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Summer visit...part three

Our Hike in Yosemite National Park Happy Isles mist Trail, Vernal Falls.

Everyone did really well...Heidi was amazing....7 month pregnant, she kept up with the rest of us....I should say I kept up with her. =)

Preston was the youngest of the group- 2 years old...walked the entire trail. {Just didn't like the sound of the rushing water....always covered his ears.}

Here's are journey through pictures.

It's at about this point that some of us decided we didn't want to get all wet and stayed behind...while Scott, Danny, Sam, Conner and Anna {yes, Anna!  She was totally into making it to the top wet and all}

Notice Anna in the lower left corner...soaked to the bone....but Happy.

The end of the Hike....and no injuries....and no baby.  Everyone was so hungry so we....Headed off for a little picnic.
 

  
 This is how we ended our time together..... with a promise of a rainbow...We may not of found a pot of gold at the end of our rainbow..... Family is the gold at the end of our rainbow.

Perfect

 

  
Just a little information about the trail we hiked.

 

Vernal Fall (moderate to strenuous; Mist Trail closed in winter, but access available via the John Muir Trail, which may be snowy)

Vernal Fall footbridge: 1.6 miles/2.6 km round-trip; 1.5 hours with 400 feet/122 m elevation gain
Vernal Fall: 3 miles/4.8 km round-trip; 3 hours with 1,000 feet/366 m elevation gain (via Mist Trail)

Begin at Happy Isles (shuttle stop #16)

You'll find an excellent view of Vernal Fall from the footbridge at 0.75 miles (1.3 km). Beyond the bridge, at 0.2 miles, the Mist Trail and the John Muir Trail diverge. To proceed directly to the top of Vernal Fall, follow the Mist Trail 0.5 mile (0.8 km) up a steep granite stairway of over 600 steps. Prepare for slippery footing and a tremendous amount of waterfall spray in spring and early summer. This portion of trail is closed in winter due to risk of falling ice and rock.

Shannon shares her take on the trip here.
 

 

Summer visit....Part two-

More summer fun-

• Anna whispered in my ear "Grammer I want to surprise Mommy, she loves roses can we pick roses for her?"  Of course we can....lots of flowers for both Mommies.
• Pedicure night for all the girls-
• Start by painting nail polish on toes...before they dry sprinkle red glitter over your painted toes ...wait a minute then add a clear top coat of polish. Makes for some very Happy Toes.
• Shannon took care of all our toes....five girls with Happy red glitter toes....fun
• Anna and Carlee arm in arm...with Happy toes.

Conner- Crazy back seat driver....

At the lake- John, Libby and girls joined us for a BBQ, paddle boat ride, Homemade ice-cream {thanks Libby} and night swimming.

Great evening....one mishap....Conner got about 20 wood slivers in his hand....Shannon spent about an hour taking them all out.

Are you keeping count?..... 3 staples, a tick and now slivers.

 

 

Our Day Trip to Columbia State Park-

• Anna and Carlee...dressed for the part.  I decided to make the girls little bonnets to wear....they were so adorable in them...All day people kept stopping us to ask where we got them....and to say how cute they looked.  I noticed several people snapping pictures.....of course they looked adorable.
• Carlee with her gold and jewels she found herself.

 

I loved how the Bonnets gave the girls a little "pink" glow.

Eureka

Stage coach ride- Conner rode shot gun...

• Tickets please.
• I will protect you.
• Armed Bandit- "Give me all your gold and Jewels." {Carlee pulled her Bonnet over her face and hid her gold...smart girl}

Rounds of Sarsaparilla Root beer...yum

Conner's eyes closed, Anna with her back to us, Payton covering her eyes.....California sun too much for them....

Spent some time in Jail-

After we got out of Jail....time for some ice-cream.

Wonderful, wonderful day....I think we need to have Shannon's kids come more often....so they can open their eyes while they are here =)

 

Coming next-

Yosemite Hike and more.

