Junior Duck Stamp Reveal.

Today was the day we finally got to see Evan's duck!

It's hard to see in the picture, but the detail of the duck is absolutely amazing.  Right down to his little webbed feet tucked under his tail feathers.  

He got a lot of ideas on how to improve, and as soon as we got home, he busted out his art prizes and began to sketch for next year.

Very proud mama moment!

Winter Came!

After hitting mid 70s in Febuary, and having a mild March, I was almost ready to pack away the winter clothes and dress the boys in shorts until September.

Glad I waited... Sort of. 

Kite Weather

We live on the west benches of the valley... and that means that we get an awesome wind.

And when a storm is coming, we get an even better one.

Today, was beautiful... except for the wind.

So we made the best of it by pulling out some cheap kites, and heading for the field behind the school.

I was surprised at how much the boys enjoyed it, and we ended up spending close to two hours flying kites!

So, Random Mail.

We randomly received a letter from the Department of Interior today.  

Addressed to Evan. 

Are you aware there is a contest for young artist called "The Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program" 

I wasn't either.

BUT

Now we know, because Evan won a spot in the final's for the state of Utah!

Now we have to wait a month to find out what place he took AND see his Duck.  

(He says it's a common mallard flying through the air.)

But HOW COOL IS that??

Clean Air

Winter in SLC means air that gets stagnant and gross and unhealthy.

But, the cure is just a few miles away... and up.

So, since our air quality is unhealthy and NOT breathing doesn't work so well...

We headed into the mountains for a little exercise.

Evan LOVED snowshoeing. 

Ryan loved just being with his Dad. 

And I loved the smiles on their faces.

And the fact that they slept the whole ride home! 

Weekend Adventure

So, originally, we were going to give the boys a trip to San Diego for Christmas. 

 

And then we remembered that People are in San Diego, and neither Mark or I like People. 

 

And since SoCal gets a LOT of traffic this time of year, we decided to go out in the middle of nowhere instead.

 

Well, actually, we went to St George, took a left and ended up in the middle of no where.

 

Beep Beep I'm a Jeep Time!

 

The first day, we drove out along a trail that sort of meandered through this:

 

And somewhere out there, we found some dunes.   

 

 

 

Mark of course, had a BLAST, the whole while I was repeating "Find your happy place, find your happy place!!"

 

And luckily, there were some other crazy souls out there that pulled us off the top of the dune that Mark high centered us on.  I did NOT take any pictures of that.

 

The next day, Mark somehow talked me into going out again.

 

And while we couldn't find the trail he was searching for, we had a great ride through the middle of no where... and found a few places where Mark could play with the jeep.

 

 

He was so excited... more so than Evan and Ryan on Christmas morning at the chance to REALLY use all the jeep's special features.

 

When I got back in after spotting him over this THREE FOOT DROP, he was grinning from ear to ear and proudly announced, "Everything is ON!" (referring to the sway bar disconnect, the front and rear locks, and whatever else allows the jeep to go up and down THREE FOOT LEDGES!).

 

The boys also had a blast, and spending two and half days with each other, no interruptions, was the perfect Christmas gift... even if it meant three foot ledges and high centering on sand dunes.

 

Stage 4

Have I ever mentioned how much I love cycling? 

 

It's such a fun sport to watch... especially in person!

 

This year the Tour of Utah started out down south, and we weren't able to go to the first few stages, but last night's Circuit Stage TOTALLY made up for it! 

 

The boys and I road the train up to downtown and met Mark... then we hiked up the hill to the Capital and stood just past the start line against the gates. 

 

And this is what we saw...

 

At this point, all pictures turned into blurry close ups of "IN YOUR FACE riders" and even though my camera was just resting on the gate, I had to move it back because they were riding within INCHES of us. 

 

After the start, we walked a little further down the circuit to catch them come around again.

After that, we went further down and found a nice spot of curb to wait the 5 or so minutes it would take them to come around for lap two.  The boys had gotten some noise makers, and had a blast playing around with them.

 



 

HERE THEY COME!!!

 



Lap 3... from a different spot again!

 

This time, there was a break-away...

 



 

And Evan and I started cheering like fools when we realized that the blue helmet toward the back was none other than one of our FAVORITE riders, Jens Voight...

 



And here comes the peloton...

 



 

Lap 4...

 



And finally, lap 5... under the Eagle's Gate!

 



 

And we're off to watch Stage 5... the Queen Stage with Aunt Sara!

I Spy With My Little Eye...

 

SASHA AND ELSA!!!

