Maple Canyon

Kennedy had wanted to go camping lately really bad. I don't have school on Monday and I'm all caught up on my homework, so I decided that this weekend we could go on an overnighter. I told Kennedy and Nicole more than a week ago that we should go and everyone seemed to enjoy the idea. But when the day came, Kennedy decided that she was going to stay home because her mother was having a baby shower for her new baby boy Ethan. Cole and I went any way.

We were going to go to the San Rafael Swell, but as we were climbing Fairview Canyon to cross over the mountains between Ephraim and Castledale, the Subaru over heated and the radiator broke. We turned around and cooled the car down as we coasted down the canyon back to Fairview.

Once in town, I got some radiator stop leak and bought some more coolant. (all the local mechanic shops were closed) Surprisingly, the radiator stop leak worked, so we headed back up Fairview Canyon, but about 1 mile up we started overheating again, but now the radiator wasn't leaking. We drove back down and asked one of the locals if there was a place to camp that was close by that didn't require us to climb up over the mountain. They said there was a really cool place just west of Moroni called Maple Canyon that was only a small climb.

We head off and sure enough Maple Canyon was awesome! The fall colors were amazing. The Subaru stayed within temp range just long enough to make it to the first campsite and than overheated.

The canyon walls were really neat. It almost looked like someone had cemented these giant cliffs with cobble stones. I don't know how well you can see in the pictures, but the cliff walls were made of small stones with the biggest stones being about a foot in diameter.

Another interesting thing was

these HUGE nests of caterpillars that looked like big spider webs. The were everywhere. While we were making breakfast, the caterpillars kept falling from the trees on to us. They were really fuzzy and cute and because Nicole missed Toby, she took a liking to them. Nicole found one caterpillar, I guess they are called Wholly Bears, that was black and orange and really fuzzy. She really liked that one.

Even though we missed Kennedy dearly, we still had a great time. It is nice to go and enjoy being outdoors from time to time.

There is a bun in the oven

About week ago, Nicole decided at 12:30 a.m., to take a pregnancy test. Bad Idea. Nicole had already taken several pregnancy tests that week, and all of them had come up negative. She was so disappointed, but we didn't really expect that she would get pregnant on the first try either. So, she told me, "the test will come up negative, but I want to take one anyway." I told her to go ahead. That was a mistake, because we ended up getting very little sleep that night.

The test came up positive. We are expecting in May. It took awhile for the test to come up positive, and she said that she hadn't been waiting that long on the previous tests before she threw them away. We took a couple of the old tests out of the trash, and sure enough, they were all positive.

Nicole has been acting pregnant as well. All of a sudden, she hates garlic and she can smell things from a mile away(I now have to shower more often). She was craving ground beef so I baked her a meatloaf and she was very excited. That is not at all like Nicole to crave ground beef. She has also been craving bell peppers which is good because I love them.

We have plenty of boy names, but currently no girl names. So anyone who would be so nice as to suggest girl names would be very much appreciated. So far Nicole doesn't want to use a girls name that is really popular. She like M and A names, but your suggestion doesn't have to be one of those. Leave your suggestions by leaving a comment.

Mandy and the Clay Pigeon

Mandy can not throw a clay pigeon.

Blueberries for Breakfast

Scott woke up this morning and decided to make a lovely breakfast. We thought it was worthy of a picture. Scott loves blueberries a lot. We are very happy when the price of blueberries goes down!

Kennedy went to Washington with grandma Diana. So she will be gone until Monday. We have missed her all weekend and are very excited for her to return.

Scott started school at Westminster College. He is taking Trigonometry, Airline Management, Aviation Law, and a Political Science class.

This is a picture of Converse hall at Westminster. That is were Scotts math class is.


We have finally finished the basement for Kennedy K. I took a picture of it, but it didn't turn out so well. The basement looks great though, and Kennedy loves it. We painted a big rectangle on the wall with chalk board paint so K could color on it with chalk. It turned out really cool. Scott and Nolan sheet rocked the ceiling in the basement and it made a huge difference so it is not a scary place anymore.

Kennedy, Hannah, and Olivia Camping

Dustin took Grandpa Nolan, the girls, and I camping a few weeks ago. Here a couple pictures from the camping trip. Kennedy and Hannah are swimming in Payson Lake

Kennedy Starts 4th Grade

Kennedy has been doing gymnastics. She is awesome!!! She is incredibly flexible. She is not even trying in this picture of her doing the splits. She goes to gymnastics every Tuesday.




She also started 4th grade on Monday. She is very excited to go back to school! Her teacher seems like she is going to be great.

A bat at Payson Lakes.

While Kennedy and I (Scott) were camping at Payson Lakes, I found a bat!! He was crawling along the path and jumping and trying to fly. He never could quite get airborne. We thought that he must be hurt. We were not sure what to do, so we thought that it would be best if we just let him go on his way.

Later on though, I found out that if bats land on a flat place, they can not fly! Bats have to be up high like in a tree or the top of a cave, and drop themselves off to get enough airspeed to actually fly. They can't get a running start like birds can. So i guess this guy was just stuck on the ground until he climbed a tree or something.

He was very neat to see and I feel very lucky that we were able to take some pictures before he crawled off into the forest and foliage.