Cedar Breaks Hike

Cedar Breaks wildflower hike with our good friends the Godfrey's. 

The hike was peaceful and nice and "cool" up in the mountains.

Love going on hikes. July 2011

The Carousel

Daddy, Cooper and Chris took a trip downtown to Tabernacle to play in the

water and ride the carousel. Cooper was actually 2 inches too short according

to their height chart, but I told the girl dispensing tickets that neither one of

us could ride on it because we both get sick. She let him ride it by himself and

he had a blast! We love that kid!

Making the bed!

These past few visits Coop has been "making his bed". While Brenda is gone he has been sleeping in her bed. Every morning I here the pitter patter of his feet running into our bedroom whispering in a loud voice, "Chris it is time to wake up the sun is awake!" I love these moments with him. I then get out of bed and make it so he says "I need to make my bed too and runs in to make his bed! " I love teaching him new things!

Fourth of July

This year Jer and I were solo without the kids so we headed up to his Grandma and Grandpa's for some peaceful relaxing days.

Here we are waiting for the parade to start!

 Then we went to the park and grandma treated all of us to some homemade "delicious" icecream!

What a great way to end our day.

Old Army Jeep

Brenda and I got to pose in an Old Army Jeep that was used in the Vietnam war!

Hiking Oak Grove Park

 

Hiking at Oak Grove Park with our favorite people.

Here is Coop and Sophie and Me trudging up the trail among all the lush greenery!

 

 This water was absolutely FREEZING! I waded across with Coop. It was instant ache the second I stepped into the water. The kids kept going back for more. Coop was almost up to his waist getting wet. They were having a blast.

 Jeremy and I. We love doing everything together!

 Pretty waterfall in the background. We had hiked up a wash and we tried to get to the waterfall but to no avail because of the very thick underbrush. We needed a machete to get through.

Me, Jeremy, Justin and Rachel. Our hiking buddies who have graciously introduced us to all the wonderful hiking areas! Thanks guys!

STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES

FREE STRAWBERRIES!

We were given 4 flats of Free strawberries! Brenda and I started the task of preparing the strawberries for FREEZER JAM!

I'M A GENTLEMAN

Cooper says "I'm a gentleman!"

His dad has been teaching that a "gentleman" opens doors for everyone. So every time we leave a building he opens the door for us.

A few weeks ago Brenda, Cooper and I went to lunch 

together and he held open the door saying

"I'm a gentleman!"

I love that he is so receptive to the things 

his dad and I are teaching him.

Creeps me out......

When something or someplace doesn't "strike my fancy" I have a tendency to say "THIS PLACE CREEPS ME OUT!" There are two different chinese buffets in two different towns that have "creeped me out".

Now.....don't get me wrong.....I love Chinese food and we go all the time it's just those two particular places have that effect on me. 

Well, apparently Cooper has heard me say these words and on our hike to 3 ponds he kept saying "THIS CREEPS ME OUT!" 

Three Ponds Hike

Well, our adventure with Coop, Jer, me and our two friends Kaitlin and Jordan started off great! We started on the path leading us to the (we hoped) exciting 3 ponds. Coop was looking forward to getting into the water and playing around.

The ponds ended up not being what we had expected but they did have a surprise in them. The lower pond had hundreds of tadpoles in it. Brought back memories of my sister and I catching tadpoles in the ditch behind my Aunt Audria's house in the summers. 

To get to the upper pools we took the hard way and decided to climb this rock over and up. Jer is making a foothold with his hands for Jordan to get to the next foothold. After Jo looked around he came back down, he helped Jeremy up then I hoisted Cooper up, then I made a foothold with my hands for Jordan to get back up then Kaitlin, then Jordan came down and made a foothold for me. We ALL made it up there.

The upper pools had frogs in them. I guess when the tadpoles "grow up" and turn into frogs they make there way to the "upper shady thrones" of the pools of water. These frogs were basking in the sun for a minute or two.

I held one of the frogs and it immediately did what frogs do and peed on me! Yuck!

The hike was beautiful...the red rocks in Southern Utah are awesome.....what we didn't count on was all the sand, sand and more sand that was most of trail. By the time we finished the hike we had a little shelf of sand underneath our toes that had made it's way into our shoes. But alas we made it there and back.

We are loving all the hiking that Southern UT has to offer!

