A Summer Social

This evening we attended a summer social with some church associates. This is hosted each year by a couple that live in Draper.

I got to visit with moms friend; Eileen Buckway. She told me more about the adventures she and mom shared on the Hopi Reservation;

Tables were set in the side yard:

There were two long tables set up to hold the food. Our hosts provided Dutch Oven Chicken. The rest of the food was pot luck. There were lots and lots of salads and desserts.

These people live on 6 acres. They have two ponds with ducks and geese. They also have goats, horses, chickens, peacocks and dogs. They have a small orchard and 60 huge Cottonwood trees. It was a neat place.

Little Dell to Big Mtn

We walked 19.2 miles.

We went from Little Dell Reservoir to the top of Big Mountain. We hadn't intended to start there, but we couldn't drive very far up the canyon. The gate was closed. We assumed it was to benefit all the guys on bikes, because there wasn't any snow at all. Fortunately most of them stayed out on the road while we followed the dirt trail.

The trail had a lot of shade. It had plenty of level spots and it wasn't rocky. That enabled us to walk far without too much trouble. We definitely slowed down on the actual climb up Big Mountain though.

This sign is posted at the top of the trail and is where we ended our walk. To be more accurate; this was our turn around point.

Here's a marker that is up there too. Our hike last week, went up Little Emigration Canyon (starting near Jeremy Ranch), and connects to this spot. All of last weeks water obstacles and fallen logs kept us from reaching the top. This time we went up the the North side of the Mountain.

Even the climb up Big Mountain had some welcome shady places, like this:

This little section of trail is just below Afflick Campground. There were lots of yellow flowers. On the return walk we stopped in the campground where I soaked my hot feet in the river. We also sat at a picnic table and ate apples. The campground isn't opened yet:

A little view along the way (also below Afflick):

As we approached the Reservoir, we went through an area with very tall grass:

There were acres of grass:

At last we were back to the Reservoir. By this point our feet were very tired:

My walking companion:

Later this summer we will probably come back to the Reservoir with our fishing poles and lawn chairs. Instead of hiking we will try the relaxing old people thing.

Birthday Boots!

My birthday isn't until July 2nd , but I was taken on a special shopping trip tonight.

I'm so very excited and happy about my gift. I have some brand new Harness Boots from A.A. Callister.

They are a simple style of cowboy/cowgirl boots. I love them!

This is me in front of the store. By the way, this store is huge and so fun. They even sell saddles etc..

You know I'm excited when I willing put boots on top of my dining room table:

I also got a butter dish with a barbed wire pattern on it; a cookie cutter shaped like a boot, and a mouse pad with a picture of some 1950's TV show. It's one of the old horsey shows. Haha.

HAPPY EARLY B-DAY TO ME!! Thank you a hundred times to Joe!!!

124 Water Crossings!

Today we hiked up Little Emigration Canyon. We made 124 water crossings! Twenty of the crossings were major. We walked about 8 wet miles.

It all started innocently enough at this bridge:

The scenery was pastoral:

A mere 5 minutes into our walk we came to a decision point. The trail was flooded. So, do we go forward or retreat? We chose to go forward.

This is what that looked like:

From there we crossed water 123 more times:

Surprisingly, once we decided that getting soaked was part of the game plan, it was no big deal:

It was even fun:

You didn't think I had it in me, did you?

Joe may seem the better dressed for this, but he got scratched up pretty good when we had to climb over logs:

This marker said; California trail, Mormon Pioneer trail, and Pony express trail.:

We saw a few of these Beaver houses:

So fun getting our feet wet:

A Beaver pond:

We completely gave up on any ideas about dry feet:

It was a crazy day for sure:

Our day ended with huge cold drinks from the McDonalds in Park City and later hot soapy showers. It sure feels good to be in dry, clean, clothes again!

It was a fun and insane outing. I'm glad that we went forward and didn't retreat! haha

Reservoir

We did our usual evening walk. This time we went up our trail to the local Reservoir. We wanted to see if it was getting full now that the rivers are running.

It's been a sunny day, but it got cloudy just before we went out:

A month ago this was a mud flat. It looks so much better now:

This is the stream that's filling it:

The snow is melting fast:

We are planning to do a brand new trail on Saturday. Hopefully that will work out and I will post some pictures.