{Sorry for the photo-log,I make a blurb book/journal out of my blog....Happy Day}  

 

 

   

 
  
 

 

Summer visit- part one

 

I'm finally getting around to posting again.  Shannon and Family have been here for a fun little summer visit. What fun we had!  Plus, having Sam and Heidi right here added to the fun.  {Cousins playing non-stop. =)

This is going to be a little photo journal of their visit-

They came in on a Saturday, and with in 30 minutes were heading to the Urgent care.... {Payton ended up with 3 staples in his head to close the hole in his head.}

Here's how it went down-

Conner- Hurry, hurry come quick it's serious, I just killed my brother!{ he had dropped a bucket on Payton's head while he was swinging at the tree-house....totally an accident.}

All of us!  What!!! {running for the door}

Payton- rounding the corner with blood everywhere....screaming!

Scott- picked him up ran to the sink, where we tried to stop the bleeding. {trail of blood from the tree house to the sink}

Shannon and Scott- then drove 30 miles into town with a little boy {looked like a mummy head}

Came home a couple hours later with 3 staples and a big story.

And a new name-

Staple Head.

All is well. {he had to wait 24 hours before he could swim...but other than that he was a big man about it.}

Never a dull moment around here.

You can kind of see the blood still in his head as we headed for Church the next morning.  

Us with all the grandkids....just before Church.

We celebrated Father's Day and Heidi's birthday- {Heidi's birthday always seems to fall on a time when we are all together celebrating something else....sorry Heidi. Sam made the cake.}

Anna and Carlee were so cute together.....they did everything together.... Even slept in the same bed....and shared the morning "hair" look.

The kids went to the garden several times a day....for a fruit snack. {Payton was the king of the garden.....quote from Payton-

"I like that the garden is close to the tree house....it makes it very convenient  to get a snack."

{Notice the apricot in his hand in the picture below.}
 

 

We decided to walk down to the river.....

• Shannon made a bracelet out of masking tape...sticky side up.  As we walked they were to stick any treasure they might find to the tape.  Totally fun for the kids. {see bottom right picture above.} items found- feathers, flowers, rocks, lizard tails, grass, sticks.
• Stopping to look at an ant hill.
• noticed several different animal tracks-

Looking for frogs-

Anna came home with a cup full of frogs......but that's not all she came home with.

She was the "host" to a nasty little tick.

After a hot match head and some tweezers....everything is all better.

She was a real trooper no crying involved.

{note we did clean the area with a antiseptic after. We caught the tick within minutes of coming home from the river....then checked everyone else.  Here's a good way to remove ticks click here.} 
 

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of our time was spent- swimming and art projects, the girls made crowns. {Conner did have a few chores to do=)

Things to keep you busy-

• Garden
• tree-house
• swimming
• crafts
• walks
• Emma
• bikes
• lawn games
• eating
• playing in the play room under the stairs
• K'nex
• cousins

Sleeping in the Tree house with Grammer-

Yes, I fit in there....I was to the right of these two guys. {Payton snores...just thought you would like to know.} 

 

 

• Watching the moon
• play video games
• making coyote noises.
• counting stars
• staying up way pass bedtime
• looking at the trees through the morning sun
• listening to mystery sounds outside the door.
• just fun

I did sleep.......well, a little. =)

Well, that is just the beginning of our summer visit....part two and three are still to come.

1. The Lake
2. Columbia
3. gold panning
4. Yosemite hike.

Happy Day.

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
  

 

 

lost in a sea of color-

Through Blissful I was given the opportunity to use Dutch boy paint to transform one of my rooms and then share the after.

Yesterday in the mail I received this color fan....with instructions to pick out colors...they are giving me 4 gallons of paint to use towards one of my projects. Happy day!

I plan to use the paint to make over the cottage laundry room-

I plan to remove two of the long cabinet doors.... then back the space with bead board. {the cabinet closest to the back door has shelves, I plan to keep them because I have some sweet baskets for them.}
 I haven't completely settled on a paint theme- but here is what is swimming around in my head.

• All trim and cabinets Ultra white
• Walls...maybe- Hawaiian Sky.... a very very fair teal color.... looks like sea glass.
• floors.... white and gray checkered... same as kitchen...they are right next to each other.
• remove ceiling fan...replace with a  different light perhaps matching the same light I pick for the kitchen or something like these-

I always like to hear what you think.  =)

 
 I picked this room to use as the makeover....because everything from floor to ceiling is getting painted. {I think this is going to be one of my most "budget" friendly makeovers ever....with free paint all I need do is some hard work and a new light....sweet!}

And here's for the really cool part....My "before/after" images will be featured in their web campaign that has just launched with TV star Danielle Hirsch!  How fun.

