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With the holiday weekend we thought it a great opportunity to go explore a new National Park.  You can't call it camping because we stayed in a hotel and ate sandwiches all weekend.  Our kids are currently sick of picnic food.  But we hiked and explored all day long.  Kids climbed every rock, crawled into every hole and hiked many miles.  By the last hike Allison was "holed" out.  Robyn would gasp in disbelief, "Allison, its a hole - how can you resist!"  Spencer tried to prove he was an expert rock climber at every opportunity.  It was a beautiful place to explore.  We ate mini-fruit pies at the old Mormon house inside the part, saw petroglyphs, and visited an old friend of Jeremy who farms nearby while kids played with their animals.


Yes Taylor was with us.  He was usually sitting at the trail head with Jeremy in the shade, happy to hang out while Jeremy photographed.  On the panoramic overlooks I stayed with Taylor.  You would think that was a bad thing but there is something about sitting quietly with a box of wheat thins, a good book and only Taylor to keep you company.  Because hiking with kids is not quiet or relaxing as much as I love it.


I don't know if you can make it out but even Spencer is singing. This is what happens when they discover an echo.



Taylor did really well on this trip.  The only hiccup was learning that Expedia hadn't passed on our requests for a wheelchair accessible room and the hotel was fully booked.  So Jeremy and Spencer carried Taylor and his stroller up and down the stairs a couple of times a day.  Not so fun.

Saturday night our kids literally collapsed into bed.  Its good to know that I can still hike their energy out instead of the other way around.  Sunday we took it a little easier.  We went and explored Fish Lake which was cold and windy and reminded us all of Lake Tahoe.  Then we drove an hour back to our hotel because Robyn had forgotten her pillow pet.  Spencer and Allison had prepared little devotionals for us and that and a church CD was church for us.  I was impressed that kids were actually prepared with thoughts and stories for us.  Then we stopped at Payson temple where Jeremy flew his helicopter around to get photos from the perimeter.  Unfortunately his helicopter got lost somewhere during the process.  We think it crashed.  We searched for hours.  Jeremy went back with a friend and his copter to search.  He called everyone he could think of.  And he is very sick at the thought of loosing that thing.  Not the best end to a vacation get away.  But it is a thing - a fun tool that he uses for work and church and really likes and he had to save up to get but still a thing.  We will see what happens Tuesday when all the workers return to the site.

One small town had this car sitting right after the speed limit changed.  We thought it was ingenius.

Other news of the week:

First, my hair is currently orange.  My new hair cut and highlights did not go as planned.  I now have bangs and orange streaks.  I am hoping to at least get the orange part fixed this week.  Spencer and Robyn kept asking me, 'seriously - why did you do that?!'.

Second, Robyn got some nasty warts burned off her hands.  Not a happy experience.

Third I got to go have lunch with Allison.  She heartily approves of my new favorite resturant when she realized she could say she wanted pasta, Alfredo, extra Parmesan and pepperoni and nothing else!  Her kind of meal.


Girls got to have a week of parties.  Spencer had a week of finishing up assignments and studying for finals.  Taylor got to meet with his lawyer, the thought still makes me laugh, as we get all ready for the court hearing in two weeks.  Jeremy had some photo shoots at the temple in West Jordan, both at sunrise and sun set.  Robyn and I got to go to an Activity day's mother/daughter luau which was very fun.  Allison even volunteered to come work in the kitchen for it.  So it has been a great week full of family time.  To help make sure we had lots of family time I kept all devices at home this weekend.  A few whines and moans while we were packing up but I don't think they missed a thing.  Of course this made them watch a stupid reality show on the National Geographic channel every night before bed as that was their only option.

I forgot to post a few weeks ago right before Spencer's last volleyball practice (hence the clothes) he had a guitar recital.  He was really frustrated that he lost it at the bridge but I thought he did pretty well.

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