Easter weekend 2016

Wendy's and Stacy's families came home for Easter. So Mom planned for us all to spend that Saturday together and also Hugh's son, Greg, was there with his family. We all gathered in Bluff for lunch, which was just a quick sandwich and chips, veggies, etc. Then we loaded up our cars and headed to Hovenweep.

the buffet line in Grandma's kitchen

I have not been to Hovenweep since I was in the 4th grade and went on a field trip there. I have almost 0 memories of the place. I was happy to take my kids to another cool place in San Juan Co. There really is so much to see and do here, if you're willing to drive.

What a crew!
Olivia, Tilly, Hannah, Cambria, Sadie, Laila, Zoe and Ane
All the Barton Grand-girls (except Aysha)

We stopped at the visitor center for a bit until we were all together, then we started down the trail. The trail was concrete and I wondered if the whole thing was going to be so 'citified' but the pavement ended at the first overlook. Then it was just a faint path, outlined with rocks over the sand and sandstone. We did not hike the entire loop, but went about a mile and a half. Some of the kids went a bit further. The trail just loops around the small canyon where all the towers are located.

My crew
top:Hannah, Cambria, Sadie
bottom: Me holding  James, Soren, Charlie

Poor Laila!
Laila, Olivia, Hannah, Tilly, Zoe, Sadie, Cambria, Ane

Charge!
Charlie, Soren, Ethan

The trial marked with rocks

It was a bit chilly still that day. There had been rain/snow earlier

The towers at Hovenweep are all in pretty close proximity and you can see almost all of them at once. They are built around the sides and in the bottom of a small canyon. No one really knows why they are there or what their purposes were, but they look to me like defensive structures. There are small openings in them. Are they for shooting arrows out of?

Square tower in canyon

Some are square, such as this one in the bottom of the canyon...

Defending their stronghold
Charlie, Ethan, Soren

Some are more rounded such as this one on the edge of the canyon...some are actually built into the cavity of the rocks. The foundations of the towers fit so closely to the rock they're built on you have to look closely to see where the rock ends and the foundation begins. Amazing!

Think I'll back off before they let me have it

James finally went on his own. He refuses to wear his coat and froze and whined. OY!

After we left Hovenweep, we came back to Bluff by way of Aneth and Montezuma Creek. Since we were on that road, we stopped and hiked into the cove to see the cliff flowers. They were in full bloom.

hiking into the Cove

Cliff flowers grow where the water seeps out of the layers of sandstone

So beautiful and delicate and they smell so good.

dainty little flowers. I imagine they're probably quite hardy.

Hannah, Cambria and Tilly

It was so much fun to have almost all of us together. (Karla wasn't feeling well, so didn't come) Curtis, Ford, Shiala and Kami came to Bluff later and we all had dinner together. It was nice to spend more time with Hugh's son and family and get to know them better. It was a bit strange to hear his kids call my mom 'Grandma' but some of those little girls have no memory of Hugh's first wife so Mom is the only Grandma they know. I'm happy she has been so welcoming to them. I love watching my kids enjoy being with their cousins and I love being with my sisters. Family is truly the best thing in the world!

Let's head home
Watch out for the prickly pear cactus

Sisters!

bumper sticker we saw on the way to Hovenweep. We all thought it was funny.

On Sunday, we had Ford and Shiala come over to do our traditional Easter Seder. This was their first time to do Easter with us, so it was a new thing for them. Kami had fun just walking around and eating everyone's food. We love this tradition. We still did baskets as well, but this is the highlight!

 Easter is the ultimate holiday. Without the reason for the celebration of Easter, there would be no need to celebrate Christmas. If Jesus had not done what he did, he would just be an obscure carpenter from Galilee who faded into history and no one would even know who he was. But because He did do what He did, He was who He said He was, we know of Him and celebrate His birth, life and Atonement. Because He died for us, was resurrected and LIVES, we have HOPE. We can expect him to fulfill all his words and we also will LIVE forever. What a blessing that knowledge is.

Spring Break Fun 2016 - Shooting

We decided to end our Spring Break with a BANG! After we got back home from Hannah's orthodontic appointment, we headed up to the shooting range to have a little fun.

We took along empty soda cans and a few shaving cream cans. As well as some equipment to shoot them with. ;)

 

Everyone went out onto the range to set up targets...

 

…those poor little cans were so scared they kept tipping themselves over trying to hide…

Oh, wait! That was just the gusty, ever present wind!

it was hard for a few of the little people to wait for Dad to get everything set up...

James got impatient and then a bit miffed and went and sat in the car and didn't participate. Silly boy!

Soren, Cambria, Hannah, Sadie

Charlie wanted to shoot something besides a BB gun, but it was too heavy for him to hold up straight, so Dad had to help out...

looks like James finally got out of the car.

Dad got out the big, loud gun….Cover your ears!!

