Bikes, Trams and Pumpkins....

How do I come up with these things. I dunno. They just come to me. Okay, so to start the blog off I refer back to my dad biking across America. They started in Kansas in the middle of September and were in Utah in early October. How often do you get the chance to bike with your old man across Utah? So, I headed down to join them in Torrey. I actually left the car in Torrey and met up with Becky who took me to where they had made it to that day, Hanksville. My older brother, Nate, had been riding with them for a couple of days and I was looking forward to biking with them all (Neil, Mel, and Nate) the next day through what I hoped would be great scenery. I was surprised at how my dad looked, skinny. He said he didn't loose too much weight, but he looked like he had. The day ahead of us was from Hanksville to Torrey, about 50 miles and a bunch of elevation. We woke up bright and early and headed out about 8am. It was nice having my Ma there to load all the Graybeards things. Nate had to scratch his itch of what it would really feel like packing all that, me not so much. It was a great morning as we headed out.

Three butts on the road.

The dudes at the famous middle of no where famous bakery.

White trash political signage.

Entering Capitol Reef.

Its hard to see but there are mountain sheep in this picture. I thought this was the end of the road for Neil.... he loves big horn sheep.

This is the craziest tree I have ever seen.

All in all it was a fun and meaningful trip for me to do with my dad. I was going to ride the next day up to Boulder and Escalante, but the weather turned nasty and the Graybeards decided to hold up for another day for things to clear out a little. It was Gen Conf so I didn't mind heading home early to be with the fam.

(kjerstine writing)I had a girls weekend with my crazy sisters and Clint had a sleep over with the boys in the living room. A was so excited that he packed up his back pack and headed for the living room. After I got back A kept asking me when I was going to have another trip so he could do it all agian.

The boys in their bags.

We headed up to Snowbird to ride the tram and see the views.

A on the tram

N was so funny when we went over the bumps, he would hug Clints head super tight.

Me with the boys on top on the mountain.

Looking over the bridge.

We got our pumpkins this year at our friendly neighborhood pumpkin patch. A had to find the perfect pumpkin, and found about ten. We carved them monday night. A wanted a really scary one, N was not feeling well and slept through the whole thing. T is going to be a fire fighter this year so he wanted to carve a fighter fighter fighter.

Getting ready to carve pumpkins.

I love carving pumpkins. (sarcasm implied.)

However Clint loves carving pumpkins... No sarcasm implied!!!

Poor N it was his turn to not feel good.

The boys and me with the finished products. Except for Clints masterpiece he was still working on.

A and the pumpkins, his is the scariest one.


Clint rocked the house with his masterpiece. (clints words)

Our first Parent/ Teacher Conference

It's still funny to both of us that the student(s) have now become the parent(s). I don't remember ever going to parent teacher conference, but I remember not wanting to be around when my mom got back from a couple. Speaking of my mom, she was great to come over and watch the kiddies whilest Teeny and I headed to the school. We weren't sure if A was supposed to come or not, but we kind of thought that his teacher could be a little more open about him if he weren't there. Besides, who wants to go to school when Grandma's around?

A's teacher is really nice. This is her first year teaching and her class is huge (30 kids I think). She played basketball at UVU is probably 6'2" or so. A seems to really like her too. She told us that A is doing great. He gets his work done, plays well with others, has never been unkind to anyone that she's seen, listens to her instructions, and is over-all a good kid. She may say that about most of the kids, but it was nice for us to hear it about A. You always hope that things are going as well as you really think they are. He has been such a fun/ funny kid and we think he's pretty darn smart. We've always been impressed by his memory ans how well he can recall things. He'll remind us of things that we can't even remember. Teeny has bee great in teaching him his letters and reading and he's done great with that too. One thing that we've noticed get a lot better since he's been in school is his coloring. He used to not be the greatest artist, but now he colors in the lines for the most part and colors the whole picture instead of just little blurbs here and there. As far as getting along with others, he's always been that way. He just wants to have a good time, doesn't matter who it's with. He comes home telling us about a new friend everyday. Teeny says that he'll roll his window down and yell 'Hello' to his friends on his way home from school too. We are proud of you A and know that great things await you! We love you kiddo! We hope that every parent teacher conference is as good as our first, that goes for you N and T.

