Hiking in The Deseret Peak Wildnerness

This past Friday Wes, Adelle and I went hiking in the Deseret Peak Wilderness. Lydia was visiting her Dad. We hiked for about two hours. We go at a pretty easy pace though.
Adelle brought her baby along with her again.

When we started out we were a bit surprised by the dryness of everything. Also a lot of trees look diseased. It made us wonder why these woods would be so unhealthy. Is it the environment? Global warming? It makes you wonder. We also had to be careful where we stepped because horses are allowed on the trails.
All of the streams were dried up on the trail.
Things looked much healthier higher up.

This is what we found at the top of our trail.

Adelle held my hand most of the time.
In this picture we are discussing sap. Exciting I know, but we love hiking and discovering. We actually saw seven deer on this hike.

Hopefully we will be able to go on a few more hikes before the season ends.

Lydia was knighted!

Lydia's school has a program for all of the fourth graders to encourage them to learn math skills. They are knighted every time they pass off a match concept. In order to "pass it off" they have to do 36 math problems in 90 seconds and get 100% at least 3 times. Lydia passed off her addition facts this past Thursday and became a Page in Mathematics. Way to go Lydia! We are super proud of you!

Hiking near Doughnut Falls

Friday, September 19 we decided to take advantage of the good weather and go hiking. I only work a half day on Fridays. We hiked near doughnut falls in the Cardiff area. We really had a fun time. It sprinkled on us a little at the end but I actually liked that part.


Adelle took this picture of me. Oh, and thanks Julie for the water backpack! Wes, Lydia and I all have one to use now on our hikes!
Even at the end of summer the streams are still full of water.

We decided to go off the beaten bath to see what we could discover. We all crossed this stream. We found an enchanting area. It was just beautiful. We did come upon what we think used to be an alcohol still. Hmmm...makes you wonder why this would be in the middle of the forest. This was our view at the end of our hike. This gorgeous valley.
The leaves are starting to change in many places and before you know it Winter will be upon us. I recommend getting out there before everything is covered in snow. Hiking is so wonderful. I also am so proud of my girls. I think they have gotten in some good shape this summer. They don't complain much anymore when we take them on long hikes or walks.

Wes' Birthday

On Sunday, September 14 we celebrated Wes' Birthday. We invited his parents over and two of his brothers. I made his favorite dinner, chicken salad on croissants. I also made his favorite desert. Rice Crispies!! I made two pans so we would have plenty. We also were able to visit with my side of the family at Cedric's Birthday party the day before. Wes got cash, a lot of gift certificates to Joanne's and the Fourth season of the Office. We LOVE that show!! In fact we have now watched all of the episodes. Wes seemed to enjoy his day. He has already spent a good portion of his Joanne's gift cards. He is making me a Civil War dress for Halloween. His idea. He has already completed the hoop skirt, which by the way I can't sit down in. He is so talented. I will have to take pictures when it is done. Happy Birthday sweetie!!

What am I allergic to?

Sorry I haven't posted recently. I usually post over the weekend, but this past weekend..was..well interesting. I broke out in horrible hives Saturday Afternoon and it has continued off and on since then. I should have taken pictures of these nasty hives. I have had them from head to toe...literally!! I have tried my best to figure out what is causing it. I haven't eaten anything new. I think I may have narrowed it down to a new multi-vitamin I started taking. It contains soy. I stopped taking the vitamin last night and I haven't broken out in hives yet today. If I am allergic to soy I wonder if I will have to avoid it in other foods and forms? Who knows! Wish me luck figuring out this less than fun mystery. I am sure my family will be glad when I am done with this though. I have had to take benadryl in the evenings and it makes me drowsy and loopy!

I want to post again soon. I have pictures of Wes' birthday and a family hike :)

Regional Stake Conference

Today the girls and I headed downtown for our stake's regional conference. Our stake was invited to attend at the Conference Center instead of watching via satellite, which is a good thing because our stake's satellite system is not working. We left at 9:05 and I thought that would be plenty of time, but I was wrong. When we got onto West Temple the traffic was practically stand still. It is the road you take to get to the parking garage under the conference center. I decided to go onto side roads to see if we could just park on the street. Ha ha ha! We ended up parking at the Capitol and walking down to the Conference Center. From there we had to wait in a long line to get in. We got into our seats just as the first speaker started talking.

