here he is setting up a 'race' on his blanket.

 

**This quilt looks as good now as it did 5 1/2 years ago and has been 'well-loved'.  And that little boy is even more handsome :)

Utah Summer Games

About a month ago we signed our oldest son up to compete in the Utah Summer Games.  It was such a fun time and a great opportunity for him to compete.  Jake competed in the 400M run, high jump, triple jump and long jump.  While he was there he met a couple of brothers, that he was competing against in the high jump, who invited him to join their 4x100 relay team.  Jake hasn't competed or actually even tried the 400M or the long jump since junior high school and has never competed in the triple jump of the relay. 

 

He had a great time and did awesome!!

 

It was HOT, but beautiful!!  

 

Jake, Hunter and Ryder hanging out in the shade....trying to stay cool

 

The first day, Friday....Jake was supposed to start high jump in the morning, then start triple jump an hour or two later and then run the 400.  Everything was running so far behind...except for the 400.  SO, he ended up running the 400, ran over to the triple jump did his first 2 jumps, ran over to the high jump and did that, then straight back to finish up at the triple jump.  It was crazy and he was exhausted.

Jake running prelims of the 400M.  He qualified for finals and took 5th overall.  He didn't like running that event very much :)  I tried to get a picture of him in the finals, but just as I was taking pictures a guy walked right in front of the camera.

 

Triple Jump

High Jump

 

He ended up first place GOLD in the high jump.  They gave medals to kids as they had time to come get them, so the medal stand rarely had all 3 places on the stand at the same time.

 

2nd place SILVER in the Triple Jump.

 

Jake with his cheer squad!!

Jake is totally taller than me now....bittersweet!

 

Day 2 went much more quickly than day one.  Jake had long jump, 400M finals and the 4x100 relay.

Long Jump

 

The first place GOLD 4x100M relay team...missing one member that had to go home before they could get their medal.

 

We had such a great time watching Jake compete and hope to get all of the boys signed up for next year.  The other boys didn't want to sign up to compete....until we got there, then they all wished they were running or jumping.

 

It was also really fun to see a few friends from my home town.

Havasupai - Day 3

Ryan and I got the hammocks last night and the boys got the ground :)  I slept SO great in the hammock!! .....even though we saw a mouse running around in the tree above us right before we laid down to go to sleep.  I just covered myself with my sheet and pretended it wasn't even there. 

While we were in  Havasupai it was very warm at night.  I am thankful to our friends who suggested taking sheets to sleep with instead of sleeping bags.  The last night Ryan didn't even use his sheet it was so warm.  That saved us some weight in our backpacks for more important things like more peach cobbler ingredients :)

We set our alarm for 2 am AGAIN...!!  By the time we got our bedding and a few other odds and ends packed up...and stopped for a drink at the spring, we ended up leaving the campgrounds at ~3:30am. 

Hunter set us a goal to make it to the trailhead by 8:30 am.  We thought that was a pretty achievable goal...we only needed to hike 2 miles per hour....SO we set out.

We hiked the two miles into the village and stopped at the last point to get water.  We refilled a couple of water bottles(our water bladders in our packs were still full) and Ryan filled an extra bladder to add to his pack in case we needed it.  Then we set out again.....still in the dark.

The hike out was great!!   

Jake and Hunter taking a break on the trail.

On the trail with a mouthful of granola bar and my 'rapper' hand going on.

 

One day at camp Ryan asked Jake to take a picture of the two of us.  Jake kept taking picture after picture for awhile(seriously probably 15-20 pictures).  SO after awhile I told him to stop and put the camera down.  I was moving my hand as I was telling him this and he was still taking pictures.  When we were looking the pictures later he kept going back and forth between two and told me I looked like a rapper with my hand movements.  So when Ryan was taking a picture of me on the trail, he told me to show him my rapper hands....haha.

 

AND....my SPF 70 sunscreen worked so well....I might be even more pale after this trip than before!!  Also, once I changed into my swimsuit and running clothes when we got to camp....I pretty much didn't change again until we to back to the trailhead. 

Me and Ryan.  I brushed my hair on Saturday and not again until we got home Tuesday afternoon....can you tell?  I don't think Ryan brushed his hair the entire trip either.

 

AND.....we made it!!  Check out all of those bags we packed out!!  haha...just kidding.  Those are peoples packs waiting to be packed down by the mules.

 

We ended up making it out just before 7:30am....so we crushed our goal of 8:30 by an hour!!  Since we started hiking out so early in the morning, we were in the shade the entire time.  We also had a nice little breeze most of the time.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the switchbacks on the way up.  They looked quite intimidating, but they were not bad at all!! 

 

I had so many favorite things about this trip!!  Everything was SO beautiful, but my favorite thing was who I got to share the experience with.  Also....probably my favorite thing was just listening to our boys talking and enjoying each others company!!  They talked to each other and to us SO much.  In fact the last night, while they were sleeping on the ground they were talking, making up stories and laughing so much....Ryan finally had to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep.  During the hike in and out they talked, laughed, made up songs....it really was SO great!!

 

The boys did SO great on the hike they both carried in their own packs...packed full!!  In fact, Jake wanted more weight(for some additional strength training :)), so he carried my pack on the front of him of a couple miles on the hike in.  Ryan's pack was pretty heavy on the way out with all of the extra water he packed out(at least 1 gallon, maybe 2) just in case we would need it.  We didn't end up needing the extra water....thanks to the shade and the breeze.  At least he only had to carry the extra weight 8 miles and not 10, since we waited until we got to the village to fill up the extra water.