From Hogle to Timp Caves....

Another blog entry another lame title. Anywhoo, a couple of Thursdays ago Teeny was talking to me about taking the next day off (a common temptation for me). I usually end up going to work, but this time she mentioned the zoo and the tickets we had from our Coke points (yes, it does have its payoffs besides the amazing taste). I thought about it for a whole second, then I couldn't get it out of my head. So, the next day, Friday, I drug up a half day and we headed up to the zoo. It was the perfect day for it.

The weather was about 75 degrees tops and we had a great time visiting the animals. We did the white alligator, and the bird show which the boys loved. Funny side note here, as we entered the bird show, Teeny had to take the stroller to the stroller parking and so I walked in with the boys. Then as she was walking in the lady taking tickets said, "I think it's mean for parents to dress twins up the same, they are individuals". Of course she didn't think about Teeny being thier mom until she shot her the evil eye. We had a good laugh. We understand they are individuals more than anyone else. It's just fun to see them the same while they are little. We're sure it won't last much longer. The clothes they wear are the only thing similar about them. The rest of the day at the zoo was really fun. We even were able to go to the zoo playground without it being total chaos.

T and the Alligator

N holds his ears when he's scared/ unsure

Classic A and the Lion

Turtle T

A at the water world

This sign was made for Teeny. Her and her loco high school friends used to play on this slide when they came to the zoo. The sign now says you must be shorter that it to play.

These bears were fun to watch. Looks just about like our kiddies at home.

This eagle is supposed to be one of the largest in the world. It was huge. It's from Japan and Russia and could have eaten us all.

The next day we went to Jenacees birthday party. It was a carnival themed party and as we walked in the first thing I noticed was Miles with a garbage sack over his head in the hot sun taking pie after pie in the face. There are things people do that merit a lot of reward, and this I think has gotten Miles into the Celestial kingdom. Seriously, you had to have seen it. If any of our kids get that idea, they will be sorely dissapointed. The rest of the party was a hit with the kiddies. They had a magician there that was great. It was good catching up with friends. We need to catch up more often, and more frequently. Thanks Jensters!

Miles earning his wings.

The magic show was pretty funny.

We love Thanksgiving Point. It is so nice to have somewhere to go that is so fun every time you go. Our kids love all the things they have to do there and Teeny and I love taking them. We headed to Farm Country one night and were just about the only people there. The kids got to ride the horses and feed them too. They had a bunch of new baby goats there too that A really got a kick out of. A was really brave and fed the animals. N and T, not so much, but getting there.

A feeding Junior here.

N and T hanging out on the rail.

N and T are in preshool, or joy school, whatever you want to call it. They go Tuesday and Thursday for about an our and a half and love it! Teeny and a bunch of other ladies from the ward are doing it together and all the kids get along great and have fun learning. A couple of the ladies have done this before and so it is very organized. N and T have known there ABC's for a while now and love coming back telling us what they learned about. We love when we ask A what he learned about in Kind. N and T pipe up too with what they did in joy school that day. They are very into having a back pack too. When we had it at our house, the boys were almost dissapointed they didn't have to put on their back packs. Funny those two.

On thier way to school.

Mr. T

Noly-oly

We ventured out to the duck pond this last week too. Lately the response I get from Teeny when I ask her if she wants to mow the lawn or do yardwork is, "That's for the birds", which is fine with me. We bust our humps all summer taking care of the yard and now things are growing a little slower and we can let it ride for a little while longer than usual. It is great spending more time together doing something fun too. You can mow the lawn any doggone day.

Feeding the ducks.

There were tons of acorns. I'm pretty sure they boys tried to gather them all too.

Ready, Jump!

T was pretty sure he found a Heffalump.

A conquered the stairs.

This is an awesome view of the back side of Lone Peak.

Our garden this year left much to be desired. Our tomato plants were big, but the tomatoes themselves stunk. We've gotten a few zuchini's as well, and our peas were OK, but over all it just didn't do that great despite us having brought in topsoil and raised it 8 inches. Our carrots were the cream of the crop this year though. A lot of them were shorter, but some were pretty decent sized. We had some of them in Teeny's cheesy vegetable soup yesterday. Delicious!

Errr....What's up Doc?

The harvest.

