A Couple of Surprises/Projects

The first surprise project is for the Hubster.

He purchased this little beauty at Bed Bath and Beyond a little while ago to go with the stove he got for Christmas. The first chance we got to use it was on our Moab trip. It works great, but is a little inconvenient to carry. So....

I made it a carrying case! I really hope Logan doesn't look this up on his phone, because I want it to be a surprise when he gets home! I used left over materials from this project, including red canvas, black strap stuff (I can't remember it's proper name) and a long plastic zipper. I am so proud of myself because it fits!

My next special surprise is for an extra special lady. It'll be her birthday soon and she LOVES grandma-ish house slippers. (She doesn't read my blog, but if you know her, don't tell her, okay???)

I remember seeing a post on Ruffles and Stuff about embellishing this type of slipper, and I have been saving it for this birthday. Mine aren't quite as fancy as the example, but I made them myself and that is sure to make this lady very proud.

I also made the embellishments removable for washing, because this lady likes to traipse outside to feed the cat in these on occasion and frequently washes her slippers. I think she will especially like this little convenience.

Yay for me! I have had a great crafty day! Now does anyone want to come over and clean up my messes??? ;)

Moab / Westwater Trip

Last weekend we went to Moab to raft the canyon outside town. It was fun. It was my first rafting trip since the "Incident" and I was a little nervous and freaked out about little rapids, but I was okay. Logan was really sweet and kept reassuring me.

I love this picture of Logan!

Then, the next day the boys had a permit to raft Westwater Canyon, which the Blake's do not have the greatest track record with. The summer before we were married they went and 2 out of three boats flipped......AND.....do you think they could learn their lesson? NOPE! They flipped again. I knew it was probable and that's why I didn't go. Debbie and I shuttled and it was boring to wait 4 hours in the middle of no where for them. The trip was good overall, but these short rafting trips just seem to be more work than they're worth :)

One of My Favorite Things...

(this is an older picture, but the only one I had of him sleeping)

One of my favorite things is when Logan says funny stuff in his dreams. The funny thing is that it always has something to do with his job. The latest was him gasping and sitting up in bed and saying, "Where is everyone?" I asked him who everyone was. He said, "All the kids." (this was right after a big sleep over with nieces and nephews). I didn't say anything, so he filled me in by saying that they had taken the asphalt. HUH??? I love it. He's so adorable. This doesn't happen all the time though :( He claims that I talk in my sleep too, but it's not understandable. Oh Logan! You fill my life with joy even when you're sleeping!

PS. Don't get mad at me for this, Logan :)

And a follow-up...

I know, I know, my life must be pretty lame if I am "following up" on my previous story, but I was up there again and you have to admit, it's not something you see everyday...

LOL

Richfield's Golden Arches fell down today in a terrible wind storm. I can always count on my sister Katie to keep me updated on all the funny goings on up there in Sevier County!

Introducing the beautiful vocal stylings of...

Miss Meghan

Meghan has been taking voice lessons and I just happened to be up there for her recital. She was pretty nervous, but she did really well. She was one of the only ones who sang loud enough that you could tell what she was singing. I'm so proud of her. I was never brave enough to sing a solo. She's only 11 and she's already cooler than me ;) GOOD JOB MEGHAN, WE LOVE YOU!!!

The North Rim

Yesterday, as we were getting ready for church, we decided to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. So after church we packed a lunch and dinner and took off. When we got there it was really windy and cold so we only took the short hike out to Bright Angel Point and spent the rest of the time checking out the amenities and looking for license plates from all 50 states. We ended up finding 35 states + Alberta, Canada.

Me and "Brighty"!

Funny story though. We stopped Jacob Lake to go look in the cute little tourist store and when we were done Logan started driving toward the Grand Canyon. I was like, "Where are we going? I want to see the lake!" Logan looks at me like I'm an idiot and says, "There is no lake. Look it up on Google Maps!" Seriously though, how can there not be a lake at a place called Jacob Lake???

Fishing Adventures

Last weekend we hitched up the boat and headed up to Baker Reservoir.

We had a bit of trouble starting the motor, and it is a little finicky, but we had fun:)

We didn't catch anything, but I almost did. BUT...I also lost the lure that Logan bought me for will-someday-be-a Mother's day. That was sad, but not entirely my fault. We got some sun, which was good, and Logan figured out the motor which means that next weekend will be even better. Maybe we will even catch a fish!

Now We Just Need a Motor

We finally got Dad's boat together. It's come along way since he boat almost a year ago. the trailer was bent and didn't have any lights and the wood on the boat was all rotted. Josh started by getting new wood for the motor mount and sanding the old side boards when I took it over. I took it to Dad's house stained the mount boards and cut the tongue off the trailer. Dad welded a new tongue on and ran the wires for the lights. I painted the trailer and wired the lights up. When i tried to hook up the back corner braces, I found that the side boards were bad and needed to be replaced. Klint hooked us up with some sweet oak boards that he cut to custom dimensions for us, thanks Klint. Then I mounted them back to the boat and it only took all of the smaller clamps that dad and mom had which was 18 by the way and It's back on. I finished staining them this weekend and we picked the motor up from Josh's and we just have to give a tune-up hopefully and it will be ready in time for "Ice-off." Not going to get to it this weekend though we plan on going to Bass Pro Shops and look for new Fishing Poles so we don't have to put up with the Iron Man thing closing all the roads off.

Pipe Springs Trip

We decided that since we have this park pass that we should use it and go to as many places as we can and we haven't been to Pipe Springs for as long as we can remember. It did turn out to be the fee free weekend so we didn't really need a pass anyway. It was okay Sydney got to play with a horse and quack like a duck. We were even privileged to have our own private tour of Windsor Castle it was kinda of awkward. We think there might have been one of Benjamin Frederick Blake's chairs there but we're not sure.

River Trip Info

I have posted information about a river trip in June on my rafting blog. For those interested please click on my super cool Paddle Oar Die Button to the right.

Gum Cut?

So yesterday Sydney paper cut her pinkie on something she doesn't know what but,

"It hurt bad!"

she said. This morning she was trying to get some gum and gum cut her finger on the tin foil (we know how she paper cut herself this time).

"It hurts bad!"

she said.

Tea Party

I had an assignment for a class to attend something political, so today I went to the Tea Party for the Republican party at Bluff Street Park. It was rumored that Sarah Palin was going to be there, but she wasn't :(. I've never been to anything like this in my life! It was definitely an experience I will always remember. And oh man are there some crazy people out there!

CNN was there, although I did not see them.
Me with the Tea Party bus.

There were a lot of people.

Me and Moe partying it up while wearing our anti-abortion pins:)

It was quite an experience!

Getting value out of my time off

So, since I worked 74 hrs last week and that I've 0 hrs this week I thought it would be a good idea to get some use of my time off hrs that I'm having to use. Sydney and I decided to go to Zion and get one of those "America the Beautiful" passes, Marilyn gave us one for Christmas and we decided to get it now. I'm a little bummed that the picture on the card is of some birds and not Nankoweap, but what do you do?





But it was really cool because normally you don't get to see the water running down the dry creek bed. The top three pictures are from a hike that isn't a park hike. You just go off the roadside on the other side of the tunnels. The bottom picture is a panoramic picture that I made of the view from the Canyon Overlook Trail. You start just east of the big tunnel.

Sleep-Over in Progress

It's a new tradition at our house to have the boys over for a sleep-over when they come to St. George to stay. It's always lots of fun:)