A happy return

And the driver

The tracker

Look who we found!

We have not seen sweetheart in about 6 months! She is a little prissy and does not care for the other cats and kittens the one day she just walked off. We always thought she was living in the wash and we were right! I cannot believe how great she looks for being a wildcat!

Still loving that new smile!

Look who's riding with the big boys

Pioneer days

On Saturday we went to a little festival which was called pioneer days. We went for a ride, learn how to make her own soap and had lunch like the pioneers.

Ben's new smile

No more rotten tooth!

The hiking crew

Posing again

Eye trouble

We went to Goblin Valley, but Hunter and Scott stayed in the car. Hunter's eyes are so sensitive to the sun that he pretty much spent the time with a wet t shirt over his eyes. We will have to go back!

Goblin Valley

Ben pretty much would pose at every hoo doo!

Cool

It is pretty amazing that they still let you go down there. And walk around. Katie and I were wondering if one day when she brought her kids there if it would be all closed off to the public and she would be telling her kids that when she was young you could climb on all the hoodoos.

Dinner!

Scott put in these sprinklers and now the garden has taken off! In this picture, you can see the potatoes even!

Miss you, Dad!

Ben's favorite rock

Cutest hiking group!

Small in the universe

Pretty amazing that this has taken millions of years to form. Makes the human life span pretty short!

Proof I was there too!

Ben made it too!

I only had to offer a piggy back ride once!

We made it

Kate really wanted to see the Landscape arch. It's about as long as a football fields and who knows how much longer or will be there.  You can no longer hike under it because 20 years ago a huge chunk broke off while people were hiking!

My hiking buddy

It's own way

I love how the trees here just sort of find their own way to grow. And I can totally see the beauty in that!

Buddy system

The crew

Really excited about this

We have decided there are two seasons here - winter and dust. These doors are amazing! They were a trade for hunting this year!

Gate duty

Jumpers

We went to the County Fair and we all had a job to do. I was the record keeper for the jumpers. Hunter helped with moving the poles higher each time. And Katie was on gate duty. So each time a horse had to enter the arena, she opened the gate.

This is a pic of Hunter putting up the number on that particular jump.

Modeling

Here he is... modeling his shoes.  He said he wanted to grow his hair out so he could look just like his uncle Greg. Then they would have matching shoes and hair!

Unpacking

Oh my! The things we have unpacked! Of the most exciting has been the robes and a pair of chucks that did not fit Hunter last year. Most of Ben and Katie's clothes were too small. They had fun trying everything on. Amazing how much they grow in a year!

Love your mother

Your mother earth that is!
YES I DID!
After breaking down what seemed like a million boxes, we loaded them all up to take to the recycling center. Luckily, we stopped at the grocery store first and was able to compact them all in their compactor! I could not believe how much cardboard can fit into one compacted bundle. That whole back of the truck did not even equal one bundle. But we are all feeling really good about doing the right thing instead of the simple and easy thing which would have been to throw it all in the dumpster.

Yes she did!

I have come to the conclusion that Katie has a hollow leg and in this hollow leg is where she stores the abundance of food she can eat! For lunch today, she did eat an entire 12 inch sub with just about everything on it and a bag of chips!

Oops!

Someone left the door open and look who came in.... Cream & Marley.

5 guys and a piano!

Christmas enough for ya?

Just boxes and newspaper everywhere!

First box

I know it does not look like much, but this was a great accomplishment for me and was pretty darn excited about breaking down the first of what seemed like a million boxes.

What the boys did

Not a whole lot of help, but definitely out off the way!

All the boxes

and there were over 20 in the kitchen!

The whole thing!

Scott had to run some errands and while he was gone Katie and I unpacked the whole trailer.

Amazing

Finally got the garage cleaned out so we could bring the uhaul up. We were delayed a day because it rained and was too wet to get up the driveway. It actually worked out okay because we had time to clean out the garage.

Amazing

All those years of pulling a boat and trailer paid off! Scott was like an expert backer upper!