26 June 2011 - Home from Utah

This week we wrapped up our trip to Utah.  On Sunday night we drove back to St. George to spend one last night at Angie and Darin's house.  On Monday morning we said goodbye again to Mikelle and Jake, who were the only two at home, and we headed back toward Las Vegas.  On our way out of town, we stopped at the temple for a photo op.

 

Since our flight back to Pennsylvania was at 6:45 am on Tuesday morning, we decided to spend our last day and night in Vegas.  We stayed at Vdara, a brand new smoke and gambling free tower at the Bellagio. We swam in the pool in the afternoon, then took a walk down the strip.  We kept quoting the Despicable Me lines about Gru stealing the Vegas replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, so we had to stop for a quick photo.

That evening, we went to see Mystere, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows.

We stopped at the Bellagio fountains on the way back from the show, but then went straight to bed because we had to leave for the airport at 4 am.  We traveled all day Tuesday to get home.  The rest of the week was spent catching up on long neglected yard work and unpacking.  Joanne also had an idea to move all three girls into a single bedroom for the summer (if you're interested in why, you should ask her).  So after several hours of disassembling and reassembling beds, the girls are now all in one.

Fortunately we have bunk beds or this wouldn't have worked out.  We did manage to get all three beds and all three dressers into what used to be Jessica's bedroom.

I don't know if is was jet lag, fatigue, clumsiness or some combination of them, but on Thursday night I was going up the stairs to go to bed, and I took a bit of a tumble.  This is my wall of shame.  The round hole is where my head hit and the vertical crack to the right is where my arm hit.

Among my many projects I've now been working on patching up my wall of shame.  The white patch higher and to the left is where I fixed a nail pop in the wall -- I figured if I was going to be doing drywall and paint anyway, I might as well do the nail pop too.

While it's always hard to have fun times and vacations come to an end, it's also nice to be back in your own home as well.

19 June 2011 - Camping in Utah

The second week of our Utah trip was highlighted by a four day camping trip to Daniels Summit east of Heber.  Mike's family came over from Vernal, and Tiffany and Brian even came up for an overnight stay.  Madeline immediately fell in love with Mike's kids' new kitty.

The weather was cooperative, though not overly warm.  We were above 8,000 feet in elevation, and the spring and early summer in northern Utah has been unseasonably cool.  Coupled with the extreme amounts of snow Utah received this past winter, long pants were more suitable than shorts for most of the week.  Strawberry Reservoir was easily seen from our camp site.

Uncle Mike was plenty popular with the kids because he brought his work truck with a cable winch on the back and made a super-cool zip line that provided hours of entertainment for the kids.  Here's Jessica on a zip run.

Emily having a zip turn.

Madeline coming to a stop.

As many of you are aware, Tiffany had a baby about a month ago.  Madeline loved holding the baby kitty, but maybe liked holding baby Lily even more.  Baby Lily even stayed overnight one night at the camp, but did not roast marshmallows (although she did hang out by the fire with us).

Four wheeler rides were near constant entertainment as well.  Because snow blocked much of the dirt road that makes up Daniels Loop, we weren't able to ride as far as we might have otherwise, but we did have plenty of places to ride, and we even logged a couple of trees that had fallen across the road so that we could ride farther.  This is Emily and Megan with MJ on the front.

Joanne, who thinks having to stay in a Motel 6 is camping, came up on Wednesday and Friday, just for the day.  It was nice that the camp was only about 45 minutes from her mom's house in Orem so she could go home, shower, sleep in a bed, and still get to have a few four wheeler rides with us.

At one point, we wanted to ride farther on the road than anyone had gone yet this spring.  We came upon a group with two four wheelers that had stopped at a snow drift blocking the road and were debating whether or not to attempt busting it.  I decided I would try.  I was on my dad's ATV, which has four wheel drive, but I didn't put it in four wheel drive (dumb) and didn't get a very good run at the drift because I had Jessica on the back with me and I didn't want her to get thrown off.  So I ended up stuck about 3/4 of the way through the drift.  Fortunately Mike's wife Angie had her dad's four wheeler which has a winch, and they were able to pull me out.  By the next day, the drift had melted a good bit and we were able to get through, but only a short distance further, more snow blocked the way.

The mountains were beautiful, and the Quaking Aspens were just starting to get their leaves.  The snow melt provided ample water; in some places, entire meadows were flowing.  We stopped at some seasonal waterfalls for some photos.  This is Megan, Madeline, MJ and Emily at a little rocky roadside waterfall on Daniels Loop.

Our girls took a shining to learning to ride ATVs.  Mike's daughter Corinne has this little green single gear Kawasaki.  This is Jessica tearing up the scene on it.

Emily had her own turn riding, and though a bit more tentative than Jessica, she did fine and had a blast.

 

At the very top of Daniels Summit there is a lodge, restaurant and store.  It is only a mile or so from where we camped and is accessible by four wheeler.  Madeline was enamored with this giant bear carving in front of the lodge.

