I used to keep track of art projects and crafts better. We usually do about one or more a week and they add up. So I stopped caring about taking pictures or keeping them. But this one was different and fun so I actually took some pictures.
Did you know you could paint with sunflowers. We have a bunch of them outside, and the centers work like a inked paintbrush and make some lovely purple patterns.
This is my grandparents house. Grandpa built it about twenty years ago, and they have lived there ever since. We visited it all the time growing up, and I have many memories of feeding the ducks and sledding on the hill.
Not until recently did I appreciate the unique construction. This house is built directly into a west facing hillside.
The partially in ground home keeps cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, and it also has a built in root cellar. The west facing sun warms it in the winter, and a volunteer box elder tree in the deck provides shade in the summer. The tree came right up through the deck, and my grandparents made a hole for it. I like how nature often provides what you need as long as you are looking and taking advantage of it.
This rock is from the hillside above.My grandpa did most all of the work on the house himself.
There is a pellet stove inside and very open concept small home and over-sized garage that had been great for my handy grandpa. I have enjoyed sleeping over in the living room for years.
It is built on a natural spring, that also provides water for the house. The spring forms a small pond usually filled duck. It exits the property in a stream filled with watercress.
My grandparents are older, and I hope they are around for many years to come. But if not, I will always have found memories of visiting them in their unique home in the mountains.
This year has not been a year of vacations. We’ve been trying to get the remodel in our house done, and we have a baby. We camped a couple of nights with my family up at Rock port. It was a bit cold and rainy. Still fun.
His uncle decided to give a marshmallow
I also had fun showing the Fairy Forest to my family. We had a bunch of little kids with us and they all loved it.
My sister has more pictures here.
Within just a couple weeks, Henry started to crawl, wave, clap his hands, and cut three more teeth in. Someone is excited to grow up.
Summer is winding down. We’ve been playing at the pool and with friends. Sometimes I can convince Peter to ride his bike. He has a hard time trying new things, and even though bike riding has been available to him for a long time, he hasn’t done it consistently enough for it to not be a new thing. Piano, however, is a new thing that has stopped being a new thing, and he loves to go through his piano book. I think I might have to sign him up for lessons soon.
Peter does love singing. Lately he will go through a songbook and just sing the songs though. We’ve been getting renditions of Praise to the Man and Go Round and Round the Village. I love it.
Curtis is finally starting to talk a bit more. I think he will always be a bit quiet though. We are working on potty training though with very little success.
Pictures taken in June by Becki, Joe’s sister.
This one’s not t-ball. Cute anyway.
I recently had a birthday. I turned 27. People almost always think I am older than I am and I think it will continue to be that way for awhile. I never feel old when I have another birthday: but I’m still not even in my thirties! In this last year I had a baby, but not much else has changed. That’s a good thing–I’ve spent so much time in my twenties moving around it is nice to finally be settled.
Here’s a selfie. I was tired of looking at my Facebook photo, so it got updated.
This is one of the first birthdays in quite a while that I was able to celebrate with my twin sister. (She’s temporarily moved back to Utah.) We had a big family party the day after my birthday. And then I went down and visited with her and lots of cousins for my kids.
My sister’s kids
Lots of cousins!
One my birthday presents was a camera, and it’s been fun taking pictures. It isn’t a super nice camera, but good enough for what I do. The lens isn’t super scratched and it isn’t lost so it beats out my previously two cameras.
The boys did swim lessons. Neither of them passed. But they still got better at swimming!
Peter has struggled with riding his own bike. We finally got him a new bike with cool training wheels and he’s been doing much better. Good enough we even went on a short bike ride.
Playing at Mantua Lake. I love this little lake!
Joe made this pop bottle rocket last year, and we are still enjoying it. Fun thing to do on a hot day.
Peter adored the fireworks. It was worth staying up for.
My husband’s family gets together a lot, but not usually to do anything all that exciting except for sitting around and visiting. That’s fine, but I wanted to do something else and sitting around waiting for other people to organize something wasn’t working. So I planned a family reunion. Attendance was not great (but Joe’s family is so large we had plenty of cousins to play with). We went to a children’s museum, went to a splash pad, and camped and played at the lake in Mantua.
I was having too much fun visiting and playing to actually take pictures.
We hiked up Waterfall canyon in Ogden. I did this hike last year with my two boys by myself. It went much faster with Joe along, even with another little boy in the mix. It’s a really enjoyable hike, not too long but still a bit of a challenge.
The canyon is deceptive. One normal trail goes on a nice hike up to a couple of small waterfalls. But the canyon is also home to several other smaller trails that lead to eroded cliffs, dangerous creek crossings, and steep climbs. The first time we hike here, back before I had children, I was nearly crying because I was scared of falling down the steep hillside we were trying to hike across. We realized later we were on the wrong side of the creek.
Several years later we hike without incident. This time (as you can probably tell by my preamble), we didn’t start on the right trail and had to do a lot of scrambling to get back on the right one. Scrambling involved crossing bloating creeks, going up extremely steep, eroded hills, and bushwhacking through grass and sage brush. In some ways, it was a lot of fun. It had the benefit of being far shadier than the correct trail, and had almost as much thrill as a good roller coaster. The kids didn’t mind too much as well (minus the one creek crossing that scared Curtis to tears, but was actually easily crossed).
If you are ever hiking there, stay on the north side of the creek. And cross the creek right by the parking lot. Unless you want an adventure.
Liz Braithwaite 