Grand Canyon

This was our anniversary-honeymoon-backpacking-trip-to-the-Grand Canyon! Our plan was to drive up to the north rim (monument point rather), hike down the canyon, stay 4 nights, go on all sorts of day excursions, and hike back out. The problem: too much snow on the north rim. Curtis called ahead and all the park rangers were told a different story about the exact amount of snow. We were skeptical, but we brought some cross country skis just in case.

Even as we were driving there, we could see where we were going and we were scoffing at the lack of snow. As soon as the paved road ended and the park road started, there was snow on the road. Not too much because there had obviously been a snow plow through here. It was easy going until we passed the ranger station and BAM the plowed part ended with a small mountain of snow. But it was no match for our SUV. We drove right over the snow speed bump. It was about a mile from that point where the car got stuck in the 2.5 feet of snow on the road. Curtis spent the next 2.5 hours digging us out by chopping down trees with a shovel in order to get us some traction under the wheels. When we were free, we decided we could probably snow ski the estimated 13 miles to the trail head so off we went.


I had never skied before (down-hill or cross country) or even watched someone cross country ski. I thought Curtis would be able to teach me and I'd pick it up pretty quickly. Before we took off I asked if he had any advice. He said, "just walk." I can assure you skiing is not as simple as walking. Needless to say it was slow going. I fell more than a dozen times in the first mile (backpack and all).

Each successive mile was better, but we were exhausted and fatigued. At 5pm we had only gone about halfway (6 miles), so we decided to head back. It was a race against sunset to get back to the car. We made it to the car, but Curtis got us stuck in the snow again (by that time the warm sun had softened the snow and there was no way we were getting out). So we spent the night in the car.


The next morning we got out with out too much trouble. (Curtis just had to drive in reverse for 1 mile.) We drove 4 hours to get to the south rim, hoping for a backpacking permit. There weren't any permits for that night so we decided to camp out in the campground and go on a practice hike that afternoon...


That was our "practice hike" at hermits' rest. We were encouraged by how easy it was to hike upwards.

That night was below freezing. (23-27 degrees) But we didn't freeze too much. The following
day we had a permit to hike down the canyon. Here we are at the top of the Bright Angel trail...


Taking a snack break on the trail...


Looking up at how far we've come.


Here was our campsite at Indian Garden. We got there by lunch (it was only 5 miles from the top). We decided to spend the day resting at the campsite. We read books about survival, search and rescue, and national parks. (No, we didn't carry all those books down, there was a library at the campsite.)


The next day there was another 4 miles to our campsite. Here's a picture of a small portion of the trail. It was more downhill. See all the switchbacks?



Finally we reached the bottom! Behold! The Colorado River!


The next task was to cross the river to get to our campsite: by way of clanky swaying bridge...


...scariest thing ever! By this point the sun was warm and the cacti were plentiful. Let our vacation begin.


We reached our campsite by 10am so we ate an early lunch and set out for a day hike (no backpacks) to a waterfall. It was about 12 miles round trip. Definitely doable when you don't have 35-45 lb packs on your backs.

The waterfall was such a disappointment that I won't bother putting up a picture. The walk was energizing and disabling at the same time. Let's just say that afterward I wanted to do this...


...and not walk anymore. Ouch. I felt much better the next day and after some Ibuprofen, we were ready to start the hike up. We took the Kaibob trail out. It is 2 miles shorter than the Bright Angel trail, but much steeper. Here was the bridge on the Kaibob side. It was much wider and more sturdy.



We were passed by some of the most famous mules in the world. Apparently they take these mules down and up the canyon every day with supplies for the CABINS at the bottom. So for future reference; you can get reservations at the cabins with the bunk beds and the clean sheets and just worry about bringing a small backpack with water and snacks. Oh well, we enjoy the challenge of carrying our own tent and sleeping bags on our backs...


...although it kinda makes you feel like a mule. But all in all we really enjoyed our trip. Can you get a better view?


I attacked that hill, setting the pace and getting us out of the canyon (7 miles up extremely steep hill) in 3 hours 40 minutes. I'm awfully proud of my athleticism lately. I'm at my lowest weight ever and it makes things like this easier than I ever thought possible.

