Camping in Snow Canyon State Park (May 14-16)

We invited Grandma and Grandpa Cheesman, Grandma Beth, and Karla and Sam and his kids to come to dinner while we were camping at Snow Canyon State Park. Kya was helping me make the Peach Cream cheese cobbler.
It turned out extremely yummy. I really enjoyed the "Volcano II" that we used to cook them in. I am including the list of ingredients for the cobbler and the potatoes so I can remember them in the future.
Peach Cream Cheese Cobbler: (doubled)
2 yellow cake mixes,
2 cubes of butter
a #10 can of peaches
2 packages of 1/3 fat cream cheese.
1 dutch over aluminum liner (so you don't have to clean the dutch over after!)
*Put in the liner and add the peaches with about a third of the juice. Cut the cream cheese into cubes and mix it in with the peaches and juice. Put the cake mixes on top. Add another third of the juice or even a bit more if you like. Cut the butter into little pats and place them all over the top of the cake mixes. Cook until you smell it and the top is golden brown. For the Volcano II, have a layer of coals on the bottom and then at least four on top.

Dutch Oven Potatoes (I always forget proportions from summer to summer so I must write it down to remember it)
5lbs of pealed and sliced potatoes
3 large yellow onions diced
2 lbs of thick bacon chopped up
season salt to taste
*Cook the bacon until crispy and leave all the grease in with it. Add the onions and cook them until transparent. Add the potatoes and mix them all together. Cook for 20 minutes, then stir them. Cook for 20 minutes, then stir them. Finish cooking until done. They are delicious! I love dutch oven food! With the Volcano II we can even dutch oven safely in our back yard.
My mom came to my cooking rescue. Kade had left with Kari, Kiera and Kolden to see Kari's soccer game and I was to cook with Kya. Right after he left I realized there was no lighter fluid or onions left at camp. I miraculously got cell phone service just long enough to call mom for help and she came to my rescue. She also brought with her some rolls to go with dinner. She grilled the barbaque chicken and it was so yummy with Famous Dave's Barbaque Sauce. Yum!

SNAKE!!!!! We had an extra visitor to dinner, it was a ground snake. I have never been camping with a snake before. We were very cautious about the snake and got the ranger right away. It was just a little baby, about as thick a pencil, but we were not sure what kind it was.
It really liked the tires of our pop tent camper. You can see it's head there.
When it thought the coast was clear it moved toward the bike trailer. I think it was headed away from people and to the bushes nearby.
The ranger picked it up and even let us pet it. She went and put it back in the bushes - far away from the camp sites. I was glad we were not hurt and the baby snake was not hurt. After all, we were in IT'S ecosystem and it was just trying to get around.
We also saw this beautiful bird, but I don't know what kind it is. There were also lots of Quail running around on the North side of the campground.
Grandma Beth - enjoying a visit.
Grandma's Creta (holding Kolden) and Beth.
Grandma Creta - Kolden loves to get loves from her.
Grandpa Brian - he and Grandma brought a sweet watermelon to share at dinner. It was good!

Hallie is in the camper behind Grandpa, she came to play with Grandma and Grandpa. Nicole, one of our new cousins is there in the photo too. It was fun to have her, Danielle and Clark up there playing.
There is Uncle Sam and Aunt Karla enjoying the cobbler. Sam makes some good dutch oven potatoes too. He puts Dr. Pepper in his as a secret ingredient.

Before it was "quiet time" at camp we all enjoyed the wiggle cars on the pavement. It was dark so my photos aren't the best.


Wha-hoooooooo!!!!! Those wiggle cars are so fun! Yes, Kade and I ride them too. We are just big kids. It is fun to play with our kids.After everyone left and everything was cleaned up it was time for bed. Our four sweet bugs in a rug. The weather was just perfect and we didn't even need to use the propane heater at night. We had lots of fun camping! Luckily we have 1pm church on Sundays so we are able to stay over on Saturday night and head home before church on Sunday mornings.

