Summertime Fun

Well, the weather is definitely changing here in Utah. A few days ago while gathering pictures for new blog posts; I stumbled on these pictures from this summer. The pictures made me realize once again how fast time is passing.

 This thought leaves me feeling reflective and I realize once again how important it is to regularly make time to enjoy the people God has given us to love. H will be four and K will be two, and things will be so different!  I am so glad to have made these memories with them. And, even more grateful that we can and do take time to have fun together. I hope you are so blessed. 

There are so many people I wish I could spend more time with! To all of you I send my love!

Beautiful sunrise and a surprise visitor on my hike!

Saturday I was up American Fork Canyon at sunrise. I took this picture with my little phone camera.

Wow! what a beautiful world God has given us! I also spent about 2 breathless minutes watching a two point buck deer watching me watching him! Look Close, he is in the center of the photo.

Cloudy Walk

This was the view on my walk today. What beautiful forces of nature!

Backpacking Parunuweap

Wiley the dog found a good place to rest while we ate lunch

You can't tell how tall this waterfall is but it's about 10 feet tall. We climbed up and down it, and coaxed the dog to do it too. No small feat :)

Pagosa Springs and Durango, Colorado

Steven and I had the opportunity last week to visit Pagosa Springs and Durango, Colorado. We really enjoyed a ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

We took the Narrated Coach (worth the price in my opinion) and really enjoyed listening to an actor tell us about the railroad as if he were Robert Palmer, the builder of the rail line in the 1870's.

On the way back we listened to an actress tell us about the native people as if she were Chipita a Southern Ute Indian princess. It was beautiful, fascinating and informative!

Check out that track--Edgy!

In Silverton, Colorado. 

 Silverton has an amazing museum. The San Juan County Historical Society Museum has a great display that includes a high tech jail from the late 1800's. This is something which you really ought to see some time.  Here are a few pictures of the jail. It is basically a jail building inside of a regular building. 

Me inside the jail building. The box on the wall on the right is full of levers that opened the doors to the four cells from outside the jail building.

 The beds were these hammocks that hook onto the loops in the wall. This place even had indoor plumbing!

Steven and I are travel geeks. By this I mean when we go somewhere we like to learn a little bit about the history by visiting museums and a little bit about the natural history of the place by going hiking. We had a great time doing just that!

It looks like Hawaii

This is my dog Wiley. We're on a walk not far from our house. In the summertime most of this is brown. But today it's green and moist and I think I'm in Hawaii. All that is missing is the chickens.

Looking for Grandpa

 H is waiting for Grandpa to come down the trail. Where is Grandpa?

A day at the beach

 K woke up early in the morning. Here he is examining something while we all get ready to head to the beach!

Yay, I say! a day at the beach--even if it is windy and cold... Our rental house is just a walk down the stairs from this beautiful beach. 

 Here is my grandson, H and Daisy the dog. Daisy loves, really loves, to fetch things. She will fetch until she drops dead of exhaustion. Really Matt has to be careful to keep her from over exerting herself. 

Here she is begging Steven to throw sticks for her...

I Love this whale shaped rock on the beach. How amazing nature is in all it's diversity of form. As you can see, Daisy is still busy with the begging...

Ari and family having fun on the shore. Ari has a bun in the oven....

Michael and H and Daisy.... Finally, someone who will throw sticks for her.

More stick throwing...

and again....

Logan and his dog, Cosmo. What a good boy Cosmo is!

Cosmo is very well behaved.

Doing what I love...being with my grand boys

What is that up in the air?

Jen and family having fun on the beach!

Daisy is at it again! This time begging Matt to kick the ball for her to chase.

Love this guy!

Peeking at Grandpa

K doing a stair marathon!

He climbed all the way up.

Grandma had to document the whole thing...

Looking back at the beautiful beach we were able to enjoy for a while. So grateful for this day.

Van Damm State Park and Mendocino, California

It was so fun to wake up to the pitter-pat of grandchildren feet in the very nice house we rented through Home Away.com a much better arrangement than multiple hotel rooms! Plus we had a kitchen and dining room so we could eat family style and all together. And, there was a washing machine and dryer which is great by the beach and with littles.

We took a hike to Van Damme State Park where they have a lovely paved path in a redwood forest.

Everyone went for a hike or a run. It was so nice to be together in nature. First visit to the Redwood forest for Michael.

 It is amazing how tall the trees are. Steven took this beautiful picture.

 Here we are...

 Some people got really tired...

 K has some fun time with Grandpa

 Being a great Uncle to H

K with his daddy

 H and grandpa running. It is amazing what a good hiker our three year old grandson is.

 Drinking and driving?

 This is Jen and her family

H is a great runner!

 After the hike we all went to lunch in Mendocino, CA. Such a cute little town and yummy lunch at the Mendocino Cafe. Nice and fresh food. 

I took this panorama of the Mendocino bay. What a beautiful world we have to live in!

Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point

I had a wonderful visit to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point last week! The weather was perfectly mild and sunny. My preschool aged grandsons, those who live in the area, were with me and we had a fabulous time together. For them the best part was rolling down the grassy hill in the amphitheater area and the view from under the waterfalls. I guess little boys just don't need tulips yet.

Here are some of the pictures I took while I was there. I wonder if any of them will inspire a quilt?

This is the wonderful amphitheater hill they loved to roll down and run back up!

 Looking out the peek a boo holes under the waterfall!

 I Just love this color combination! So pretty the blue purple and the red purple together.

Close Up Pink Tulip, The details are amazing!

I had never been to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens before and was pleasantly surprised by this lovely carousel  I think later this summer it will be in bloom. 

I love the motion in this spray of yellow tulips!

Do you sometimes feel like the only orange tulip in a garden of yellow? Me too.

The whole park has such lovely lines.

Enough Said!