Adventures in Blanding

After dedicating the cabin we headed out with the family to explore Blanding. How many people over the age of 40 does it take to figure out an AC?

Don't worry... They eventually read the manual and got it all fired up! Haha. Our first stop after filling up the van with gas from the Ute Reservation, tax free, was the property my great grandpa owned.

Drew checking out the out house. With an actual wooden toilet. Pretty fancy.

Next was a stop at Redd's True Value. I'm not going to lie, being a Redd in Blanding is kind of a big deal.

Then we cruised around town and grandma showed us all the local hot spots. The home below is the home that my grandpa was brought to from the orphanage.

Pretty cute.

This is a home the kids called the castle house, I loved it!

Then we went to a diner called Old Tymers, where they had pictures of my great grandparents on the walls as children. This my grandma pointing out a picture of her mother on horseback. My grandma said her mom was never content to stay home. She was always finding an excuse to be outside, on a horse or out of town. And I totally related! It must be in the blood.

Don't Hassle Me I'm Local

As I said before Drew and I headed down to Bluff to help build a cabin, dedicated to the man pictured below.

So I decided to catch Drew up on our heritage before we got there. And I read him Jens' history. A brief summary of his life; Jens crossed the plains with the Willey Handcart Company. They were caught in a severe snow storm in their travels. Jena being a large man standing 6'7" tall and having large feet wore through his shoes causing him to get frostbite on his feet. He told his wife Elsie, "Leave me here to die, I cannot go any further." their oxen had died on the journey and they were pulling their own wagon. Elsie said "I will not leave you. Ride in the cart." Elsie pulled him the rest of the way. After arriving in Salt lake the Jens Nielson family was called to travel down to what is now Bluff, Utah. They were the pioneers who what is known as the 'Hole in the Rock'. And also conquered San Juan Hill. You can read the whole story in a book newly written by Gerald Lund, the title is Undaunted Courage.

These are the cabins in Cove Fort. The cabin facing you on the very Left of the picture is Jens' cabin.

This is a picture of Drew chinking the cabin, so that mortar could be placed in between the logs.

This is the side of the cabin, pre chink and mortar.

This was Drew teaching me how to mortar. It was so funny seeing people come up with their own ideas about how to get the mortar in between the logs. One couple on their cabin were literally throwing the mortar at the cracks then trying to smooth it in. Wonderful!

Looking out of the front door. Probably a pretty realistic picture of what the pioneers would see every morning.

After a good long day of work we headed off to see some Native American ruins. Drew told me when we were dating, one of his life goals was to go see the Native Americans who built their homes right in the cliff. Well Done and Done!

I learned from my Utah Obscurities book that the paintings on the walls done by the Natives are called pictographs. And the chiseled art are called petroglyphs. Lesson learned!

These ruins are so remote and hard to find, they have not been roped off yet. So we were able to delicately explore them up close. It is truly amazing to see up close.

Don't Come in We're In The Bluff!

My grandma told me that what happens in Bluff, stays in Bluff! And most of the late night jokes and story telling will remain a secret. However the adventures had to be documented.

We headed down to Bluff, Utah this weekend. To participate in the building of a cabin. Dedicated to my great great great grandpa Jens Nielson. My Utah Curiosities, book came in super handy once again. On our adventures through Utah.

We don't make it down to the four corners area of the United States as often as we should. So we had to make the most of our drive down there. First stop Utah Curiosities led us to was Ray's Tavern in Green River. A local hotspot for river runners.

The walls hold shirts from river runners all around the world.

It was a quaint little place and we had fun with the ketchup squeeze bottles. Well... I did. Next stop Arches National Park!

We did a hike up to delicate arch! Beautiful!!

Seriously more beautiful then I can describe. And it was a nice 2 hour hike to break up the driving.

Then our tour guide book told us to check out Newspaper Rock.

We tried to get a picture with the ancient petroglyphs. Too much wall...

Too much us...

Ahh just right.

We cruised through Blanding. Got a drive by picture of the local family store;)

We pulled into Bluff and grabbed a quick bite at the only open restaurant in town. Yes it was 9:30 p.m. Why would any place stay open that crazy late?

Best cups I've ever sipped out of! What a beautiful town!

So Long and Farewell

We live in a house that is dwarfed by two huge Evergreen trees. In fact our neighborhood was apparently infested with these trees. Everyone has a story to tell about the enormous trees that they removed from their yard. Well this is our story.

I forgot to take pictures of our house with the trees infront. So google maps came to my aid. Above is a satellite view of our house. The road infront during the winter was always just ice because the road rarely saw sun.

Our house is in their somewhere.

Don't mind the construction debry on our back patio. You can't miss the trees towering over the house.

One of the beasts.

We have been getting bids on tree removal and some places have been outrageous. We got a bid from Discount Tree Removal and they gave us a great deal. They infact just showed up on our front porch one day ready to work. No appointment needed! Haha

Can you see how itty bitty our house looks underneath those trees?

One tree down.

And voilà. A house emerges! It doesn't even look like the same house. It's going to look so amazing when we get the lawn all put back together. You can finally see all of Drew's handy work.

...Inspiration...

So we are about to paint our house. And as usual I like to scoure the world for examples. We go on drives, walks, cruise the Internet, look at blogs, buy magazines! I obsess! But I thought I would show you some of the ideas I like for the house. I am terrible at siting, so please please let me know if you know where the picture is from so I can give them credit.

Here are some shingles we really liked. Some people like them jagged and wavy, it reminds me of ToonTown in Disneyland. So we did ours in even horizontal lines like this.

And I am still not over my yellow kick! And I think a green house with a yellow door sounds amazing!

So here are some of my yellow doors...

This one is my favorite, the pale yellow is what I am leaning towards.

Who wouldn't want to visit someone with a yellow door. It just radiates happiness.

I thought about gray for the house color. But just for a moment. I think a green door on a gray house is beautiful.

A yellow door, but the shingles were too even for me. There is a fine line with shingles.

I love it, they painted the trim around the door yellow too. I think it looks good here, but I like doors that are trimmed out in a color. To make the door pop more.

This is how we were thinking about doing our posts, but I don't love this style, it's a little too busy for me. I think it is very well done in this picture.

I take back what I said before, this one is my very favorite. The color yellow, the shingles, the color of the house. Or green is a little more green and less gray. This picture captures everything I want and love!

She's Had a Birthday!

Hooray! Cleo turned 1!

Our pudgy little puppy has grown into a pretty little lady.

She got a new collar, and a beautiful bow. Inspired by her best friend Dotti the Labrador!

The pooches on the porch.

Happy Birthday 'Cleo'patra! We love our pups!