Beaver Mountains

Last weekend (or maybe two weeks ago) we went on a trip to the Beaver Mountains. We had planned a trip for a while since it was the only weekend Logan's manager didn't have written off (he takes all the good ones). We left Thursday night after I got off work and drove up to LeBaron Reservoir. The plan was to camp that night and then ride the 4-wheeler down to my moms (75 miles away) and stay the night there and then drive back up to LeBaron again.

We made it about 20 miles to a place called Big John's Flat to discover that the only 4-wheeler road that would lead us to my mom's was closed still since the trial had been washed out my an avalanche last winter. So we drove back to camp, packed everything up and decided to make my mom's house our base camp:)

We spent the day next day on the West Mountain and the surrounding area. It ended up working nicely and we had a whole bunch of fun:)

Gorgeous view of where I grew up.

Haha! Only Richfield would spell its self wrong. This seriously made my day. Stupid Richfield:)

I was feeling much better after purchasing me a butt pad from Jorgensen's Honda.

Malibu Cleaners:)

As many of you know, I have recently went back to my old job at Malibu Cleaners. I was very fortunate that they took me back:) And I even got a raise. It was hard to adjust to the heat again, but it has been kinda fun. All the same old great people work there, like my manager Rochelle and my buddy Perla. Here are some pictures of my favorite favorite things...

LOVE all the Retro equipment:)

LOVE seeing all the wedding and formal gowns:)

LOVE cleaning my Wedding dress for FREE!!!!!!

New Rafting T-Shirts

Hey Everyone I've Been working real hard on a new T-Shirt and I want to order some if people want some it's cheaper to get more
This is one of the Backs
This is an other one of the Backs

This will go on the front Maybe
This is my original art that will go on the front or the back
This is for Tanner

I have also thought of putting a list of the rivers and years that we've been on and or some of the logos of the brands that we use ie: hyside sealine nrs etc.


Tell me if you're interested they're 20 bucks a t-shirt I think.

San Juan River Trip

Most of the time the river was shallow enough to walk in.
The only rapid.
The boys jumping off a rock at one of our campgrounds. I don't know how it was deep enough to jump!
Enjoying myself.
I love this picture of Logan:) Minus the hat and glasses....:)

Memorial Day (A little late)

Here are a few pictures from our Memorial Day adventure in Escalante, Ut. It started at 2:30 am when Logan had to go to work. I went too and we left for Escalante straight from the job site. The reason we went is because it was the dedication of the new Hole in the Rock visitor's center. They graded (?) the road for the occasion making it possible to survive a trip down to the Hole in the Rock without wanting to die (too much). We did a little hiking down the road, we would have done more except the wind was blowing SO bad that we got sandblasted the whole time.

Me in a slot canyon.
Logan in a really cool slot canyon. Not in Spooky or Peek a Boo. It was supposed to be, but I got us lost:(
Logan with Lake Powell in the background at Hole in the Rock.
Me at Dance Hall Rock.
The view of our campground.
And for your viewing pleasure...the main event. My sister and her family were in a play about the Hole in the Rock. It was hilarious! Very good time! Of course I cried through the whole thing because at this point I had been awake for nearly 20 hours!

Warts

Word to the wise if you get warts on your foot take care of them early.
Also if you go to the dermatologist and get the sprayed with liquid NO2 for 2 minutes straight don't go to work the next day.



























Just saying:)

Another Perk of my Job

Another perk of my job is getting to see Brenner star in the first grade program!!!

Seeing into my Future

Not every girl can see her husband 34 years and 65 years into the future, but I can! Logan with his father Ronald and his grandfather Cecil. At least I know who I can thank for his good looks:)

Babysitting Eddie:)

Our neighbors, and long time friends of the Blake family have been out of town and we have been "babysitting" their sweet baby Eddie. He is adorable. And he has us both wrapped around his little paw:)

PS his favorite slushy flavor is Tigers Blood, just like me and Logan:)

100th Anniversary Graduation

Although I graduated technically in December from Dixie State College, the Commencement was not until May. 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Dixie State, so it was quite the celebration. President Thomas S. Monson was the guest speaker. It was pretty fun and amazing, so I'm glad I went even though I was sort of over graduating:)