 

Who??

 

 

Sasha and Elsa!  Duh!

 

The deer.

 

Not to be confused with the babies in Ryan's belly that are ALSO named Sasha and Elsa.

 

We actually saw 6, all were either Sasha or Elsa.

 

Except for the Spike, he was John.

 

Ryan informed us of their names. 

 

And kept either shushing us so that we wouldn't startle them OR calling for them out his open window.

 

And PS... I so love the names my son has chosen for his imaginary children.  If I had a girl, she would SOOOOO be named Elsa!

 



More Dirt

Yeah... So this weekend proved the Trevor and Ryan aren't the ONLY boys in my life that like DIRT!

 

We went on a Beep Beep I'm a Jeep Adventure on Sunday.

 

And ended up looking like THIS: 



And lets be clear here... that is not a SPLASH of mud.  That is the high water mark. 

 

There was mud, and snow, and creek crossings and... well... lots of this:



(I think I should invent a wheel camera... thoughts??)   

Oh, but it was okay... because there was also lots of this:
 

Which is the only reason I go along with these crazy nail biting rides.

Because that... that's what it's all about and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Please Excuse the Lack of Posts...

We've been busy making memories...

 

More to come soon...

Sunday Drive

 

One of my favorite things about where we live is being just a few miles from the mountains.  

 

 It's great to be able to hop in the vehicle and be up out of the city within just 20 mins.  And now with the Jeep, one of the favorite actives is to do just that. 

 

Last weekend, we went up Millcreek Canyon and Big Cottonwood Canyon...

 

 It was perfect up Millcreek, just slightly cooler than the 75 degree valley and the boys were VERY jealous of all the other visitors who had thought it out enough to bring a picnic!  I told them that we would for SURE do that next trip. 

 

Big Cottonwood though was still full of snow... and only in the 40s!  A little too chilly for our shorts and t-shirts!  The boys thought the little town of Brighton at the top of Big Cottonwood would be "THE COOLEST PLACE TO LIVE!" especially when they saw some of the cabins still buried to their roof tops in snow! 

Rainy Day turns Golden

Evan was INCREDIBLY excited for Saturday to come.  It was his FIRST soccer game!

And then it rained all night.

 

We got the text about 10am saying the field was too wet to play.

 

So, we decided to take a Jeep Adventure instead!!   Golden Spike National Park is just a few hours away... so off we went. 

 

We arrived in just in time for the Engine House tour!  When you walk in the door, it's hard not to stop in your tracks when you see the beautiful engines. 

It was too early in the year for the locomotives to be out running, but they were polishing them up for their big day in May. 

 

 

 

Ryan was so excited to be right there with the "Steamies", and Evan (who takes after his mother) LOVED the history and was really impressed with the Ranger's description of the different jobs. 

 

The whole ride back, Ryan just kept talking about how we are going to go back so that he can see the Steamies when they get to come out of their house, and how the Ranger told him he could climb up inside. 

 

Over all, it ended up being a great day, even if the games were rained out!

So, there is this Hole...

Yep.  

We drove for hours to see a hole.   

And, being in the jeep with THREE boys (yes, that includes Mark) discussing the HOLE we were going to see did lead to many many BOY jokes.  

I'm sure you can imagine.

I know, I know... I could have just let Ryan have free reign in the yard with a shovel... but I just don't think it would have been the same as THIS:

Or, as breathtaking as: 

This may be my new favorite picture...

Oh, and if you've never heard the story of the Hole in the Rock... In October of 1879, 200+ Mormon Pioneers were sent to settle the Four Corners area, and since I-70 didn't exist yet, they had to forge their own trail through the desert.  Along the way, they ran into the gorge formed by the Colorado as it cut through the sandstone.  The found themselves 1000 feet above the riverbank... 1000 feet of sheer red rock cliffs had to be conquered before they could cross the river.   So, with limited blasting supplies, pick axes and shovels, they cut a hole in the rock that was just barely wider than their covered wagons, and held on for dear life. 

 *Hmmm... Shadows in Slick Rock make for nice fake orange tans!

This last picture, I took while standing on the very edge of the slick rock on the right side of the the Hole, holding my camera up over my head and out over the ledge... see my shadow??  And those loose rocks down in the center?  That's where we are sitting in the pictures above.  It is STEEP!

Click the link below for a Pioneer story of the decent...

Stanford and Bella Smith's decent down the Hole.

Weekend Jeep Adventure #1, Complete.

Beep Beep, I'm a Jeep!