I wasn't going to shoot, I like taking pictures of everyone else better, but decided that I need to be part of the action instead of just documenting it. So I took my turn on the big gun. HOLY COW! That thing kicks and is so loud.  I had a hard time shooting into the sunlight, my vision is not what it used to be. (not that it was ever very good.) But I participated. (Patting myself on the back) 

It's kind of silly that we don't do this more often, since the range is literally 1-2 minutes from our house. I guess the cost of the ammo is a factor…8 people shooting guns can go through a lot of bullets pretty fast. But Dad said that it's something he'd like to do more often since it's such a quick and easy thing our family can do on the spur of the moment.

Hannah gets Braces

We finally got things in order to get started on braces for Hannah. It's been a long 5 years to get to this point. The day after James was born Curtis took her in to a dental appt to have a baby tooth extracted. When she came home, I looked at the tooth she had and it was not a baby tooth. It was a permanent bicuspid. Oh, I was livid. I marched myself right down there and asked them what in the world had happened. They tried to placate me and tell me it was a baby tooth, which made me even more MAD!  I told them to not lie to me, that I had worked as a dental assistant and I KNEW a permanent tooth when I saw one. 

The dentist finally explained that after looking at her mouth he came to the conclusion that she would not have enough room for all her adult teeth and was looking at orthodontia anyway, so he removed that tooth to allow space for the others to come in. I accepted that and life went on…

However, as the years went by, it became apparent that she would have had room for that tooth and now had too much space in her teeth and we had to figure out how to correct that. We got ortho consultations and were going to get started last fall but then we had car trouble in Idaho and that pushed off getting her started until this spring. We chose to go to an orthodontist who is from Utah County but comes to Moab monthly, since it's likely she'll still be in braces when she leaves for college. I imagine she might end up along the Wasatch front for school so she can still be seen in their offices there. That's my best guess and hope.

Anyway, March 18 was the big day! She, Cambria and I drove to Moab to get her brackets on. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would since everything is just bonded on these days and they don't use the ones that go around the teeth anymore. Afterwards she took some Advil and we stopped at the frozen yogurt place for a treat before heading home. 

She's going to have a little more sparkle in her smile for the next 18 months. 

See the marks on her lips from the retractors? looks a bit like baseball seams. LOL

She's pretty excited about having straight teeth with no gaps. She hasn't had them adjusted yet! Wonder if she'll be so excited about it then. ;)

Spring Break Fun 2016 - Hiking

We did not have any big plans for Spring Break this year and it turned out that we scheduled a lot of dr and dental appointments during the week since no one would have to miss school for it. To balance out the practical part of our week, we decided that we better try to do a couple of fun things as well. 

The weather was perfect for doing some hiking so on Thursday, the 17th, we headed to Bluff to see Grandma and Hugh and hike the old Pioneer Dugway in Butler Wash. It's been a few years since we hiked that trail and now that the kids are bigger (boys especially) it would be a good day's hike. 

We bumped our way to the wash and parked on the top. Then we piled out and making sure we had our water, we headed to the trail. The weather could not have been better. It was a bit warmish in the sunshine and a bit nippy in the shadow of the canyon walls. You could get whatever you needed by moving a few feet. 

We ended up going further than we have gone before, down into the bottom along the creek. We hiked to a big cottonwood tree, rested a bit and then turned around. Some day I'd like to hike to the end where it meets the San Juan River. 

I was happy that Mom and Hugh could come with us. They are fun! 

I love where we live, there are so many amazing places to see. Like my dad used to say, "Why would I want to travel the world? I still haven't seen all of San Juan County!" 

The crew heading to the trail. 

I think I need some walking sticks like Hugh's

Hiking/playing on sandstone is so fun. 

This is an old wagon road the Bluff pioneers made to use rather than having to go up and down San Juan hill. Along the way you can see the cribbing they put in to create the road on the slopes of the hills. Hard to believe it's still there after all these years. 

Two of my favorite people!

There was a lot of water in the bottom of the wash.
Soren found a spot to sit and ponder

maybe he was just being a boy and throwing stuff in the water...

Some of them decided to try to find a way up different than the trail we came down on.
The boys were pretty determined to follow their dad up this sandy wash bank. Trying to make any headway climbing in sand is hard work!

Nice photobomb, Nina! (wearing the hat of Grandpa Karl's that she ended up with after he passed away.)

When we got back to the vehicles we spent some time rehydrating and visiting while the boys and girls picked up and threw rocks. Sadie was practicing her shot-put and discus techniques…

I managed to coerce some mom-child selfies...

Mom and Soren…


Mom and Charlie

Oh, and a selfie with my sweetie….

who are those old people??

Finding special rocks, (my boys LOVE rocks) Some of them had quite a collection but I told them they could not bring all of them home, so they chucked them.