Grand Gulch 2023

We planned an adventure. And what an adventure it was! I miss my family so much! So we planned a backpacking trip for those who felt so inclined to accompany us. It was a quick one over Memorial Day weekend. My mom agreed to take the younger 2 girls and the rest of us packed up and headed out Friday night.

Shawn met us at our house with Andie and Hailey and we drove down to the coolest VRBO in Provo where we met Brendan (who is in school down there) and Wes with Dallin. We stopped to eat at Taco Bell. Naturally. We were traveling with Shawn afterall LOL. And this is where Chad proceeded to braid the girls hair together. 

The VRBO host invited us to help milk the goats and feed the chickens (who crazily ate from our hands!). As a result we were a little late (2 hours ahem) meeting Helen at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station on Saturday. Whoops! Thanks for your patience Helen!

The sign at the Hole in the Rock gas station where we stopped said, "Unattended children will be given a double espresso and a free kitten!"

The crew! From L to R it is Chad, Brendan, Angela, Shawn, Jaedyn, Andie, Hailey, Dallin, Lilia, and Wes.

Photo courtesy of Helen (not pictured)

One of the fun things about Grand Gulch are all the Anasazi ruins that are well preserved. I did not keep very good record of our trip unfortunately! We entered Todie Canyon about 3 in the afternoon and after a little way finding, finally found the trail down into the canyon. The descent was steep but without event this time thankfully. We marked the drop in on our maps this time so if we ever do it again we hopefully won't track the back and forth at the top! After about 4.4 miles we set up camp at the junction to Grand gulch and ate our freeze dried meals. After we finished up we broke out the angel food cake that Chad had secretly packed in his pack. After rehydrating the strawberries with sugar we all sat down to enjoy a little strawberry shortcake! 

Day 2 we proceeded down Grand Gulch and hiked 7 miles. We took many offshoots to explore ruins and set up camp after trying desperately hard to find a campsite. Poor Wes rolled his ankle and was such a diehard despite that. Even when we went up a side canyon and back out after not finding a flat area to camp! I was worried they were all gonna hate me by the end. But after rest and food no one seemed to hold a grudge.

Monday we hiked 5.8 miles and exited Grand Gulch at Bullet Canyon. Prior to exiting we hiked up Sheiks and checked out the green mask. And had a small photo shoot of families jumping off the large tree. What a playground! Helen was kind enough to be Dallin's "family" since Wes waited at the junction and rested his swollen ankle. That night we camped near Jailhouse Spring. That evening was delightful. After we set up camp at the base of a large rock we climbed part way up to enjoy our dinner. Wes and Shawn were on one trading barbs and had us all rolling! Shawn told a hilarious story about his daughter Madelyn and her excitement over choosing to do a report on Uranus- which he was not adult about at all. There was a discussion about how in a world where you can seemingly choose to be anything or identify as anything what would it be and how would it change the world... you can imagine how exciting that was. That night Jaedyn and Lilia stayed up to watch LaLa Land on the rock with Andie who introduced us to the magic of technology in the wilderness lol. 

The next morning, Tuesday, we all agreed to wake up at 5:30 to try and beat the heat. We packed up camp and ate breakfast in an amazing 30 minutes and were off. Shortly after starting we took the side trip to explore Perfect Kiva.

We saw, pottery shards, mortar where they ground their grain, buildings, pictographs, and a well preserved but also recently reinforced Kiva.

 The hike out is so cool when you reach this part. You just climb up this waterway. Afterward, it's a lot of switch backs to climb out of the canyon and I think certain family members were ready to roast me over a spit. But they are good people and did not. It was such a fun trip and so great to be able to enjoy each other's company while doing hard things, appreciating a small piece of history, and stepping away from the grind of our lives for a bit. Kellie met us shortly after the exit with refrigerated gatorades and chocolate! It was amazing and so thoughtful! We all split our separate ways to finish the drive home that night and I quickly missed everyone!

And bless Mom for watching and teaching our young ones! Here is really why we had a long holiday weekend and I'm grateful to her for sharing that knowledge with my girls. They had so much fun making little flower arrangements for Andy's grave and telling them stories about what a cool uncle he would have been. Pretty sure he's one of our angels on the other side who reaches out strengthening us and protecting us from time to time. 

 

Mother's Day and Misc

Raise your hand if you have awesome neighbors!

✋✋✋

For realsies.

And raise your hand if you have awesome supportive family! 

✋✋✋

Lilia had her wax museum presentation and presented on Susan B Anthony. She studied, prepped, wrote, and presented 100% of this on her own. And most of it she did in the car on our way to Kanab! She was in awe over Susan B Anthony, her sacrifices, dedication, and example. I think she has a new hero.

