Book and camping

Andrew and Edward have been praying for the last year that "Daddy will finish his book so we can go camping." Last Saturday, Kirk finished the latest book revision (and hopefully the last); so Monday we went camping. We took a short trip to Southern Utah and visited the following locations.

Fremont Indian State Park
We stopped by Fremont Indian State Park, which is a few miles from the point where I-70 meets I-15 (see more here). The park includes a nifty museum built to house some of many artifacts collected from a large Indian village that was discovered during the construction of Interstate 70. The village no longer is there--instead you have Interstate 70.
But, you can see lots of rock art left by various Indian groups, including some (that we didn't get to see personally) that depict one man's trip back to Chicago. There are a few places where you can stop your car and see the rock art or take a short walk and see some of the artifacts.
From there we traveled south on highway 89 to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Kodachrome Basin State Park
We camped at Kodachrome Basin State Park and found it to be one of the nicest places we have been so far, with very clean bathrooms and showers. The sand/dirt was even nicely raked clean for us. We had a great site for us (#19) since it was across the road from the bathrooms. With little kids, we think a lot about bathrooms and spend quite a bit of time in them. The state park (more information here) has some neat rock formations--tall chimneys sticking out of the ground. You can see one behind our campsite in the photo with Lucy.

The boys started running as soon as they got there and didn't stop until they went to sleep.
Lucy was quite cheery even for being strapped in her stroller or chair most of the time. It rained, but we got the tent up before the storm really hit. I did feed the children dinner in the car and Kirk and I shivered outside in the wind and rain since we forgot our coats. After dinner, the storm passed so we went on a short hike to see Shakespeare Arch.
We took the trail at a fast clip, so we covered the 0.5 mile in about 10 minutes. We decided to continue on the loop trail to see some more. Soon we realized we were walking on an almost-washed out path on the edge of a cliff. It was pretty spooky, especially with small children.
The rock formation in the back is the Sentinel--it looks over the whole valley (Grand Staircase of the Escalante). Edward is on the "trail" and if you look carefully you can see the trail across the edge of the cliff. It goes between the Sentinel and the higher cliffs. With a few prayers we got safely back to the car.

Bryce Canyon National Park
The next day we visited Bryce Canyon (see more here), which isn't really a canyon. Kirk said that you would have to be a really bad photographer not to get at least a few good photos. It was quite beautiful, even with the scattered rainstorms. There weren't very many people, either.
We started at Sunset Point and walked to Sunrise Point. Then we walked below the rim on a short hike (Queen Victoria rock formation). In the photos you can see that Edward started wearing his leash since I was having fits with the combination of little boys and huge cliffs and few railings.
We drove out to the end of the park (Rainbow Point) at 9100 feet. We took turns dashing out of the car to look at the scenery. It was very cold and windy. You can see the storms on the Kiabab in the photo.
We stopped at many of the lookout points on the way back, including Inspiration Point, which really did have the best view of Bryce Amphitheater.
We had a fun family vacation. As soon as we got home later that night, Edward and Andrew were ready to go camping again.

Spring has sprung

The lilacs all bloomed, as did our irises. Fortunately our children didn't pick or destroy all of our irises like we heard some of their cousins did. They only got one or two before we caught them.
To celebrate the month of May we had a nice, but short, visit from my parents. They actually came for Becky's new baby, but we got to see them too.
They took the grandkids to the large dinosaur museum (it is both large and has large dinosaurs), where the children had a very fun time.
Lucy mostly got to ride in the stroller.

Mother's Day

Today, in honor of Mother's Day, Andrew threw up 5 minutes before we were to leave for church. I was thankful that at least he did it before we got to church. Kirk and I switched off taking care of Andrew, so we both got a bit of our church meetings today. The Primary presidency (I guess) asked all the children something about their mothers and then printed the answers on a page that was handed out in Sacrament Meeting. Andrew said, "My mom is really good at cleaning up my playroom." Edward said, "She bees nice to me." Edward and Lucy seem to be doing OK. As proof, here is Lucy's 1-year photo. She is a darling girl.
Today I was grateful for my mother, mother-in-law, grandmothers, and other "mothers" in my family. I wore a bracelet that reminded me of all these wonderful women.
The bracelet has five medallions with the following names: Vickie, Rickie, Ann, Roger, Becky. Grandma Wessman gave this to me after Grandma Lucile Glade died. I think I chose this from the jewelry because it had my mother's name on it. I never did get the story--if there is one--about it; I only know that it was probably made when Grandma Glade only had five grandchildren, obviously.

Birthday and Hike

Lucy turned 1 year old on Wednesday. Since she doesn't get to choose much right now, we decided to go on a hike up Rock Canyon in the afternoon. Her birthday dinner was grilled steak, boiled yellow potatoes, and steamed vegetables (also our choice). Her cake was a flower shape.
It is a round cake surrounded with cupcakes; the frosting is cream cheese frosting colored yellow and pink.
We assume she liked it. She ate a bit. What she really liked was steak and potatoes, though.
The stream was filled with water in Rock Canyon, a rare event. We enjoyed the hike and went the farthest we have ever been with the children--past the second bridge.
We saw the remains of an avalanche that must have still covered the path a few weeks ago. There were splintered trees and boulders on top of the snow. You can sort of see it in the photo.
Lucy is a beautiful girl. She is standing up more and likes to walk around when she is holding on to things. According to the doctor, she is small for her age, but appears to be fine in all other respects.

Band-Aids and other stuff

This past week I took the children and hiked up Rock Canyon. We forgot the camera, but I did bring a small first aid kit, which I have never done. About one minute after getting out of the car Edward fell down and skinned his knee. The Band-Aid from the kit fixed everything. I was glad I listened to the Spirit and took a small first aid kit. The canyon is beautiful and there is water in the creek, a rare event.

Lucy decided to communicate in the same way her brothers do: she screams with a high-pitched, piercing shriek. She will do this when she wants something or when she is happy or when she is happy and sees her brothers or when Daddy comes home.

I have a goal to sew one thing a month. So on almost the last day of the month, I hurried and sewed a curtain for the small door on our kitchen door. I've been working on a quiet book for the children, but it has been taking me a very long time. The cover is half done now. Maybe I'll finish it in May.