 

This was an AMAZING trip and I can't wait to do it again and bring our other boys with us.

 

Click to read....Day One and Day Two

 

A little gear info.  My husband has the BEST backpacking gear!!  He loves to backpack and buys good gear....so that he can enjoy it even more :) 

 

**These are the hammocks we bought and loved!!  They had others that were cheaper, but heavier.  When you are packing all of your supplies in, every ounce counts :)  We LOVE REI.  They are expensive, but we have found everything that we buy there to be great quality and their customer service is AWESOME!!  They don't pay me to say that.  REI has no idea who I am, even though we spend too much money there every year :)    When we got to our campsite at Havasupai, we found a tiny hole in one of the hammocks that we bought.  We used it for the two nights we were there because we needed to.  We stopped at REI in Flagstaff on our way home to see if we could exchange it.  They said of course.  No questions!  We told them that we used it the two nights we were down there and she said that was fine and exchanged it for a new one.

 

Two of our favorite backpacking meals are:  Mountain House Breakfast Skillet with tortillas and Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy



Havasupai - Day Two

 

So...I told you yesterday(Day One) that friends of ours suggested we get some hammocks to take to Havasupai to sleep in.  We stopped at REI in Flagstaff on the way and got two.  We thought about getting four, but decided to get save money and only get two.  We should have bought four!!  We traded off who got to sleep in the hammocks.  Ryan and I let the boys sleep in them the first night and they slept great.  Ryan and I on the other hand....not so much. 

We slept on the ground.  We had a tarp down, then our sleeping pads, a sheet and a fleece blanket to cover us.  I probably would have slept fine, but after seeing a scorpion, snake, squirrels, lizards, mice and bugs during the day....I was nervous about what might be crawling around me.  The wind blew all night and kept blowing pieces of hair onto my face....which I kept thinking was bugs crawling on my face.  I finally ended up getting some sleep and when I woke up the next morning... I only found one tiny worm that had fallen off the tree above us onto my face that I had smashed. :)

Oh....and the boys slept GREAT in the hammocks!!  In fact Jake just kept on sleeping as we ate a delicious Mountain House breakfast of biscuits and gravy....a new favorite for us(when it comes to freeze dried breakfasts), actually it is second to the Mountain House breakfast skillet(which we accidentally left at home).  So....Jake got a packet of oatmeal when he finally woke up.

After we ate and cleaned up, we decided that we were going to hike to Beaver Falls.  This meant that we had to hike back down to Mooney first.  It wasn't quite as scary going down the second time. 

We got behind a large group heading down to Mooney Falls.....so it took us a LONG time to get down....a lot of waiting.

 Hunter hanging out in one of the caves waiting to move down a little closer to the base of Mooney.

Hunter and Jake....still waiting.

 

We finally made it down and started hiking toward Beaver Falls. 

 

On the map we got from the village, it said that Beaver Falls is a 2 mile hike from Mooney Falls.  While we were on the trail someone told us it is 3 miles.  Online we read 4 miles....it felt like 8 miles, so it probably was only 2 :)  Next time I am going to take my Garmin, so I can see how many miles it really is.  I'm sure it depends on the trail you take...how many extra times you cross the water :)....ect.  

 

I wish I would have taken more pictures of the hike.  There were a lot of times that you go up and down...with few ladders thrown in.  It was quite the adventure!

 

Second attempt at a selfie :)  On the trail to Beaver Falls.

 

Hunter and Jake on the trail. 

Check out the beam of sunlight.

 

It was SO beautiful hiking with the canyon walls on each side.  There were SO many vines!!  We are thinking they might be wild grapes.  We saw some clusters on them that looked like tiny baby grapes....but we don't know for sure.

 

We finally made it to Beaver Falls.  We were hot and couldn't wait to get into the water!! 

 

Ryan adding more air to his tube.

 

I didn't take enough pictures at Beaver Falls.  I took a few and Hunter took a few and then we put the camera away and enjoyed the water.

Ryan cooling off in the falls.

 

Ryan, Jake and Hunter all did a little cliff jumping up at the top pool, but I didn't get any pictures of that.  I don't know how we got pictures without a bunch of other people in them.  There were actually quite a few people at Beaver Falls.

 

After we left Beaver Falls we stopped at some smaller falls that Jake had spotted on the hike in.  We played there for awhile.  It was great, we had it all to ourselves.

 

Jake and Hunter having a moss fight.

 

Jake was our 'guide' on the way back to Mooney and somehow as we were getting close, we found ourselves on some random trail....we got off the main trail somehow.  We ended up at the little waterfall below.

 



Such a cool little spot.

 

I'm actually really glad we got off track somehow...because this little spot was really cool!!  Our 'guide' wanted us to hike up the side of the waterfall and get back to a trail that we saw up there, but we decided to just hike up the creek(Havasu creek is bigger than any creek I've ever seen!) since we could see Mooney from where we were.

 

The hike out seemed a lot shorter than the hike in.  Might have been because we didn't stop at every waterfall we saw thinking..."Is this Beaver Falls?"

 

We played at Mooney Falls for awhile again.

 

Ryan and Hunter at the rope swing.

Hunter doing the rope swing.

The three boys swimming by the falls.

The three boys did some more cliff jumping at Mooney.

 

When we got back to camp we were all pretty tired.  The rest of the day we stayed close to camp.  We played in the creek, played cards, ate, walked to the spring to fill up all of our water, and started getting ready to hike out the next morning.

 

Just hanging out at camp.

 

You can also read about Day 1 and Day 3, linked below.

Day One 

Day Three