Birthday Girl!

This spunky, little gal turned 2 On November 5. I cannot express how blessed we feel to have this babylove in our lives. She brings so much happiness and joy to our family. She is the cherry on top, she is the bow on the present, and the icing on the cake.

Everly is an independent girlie. She knows what she wants. She fought to get here and boy are we glad she got here! 

This little smarty pants loves to learn and picks up things so fast. She already has some of her numbers and letters memorized. She loves animals and is forever chasing the kitty to pet her 

When the house gets quiet and we don't know where Evers slipped off to, we can usually find her reading a book (if she isn't getting into mischief). She loves to paint and draw. She always wants us to draw a picture and then she traces the lines we draw perfectly.

Oh boy, do we love this beautiful baby girl. what a wonderful gift we have been blessed with. We love this perfectly wild, sassy, smart, curious, funny, intense and sometimes stubborn girl. Happy Birthday Everly!

Recap and Moving on: September/October

And just like that two months were smashed into one. Fall colors cascading from the sky as they collided. Months filled with blood moons and planets aligning in the morning sky, hiking, a vacation and of course, CANDY!!! 

 Books I read this month:

* "A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil" by Julie Rowe (Interesting enough to inspire my curiosity to learn more about the subject matter, although it was not written very well).

* "Visions of Glory: One Man's Astonishing Account of the Last Days"  as told to John Pontius (I just had to read more and more).

* "A Change is Coming "By Hector Sosa Jr. (A very short but straightforward, to the point account).

* ...As A Thief In The Night : A resource/ reference book to assist in identifying kingdoms and events of the last years before the second coming of Jesus Christ" (I've always had a desire to study the Second Coming. My high school seminary teacher taught from this book, I loved the information so much that that year for Christmas I asked Santa to bring me the book. I dug it out and read it again).

* I also scoured over countless scriptures in the Book of Mormon and Bible. I also studied quotes from The Journal of Discourses and past and present Conference talks on the second coming and revelation.

 

You may be thinking this is a little excessive. But this is how Heavenly Father created me :) He gave me a deep passion for learning. Not only was I created this way but I have been admonished to learn and study. I take that responsibility very serious. It is who I am. The Second Coming just happens to be my subject of choice at the moment :)

 

This month's playlist:

* I have mostly been listening to talk radio.

 

Things Elanora has been up to: 

* Loving Preschool.

* Playing dolls.

* Playing "I Spy" and, "What animal make that noise?".

* Going to "Inside Out" at the movies.

* Trick or Treating.

* Avoiding scary decorations.

* Candy, candy, candy.

 

Things Everly has been up to:

* Looking at but not touching lizards.
* Reading books.
* Playing "chase" and "Tickle monster"
* Seeing "Inside Out" at the movies.
* Trick or Treating.
* Avoiding eye contact with scary decorations.
* Candy, candy, candy...candy with no peanuts.

 



Recap And Moving On: August

And then just like that September is crashing in on our summer. We hiked and bike and swam and twirled and ran and swung, but now a warm September breeze is slowly shutting our heavy, wooden door on summer. Bringing with it a backpack full of schedules and early sunsets. I guess we're ready to switch jumping in pools for flying kites.

 Books I read this month:
     I started but have yet to finish "A Man's Search For Meaning" by Viktor E Frankl. Boy it's been a long time since I read a whole book.

This month's playlist:
     Anything loud and fast paced on my ipod. I've been running on the treadmill(I use the term running loosely).

Things Elanora has been up to:

    # Making up puppet shows
   # Blending phonic sounds to make words
   # Making cakes and licking the beaters
   # Playing with the blue hippo on the Hungry, Hungry Hippos game
   # Diving for rings in the swimming pool
   # Holding huge snakes around her neck



   # Doing riding exercises on Blue
  # Bowling for the first time
  # Shooting BB guns (with lots of help)

Things Everly has been up to:

   # Throwing puppets over the couch

   # Reading/sleeping with/driving in the car with princess books

   # Making cakes and licking the beaters

   # Throwing the berries from the Hungry, Hungry Hippo game

   # Writing her name (with lots of help)

   # Riding Blue

   # Giving Random kisses

   # Using the potty (sometimes :))

   # Riding her bike

Marking Our Territory

First of all, I think I should say, "It was worth it!"