We didn't have any pictures of the bike riding, but we did try to do some bike riding with our mountain bikes in Snow Canyon. I tried to ride from our parent's homes on 540 North all the way to our camp site in Snow Canyon State Park. I did eventually do it, it just took two tries, because the first attempt I blew a tire and had to walk back. Kade let me use his bike and I took Kolden and Kiera with me in the bike trailer. It was a fun ride and a good work out. We are so blessed to have so many fun trails around this area and so many awesome places to go camping. I love where we live!

Kade & Kelli's 8th Anniversary

Kade and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary Married! We have sort of celebrated it in many small increments with our day trip biking through Zion National Park, going to the Temple, running the Hell Hole 5K/10K and then on our actual anniversary we went on a date. Karla took our kids and gave us a certificate for dinner at Anasazi.
Kade and I tried to go on a bike ride to help us train for our 65 mile Tour de Cure, but one mile out Kade blew a tire so we postponed the bike ride and just enjoyed dinner.
We went to Anasazi (a steak and fondue restaurant). We each got the 10 ounce flat iron steak because it was less expensive, but they were really nice pieces of meat.
The cool thing about Anasazi is that you get your steak on this stone that has been heated in a kiln for 8 hours. The stone cooks your steak right in front of you and you decide when it is done. We cut the steak into strips and then smaller pieces and let it cook. The sauces were very tasty and the garlic mash potatoes were very yummy with it. We enjoyed ourselves very much! We also used our Dixie Direct, which was very helpful.
Kade is so handsome in this photo - even more than when we got married. I have the best husband. I love hanging out with him and spending time together. Life is great! Eight crazy busy and exciting years down, a wonderful joyous eternity to go!

Hell Hole 5K/10K in Washington, UT

The Hell Hole 5K/10K is a run down a very steep hill and then proceeds on a trail with lots of small rolling hills, the 10K proceeds with two medium hills and then a killer steep hill on the way out of "hell". There was the option to dress up so we took the option. We ended up not finding a sitter for Kolden and Kiera, so I pushed them in the bike trailer. The sign says "Heaven or Bust" and we are dressed up as "Angels in Training". Kade is wearing feathered wings and I have some princess-ey wings and a halo on.
Chad chose the role of the devil. He looks really good!
Kade took 2nd in his age group for the 5K. Chad took 2nd in his age group for his 10K and I even took 4th in my age group for the 10K WITH the stroller. It was a tough 10K with that stroller, but it was a great work out. I think we all thought it was a tough run, but fun.

The race was on one of the newer trails in Washington and it was beautiful. There was mostly shade because it goes down in this little wash area. It would be a dangerous place to be in if it there was a flash flood. Part of the trail goes along the Virgin River and it is really nice. I would love to go back on that trail on a bike or even run it without a stroller because there are lots of hills.

Cool Kolden

These are some sun glasses that were handed down to us. (Thank you if you have given us hand-me-downs for any of our kids - we LOVE them!)
Kolden looks so cool in them! They only stay on for a few minutes at a time, but he sure is cute with them on!
Sisters all got a piece of chocolate for being so good and they ate it in the car. I didn't know that they were all so sweet to share a little bit of their chocolate with baby brother. He loved it, as you can see.
This picture was after the first wipey hardly made a dent in the chocolate on his face. Chocolate and getting messy is so fun! (notice it is even on his socks)

Mother's Day Square Foot Grow Boxes

We made square foot grow boxes for our mom's for Mother's Day. It was quite a project, but very worth it. Our mom's are THE BEST!!!! The boxes we made our mom's were 6 feet by 2 feet and 6 inches high. I learned about square meter gardening in the MTC, but never got the chance to try it. I bought a book by Mel Bartholemew who invented square foot gardening and read up on how to make these square foot grow boxes.
We filled them with something called "Mel's Mix" which is a combination of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 compost blends. A little science note: In my 8th grade class I teach them that soil is made of rock material that has been eroded away, minerals and organic matter. So, our "Mel's Mix" fits that description very well. Science is so cool!
We finished off the boxes by putting grids on the top with lats of wood and screwed them on. Then we planted the seeds and plants.
Kade and Chad thought they looked like coffins, so they played dead. Poor Kade would have to chop off part of his legs to fit in this little box. Chad and I would have no problem though - we are short. Chad helped me make our Mom's box and Kade and I made Creta's box.
Here is Grandma Beth's box all finished. She wanted her's raised so we put a bottom on it and set it on saw horses so it would be easier for her to garden in it. We gave her tomato plants to put in it and then she added some herbs and other veggies. We love you Grandma Beth!

