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Showing posts from May, 2013

Sebi & the Last Day of School

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 We had great seats at the Wasatch Dance Festival because Betsy saved us some in the front row. YAY! Coming from the other side of town with so much construction, we never make it in time for the fold down seats.  The third graders always do this stick dance. It looks like you'd get your ankles banged a lot during practices. I love this move, whatever it is. The girl in front looks so cute! I had to run off to work as soon as I took this picture, but I was glad I came. Rob's colleague Ruth showed up even though she doesn't have kids at Wasatch. She just wanted to see a bona fide maypole dance. 

Snow Canyon, Heading Home

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 The morning we left, Molly found a gecko in their tent. Or rather, Nate found it. Molly removed it.  We went back to the sand dunes so the kids could play.  Here they are burying Maddie.  We soon realized that late afternoon was a better time to go, without the sun beating down on us. The adults still managed to cover education and technology and a bunch of other topics before we headed back for lunch.  The campsite Molly got was tricked out. This pavilion was had lights and outlets and there were showers, which made going to church feasible. And here Joss and I are standing outside the new tent we got Rob for his birthday. Pretty spectacular backdrop, no? Molly & Nate took Will & Sebi with them so that we could fit in our car with Rob. Joss and Maddie slept most of the way home. We ran into two accidents which were holding up traffic just outside of Spanish Fork, but we did make it home.  Great trip -- now let the washing begin!!

Beaching it

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 It was decided that we needed to go somewhere with water. So we researched the options and chose Quail Creek Reservoir.  People managed to get themselves wet.  Or stay dry . . .  But not burned.  Several of us swam out to this island.  Noah found pretzel sticks and everyone chowed on dried fruit mix.  Zinnia. 'Nuff said. Rob and kids swam back from the island. They were very proud of themselves because there has been so little swim practice since we got booted from the Provo pool.  We stopped by for frozen yogurt on the way back to camp.  Zach & Arinn Nate & Molly Me & Maddie. I got hooked on the tart stuff here. Mmmmm!

Snow Canyon, Lava Tubes and Sand Dunes

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 After the picnic and the splashing, the kids wanted to come back to Snow Canyon, so we did. It is really a breathtaking park.  I convinced Maddie, Sebi and Joss to come with me on a short hike to the lava tubes. It was short, but hot and with challenging terrain. We saw a young family with a wailing toddler and I was so grateful that my kids were older and more independent and helpful. This trip would not have been possible even two years ago without Rob.  We went back to the campsite and convinced Will that he had to come with us. Once we got here to the sand dunes I think he was glad he came.  As they all were. They ran and slid and posed and played. We stayed and played until we saw the other two vans driving by and we followed them back to the campsite for dinner. The plan at this point was that I'd put all of the kids to bed and drive the 15 minutes down to pick up Rob at midnight in downtown St. George at the shuttle stop. However, he'd had lots of t

Sunday in St. George

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 Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I'd seen that's Bob's daughter Brenna was going on a mission and that her farewell was the very day that we'd be in Snow Canyon. So we looked up the directions and showed up at church. They were plenty surprised to see us (we hadn't said anything to anyone in case we didn't make it or it was tornado season or our car broke down or something). Brenna did a lovely job. She and Aleia and Julene sang a trio that Bob accompanied and it was beautiful. Here we are with Todd and Donna and Bob outside his house.  And here is Rob with his cousins, Karen and Missy. OK, it does look like he got in at 2:40am, but we're there. That counts for something, right? It was so good to see them.  Later we went to visit the St. George temple. We walked around the grounds and looked inside the visitors' center.  Joss and Noah, defending the temple from some sort of space creepy. Brigham Young's winter home (so much to

NOT Zion National Park

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Molly had made reservations to go camping over Memorial Day weekend months ago. She had made them for Snow Canyon this time mostly because we were so wimpy about the cold nights in Flaming Gorge last year. We were excited to go, and we bought Rob lots of camping gear for his birthday (an awesome tent, two sleeping bags especially for people with claustrophobic feet . . .). Then we figured out that Rob was going to be at a conference in North Carolina when we left on our trip.  Rob changed his reservations so that he could fly into Las Vegas instead of Salt Lake. There is a very reasonable shuttle from Vegas into St. George, which was only 15 or 20 minutes away from our campsite.  Then our van died.  I was driving my niece's backup car around while she was on study abroad. Things were not looking good. I would have just stayed home, but by that time Rob had changed his reservation. So we went, and I'm glad we did. I'll think it was crazy in retrospect, and it was, b

Doves

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We had to send our camera in for service last month, and it just came back. This picture isn't a great measure of success because I took it through the dirty window in our bedroom, but I was charmed by the two birds fluffing themselves and settling in for a downpour. This pair has been in our backyard this spring. They frequent the bird feeder that Rob and Sebi made for cub scouts, found nesting materials in the garden, and they're probably in one of our trees -- I just haven't figured out which one yet. I haven't blogged much at all both because of the camera, and also because I've been working two days a week up in Salt Lake. I've been looking for something for over a year now and I submitted resumes for two different positions in town, but they both wanted more hours than was practical with a preschooler. Rob's brother offered to let me come up just two days a week and that seemed feasible. He owns a film production company in Salt Lake and he

Mother's Day Camping

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 For two Sundays we had Noah and Cannon over for the day while their parents were out of town. Rob built a tent in the backyard for their reading pleasure. There were Star Wars pop-up books, calls on Skype, and we even inducted them into the Saladeaters Club.