Blake and Gubler

Blake and Gubler is a ranch that was owned by my husband's family way back in the day. It's higher in elevation, and therefore a much nicer place to spend the summer especially before air conditioning:) They spent a lot of time up there from what I understand, and grew their garden up there. There is a very rough road that takes off from Diamond Valley and follows along the base of Pine Valley Mountain and eventually ends up at Silver Reef. It was fun, very bumpy, and crazy beautiful. Blake and Gubler is near the Diamond Valley side of this road. These pictures are not of us at Blake and Gubler, it's pretty much just a valley with old buildings now, but near a red spot on Pine Valley Mountain. If you look closely from town you can see this tiny red spot, which is really huge:)

Longest Slot Canyon

Lucas Planned a hike down Buckskin Gulch which is in the Paria wilderness area about 40 miles east of Kanab. The hike was about 21 miles long and 13 miles of it is in a narrow slot canyon. It was a cool hike very pretty and pretty hard to do because you had to hike so far the first day because the camps are at the end of the canyon, and you had to wade through cold nasty mud puddles but I liked it and I got some rad pictures.

"This mud puddle is freezing my nuts off!"

Even the Paria river canyon was narrow when we got to it.

This is the best shot I got the whole time, I'm going to charge royalties for it.

Getting in touch with our Swiss-ness:)

My husband's ancestors moved from Switzerland to join the LDS Church. When they got here they were called to settle Santa Clara. With them they brought many of their traditions, although some had to be adapted to this area. Their tradition of dying Easter eggs persisted, but they used a local plant called Santa Clara Red Root to do it. I had this great idea that we should dye our eggs in the traditional way this year to make Easter more interesting.

My original plan was to go down by the river and hope I could find some. Then I had a bit of inspiration to ask my father in law about it. He told me that this is how his grandmother (the Swiss one) taught him to dye eggs.

He knew exactly where to find some. So while Logan was hiking, Ron, Anisa and her family, and I loaded up in the mini van in search of red root.

We did it using the tutorial found on You Craft Me Up. Apparently her hubby has Santa Clara roots as well:)

While we were cooking the roots they were very stinky. It smelled like we were boiling weeds. Who knew?!

And wrapping leaves on the shells was a bit tricky. Logan and Anisa did it the best:)

The end result however, was beautiful. Even if your leaf didn't work well it still turned it the most beautiful red/purple color. Much more colorful than store bought dye.

It was so much fun to get to do this and get closer to "my" Swiss heritage. I love learning about my ancestors and this was a fun way to feel more connected to them.

P.S. All these picture were stolen from my Sister in Law's blog:) She was actually smart enough to bring a camera with her... Check it out! Larcie Bird Craft Blog!

Kayenta Street Painting Festival

About a month ago while I was subbing, a woman came to the school for an assembly to tell us about something interesting that would be taking place the second weekend in April. Since it rained nearly all day yesterday, we went with Anisa's family to check it out after church today. I'm always glad to soak up a little culture when it comes my way:)

These artists are so amazing. They paint massive pictures on the asphalt using pastels. I can't believe painting so hard for so many hours and then having it all washed away.

Some paintings were very colorful and bright:)
This one was my favorite. I love Van Gogh:)

Poor Logan thought he was being tortured the whole time, but I had fun!

The Business of Spring!

Logan has been gone working in Salt Lake all week getting snowed on while I am in Sunny Santa Clara enjoying the marvelous weather! I've been puttering in the yard a little each afternoon, and although I'm not to the point of "loving" it yet, I am enjoying myself.

Here is some of the "news" from the yard.

Yesterday I watered the asparagus. Today I realized I may have made a terrible mistake because this is what I harvested..... Check out that monster on top of the pile!!!!

I bought a bare-root rosebush in January, and this is not it:) It's still lifeless looking, but this is one I bought a couple weeks ago that was not bare-root, and is definitely showing more signs of life.

And this is our sprinkling system! There are still some random dirt piles, but it looks like heaven to me! It will be so nice to water the whole lawn at the same time! I don't know how Debbie did it with a hose for 30+ years.

Well, that's the news here at the Blake's. I hope all of you in colder regions are jealous of my weather! I am getting a little worried though. I don't think I'll develop the heat tolerance I have had in previous years since I'm not working at the Dry Cleaning Inferno... That was one of the major upsides to that job. I'm not complaining though, the weather is so nice!