(Picture of Grandma Creta's box to come)

Here is the vermiculite (a mineral mined in Montana), peat moss (organic matter and rock matter) and compost (mushroom compost mixed with field compost - which is organic).
Here is our garden area. It has evolved many times since we created this space after we bought our home. These square foot garden boxes are kind of an experiment. We have found that the regular rows of the garden do not work very well, so we are trying this now. Before I can add the boxes I must clear out the old garden and get the dirt tilled so I can even it out better for the boxes to sit on.

We left the net up by the back fence and put along it 6 x 2 foot boxes. We left ~3 feet of space to be able to get to the boxes and work around them, then put 4 x 4 foot boxes toward the rocks. We put another net up by the back of those 4 x 4 boxes. All of them are 6 inches high.
More pictures to come.

Nessi - the Lock Ness Monstor Lincoln Town Car

Kade bought Nessi at the junk yard. It was in great shape and didn't have very many miles on it. We needed a car that would fit six people, since we have six people in our family. Kade sold the "fire car"-the Rav4 and then we could license and register the Lincoln Town Car. I was very hesitant with it at first, but I am fine with it now. It has air ride suspension that Kade loves and it is a very smooth ride. It is a bit cramped with all the car seats, but it does fit our family just fine.
Kade just painted Nessi to fit her name a bit better. When we got the Lincoln Town Car I told Kade it was as big as the Lock Ness Monster. Every car has a name and it is a girl name, according to Kade, so that is how Nessi got her name - from the Lock Ness Monster.
Nessi was originally a grey color. Kade painted her with a Shamrock Green and then with a Indy Green that had lots of pearl in it. It is not finished yet though. Kade plans on putting some lace over the hood and trunk of Nessi and then painting a silver over the lace to get the pattern of the lace. We will try to find lace that looks like scales so Nessi will have some scales. It will be cool! Right now it looks a bit "Mexican" because of the air ride suspension and the bold pearly green. We just need some gold rims and tires. A friend of ours told us if we drove in Arizona we would be pulled over and asked for our citizenship.
With Kade every car is custom and I love how he gets so excited and passionate about it.

Kari is playing Soccer

This is Kari's first year playing soccer. Unfortunately everyone on her team lives in Little Valley so it has been hard to get all the way out there for practices. Kari has had a good time playing soccer, but it is not really important to her. She did a good job for her team, although she was just as happy to kick the ball for the opposing team as her own team. The games on Saturday have sometimes been an obstacle to get to with all the business of the weekend. It has been a good experience, but I'm not sure we will do it again unless it becomes really important in the future.
I do love little kid soccer because everyone is just running for the ball at the same time. It is fun to watch.
There is Kari's coach with the team.
Grandma Creta came to watch Kari's game. Thanks Grandma! I know it meant a lot to Kari!

Camping in Zion National Park (April 30 - 31)

Camping in Zion National Park is one of our favorite places to camp! It is so beautiful and there are so many hikes and fun little trips to go on while we camp. We invited Grandma Beth and Aunt Karla to join us for a hot dog and smores dinner.
This picture ended up side ways, but Kade is feeding the fire. It was a big fun fire. We burned all our old papers in the fire. Fire is fun!
Karla snapped a photo of Kolden and me. What a cute boy! It was kind of cold that night so we are getting bundled.
Kari is enjoying the buffet of snacks and Kade is pondering - enjoying the opportunity to relax a bit.
The girls were all situated in the camper and ready for bed. Such cute little girlies!
Kolden was all snuggled in his bed too and ready for a good night sleep.
In the morning we took the bus up to the top of the canyon to see the waterfall. It is the first year I have seen this waterfall. It is so cool!
It was chilly, but we all enjoyed seeing it.
We had to head home soon to get to Kari's soccer game. The two older girls went with Kade back to camp and I went on a jog back to camp pushing Kolden and Kiera in the bike stroller. It was such a nice run. I love Zion Canyon!