Easter 2010

I'm sitting here with the windows open for the first time this year. It puts me in the mood to add some "spring" pictures. This year Curtis and I went on an anniversary honeymoon of sorts over Easter so we celebrated early. (Stay tuned for details of our trip.)

Anyways...

Xander picked the egg dying kit from the store. It was called "mini-monsters," complete with eyes and mouth stickers, pipe-cleaners, two colors of 'hair,' and glue for gluing all this stuff on. He was super excited. Surprise, surprise, the glue didn't work at all! Regardless, this is what he came up with...

With the help of this...

(There is something sexy about a man wielding a glue gun, don't you think?)

Tayla was unimpressed with the mini-monsters kit. After she decorated her eggs with all the stickers her attention-span could handle, she resorted to making them ugly with her bare hands...

That was so much more fun! And she learned first-hand about what actually makes up an egg. This is lots of hard work and about 6 eggs later...


(Also a good shot of the flower bows I've been making lately. Yes, I finally broke down and started making my own. It's about time the girl have some clippies to go with that long beautiful hair. Despite what you may think, she actually loves wearing gigantic flowers and butterflies and things.)

Then of course we had to do an egg hunt! But unfortunately we weren't blessed with the beautiful spring weather we're having today so we hunted inside.

She completely fell for the "monkey-trap" routine...

She was really upset about the egg being stuck in there. It was so funny that I had to snap a picture before helping her out.

Xander is admiring his finds. If you look closely you can see a yellow one stuck between the couch cushions. Egg hunts at our house last much longer than 30 seconds. Our kids certainly take their time.

All done! Happy Easter to all!

Snow fun!

I was devastated when I found out that our new place (just 50-minutes away) doesn't get much snow. I'm not exaggerating either! We had one snowfall back in December that stuck for about 1 week. Since that nothing has stayed even 24 hours -- including this day. This was a Sunday back in late January where it snowed all day so after church and after naps, we immediately went outside to make one snowman this winter.


The kids didn't really care about the snowman. Curtis and I worked on a snowman. And Xander (and Tayla too) threw snowball...


After snowball...


After snowball!!! I remember about how we had to help Xander make snowballs last year (unless he got lucky and found a chunk of snow on the ground.) But this year, he could make them all on his own. Here's our snowman. And I kid you not -- this monstrous beast was completely gone within 24 hours! There was not even a puddle left the next day.


And one more snowball!


Oh well. Now I can say that the kids used their snow pants once this year and their boots twice. And they will outgrow them by next year...bummer. See if I buy them again!

Crayon Rolls

I made these...


In one naptime!
I used fabric scraps that I already had. The only cost was a box of crayons to split between the two rolls.


I used them to entertain the kids (along with coloring pages of Jesus I just printed off the internet) during church today. And guess what!?! It worked! It kept my kids (age 2 and 3) entertained for the entire meeting (30 minutes -- I think).

For the instructions I used to make the crayon rolls check out "chocolate on my cranium."
Know that I didn't follow the instructions exactly. I didn't have interfacing so instead I used a piece of all-natural cotton batting to go inside. And if I had not had the batting on hand, I would have used felt.


We've had a battle with keeping the kids quiet in church. Until now, we've always loaded the diaper bag up with books, toys, snacks, you name it -- sometimes we even packed two bags. (I hang my head in shame.) I didn't understand why when we had so many things the kids still fought over toys. By the end of church there were toys spewed all over the bench and crumbs on the floor. The culminating event was a tantrum by my two-year old daughter over us bringing enough snacks. (She had just eaten an entire sandwich bag stuffed full of grapes!) Enough was enough! There had to be a change because these kids were out of control and I was getting nothing but stress out of church.

I scoured the internet for ideas about teaching your young ones reverence at church. Just about every mommy blogger out there said to take away all the toys and snacks. Once the children are over 18 months it just isn't necessary. My husband and I were apprehensive, but decided to give it a try the following Sunday. We went cold turkey with the toys and the reverence level increased dramatically. We weren't the best examples that week so we decided to try it a few more weeks. The reverence improved, but I still wanted my children to be able to learn about Jesus and feel of the sweet Holy Spirit during the meeting so that they too would get something out of it.

