4 Wheeling!!!! July 24 & 25th

Mike and Bunni spent Friday and Saturday at the cabin. We were there alone except for a short visit from Joe when he delivered Mike's new jeep. We went on two fabulous, beautiful rides. I've decided that my favorite sounds are: 1) water in a small stream cascading over rocks 2) distant thunder (moving closer) 3) song birds 4) wind in the Aspen trees. I heard all of these this weekend. I can't think of a man-made noise I like half as well. There are a lot of wind chimes for sale and a lot of people use them but I don't want to hear anything but nature when I'm at the cabin. The 4-wheelers are noisy but it's easy to turn the key and just listen to the sounds of nature and they take you far back into the woods away from people.

Duck Creek Days and Chili Cook off

Mike, Bunni, Joe, & Katie spent the weekend at the cabin. Mike came up on Wednesday and was alone until Friday. He didn't like being alone but he sure loves the cabin. He is really bonding with the chipmunks. Duck Creek days is a typical small town celebration. It has lots of food booths and lots of craft booths. Some one is continually on the community stage singing country and pop. There are lots of blow-up bouncing houses for the kids. The temperature at Duck Creek is always moderate and it feels so good to walk around comfortably. This year we participated in the silent auction to the tune of $600.00. We got some good buys but . . . .

Thanks to Joe for signing us up to some "cute" little forest creatures made of natural material. Dad tried to change the bid and was caught by the little old lady who donated the creatures. SO EMBARRASSING. We ended up (of course) buying them and the lady loves Dad now. We also won the bid for a power saw, a bear sculpture (I love it), a trailer to pull behind the ATV, a gift certificate for the local diner and a gift certificate for the local Tru Value. It poured rain in the afternoon on Saturday but that just settled the dust and felt great. There was thunder. We always hope for a good ole thunder storm at the cabin.

Oh yeah, there was a chili cook-off -- ummmm not so great.

Our first visit - and Tanner's Birthday

We are winding up a fabulous four days at the cabin!! This is our first time up here, and we can see why mom and dad love to be up here and hate to leave. It is amazingly beautiful - both the cabin as well as it's surroundings. We've had a great time! It started out with mom, dad, Chad, Sloan, Reed, Jessica, Rachel and Tanner driving up on Wednesday. We went four wheeling, played pool and pong pong (Sloan won) :0), played Rummikub and watched Matilda. Chad, Sloan, Reed and Jessica got up early the next morning to take Reed to Parowan where he met the rest of the youth in the stake and participated in the service project that kicked off Youth Conference. We hate not having him here, but know he'll have a great time with the youth. After we got back to the cabin all of us left for a fun day at Bryce Canyon - including a yummy lunch and shopping at Ruby's Inn. When we got back to the cabin we found Sheri, George, Ella and Preston had arrived. This was Preston's first time at the cabin too!

After dinner we had a great time talking, play Hand and Foot and just enjoying each other's company.



The next morning was spent riding horses (with Ella singing, "Getty up pony ride to town" the whole way - cute girl!) . . .




and doing lots of four wheeling. Chad, Sloan, Rachel and Tanner drove the four wheelers up to Strawberry Point. Stunning!!! There are no words to describe the beauty of the terrain up here. I just love it!! Jessica is also gaining her confidence back in driving the four wheelers and later on in the evening, grandpa, Rachel and Sloan got to see tons of deer along Willis Creek Road.

Today is TANNER'S BIRTHDAY!!! Tanner and George left early, early this morning to go fishing. Is there a better way to start off your birthday? I think not. They even caught TWO fish. When they got back, we had Tanner's breakfast of choice - blueberry pancakes, orange juice and canteloupe. Now we are sadly starting to clean, packing up and getting ready to leave. I think we're going to end with a hike to Mirror Lake, and then head back to St. George so we can pick up Reed this afternoon. We have had a great time. And the best thing of all has been being with family!!