Do you have any color suggestions...etc.?

It has been fun thinking about all the changes I can make to this room..... I'm linking this post with The Inspired room....come and join us.....What has inspired you this week?

 

Off subject...but had to share this cute picture of Carlee-

She wanted to wear my garden hat. =)

 
 

 

 

 

Mission update-

Mason is doing well and really enjoying his mission....here are a few of the latest pictures and "word" from Mason.

Gary and Mason

Hey Family,

This week was very busy for us. We found 3 new people to teach and did a lot of contacting. But, yeah over all it was a really good week. Well, the baptism went really well. Gary is now baptized yeah!!! I don’t remember if I told you but I got to baptize him. So that was a really neat experience to do that for someone. I will be sending you pics of it in this letter. There were about 30 or more people at the baptism. So it was really good.

June 12,2010

 

Well, the work is moving on. I love having to take care of 4 wards it is a lot of fun and it keeps you busy for sure. The coolest thing ever is that the people that we are teaching just come to us by members or they see us walking and want us to teach them. So it is very exciting for sure. God is blessing us and this area for sure. We still have 3 more baptisms this month that are going too happened. It is very crazy but I love it. And this transfer is moving fast we are already half way done with the transfer. Crazy I know right.

Well, like I said love you all and hope is all well. Love you all and thank you for the prayers.

 

Mason is doing really well and is very happy.  I wish I could of been at this baptism.... I'm sure it was tender.   He may be little but his spirit is big.

 

  

Cottage Kitchen before-

 

I've shown you most of the pretty parts of the cottage.....like looking into the dinning room.

The Fabulous doors and moldings.

The Fabulous living area, which is almost 30 feet long.

Since I've shown the pretty parts I thought I would share a little of the ugly-

 

 It does have some original charm...like this built in hutch, also the cabinets are in good shape and have a sweet charm about them. Some of the drawers have metal liners. Sweet!

I've started to formulate a plan.....see what you think.

First remove and clean-

• remove all the counter top and back splash materials
• clean cabinets and paint white.
• remove ceiling fan
• the refrigerator and stove are going....totally a mess.
• remove pot rack
• pull up nasty floor......Hard wood planks are under it.

Now for the fun part-

I would like to paint the hard wood planks like this

A light white and gray checkered pattern.

For the counter-tops....I'm planning to put white subway tile as the back splash and

Dark gray soapstone or white marble for the counter tops...which do you like?

The built in hutch I will also be painting white....with the soapstone or marble added to the counter.

You can't see it but there is a sweet door that is between the kitchen and laundry room....I plan to paint it a  teal color.....something like this color.

Okay and now for the really daring thing...well at least for me.  I would like to put wood normally found on the floor for the ceiling- something like this...

If you have some old flooring you want to get rid of ...I would be happy to take it off your hands. ;)

To replace the ceiling fan I'm thinking on the line of something like this.....

this....

or this.....which do you like?

 
  

Can't wait to get started...if you have any more ideas...please let me know what you are thinking.

Happy Day

{Just remember budget...and I like to use as much of the original as I can.}

 

 

 

 

 

 
  

We can get there from here-

Come read the rest of the story here- 

Day at the Zoo-

Heidi and I decided it was time to get out and do something fun.  So we packed up the kids and headed to the Zoo.

The day was great-

Perfect weather-

Fun Kids-

Silly animals-

 

Preston thought it was pretty funny to brush the goats tail.  Every-time he would brush it the goat would wag it, which made him laugh.

 
 Zoo transportation-

 

 

After we finished at the Zoo, we headed home for some fun in the sun.

 

Even Emma got in on the fun-

 

The men were away all day. Sam took Danny crab fishing for his Birthday.....so this is what we had for dinner.

 

It was a perfect day-

Carlee-"self photo" {she likes to take pictures...I thought this one was cute.}