My plan: reintroduce appropriate things for the kids to do during church.

Rules: 1. It has to be church related -- to encourage reflection.
2. There has to be two identical copies -- to discourage fighting between by two kids.
3. We would wait until after the sacrament to get the activity out.
4. One activity a week (in hopes of finding 4 different activities to rotate through each month).

Today was coloring the internet pictures with their oh so cute crayon rolls.
Next week, two copies of picture scriptures?
Hopefully I'll get two more brilliant ideas for the rest of the month...
Stay tuned.

The 12 days of Valentine's Day

I know it's way past Valentine's day, but I did something rather creative and I wanted to share.

You know how guys are last minute planners and usually forget dates like these. Well, I wanted to give him plenty of notice -- 12 days to be exact. Using the 12 days of Christmas and one of my favorite blogs (http://www.loveactually-blog.blogspot.com) as inspiration, this is what I came up with. Each day my husband found a little gift or note like this one.

Instead of a partridge in a 'pear' tree...

These were my "Dove" chocolate turtles...


In addition to finding this silly card on the mirror in the morning,


I found three times during the day to do what the back of the card said.


Four calling birds were portrayed by the 4 flirty text messages I sent.

You get the idea. Not all of them were easy to come up with. I had to know who I was working with. For example, 6 geese-a-laying could be anything with eggs -- perhaps breakfast in bed. However my man doesn't like breakfast much less egg. So I had to stretch it to be a little goofy.

I "goosed" him 6 times that day and each time he endured my playful cheesiness, he got an egg filled with Hershey's kisses.

The second week involved dates together. It was just a great way to spend Valentine's week.

We went "hot-pooling" at Lava Hot Springs (7 swans-a-swimming). And yes, apparently you can do that 365 days a year.


And again I stretched it for day 10. This is the note he got:

"Lords-a-leaping are hard to find

So that left me in quite a bind

Ladies and “Lords of Film” you know

Are in this “Valentine’s Day” show"

As you can guess, we went and saw "Valentine's Day" on opening night. Which was an added bonus for me because they gave out carnations to all the women.

Day 11 was eleven "Pepper's" pepping. My husband happens to LOVE his soda. However he was disappointed to find only 11 Dr. Pepper's in the 12 pack. But hey, I had to stay true to the game!

And for the grand finale....

For the 12th 'lay' of V-day my true love gave to me...

LIVE drummers drumming.

(Tickets to a Daughtry concert in April!)

This turned out to be the best V-day ever...aside from 2004's when Curtis proposed. And it will live on until April because we have a concert to look forward to.

************

One day I awoke to find little love notes like these hidden all over the house! I found 17 and I'm still stumped as to why 17? I loved it!


Sunday, February 14th I got an omelet in the shape of a heart. It was much better than I make omelets too. Oh wait I don't make omelets I just scramble everything together.

I went to church early to practice with the choir. When Curtis and my kids arrived for church each of them had one of these to give me...

With their cute little hand prints for the hearts! So sweet!


Curtis claims the kids made him make one too...It's okay if you wanted to make me a card with your hand print on it honey! hahaha You can admit it.

Best Valentine's Day ever!!!!

Minnie Mouse cake

I made this for my daughter's second birthday. (She really loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).

It is a 8 inch chocolate cake with white decorator's icing. I didn't have 4in cake pans so I baked a 9x13 and cut out 4 inch circles for the ears. I stuck crushed oreos on the side to make the ears black. The bow is a chocolate chip cookie with icing and pink sugar sprinkled. (Although I don't recommend using a cookie -- it is difficult to get such a big cookie firm enough without it breaking into bits.) The face is just frosting.

Happy Birthday Tayla!

Homemade Christmas

This year I tried to make many of my Christmas gifts this year. Here's a few of my projects this year:

Homemade tutu...adorable...

Denim rag quilt for my sister. She didn't have a quilt big enough to fit her bed before. My husband said, "well we have to take care of that this year." It became my labor of love this December. It's denim on one side, flannel on the other.
Every year I also make a few scrapbook pages of us and the kids for my parents and my in-laws to add to the little brag book I got them years ago. I include a CD with all of our digital pictures on it, so that they can do whatever they want with our pictures.