I mean, just look at us. We're having so much fun in that awesome mine. Patsy's Mine was so nice and cool inside...and by cool I mean in the way of temperature and experience. Definitely one of the best end results of our Saturday hikes that we have had.

But getting there...now that was a different story. Yikes! 

I found this little gem of a hike on pinterest. The pin lead me to this blog. The blog is a fun one! But I think I should have done a little more research beforehand. She said it was a short hike and 'kid doable'. I'm not sure 'kid doable' meant a 1 1/2 year old and a 4 year old(although she had a couple of those with her). She did say it would be hot, man was it hot! 

 We made the mistake of starting late. We fed the horses on Saturday and also we've been doing the Lowe's Build 'n' Grow projects every other Saturday. It set us back a little. The girl's got to build the Hulk's tank, which they loved, so it was definitely worth the late start. Luckily we had lots of water because we went through all of it.

 The hike was about .7 miles with an optional extra .25/.5 miles depending if you parked on the dirt road or not. Our intentions were to not hike the optional part but when we got to the dirt road it was fenced off. We were involuntarily coerced to hike the "optional" part. 

This lovely hike seemed a lot longer than .7 miles, plus optional .25/.5 miles and was pretty much straight up. Once we got home and took baths and naps, I did a little more research and found out that there are different ways to get to the mine. You can    zig-zag your way up switchbacks or you can head straight up the mountain, which is steep and not recommended. I wonder if it would be recommended if you had a 1 1/2 yr old or a 4 yr old on your shoulders because I'm pretty sure we picked the latter of the two options. 

 The majority of the time, the cute hiking girls were on our shoulders. There were a few places the trail evened out and the girls could walk.

 It was hot and hard and long but we made it. Barely. I'd be lying if I said we didn't contemplate turning around, but we didn't and it was worth it!

We were relieved to make it to the mine. It felt so nice inside after baking on the side of the mountain for an hour. We couldn't wait to explore. The girls busted out their flashlights and ran right in.

It was dark

and wet. So bring flashlights and shoes that you don't care if they get muddy because they will. There were puddles throughout and a deep one at the end of the tunnel.

There are different rooms off the main tunnel and we had fun running through them. 

I little fun fact about me is that I'm a little claustrophobic but I definitely didn't want a little claustrophobia to stop me from enjoying this adventure so with visions of walls closing in on me and ceilings caving in on me I hiked on. I tried not to picture myself trapped inside. But poor little Evie must have had those same images in that blonde little head of hers. We explored 3 rooms and then she got really nervous and so I volunteered to take her back to the entrance while Chris and Nory explored some more.

 It was pretty wild. We couldn't see or hear Chris and Nory until they were pretty close. Nory came running out of the cave like a shot yelling, "I have to go to the bathroom" She jumped into some leaves and pulled her pants down and unfortunately she forgot to squat, throughouly soaking her shorts. Luckily for me Chris was the one that packed her on his shoulders on the tricky, steep parts of the trail. After exploring the mine, we enjoyed some snacks and the view before heading back down.

The hike went much faster on the way down. It was a lot easier and the girls were able to hike more than they had on the way up. When we got to the car we were exhausted and covered in dirt. Everly fell asleep almost immediately. The girls did so good so we decided to stop for ice cream and Slurpee's on the way home.

If you want instructions on how to get to Patsy's Mine in Farmington, look them up because I don't want to be responsible for you rolling down the hill or getting you lost before you even start the hike :)

*Do a little research beforehand

*Bring a flashlight, sunscreen and a lot of water

*Wear shoes you don't mind getting muddy

*There are no bathrooms so if you happen to be doing the "gallon of water a day" challenge like I happen to be doing, you might have to mark you territory on the way up the trail. 

Happy Trails!

