Summertime ... and the livin' is easy

This was supposed to be at the end. This is us today at the Gorge Visitor's Center. More about that below.

Brock and I took off for the weekend, helped Mom do a little packing and then headed to Bear Lake. On the way we saw some construction and wound our way in Brigham City up to the new temple! It is beautiful!

This was on the way down Logan Canyon into Bear Lake.

Hmmm. This was our motel at Ideal Beach. Brad had warned me that it wasn't much but I said if it was clean, that's all that mattered. The inside has been remodeled and it was quite nice. Everyone up there treated us wonderfully.

This is Brad's view every day. This is the beach right outside the motel and on the resort. Actually this is the bad beach and the good beach is under water. I didn't get pictures of cabana boys Josh and Brad. What a great summer job!

Bryce and Alicia came out for the holiday weekend and we headed up to Dutch John for independence day festivities. After stopping at the car show at Flaming Gorge Resort we headed to the dam to check it out. Ever since I saw the water being released from the dam on Channel 5 news some weeks ago I have wanted to get up there. It was an incredible site. Those are cars parked above the pipes to give you an idea how big they are. There is a video at the end of the post but it didn't work when I tried it. It is a crazy amount of water.

Then as we walked back to the car the rain started slowly, then very hard and just before we got to the car it started to hail. We were going to find a place to fish but it rained some more. The water is so high that the beach we had played on many years ago when my family all came up to the Gorge was no longer there. The water was up to the grass area. So we didn't wait around for the bbq and the fireworks in Dutch John, but headed back to the scrumptious Golden Corral. Oh well, it was a beautiful day anyway.

Blooming cactus at Antelope Flat? at the Gorge.

Easter/Mother's Day

We had such a fun Easter weekend. Patti let us horn in on their egg hunt.

Can you believe the amount of candy that the Easter bunny brought? I think a big bag of it ended back at Patti's later.

Saturday evening we went to the Bees game. A little chilly, but great fun. We got to meet Sarah!

Then on Sunday to Vicki's for Taylor's farewell. The neighbor chicken came to join in the eating. He actually reached up and took something off Brock's plate. Brock took it right back and ate it!

Brock, Shane (Troy is on the phone), Brett, Brad and Taylor. It has been a long time for a picture like this. We definitely missed Bryce and Jeremy.

I finally got this quilt back from the quilter. For some reason this made me feel that I was actually a quilter, hand quilting doesn't count in my book, I guess, even though I didn't do the quilting. She did a nice job. It was a new pattern and a lot of fun to do. The binding stunk though, I have a lot to learn there.

On Mother's Day, we taught Tom and Patti, much to their chagrin, some of the redneck ways of Vernal. We cleaned out her back bedroom and instead of having to haul these to the DI, we put them on the sidewalk, and voila, within the hour they were gone.

What cute girls! I neglected to get a picture of Gunner. That poor kid! Can't someone add another boy!

Alicia brought over her niece. Sadie got a new sister the day before! Congrats, Carli!!

Bryce and Alicia came out for conference. We listened to some great talks, played some canasta, and had cinnamon rolls. Brad enjoyed his cinnamon rolls from afar.

Ummm... I don't know what I did but there are no words with that post. And it didn't show up originally. I did a little spring sewing. We had the house reroofed. Our little puppy is now ginormous. This goes with the pictures of the previous post.

It's MARCH!

This was our Christmas party! Bryce and Alicia were able to spend Christmas in Boston and then the weather was too awful when they got back to come to Vernal. So in middle of January we went to Provo. We had a great dinner and Alicia has turned into a Canasta fool after their stay with the Burts.

The family pic with the auto button on the camera. Brock's next beard picture will be on St. Patrick's Day. Stay tuned!

I did my first try at machine quilting, make that successful try, using the right foot. This is an XL hot pad to use under 9x13 pans. I love it. It was so fun to do the quilting.

This quilt had been on the frames for months. Was supposed to be off to use for the Fall, but I guess I meant 2011.

Decided it was time to do something extra for a holiday. Did a Valentines dinner of salmon which even for me (who does not like fish) tasted ok.

And probably the most exciting picture of all!! Bryce and Alicia came out over President's Day and she wanted to make something. She finished her Halloween project (also 2011) and I had some bunnies that I had cut years and years ago and she started painting them. How cool is that that I now have someone who wants to do something like that!!

Still can't get my pics to line up with the text. I need a tutorial....

GRATITUDE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We had a great one. I have a saint of a sister (actually two saintly sisters). One who has to put up with us when we come to town. We had great food. Brock lost at the game of Quiddler but made up for it the next day during the Santa run! Our nieces and nephews (I guess, grand-, it is) kept us entertained.

It was a lot of fun. We also were able to attend the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU MoA. It was very nice. I would highly recommend it. A great holiday and the weather cooperated.

Bring on Christmas!

All of us Santas before the race, cold but ready to run.

I had a better time than I thought I would!

Scott would have had a much better time but he ran with me a lot of the way. Brad and Jorrien ran together some of the way but Jorrien poured it on at the end. Are Tandi and Brock still friends? There was a lot of trash talking going on the weeks before the race. Bryce did great even with very little training. We missed Alicia but she had a very good excuse, her bosses needed her help with the parade!