I can't complain though! It was such a wonderful experience. The speakers included Elder Hinckley of the Seventy (Gordon B. Hinckley's son), the General Primary President, Elder Ballard, and the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. He actually spoke for the whole second half of the conference. The spirit was very strong. Lydia was really excited to be able to see the Prophet speak in person. He spoke mainly about Doctrine and Covenants 88:119 " Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God". He spoke about each part of the scripture and how we can make "a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God". I felt so honored to be able to listen to his words and I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Saviour who has sent us a living prophet. After the conference I took this picture of the girls. Adelle had never seen the conference center before. Both girls were really impressed with the waterfall.
You can see how busy it was. A lot of people attended.
I couldn't miss the opportunity to take the girls to see the Christus. Adelle had never seen this statue before. It used to be one of my favorite places when I was younger and I really wanted to share the experience with my girls.
Lydia took this picture of the Capitol after we had walked all the way back to our car. I don't know how many of you are aware but Lydia wants to be the President of the United States when she grows up, or the Governor. She actually is hoping to make Honor Guard at her school. It is a group that learns about and performs the flag ceremony for events. They also set physical fitness goals so they can receive the Presidential Fitness Award.

Anyway, it was a wonderful morning and the girls and I really enjoyed it immensely. The spirit has really been with us today. We are really looking forward to celebrating Wes' birthday tonight. He is now 29! I'll have to post about his party soon :)

Cedric's First Birthday Party

My nephew, Cedric, had his birthday party yesterday. My sister and brother-in-law really went all out and had the house themed for an alien party.
Sarah's sister-in-law, Jamie, made these cute cakes from scratch.

Great Grandma Walter and Grandma Julie with the birthday boy!
One of the activities my sister had for the kids was making alien masks. The kids loved them. Here is Adelle in her little mask.

Even Lydia got into the fun.
All of the cute little aliens lined up for picture time.
Sarah opened the presents with Cedric. He grew a little impatient though. I think he wanted to wander around. He got some really neat gifts including a full Thomas the Train set.
Then it was time for Sarah to bring Cedric his own personal cake.
He dug right in and enjoyed this part of the party the most. I like this cute picture of Sarah sharing cake with her son. Sarah and Matt really put a lot of hard work to make their little guy's day special. Thanks for inviting us!!

Using the Fruits of the Harvest

So I have heard from a lot of people in the area that their tomato plants have not done well. Now I honestly have almost completely neglected the garden. I shamefully have to admit that most of it is covered in morning glory. I don't know if you remember my earlier post about my tomato plants I purchased from Costco and planted in my garden. Well I have to say they have just been abundantly producing tomatoes for us, despite the neglect. They have been the most delicious tomatoes I have had in years. A week ago I took two huge bowls of tomatoes and blanched them (with Lydia's help). Then I took the blanched tomatoes and made a huge pot of home made spaghetti sauce. It was the best spaghetti sauce that I have had in the longest time. I had enough leftover to freeze three dinners for the future. I highly recommend making sauce using fresh garden tomatoes. Nothing compares.

I had another bowl full of tomatoes on Friday and I decided to try to make home made pizza sauce. Instead of blanching the tomatoes I just cut them up (skins and all) and cooked them down with a little bit of oil, onion and garlic. I had already cut up about 2/3 of the tomatoes before I took the above picture. I have more tomatoes growing out in my garden right now!! It is crazy how many tomatoes have been produced from those 4 plants.

I let it all simmer and this is what I ended up with. A thick, yummy sauce. I also made my pizza dough from scratch. I actually use a home made dinner roll recipe to make the crust. The crust ends up being a little softer than a usual pizza but it tastes so good. The dough I made was enough to make two pizza crusts. If you want the recipe at all let me know. It is pretty easy to make. One pizza was pepperoni. The second was Hawaiian. With the home made sauce and dough the pizza was honestly the best we have probably ever had. We all loved it!! We even ate the rest of it for dinner the next night. There is nothing like using the food that you have grown out of your very own garden. It is an amazing thing. You should try it next year! Even if you don't have an area to have a full garden maybe you could just have a few potted plants. It is well worth it.

We spent the rest of the evening watching the classic movie "Watcher in the Woods". I enjoyed watching Lydia get scared and hold onto me. Does that make me a mean mom?