PRIVATE

So. . . . I have decided that I need to make my blog private due to some reasons. So if you have some desire to follow my posts please send me your e-mail. I will go private in two weeks, making it May 1st. GRACIAS!

Arches

Our next stop was Arches National Park for our Spring Break 2011.

Brynlee and Addie resting at the top and eating go-gurts, that's why they are so happy.

Addie using her walking stick to poing out the next arch we were going to. It was after this that a group of senior citizens on a bus tour passed us. They kept commenting at Addie how big she was with the walking stick, yada yada yada. Anywho that's when Addie made this comment "People like me all day, everyday".

 This sign made me giggle everytime!

Kaden and I doing a jumping picture.

Trying to get Steve-o on top of the rock. And Addie with her walking stick.

A slab of rock that looks like an elephant. Pretty cool looking uh?

 Addie with her stick performing a 'salmon'. For those of you who don't know what a 'salmon' is I shall explain. Someone flaps thier hand very fast between another persons knees. It is a very disturbing feeling, trust me. Addie has mastered this and loves to give it to others.

Wild Horse Canyon

After leaving Goblin Valley the two girls fell asleep in the car. My dad voluntered to stay back while they slept and the rest of us hiked up Wild Horse Canyon, which is 10 minutes from Goblin. This canyon is compared to the Narrows in Zion's.

The side of the canyons go up real high, it becomes very narrow, and there are lots of twists and climbing of rocks.

To allow other fellow hikers to pass Evan Rude had to climb the walls. Thankfully for me and my mom we found a little cove we could sneak into to let them pass.

Sporting the narrowness of the way

Jenn walked into this narrow section. The rest of us commented how it looked like a part off of the movie Lord of the Rings. The last movie as they enter the canyon to talk with the ghosts.

At one of the big rooms before heading onto the next narrow section. On our way back Steve-o and I decided to get it over with faster and to jog back. We were all tired from walking around Goblin Valley and running actually felt better on our legs.While going back through the narrow sections a bat came out of no where. While Kaden was trying to get a picture I kept screaming as it was flying at us. HILARIOUS and scary, YES! The bat flew at us 5-6 times and got REAL close. Thankfully the little bugger didn't land on us.

"Is this where Jesus lives?"

After spending two nights at my grandparents house in Kingston Ut, we made our way to the second stop of our Awesome spring break of 2011. . . Goblin Valley. Mom, Dad, Logan and Jenn with thier girls, Kaden and I made some pretty RAD memories:) The title of this blog, so eloquently given by Addie asking her mom, started off our ventures through the park. Logan and I haven't been here since he left on his mission, Jenn and the girls never.

As we parked and got out of our vehicles, Brynlee was down and walking all over the place. She saw papa walking back from the restrooms and went over to be with him. Brynlee has a talent of getting in front of people without them knowing. . . papa's leg then caught her and she ate asphalt, bless her heart. After I held her she stopped crying, then went to nana and started crying again to tell her the sad story (she did this story telling multiple times to whoever would listen). We started the trip out on a bang:)

Goblin valley is so awesome! Why you might ask. . . . because you actually get to climb up on the rocks (unlike other parks where they have since stopped any human touch of the artifacts. Cough cough Mesa Verde, cough) Anywho Kaden ridin' on the saddle.

Kaden, Brynlee, and I on a rock formation. Dad in the corner.

A neat cave you can climb up to which has a peaking hole in the top.

This picture doesn't do justice at all. My mom is taking the picture while the girls are screaming. Maybe they are claustrophobic, who knows. They were pretty anxious to get out. They wanted out so badly that they made it through this hole to my mom.

Jenn and I are sporting the beginning of the cave. Logan, better known as Evan Rude, is showing us where they cave starts to turn and then it opens up to a pretty good size room.

Papa with Addie. Notice the walking stick Addie is holding. . . it will appear in all the photos to come. My dad needs walking sticks to help climb around. Addie didn't want to miss out on the fun. For the next 3 days she would insist to carry a walking stick and draw pretty pictures for us.

Trying to find our way to the top of the ridge.

At the top of the ridge looking down at all the 'goblins'. Really guys if you have never been here you need to go!

Making our way back to the vehicles after exploring the park. We were pretty slow exiting the park. We got a little lost after being on top of the ridge. Not lost really, just tried to find a better way down that wasn't too steep. Evan Rude and Steve-o took off for a bit while we rested on top. Steve-o came back but Evan Rude never did. Steve-o took off running trying to find him and I took off too. When Evan Rude finally showed up minutes later, he got an ear full. Not from my mom or his wife. . . but from Kaden, bless his heart. Kaden was positive that Logan had fallen and was bleeding to death, it was pretty steep. We were happy to make it down and back to the cars. All in all, Goblin was a hit!

PROM

Asking people to a high school dance is a BIG deal, especially to prom. Kaden wanted to ask a girl from his ward to the dance but didn't know how. So after walking through Wal-mart a couple minutes and bouncing ideas off each other we came up with the game plan: Jelly beans and lots of them!

Steve-o very excited, as you can tell, to get this going. We used 3 or 4 bags of jelly beans. . .

. . . And wrote one letter from his name on a bean.

Then put those beans with the others and a nice little note for her. Her task was to find all the letters in the jar and then put them together to figure out who was asking her to the dance.

This is the best part of the asking game. . . 'the door bell ditching'. I voluntered to drive, so I wouldn't miss out on the fun, because she didn't know Bingo. Kaden then ran to her house, left the clue, rang the doorbell, then booked it back to my car for the get away. Of course the stakes get higher as a car drives up to the house and while I scream for him to run faster:) Kaden received her answer the next night with a cheese pizza (his ultimate fav) with jelly beans spelling 'yes'. Thanks for letting me help Steve-o!

The girls are back in town!

Oh man, oh man, oh man! Can I tell you how much I love these girls. . . uh lots! We were neighbors and fellow wardians up in Logan in the good ole Darwin ward. They are such awesome and fun girls. Always inspiring me to do better. They left around the same time to serve missions and just returned in January and March. One served in Atlanta Georgia and the other in the Netherlands.

This picture was taken at Lauren's homecoming. Tish is on the left and Lauren on the right (and yes I just checked my hands to make sure that I had it on the right left and the right right:)

The Little Things in Life

Lately I have been able to spend a lot of time with my nieces. . . adorable yes!

Addie showing me how the bubbles work, papa bought them for her. Addie LOVES bubbles!

The girls love the new addition to thier home, a paino. Addie loves to sing primary songs so I started to play them for her. Brynlee then insisted that she wanted up too. Addie would sing the songs at her own pace and I would move my fingers as fast as I could.

Reading and books. If you ever get a chance to be with these girls a book will magically appear and eager faces will look at you until you read to them. Not just one book but many books! This is the only time that Brynlee will hold still for ya.