Flag Day; Mountain Style

I didn't know why the boy scouts had put a flag in our yard today. I have a neat Native American calendar that is apparently missing some of our Government Holidays. I finally figured it out though.

So, this is how we celebrate anything and everything in our 'neck of the woods':

We walked along our favorite river:

It's raging!:

Here's a sample of the river in action:

HAPPY FLAG DAY.

Aarons Office

Aarons dad has a bunch of gift cards for Chillis Restaurant. He got them for some work he did.

So Aarons dad, mom and little sister drove down to Aarons office and picked him up for lunch.

I've learned that one good way to get a picture of a person is to wait until they are securely buckled into a seat belt (captive, in other words).

This is the view from his office parking lot:

This is the building he works in:

The lunch was good and Aaron is fun to visit with.

This is a weird blog posting, but now Aarons fans can see where he spends much of his time making the big bucks.

Railroad Tunnels (Part 1 of our trip)

I traveled with Joe to the Las Vegas area on Monday, so he could go to a convention. We stayed in a hotel in the Henderson area. It was smoke free, casino free, good for business people and families, and it had a pool, hot tub and exercise room.

We got there in the afternoon which left us some playtime. We had dinner at a nearby Chillis. Then we drove a little further to Lake Mead. We went on the Railroad Tunnel hike.

It was so neat!

In 1931 a rail line was built to haul materials for the construction of the Hoover Dam. The only thing there now is the Tunnels.

There were 6 tunnels. In most cases we could see from one end to the other, but there were at least two that were so long and dark. One was curved so we didn't know for awhile how long we would be in the dark.

This is one of the short tunnels:

Joe saw a bat in this tunnel:

A couple of them were braced up with heavy lumber near the entrances:

We were just above the Lake Mead Marina:

See how the water has dropped:

Me:

Spooky:

Light at the end of the tunnel has real meaning here:

See the big horn sheep along the ridge?:

It was a very interesting walk. We broke our own hiking rule and did this one without carrying any water with us. Lets just say we were excited to find a Hires Rootbeer place on the way back to our hotel. We guzzled big cups full of diet Rootbeer with ice. What a relief.

Back at the hotel, we used the pool and hot tub. Well, I mostly just used the hot tub. The pool water seemed cold. I got a little way in, but Joe submerged himself; brrr.

On Tuesday, Joe went to his convention while I used the hotel exercise equipment and read a book. It was a good day.

On Wednesday we drove to our daughters house in Arizona to see a new grand baby. We stayed there through Saturday. We left on Sunday morning See the next post for Part 2 of our trip.

Our New Grand baby (Part 2 of our trip)

The morning after our Business trip to Las Vegas, Nevada (Wed.) we drove to Peoria Arizona to see our new Grand daughter (#4).

Our daughters house:

Playing at a little park that was close enough to walk to:

We also walked to where Emma gets on the school bus (School is out for summer now).

The kids posed on these rocks for me:

Here's the star of the show. This is three week old Claire.

Bath time:

Tiny and sweet:

Most of the time she was asleep, but here she has her eyes open:

We visited a couple of local splash parks. These are a big thing in AZ because of the extreme heat.

The Mommy playing with her kids (She's fun). Just for the record, the water is just at a drizzle here. When it gets turned back on the water will be pretty forceful.

Our daughter went to her public library really early on Friday morning. She got there a whole hour early just to be sure she got a culture pass to the Science Center in Phoenix for us.

Her patience paid off and she got four adults and two children into the Center for Free! The baby was automatically free and all we had to pay was $8. for one child. That was a super deal!

There were many interesting areas in the Science center. The only pictures I took were here in some little kids play area (Oh well):

On the way home from the Science center we stopped at the neatest place for Ice Cream. It was a 'hole in the wall' kind of place that combined the sale of food, ice cream and Antiques! The waitresses were dressed in 1950's costumes.

It was a very full week. Today we drove for 12 hours to get back to Utah. We went over Lees Ferry.

We saw 6 river rafts below us:

While crossing the Navajo lands I got some great jewelry. On the trip I also got a great Western style purse. I feel just a bit spoiled.

We stopped for lunch at Jacob Lake. It's one of our routine stops.

Behind the restaurant are little cabins that people can rent. This is a somewhat popular stop along the road and it's not too far from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

I'm proud to admit that I did most of the driving. I like to drive.