For Mother's Day Chad made me a delicious breakfast. I then scrambled because at the last minute wanted to change up my entire plan for singing time. My family chipped in to help me prepare and it would never have been successful without all of them! We found a recipe for a happy mother and all the little kids helped me bake by singing songs and pulling down ingredients that had ideas they could practice for helping make a happy mom. It was successful review of the songs we've learned this year. I led the music with a wooden spoon. At the end we mixed all the ingredients in the bowl and added them to the "singing time oven" (aka hid them in the appropriately labeled podium). After they baked we removed rice krispie treats individually wrapped with a poem for them each to give to their moms with the reminder to practice their recipe this coming week! It was a fun change.

Ebony spoke in sacrament meeting too! At the age of 9! She was so brave. But even more impressive was that she wrote her talk 100% by herself. We had a busy birthday week with work and preparations and soccer practices and games etc. Saturday night I suggested she sit down and write a few thoughts that her dad could help her arrange. She sat down and proceeded to write out an entire talk and then practice it. I was floored! She talked about her mother and grandmothers and how she knows they love her. She spoke about Eve and expressed gratitude that she made it possible for us to be here. She even thanked Renley's mom because without her, Jaedyn wouldn't have a job! It was all very sweet. And a reminder that we often have an impact on people when we don't even realize it!

That evening we were invited to the church for a surprise. When we got there we were informed that McKinley along with some of her friends had prepared and practiced a Mother's Day presentation. They proceeded to tell us what their moms meant to them and took turns telling mother's jokes. Katie's father had even provided refreshments. It was all so sweet!

The girls all wrote me very tender notes to top the day off and we ended it curled up on my bed watching Beauty and the Beast together.

 

May Birthdays

Lilia turned 12 on May 4! This kid is a stellar human being. She wanted another sushi party and got her wish. Complete with Sushi cake, this time made by the fabulous Michelle Price.

Her dad organized a party with sushi stacks that the kids got to put together for dinner and then rice krispy treat sushi rolls. They played games and opened gifts and the girls were so generous!

This shirt says "Bookmarks are for quitters" and I knew Lilia had to have it when I saw it. It was made for HER! And you can see from the expression on her face that she totally agrees.

And she got her guitar! She has been wanting one for a while now and we bit the bullet. She does not want lessons yet however. She prefers to play around and just have us show her stuff, looks chords up on youtube, and practices at a leisurely pace. It is something she WANTS to do rather than HAS to do. When she is ready for more, she will let us know. I love that my kids love music.

Jaedyn turned 15 on May 13th. Her friend Emily reached out to me several weeks ago and asked if we could do a surprise party for her. I thought it sounded like fun and we spent the next few weeks making arrangements for decor, cake, lunch, activities, and alibis. And Jaedyn spent that time sulking. She was so sad that none of her friends were available. They had games, family visiting from out of town, they were grounded, and had funerals. It was all very convincing but a little sus. So I planted a few distraction seeds by suggesting we plan something for the following Monday when they were available and chiding her friends that were grounded to be nicer to their parents while Jae was listening. 

The day of the party arrived and they wrote love notes to her on the board, blew up balloons, made bouquets and concocted a scheme where Emily (who was grounded) would call Jaedyn to come to her house to get a gift. While Jae was there Emily's dad called from the church where he was "helping with the pinewood derby" asking her to bring him something. And walaa...

Waiting to surprise her with pins and confetti balloons...

It was a little overwhelming but I think she felt the love. We all love you Jaedyn!

I fell in love with this sign, it was perfect for Jaedyn but Etsy wanted my kidney for it. So I bought a letter board and made my own. It says "A party without cake is really just a meeting". Perfect, yes?

Oh my goodness Emily had asked for pictures from all the friends and family and made the sweetest slideshow for Jaedyn that nearly brought her to tears. They all watched that and laughed and awwed appropriately. Then Suzi had put together a questionnaire phone game to discover who "knew" Jaedyn the best. This was a hilarious and fun game full of real info and fake answers. They had pizza, generously provided by Emily's parents, played tag at the park, Happy Salmon, opened gifts, ate cake and ice cream, and ended with lightening revenge on the basketball court. She then took off to spend the evening with her friends at a Beauty and the Beast production. I think she had quite a day... started out quiet with low expectations and went out with a bang!

And look at the haul... her friends know her well!

Happy birthday girls! 

With all the love,

Mom

 

Jaedyn

This girl got her first job! We got invited to try out rolled ice cream for the first time by our neighbors who own a little trailer called "Creamy Daze". It is a seasonal thing and they were training their employees. So of course we said yes! We froze as we stood in the sub 40/slightly windy/rainy weather, in sandals, eating ice-cream (cuz why not?) and talked for hours. Jaedyn expressed interest and was hired on the spot. She starts training tomorrow. And turns 15 on Saturday. This is what 14 looks like...

She looks like a lot of fun! I'd hire her in a heartbeat! What about you?