 

   



 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 



Recap and Moving on: July

 July entered like a waterfall of adventure and excitement. The waters of this month rushing fast and furious. This patriotic, summer month was not taken for granted. We jumped off the rocks and enjoyed this fast paced ride. Memories of beautiful places and celebrations of those past and present who have sacrificed to ensure our safety and enjoyment of those beautiful places will long be remembered, even after the water has dried from our clothes. 

Books I read this month:

   Yikes, my reading really took a hit this month. We packed so much adventure in, there was little room for anything but snoring as my head hit my pillow at night. Although last month I read 2 1/2 of the Wrinkle in Time books by Madeleine L' Engle.

 

 

This Month's playlist:

    Classical music at breakfast and everything under the sun the rest of the day.

 

Things Elanora has been up to:

* Building fairy houses

* Swimming like a fish

* Belly bumping her sister

* Bike riding

* Hiking like a champ

 

Things Everly has been up to:

 

* Running full speed ahead
* Swimming Like a fish that doesn't like to be splashed in the face with water
* Perfecting her swing, when sister belly bumps her
* Eating "Ot Pop" (Otter*pops)
* Drinking out of a Camelbak while hiking 

Fairy Garden

Fairies, Breaking Ankles and uh...Nudists

    The hubbster and I have decided that we want to cram as much family goodness into our weekends as humanly possible, so we have issued a mandatory family hiking trip every Saturday. No ifs, ands, or buts. Not to worry because we all love the great out of doors and most Saturdays no one is kicking and screaming.
    We have complied with the terms of the Saturday Hiking contract almost 100% and we've done so with only a few minor injuries (like a little face road rash)

     This weeks excursion included a most beautiful backdrop. A backdrop painted with picture perfect trees, happy little clouds, fairies, and quite possibly a nudist colony.

   Don't worry it was closed so we didn't actually visit

   Just like every other avid Utah Pinterest pinner, I pinned a hundred pins about a hidden gem of a place... a fairy garden in the Uintah's (Uinta's? H or no H, anyone...anyone. I looked it up no H). This little mandatory Saturday hike seemed a bit too perfect for our family of four. Hiking, the Uintas and Fairies!!!

   Earlier in the week we worked really hard on our cute little fairy house. The littles gathered sticks, rocks, bark and pine cones. Then while they painted rocks and my dad's deck, which he just happened to paint a few months ago, my mom cut up hundreds of pine cones and I hot glued them onto our house.

 

   Saturday we loaded up the kiddos and headed off to find the fairy forest. It was really easy to find. In case you want to catch a fairy, here you go. 1) Drive on the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway in Kamas. 2) At mile marker 17 pull off the road with the hoards of other pinners who want to catch a fairy. 3) Follow the path that starts right by the mile marker. The path leads you through a campground.

    4)Follow the trail through the campground to a dry creek bed, walk across the creek bed, try not to break an ankle (which Grandma Page almost did, although she did fall very gracefully)

5) Step over the fallen log and you step into a magical world of a crazy amount of spray painted rocks and popsicle stick houses cute little fairy houses.

    It was like a 5 minute walk, not hard and so worth it! The Littles had so much fun running around on the trails looking at all the different style of houses. There were some really, really cute ones.

   It was hard to pick our little plot of land but we finally found the perfect spot for our fairy house, nestled nicely under a tree. Many of the houses were spray painted and brightly glittered but we wanted our house to reflect the beautiful nature we were enjoying. Of course we're talking about fairies here and so we definitely needed a little bling.

 

   We had so much fun on Saturday that  after church, we decided to take a Sunday drive. We ended up back at our fairy house where we added a little more to our plot of land (My sis and her cute kiddos came and set up a house next to ours). We added a lake (with boats and a dock with a fishing pole), a playground and we hung the letter B over our archway entrance to our house.

   Man, the Uintah's (Uintas) are so beautiful! We love to go and always have a great time. If you have never been, I highly suggest to go and definitely stop at the fairy forest. Make sure you drop by the Brown's fairy house. If the fairy who has taken up residence in our cottage is there, tell her we sent you.