I LOVE My Job!

I really cannot say that enough!

Especially when babies can start holding their own bottles?!

Baby Claire looks like a giant baby next to her sisters! She loves her babies.

Does it get cuter? Snuck in to make sure babies were asleep.

Kate was passed out! So cute, I almost can't stand it.

Kate catching up on some light reading before her nap.

Excuse me?

Lillian having a very detailed conversation with me on why she loves her lambie.

So snuggly.

Kate just can't get enough of Runaway Bunny.

Baby prison! How could you not love your job? I will gladly take them all home thank you!

Best Project EVER!!!

Well perhaps you remember our little entry table... The one on the back wall...

Well I hated it's stain!

And maybe you remember my grand plan to silver leaf it all... Yeah... That just sounded daunting. So after a visit to our neighbors house, she told me she had the same vision to silver leaf, and then just ended up spray painting metallic paint onto her table. Sold!

So instead of the pix above and several labor intensive hours saved!

Bam! Got my silver table!

And I LOVE it! I didn't even bother to sand this one. I'll probably be regretting that, when I'm repainting it tomorrow. But it took me no more then 10 minutes to paint. Was DRY, 30 SECONDS later and back in place in 5 minutes! I'll do projects like this anyday!

LOVE IT!!!!

Sunday Best!

Well Cleo has been looking all dolled up with bows. So we had to do something for Caesar Boy. Yes... HAD to.

And doesn't he look handsome?

Quite the pair.

This is how we are greeted at the fence.

Look at that smile. Nothing makes you feel more loved then a dog welcoming you home.

Our little gentleman. Yep... I'm going to be that mom.

The Final Frontier

You thought you had heard enough about our trip? Well there's more...

On our way out of Bluff we stopped at the Hovenweep ruins.

These were the first ruins that were discovered that had multi level buildings.

Pretty darn impressive if you ask me. There are tiny sporadic holes that they believe are aligned when the equinoxes occur. And separate windows for shining light through to alert the village of news. Pretty interesting stuff.

The mountain range below is known as the Sleeping Ute Mountain. You can see his headdress starting on the left. The Utes believe that this Ute Chief will awaken some day and reclaim this land for the original tribes.

Then we hopped in the car for the drive home. We play games in the car. Some families play I spy, or the Alphabet game. Drew and I play stick your head out the sunroof and drive game. Yes every time I play this I hear my dad's voice in my head that says, just like it did when I was 16, "cars are not toys".

But when you get wind hair like this it's just too hard to not play. Yes I know he's a vision! And he's all mine!

We stopped at our next obscurity. Hole N The Rock. This couple built their home in this rock.

And of course carved Pres. FDR's face into the side. You know, just the usual!

This is their living room, 60 ft fireplace and all.

Bedroom looking into other bedrooms etc. The wife carved her own bathroom at the age of 65! Blew my mind. And thus concluded our adventures. SouthEastern Utah... Consider yourself PWND!

Gooseneck River

I forgot about our adventure to The Goosenecks. It was amazing, we saw the rock formation Mexican Hat on the way. But too far away to get a good picture with the iPhone.

Well I took several pictures like this, but you just can't even get near the full effect of how breathtaking it all was.

So I turned to my trusty app (I LOVE my phone!) and mushed six or seven pictures into one to make a beautiful panorama!

Amazing!!!!

These photos still don't do it justice. You'll just have to go there yourself!

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.