My twins turn 8

How does this happen? From 13 lbs of baby to 100 lbs of personality. I can't believe they are 8 years old. I also can't believe that I miss the baby days now. Happy Birthday Cash and Sage! You are wonderful kids!

Perfectionist

Oh, all the mispellings and grammatical errors in my blogs are driving me nuts. I will have to read more carefully before posting in the future.

I am the queen of my pop up trailer. I'm not sure if this is better of worse than being the queen of a double wide (does anyone remeber THAT song) but I love it. No more sleeping on the ground. No more freezing all night and checking the kids 50 times to make sure they are not freezing.

We took it on it trial trip to Maple Canyon. It was my first time there. The rock formation is this cool conglomerate that looks like cobble stones all glued together.

Rock art

Here is a picture of a fantastic rock art panel located in an undisclosed place outside of Beaver, UT. I will not give an exact locatation for fear that the locals will take their guns and shoot it up. (They do that sometimes you know.) Actually the picture with my Dad is evidence of this. The other pictures are of my Mom, my kids, my sisters and my super model neices.

These pictures make me miss summer and fall has only just barely started.

Summer is officially over. I dropped the kids off at school an hour ago. I have eaten a lovely breakfast of eggs and toast, talked to my mom on the phone and started the laundry (which I am behind on and which also smells REALLY bad.)

Here is a list of my top 5 things that I did this summer.

1-- This is the place monument and village with kids. (We had so much fun! I might post this event later.)

2--Taking the kids to see Fiddler on the Roof with my mom and sisters and their kids. ($40.00 a seat to have Cash squirm and ask for skittles the whole time:)

3--Going to Houston with Jason to see the Astros vs. Red Sox game. I am not much of a sports fan but the game was actually really enjoyable. I enjoyed lots of time with my husband, lots of good food, lots of good company, time to read, and a visit to the Houston Fine Arts Museum.

4--Opal mines! (See cool rock entry.)

5--Reading "Little House on the Prairie" to my kids. The kids enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. My mom read it to me when I was young and I feel like a good mother when I read to them.


It's not exactly a jet setting list, or a drinking tequila and dancing on the tables list, or a my children are going to grow up to be the most accomplished people in the world list, but it's MY list. All in all a satisfying summer.

The coolest rock!

We got back from a trip to Cedar City last week. My older sister comes with her family every summer for a month and we have started making it a tradition to go out to the desert somewhere with my dad. We caravan to the middle of nowhere and then load every extra body into the back of Grandpa's pick up truck and drive to the hard to get places. One year we did this in St. George when it was 108 degrees and some of the grandchildren have never forgotten or forgiven. We usually look at some native american rock art ( my dad's an archeologist). But this year we took two trips--one for rock hounding and one for rock art viewing.

Is this not the COOLEST rock? It's called banded opal. It's purple and yellow and white and clear and it's just SO cool!

Funny story-- My dad drove the truck away from the rest of us looking for a better rock spot.

Cash says "Why is Grandpa leaving us here?"

I say "He's not. He's just looking for a better place. Do you think Grandpa would really leave us here in the desert?"

Cash looks at the awesome hammer that he is holding and says "Well probably not. These ARE his tools we're using."

Lake Solitude

Last Friday I took the kids hiking. (Good Job reddirtgirl!) We hiked the trail to lake Solitude which starts at Brighton and goes for about 1.5 miles to the lake and then the same trail back. The kids were GREAT.

Sage did not say she was scared even once.

Cooper's informed me in a matter of fact way the he felt "like his ankles were going to break". ( We threw his shoes away when we got home. They were turning his feet in.)

And Cash kept saying "My legs are sure tired but I am just going to DRIVE ON. Right Mom?"

(We had a talk about what Johnny Cash says a few days before.)

All in all though, not a hike a would recommend for kids. It's pretty enough. The wild flowers were nice and there was some snow. The lake is a little anitclimactic--small and you can't get to the shore to throw rocks. The most exciting part was the very BOLD squirrels. As soon as they heard the crinkle of a Dorito bag they were withing 6 inches of us. We were good. We didn't feed them.