up in the high uintas again

we went up into the high uintas again last weekend. we took our nephew, tyler, and our friend, emron. my brother and his family watched sierra. we knew we'd be doing a lot of hiking in a short period of time so we figured that would be for the best. and it was.

we got up at 4:30 and were on the road by 5. we saw the sun come up, which is always fun, and were on our way hiking to the first lake by shortly after 7am. we ended up going to 5 lakes--one of which had salamanders in it. we got snowed and hailed on. we each caught some good fish and had two meals of eating fresh cooked fish with spices (including mrs. dash) and lime juice. b found some escamoles (ant eggs) and ate those. we found a lot of ripe raspberries and huckleberries and even some blueberries. they were all so good.

we had a great time and felt tired by the time we pulled into the driveway at 10:30pm. it was another great day in the mountains.

 b, w, and emron looking at the salamanders.

 a new lake we had never been to before.

 b with a handful of escamoles.

 

 eating them. b's face really makes you want to run out and try some.

batik cantik

we recently decided it would be fun to try our hand at making some batik. we gathered the supplies we would need (as best we could since you can't actually find batik tools at regular craft stores) and got to work. and boy it's work! we spent hours working on our shirts (for b and I) and pillow cases for the kids.

it was a long, multi-step process of outlining our vision for our batiks, melting wax, painting our shirts/pillow cases with wax, dying them in the different dye baths, repainting on wax, etc.

 here's w and s putting on their first layer of wax.

 b stirring the shirts/cases in the first dye bath: yellow. you have to start with the lightest colors and work your way darker. we did yellow, blue, and then black.

 drying our shirts after the first dye bath. this part took awhile even with the hot Utah sun.

 my shirt drying on the street.

 after we went through all of the waxing, drying, and dying, you then need to get the wax off the shirt. we ruined our iron and ironing board doing this, but we made some progress.

 but it's a slow process.

 here's b's shirt. he did a very elaborate butterfly design.

 

we still aren't done getting all of the wax off. maybe I will work on that some tonight. it's a long, slow process to make batiks. b and I agreed that we'll never look at the cost of a handmade batik and think it's too expensive again (unless, of course, it is!). it's a really long and labor intensive process, but we had a good time. i'll post the pictures of our final products once we get all of that wax off.

a happy birthday

we recently celebrated sierra's 7th birthday. we celebrated as a family on her big day.

 s scoping out the gifts.

 s standing in front of her Happy Birthday poster.

 me reading her card from Grandma Leslie.

 s reading her card from Grandma and Grandpa Roberts.

 s and w with the frame w gave her. the picture is of the two of them in a high uinta lake!

 s opening her gift from Emily and Jason.

 it's a super cool stomp rocket!

 

 s with her gift from grandma and grandpa Roberts. it's a big box full of special craft project stuff.

 this is perfect for a girl like the big s!

 s excited to see her new room. her big gift from me and b was an updated bedroom. note the bedspread--it has owls and flowers on it. that's from grandma leslie.

 s got a new big-girl desk with cool picture frames, desk organizing stuff, a light, and a bright green chair!

 s with her bday cake. it's a bit busy, but it's a cherry cake (pink) with deer antlers, a moose footprint, a fish, and the ocean waves on it. all her ideas!

 

 making a wish!

 licking the frosting off the big 7 candle.

 

the next week, s had her friend party. we had a pizza dinner in the backyard and then went to the new (super cool) rec center pool with three of her good friends. it was so fun--really. we all went and swam, went down the slides (there are four of them) and enjoyed the lazy river.

 

then we came home for s to open her presents and for everyone to eat birthday cookies that tasted like brownies. yes, they were that good.