Rope and red rocks=FUN

Coop and Daddy climbing the side of 

the rock using the rope and cutouts 

for your feet in the rock. One slip 

and down you would fall into the water! 

Coop loved doing this, no fear from him!

HE'S FEARLESS!

Jumping in!

We hiked up to Red Cliffs with some friends 

one Saturday afternoon and had lots of fun

playing in the water with the kids.

Brenda wanted to slide down this waterfall 

and jump in the pool below but the rocks 

weren't slick enough so she walked 

down to the side and jumped in.

Coop and Jer were watching 

from above. She loves the water!

Why DID the chicken cross the road?

We would LOVE to read 

your thoughts on 

WHY the chicken crossed the road. 

What is your theory?

Comment below.

Random conversation

Out of the blue Coop started this conversation! He is so social and will talk to anyone!

COOP: I have teeth! See (as he smiles big showing his teeth)

RANDOM GIRL ON SHUTTLE: You do have teeth!

COOP: They are sharp teeth! I eat chicken with them!

RANDOM GIRL ON SHUTTLE: Do you like to eat chicken nuggets?

 

COOP: Yes! I cut chicken with them, see.....(as he imitates cutting one with his teeth)

RANDOM BOY ON SHUTTLE: Are you going to eat chicken nuggets for dinner?

COOP: No, (as he is laughing) I'm going to eat cereal and toast! Ha Ha

Needless to say we stopped in Hurricane and got chicken nuggets for dinner!

We LOVE Coop. The girl on the shuttle was impressed at how smart he is and articulate for his age. Our same thoughts exactly. His imagination is out of this world! So glad that he has so many people that love him and he loves them back!

Hiking in Zions!

Our hike in Zions! We decided to do two simple hikes this day. It was free national parks week and so we headed up to Zions one afternoon. We all loved it. We first did the easy weeping rock hike. You can see the rock "weeping" behind the kids. When we got off the shuttle Coop asked his dad why we were going to the "crying" rock! We then did the Hidden Canyon hike. This was a 2 mile round trip up the mountain to the hidden canyon. I have to say it was quite the jaunt and the kids let us know, but once we reached the point where we had to scale along the wall using the chains for support the canyon was just beyond there and it was beautiful and cool! Brenda found her a walking stick and Coop had fun running in the sand and finding rocks. We all love to hike!

Snow!

This is what we woke up to in Fillmore on April 3, 2011.

It was AWESOME! 

The day before it was 70 degrees outside. 

It had snowed 6 inches on the fence and we actually think 

it was more on the cars. 

The day before I had told Jer to pack his flip flops 

because it was so warm needless

to say we needed snow boots the next day!

She's Back!

After much pain for a week, Brenda's pediatric dentist Dr. Albrect was able to call up Dr. Plumb to do a root canal. Dr. Plumb gladly scheduled us into his day and performed root canal therapy on her tooth. It was infected and she was in lots of pain. The roots of her tooth are actually still growing in so he treated the infection with medication then "hollowed" out the top of her tooth and sealed it off by mixing a making a composite for her tooth. Looks like a new tooth even though it is dead. We are hoping that she will not have to have anymore work done on her tooth in the future. 

As soon as she was done at the dentist she was a new person! As she was coming out of her "numbness" her eyes became bright and clear and she became her 'ole bouncy self! So glad she is not in pain anymore! So grateful to Dr. Plumb for staying longer in his day and performing the root canal therapy for her. His assistants were outstanding and very compassionate also! We thank them!

Teeth in pain is NO FUN!

One of the hardest thing for a parent to see is your child in pain!

 My poor Brenda has had such a hard time with her teeth since the age of 3!

 On Monday we finally made an appointment with the pediatric dentist. He discovered that her molar had grown in with a defect hole in it. Well the hole was right down to the nerve. She has been complaining off and on about her tooth hurting for a few months now. The dentist decided to layer the hole with medicine then the filling hoping that the nerves will "settle" down and she won't have to have a root canal. Her poor little mouth has been in pain with that nerve running along the side of all her teeth. He prescribed some stronger pain meds which of course make her nauseated. Are they working "who knows". She complains that it hurts a lot, then a little while later that it hurts a little. Very frustrating for a parent who wants to take away the pain. We are the 4th day. We are hoping the pain is less today! 

