a trip to logan

we always love going to logan. we went up there a few weeks ago and hit some of our favorite places.

we started off at the bear river migratory bird refuge. we had never been there so late in the summer and were curious to see what that might mean (ie, what new birds would we see). we quickly realized, though, that august isn't the best time to see birds there. there was less water around and fewer birds. but we did still see some good birds--including a harrier.

one thing that surprised us was this big area of dried-out land (we had always seen it covered in water). from the car we could see that there were bumps of some kind on the ground. we got out and got closer and found that these "bumps" were dead, dried out, and picked clean carp. apparently this happens every summer, and the raccoons love all of the easy-to-eat carp.

from the bird refuge, we made our way into logan and hit downtown logan--including chocolates at the bluebird cafe--the gossner cheese factory (for cheese and ice cream), a picnic at the park, the zoo, and the di. it was great fun as going to logan always is.

first day of school!

we celebrated w and s's first day of school by taking some pics and doing our annual first-day-of-school creamery breakfast. 

 sierra with her cool new duds on. although the two fingers look like the peace sign, they're actually signifying that s is going into 2nd grade. doesn't she look like a big girl?

 w wearing his new converse (b has the same pair) and a florescent orange shirt. i love that florescent colors are cool now. they remind me of when i was a kid. w loves bright green and orange. the hi-five is because w is in 5th grade.

 eating donuts at the creamery. we always eat in the corner booth. 

 i like how this catches w mid statement.

scout campout

w and b went on their first father-son scout campout last month. they went up into a nearby canyon. they had a good time, but they said there were a lot of people camping up there. crowded camping isn't my favorite, but you get what you get sometimes. 

 they did some fishing, but they didn't have any luck.

 beautiful scenery though.

 w made eggs that were a big hit. he got a lot of compliments on his fine, fine scrambled eggs!

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.

high uintas hi!

once we got over our colds (b and i had colds that lasted a couple weeks), we decided it was high time we went into the high uintas. with our trusty xterra and gps we made it to the illusive castle lake. brian along with w and s tried to find this lake twice last summer, but without a gps it was just unfindable. actually, they were really close to it several times, but you can't see what's around you very well in the high uintas so they had no idea they were so close.

the first weekend we went up there, we just went for a day to go fishing. the fishing was exceptionally poor for all of us except w who caught the biggest fish of his life. and acutally he caught four fish (to my 0, sierra's 0, and b's 1 fish).

 w with his biggest fish ever!

 the view from the top of the rock cliff wall on the side of the lake. the wall is beautiful to look at from the ground, but the view is, perhaps, even better from the top. 

 this was the view to the water at the base of the rock wall. i had this sense that it would be so fun to dive off the top of the ledge and swan dive into the lake below, which is funny because i normally get scared just thinking of doing something like that. but looking at the rocks below was enough to make me know that my fantasy would never become a reality. 

 w and i fished off the rocks here. i thought for sure we'd catch a good fish (it looked like the perfect spot). but no dice. those fish just wouldn't bite--except, occationally, for william. i didn't have a definite bit all day.

 this was s's first fishing. she used a pole on her own and did an excellent job casting.

we decided it would be fun to go back up to castle lake the following weekend, but this time we would spend the night and camp by the lake, and then walk to another lake the following day. we got up to castle lake last friday night around 6:30. b and i set up the tent while the kids fished. we got our bear bag rigged up and then built a fire. we cooked hotdogs and then make a tin foil peach cobbler. it all tasted very good. 

 it was a beautiful night. the moon was almost full, and the sky was clear. we stayed up pretty late and could see well by the light of the moon and fire. it was great.

 b tending the peach cobbler.

 w carrying a large piece of wood. he built a log cabin from wood he found by the lake.

 the next day we woke up and headed out to the other lake. we took w there three years ago and knew that the fishing should be easy. we also knew that the other lake wasn't too far away from castle. what we didn't know was that it would be quite a bit of steep rock climbing. 

 it was a challenging lake to get to. but w and s both did really well making it there. we definitely have tough kids.

 once we got to the other lake, we weren't disappointed by the fishing. s caught a fish (her first fish EVER) on her first cast there. she reeled it in on her own too!

 look at that beauty!

 s caught a total of 7 fish there. it was so exciting!

 here's another one of s's fish. this was at a sweet spot in the lake. we all caught a few fish by those logs.

 while s and i were working on the fire, b was cleaning the fish we were about to cook, and w was doing some catch and relase fishing, we heard w call out. he was crying, and i saw b run over to him. i was tending the fire and figured that b would help w out since i couldn't think of what could have happened that would be all that bad. but then b called to me and said to run over as fast as i could. i told s to watch the fire and ran over. w--in trying to get a lure untaggled from a log--had gotten a lure stuck in the back of his head. 

w is a tough kid. he held on tightly to my arm (and sometimes my leg) while b cut the hat off his head and yanked the lure out of his head. thankfully, only one of the barbs got stuck. and, thankfully, b was there to yank it out (i get light headed pretty easily with gross body issues). he tried to pull it out gently a couple of times, but it was clear that wasn't going to get it out. so he pulled as hard as he could (which really must have hurt) and got it out. 

the amazing thing was that the wound site just looked like a pin prick in his head. it wasn't a big, bloody mess at all. we put some hand sanitizer on it and then some neosporin later, but it wasn't a bad wound at all. amazing.

w getting lure stuck in his head became his favorite story to tell of our weekend trip. all the next day at church he told everyone about how he got a lure stuck in his head.

 b cutting the limes we would squeeze on our fish. boy was that good. always remember to bring limes when you're going to catch and eat trout!

 w with the garter snake he caught in the firepit we used.

 after we made it back from the other lake, we threw on our swimming suits and went swimming in castle lake. b made it out into the lake first. with his goggles on, he was able to see some nice trout.

 w and s didn't make it into the water very far. the water was coolish (it took me a little while to get in), but it was remarkably warm for a lake at 10,000 feet that receives water from snow melt. 

i love-love-loved swimming in the lake. it was amazing to look around and take in the beautiful view from the middle of the lake. it does look different from the middle. it was one of those perfect moments in your life where you just think life is good. 

b started getting cold (shivering a lot) after about 20-25 minutes so we headed in. while we swam to the shore, my ears started getting really cold. that was my only complaint. but if i would have stayed in as long as b, i might have felt colder too.

 a picture of w's log cabin.