Well, the other day Teeny and Jayne (her sister) went over to Beck's to pick pears. Teeny already picked and bottled a bunch for us, which are amazing. As they were talking Jayne mentioned that she was going to Timp cave the next day and that is was FREE. Did someone say FREE?? We were all over that. We headed up there early thinking we could hammer it out in the morning and get to other things that the 'birds' had still not done. Note to those going up to Timp Cave: You have to get tickets in advance or wait 5 hours to be able to start hiking. We got there around 10am and couldn't start hiking til 3pm. So, to the delight of Ariel (our niece) we had some shopping to do. After lunch and shopping we headed up Provo Canyon and drove the Alpine Loop. Amazing! The colors this time of year are simple incredible. We almost got run off the road a couple of times because the road is so narrow at some points, but it was well worth it. Then, we hit the caves. The trail is about 1-2 miles up there. We had a back pack for one monkey (N on the way up, T on the way down) and A hoofed it the whole way. It had been years that any of us had been there and we really enjoyed revisiting the cave. Tristan (nephew) had some key observations about where the potty exits may have entered the cave. I was taken back to when I was a kid. Everything seemed bigger then, but I was still amazed at the beauty of it. The hike down was quick and the boys all slept really good last night.

These quakies were on the back side of Timp. The colors were amazing!

The crew.

T just had to get as close to the edge as he could.

One of the two tunnels on the trail.

A and T in the cave. It was pretty cold in there.

Finishing up and heading down. Our legs are still sore from the way down!

Wise beyond his years....

This is my old man. When I was about 12 years old he got all us kids (minus Rachy) into biking. We would go on bike rides of at least 15 or 25 miles almost every weekend in the summer growing up. He used to run marathons until his knees went caput, then he took up biking. Anyways, for a couple of years he has talked about saddlin' up the old EZ rider and biking the country. Crazy is what I first thought. But he's slowly worked on a plan and done a ton of prep and now he's living his latest dream, or at least half of it. He wanted to do the whole Ride Across America in one summer, but reality of work set in and he decided he'd only do half (2000 miles in 6 or so weeks) this summer and maybe the rest next year. He and his pal Mel have been at it for just over a week and have covered about 300+ miles. As I sit here and think about them cruising through the Rockies today, a real sense of envy sets in. What an amazing adventure. I don't know how many kids can say that thier old man (who can still kick my butt) is riding cross country, but I sure am proud that I can. You can check out his status in our links 'Ma and Pa's Biking Adventure'. It's a pretty interesting read. Oh, by the way he'll be 60 next year.

BLOG of the MONTH....

I should be better at updating the blog...but alas, I'm not. We might be getting high speed internet at home so Teeny can do this, and maybe more often. So with that in mind we give you the last month...or so.

First up is backyard camping. The kids loved the tent we just got and so we HAD to put it up in the backyard, especially now that our fence is finished. We had a campfire and marshmallows, that the kids never eat, so I end up eating what they usually burn. After the fire we put up the tent. The boys love running around in circles in it like a race track. Makes it lots of fun trying to put out sleeping bags. We finally got all settled in. We pulled out the portable DVD player and watched a little 'Heffalump'.

The monkeys all settled in

The next day we headed down to Spanish Fark to the County Fair....Giddy-up! It used to be at Thanksgiving Point, which we loved becuase it was closer and there was more shade. But for some reason they moved it back to Spanish. I still love seeing the animals, the smells not so much, but the sights are pretty great. So we cruised the animal parts and then headed over to a shed that had trains, legos, and the vegetables. They could watch trains for hours. This one display was all out of Lego's and was all local stuff like Thanksgiving Point and Salt Lake. We pulled them away from the trains after about half hour and headed over to make some little crafty stuff. They kept asking if we were going to ride the rides and we told them that we could ride them in Payson at Golden Onion Days (keep reading to catch those highlights). We figured we'd reduce the odds of one of the chairs falling off the ride that way too. Of course they loved the tractors too. It was a fine day at the Fair.

These sheep look cold withou their fur

N's windmill

Trains.....gotta love 'em

More trains

My favorite tractor...HOT

So apparently there is family night at Thanksgiving Point every Mon. night and we hadn't known about it until now. So we took the boys there and it was 'Mideval Night'. They had 'Narnia' playing in the theater, a place to make shields, marshmallow catapults, and some other fun themed stuff there for families and it's all at the Gardens which is our favorite part of Thanksgiving Point.