Dixie Rock hike

Hiking at Dixie at Rock! Not only did we get to see one tortoise but we saw two on our hike! What a treat that was for us. Both Brenda and Cooper were fearless and kept us on our toes. In the bushes I saw a bunch of white weblike cacoons. When I got up closer I could see that they were moving and it freaked me out. At first I thought it was some kind of a tarantula spider inside then upon further inspection we figured out that it was actually massive amounts of caterpillars moving around in them. freaky

Gratitude

All day today I have been thinking about what I am grateful for. For me it usually takes someone else's plight to help me realize everything that I have to be grateful for. My Uncle Art died a few of days ago, my good friend Karleen's husband's father passed away, one of my fellow bloggers has had a few trials in their family's lives you can go here to read, a little 10 year old girl at my daughter's school has cancer (her blog is here), one of the other vendors in our line of work who is going through a nasty divorce was just told that his 60k a year job is being dissolved and this is just to name a few.

Things I am grateful for:

• An awesome husband who is patient
• Awesome daughter
• Time with Cooper
• A job to support our family
• A roof over our head
• Our health
• The Gospel

And the list goes on and on......

My husband is really good about feeling grateful and sometimes I need a quick sift in the butt pants to be reminded. 

Uncle Art

On February 17th our Uncle Art passed away. He was a kind soul to everyone and was always cracking jokes. He really completed my Aunt Ardelle. You can go here read a tribute to him.

PRIDE

Yesterday at church our 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, Brother Dye talked to us about pride. He quoted some things from President Benson's talk in 1989. Brother Dye then took each letter in the word PRIDE and came up with these thoughts which really hit home and inspired Jeremy and I to do better. This is what he came up with:

                        Pray

                        Repentance

                        Increase temple attendance

                        Do service

                        Example

We are going to work on our PRIDE! 

Serving

The quote below is so true and hit home to me the other day.

On Thursday as my husband and I were leaving Wal-mart to go to our next stop for work there was a man dressed in a white shirt and tie and dress pants with a red gas can next to him holding up a "Need Gas" sign written on a piece of card board. In the short time that we saw him we saw at least 20 cars go by him. As soon as we read the sign we turned around and motioned for him to walk over to the gas station. He did and was immediately grateful and kept saying "there are good people out there!" His truck had run out of gas and he was on his way to an interview. He was a painter had just been layed off from his job of many years.

This is one of the many things I admire about my husband is that he is willing to serve anyone in need. We both feel that way and wish we could help more people in need. We both say that if we "won" or "came into" a large sum of money we would be broke because we would GIVE it all away helping others!

"I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives."

--Thomas S. Monson, "What Have I Done for Someone Today?", Ensign, Nov. 2009, 84–87

Mindy Gledhill - Hourglass

Love this song! It's so peaceful and fun! She is an amazing singer!

THE MARRIAGE CREED

COMFORT EACH OTHER...Provide a refuge and sanctuary for each other from the chill winds of the world. Your marriage is a hearth, from whence comes the peace, harmony, and warmth of soul and spirit.

CARESS AS YOU WOULD BE CARESSED...Warm your loved one's body with your healing touch. Remember that as babies can die with lack of touching, so can marriages wither from lack of closeness.

BE A FRIEND AND PARTNER...Friendship can be a peaceful island, separate and apart, in a world of turmoil and strife. Reflect upon the tranquility of the many future years you can share with a true friend, and beware of becoming battling enemies under the same roof.

BE OPEN WITH EACH OTHER...Bind not yourselves in the secretiveness that causes suspicion and doubt. Trust and reveal yourselves to each other, even as the budding rose opens to reveal its fragrance and beauty.

LISTEN TO EACH OTHER...And hear not only words, but also the non-language of tone, mood, and expression. Learn to listen to understand rather than listening to argue.

RESPECT EACH OTHERS RIGHTS...Remember that each is a person of flesh and blood, entitles to his or her own choices and mistakes. Each owns himself,, and has the right to equality.

ALLOW THE OTHER TO BE AN INDIVIDUAL...Seek not to create for each other a new mold that can only fit with much discomfort and pain. Accept the other as they are as you would have yourself accepted.

GIVE EACH OTHER APPROVAL...Remember criticism divides, while compliments encourage confidence in the other. Hasten not to point out the others mistakes for each will soon discover his own.

CHERISH YOUR UNION...Let no one come between your togetherness, not child, not friend, nor worldly goods. Yet maintain enough separateness to allow each other his or her own unique oneness.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER...Love is your river of life-your eternal source of recreating yourselves. Above all else-love one another.