Here is a little sample of the snow that's still present at the summit.  I told Madeline to stand by it to give some perspective.

At the summit store, Joanne found this gigantic gummy snake and just had to buy it for Madeline.  It was three feet long before Madeline started eating it.

It wouldn't be camping without s'mores.  After four days of mountain living, on Saturday it was time to call it good.  We took a few last four wheeler rides and then broke camp to head home and clean up before Sunday.

Sunday was Father's Day and the kids made M&M bow ties for the dads during Primary.  Jessica decided to pose with me.

Sunday after church we got to go see Grandma North at Maurine and Rex's house.  I kept my tie on.  Grandma was doing good and it was nice to visit with her for a little while.

I've been a lot of places in the world in my life, and it's still hard to find a sight that compares with a Utah mountain sunset.  Photos really don't do it justice.

12 June 2011 - First Week in Utah

Monday was the last day of school for the girls.  We sent them all off to school for the two-hour event while Joanne and I got ready for our trip to Utah.  I cut the grass one last time and Joanne made sure the house was clean for us to come back to.  We finished packing suitcases and loaded up the car.  When the girls got home at around noon, we were ready and headed to Pittsburgh Airport.  We had enough time before our flight took off for Madeline to munch on some McDonalds.

You may recall if you've followed my blog for long that we flew into Las Vegas this time.  When we arrived in Vegas Monday evening, we rented a car (a dusty blue Lincoln Continental, or "granny ghetto mobile" according to Mikelle), and drove to St. George.  We spent the first three days of our trip with Angie's family.  On Wednesday, we took the boat to Sand Hollow.

We paused for a family photo on the boat before the play began in earnest.  It was windy, not stereotypically hot for St. George in June, and the water had only warmed to a brisk 66 degrees due to the unseasonably cool spring Utah (and most of the West) has experienced this year.

Madeline never misses a chance to pose for a Kodak moment.  (That's my hat).

Given the relatively choppy water, tubing was the order of the day.  Emily, Madeline and Jake got us started.

After Madeline and Emily got tired, Jessica and Mikelle joined Jake on the tube.

Then is was time for Daddy, Emily and Mommy to have a ride.  I got water up my nose.

Later that evening, after we were all waterlogged and tired out, Angie had a house full of people.  Brandon (who was not at the lake with us :-( because he had to work), had received a letter.  Jake opened it for him.  It read (in part): Dear Elder Atkinson, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary...in the California San Jose Mission...You will learn the missionary discussions in the Vietnamese language...You should report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on Wednesday, September 14, 2011. 

It was an emotional experience for all involved, especially Brandon, and he is excited to have some time to work and prepare this summer for his mission.  We are very proud of him.  As you can tell from the white dots on the map behind him, people had guessed places all over the world for Brandon, but only two had guessed California, and no one had guessed San Jose (much less Vietnamese speaking).  We found out later that the San Jose area has over 100,000 Vietnamese people.

On Thursday we stayed with Angie's family for the day.  I was sick so I slept a lot while the kids had a water fight in the yard and Joanne went....well, you know.  That evening we said goodbye and headed north to Orem for some time with Joanne's family.  On Friday the girls found a playground at Geneva Elementary School.

They also helped Grandma plant her garden.  We're so agrarian!!!

And every day since we got to Orem, the girls have been swimming in Aunt Amy's pool.

 

5 June 2011 - Memorial Day Week

For Memorial Day, as we have each year since we moved to Pennsylvania, we attended our ward's picnic.  This year, it was blistering hot by noon on Monday.  We ate and tried playing volleyball and ladder ball, but ultimately ended up retreating to the refuge of the shade of a large tree.  After about two and a half hours, the picnic started breaking up because people were just too hot.  We headed a couple miles down the road to swim at Phil and Beth Conklin's pool for a while before heading home.

This summer we are participating in a local organic farm cooperative.  It's mostly a really large vegetable garden, so our shares each week consist of lots of veggies -- lettuce, herbs, collard greens, radishes and beets so far.  Things like peas, carrots (maybe), cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini are on their way.  In order to keep our cost for the veggies low and to try to teach the kids a little bit of work ethic (as well as where food comes from), we've volunteered to help on the farm some this summer.  On Memorial Day in the evening, when things had cooled down (a little) we went out to the farm.  Here's Emily pulling some weeds.

Jessica was looking fabulous while watering the bell pepper starts we were transplanting from the greenhouse to the farm.

Not only is it nice to get out and get your hands dirty, but the farm itself is historic, dating at least back to the 1800s with a picturesque and stately farmhouse (which I mostly cut off on the left of this photo) and sweeping views of Pennsylvania's typical rolling green hillsides.

The rest of Memorial Day week was occupied with work around our house, the last week of school for the kids, and getting ready to leave for our trip to Utah.  Before that could happen though, I had a wedding to perform.  The groom is Army Private First Class Scott Harris, a young man from our ward who will be serving in Germany beginning next week.