T checkin' the ammo

Loadin' up

Letting it fly. These looked like they'd be pretty easy to make. We'll have to try, but I'm sure I can screw them up somehow.

Bob the builder calls these 'Summer houses' and so do they.....

Makes you wanna take a swim with those slimy bugger huh?

The only way we can get the boys to look the same direction is to have them point at planes, or my belly button, or whatever else. This is the Italian Garden.

A and his shield.

Thanksgiving Point had all the stuff to make them, we just had to help the dudes put them together.

An awesome view of Teeny and Lone Peak.

Me showing off my mad photog skills.

Teeny took the boys on a two-dollar-Tuesday and it was a mad house! There is usually one or two other families there when we are. This just looks crazy.

A loves the water

N - run away, run away.....

Our good friends, the Walkers, invited us to go to a Bees game with them. It was fan appreciation night so we got to watch fireworks after. We got together before the game and had a little BBQ at our place before heading up to the game. We had a great time minus the %$#@! parking ticket we got for parking like everyone else there.

The Walker's and us

Just us, obviously

A breaking out his Kung-Fu Pada moves.

The dudes getting down in front of the rest of the crowd before fireworks.

Teeny made this airplane with the box from our tent. These guys couldn't have loved it more.

So, A has started Kindergarten. We've been dreading this for 5 years and it still seems too early to let him off into the lone and dreary world. I stayed home on his first day and saw him off with Teeny. He has been SO excited about going and didn't even flinch when his teacher took them all inside. After he told us he almost cried, but he was brave and didn't. It is so fun for him and we love hearing about his day and the things that stand out to him the most. So far it's the letter of the day and recess.

Making the hike up to school.

All backpacked up and ready to go.

The final moments. They still haven't finished the playground yet, which is what the orange fence is keeping the kids out of. It should be done today though.

For anyone that knows us, knows that Labor Day in Payson is next to Christmas as far as fun holidays go. My parents grew up there and we've been to Onion Days every year that I can remember. It's a great tradition and get together for our family. We all show up at staggered times on Friday (this year Nate, Neil and I biked there) hit the Carny, eat home made doughnuts and watch fireworks from the Searle's front yard. Then Saturday it's golf (Dave, Tonya, Jess, and Chari's team won this year at 1 under) and just hanging out. Sunday we head up to the Grotto and have another family reunion before we head to the flower show. My Uncle Mark usually has quite a few entries in the show and this year won the Golden Onion Award. Monday we finish things off with the parade (got soaked this year) and lunch at the park. We love being together with such fun family. We get along so well and pretty much act like kids for a weekend.

Ava and T at the Parade
N and T
Cole and A

A at the Grotto
N and I at the band concert
T after hearing there is treats
N's treat, I think...
The Clan and the storm at the parade

These kind of make me sick with all the round and round.
The kiddies bustin' a move at Granny's
T and Saylor
Teeny, Trina and N on the way to the Grotto
The Grotto....what a place. A and Cole
A's lovin' it

We headed down to the Owlz game again. It's an amazing place to watch, or try to watch, baseball. The views there are awesome. The monkeys like the popcorn and keep a close eye out for the Owl.

N and T waiting on the popcorn

Our niece, Maggie, got baptised last weekend. It was great to see her make that choice and we are so proud of her for that. We are always grateful for family that sets the bar for our kids a little higher. We have such great examples on both sides of our family that our kids can look up to and we appreciate it greatly.

All of the grandkiddies (Rach has one more on the way). Maggie's dress was made by my Mom. I would have never guessed, she did great.

Every year after our Stake Conference in the late summer/ early fall we head up to Cascade Springs. We've been doing this for a couple of years now and usually the leaves have all changed and it's been so nice. This year the leaved hadn't started changing, but it's just as beautiful with how green it was. We love the fish and the neat trails they have through there. It's always a nice outing.

the leaf collectors
Noly. What a guy.

Checking for fish. Nice yellow love handles huh?

Contemplating the water skeeters.

Love the waterfalls

Teeny didn't love the stinging nettle

Beauty and the bridge