Yosemite National Park...

Saturday, April 27, 2013

We celebrated Dave's birthday by going to Yosemite.  The weather was gorgeous and we wanted to see some of Yosemite that we have never seen before...so the adventure begins!

Here is the overlook at the beginning of the drive down into Yosemite Valley...You can see Half Dome in the back, El Capitan to the left, and Bridal Veil Falls to the right.  The waters were roaring for us all day!

 I must preface these pictures by saying that I didn't do my hair because I was going to wear a baseball hat...but Joel needed a hat, so Mom sacrificed hers and went hatless.  Bad hair day...especially later, and you will see why...but still a beautiful day and I was happy to be there with the handsome hubster.

 And with these two additional handsome hiking companions...Clark and Joel!

 Joel was our photographer for the day and needless to say, he's not in very many shots because it was hard to get the camera away from him!  Isn't it beautiful?  A perfect day!  Wish more of the family could have been with us!  We decided to do the Vernal Falls hike.  It was listed as "moderate to strenuous" and 3 miles round trip...we had never been to this part of the park before and were excited to see it!  This is just a pretty picture Joel took as we were driving in the park, it is not Vernal Falls.

 After we found parking and were walking to the trail head, we saw five or six baby deer just sauntering through the camps...they weren't bothered by us at all!

 Here we are, almost to the the trail head...excited for our adventure!

 This water is coming from Vernal Falls which is where we were headed...

 We walked along the water most of the time...it was really roaring, wish you could hear it.  The trail was paved and very nice...a little steep in some parts, but we couldn't complain.  I had to stop quite a bit...every so often to catch my breath and let my bum leg rest...didn't have to rest long, just often.  I'm sure Clark and Joel got tired of stopping, but they never complained and always waited patiently.  We told them they could go on ahead, and Clark did sometimes, but Joel stayed right with us.  Probably wanting to make sure his old parents could make it!

 As we were hiking up and people were coming down, they would say, "you're almost there."  We really weren't, but it gave us the energy to push on....here we are at the bridge!  You can see Vernal falls in the background.  Silly me thought that we had "made it" but the trail actually goes to the TOP of Vernal falls!  The "moderate" part of the hike was to the bridge.  That would have been a 1.4 miles round trip hike, but we decided to move on to the "strenuous" part and go to the falls...

 The temperature was in the low 70's and beautiful, but we were a little warm from walking uphill! So yes, I have a red face! Here is Clark at the bridge...

 and Joel...they don't look as hot as I do!  It was more of a "stroll" for them I think...

 This is further up the trail, looking down on the path behind us...it was hard to believe we had already come this far...

 But there is always more ahead!  This was the "easy" part...before the "steps" to the falls.  That is Clark running there at the bottom of the picture in the red and black...carrying my pack as well as his!

Did we make it to the top?  Stay tuned for more pictures of our adventure!   

Update on Disney World...

No Mickey Mouse sightings that I have heard of yet...but here they are ready for the Magic Kingdom!  

 With Aladdin and Jasmine...

 They have also been to Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios!  Here's a few from Hollywood...

 I love the "Cars" photo...and this green army man is so cool!  I think David thinks so too!

 A Bug's life...I'll take the Oreo!

 And a hot and tired Jacob with the cutest Mickey Mouse pretzel!  

And my favorite boys in my favorite shirts...cute with the little black shorts!  

Glad they are having fun!  Wish I was there!!

Disney World look out!

I don't know if Disneyworld is ready for David and Jacob, but they are ready for Disneyworld!  They leave today with their momma and a some friends and I hope they all have a marvelous time!  I wish I could join them!  But in my absence, I made them some shirts to wear that I thought turned out kinda cute...I used the technique Linda S. taught us, that you can use freezer paper as a stencil!  It irons on...imagine that!  I used my cricut machine and cut out the Mickey heads with their initial in the middle...

 All prepped and ready for paint!

 The M is for their friend Madeline who will be with them...

 Painted and drying....cute no?

 Then I had to try another one (ideas are from pinterest by the way)...little Mickey ties!

 I appliqued the tie on the shirt and then stenciled the Mickey head just like on the red shirts.

 And a tie won't do for Madeline, so she gets a Minnie head!

I thought they turned out cute...and I had several other ideas to try, but ran out of time!  Next time...until then, have a grand time my grandbabies and I will be thinking of you and your Momma and anxiously awaiting pictures!!  XOXO

Happy Birthday Hubster...

Happy Birthday to my favorite McKinney boy!  (the cutie in the middle)...he is 55 years young today!  And sports the same hair cut...just a lot thinner on top.  He did not get a puppy for his birthday however...but the fam will be going to Yosemite this weekend to hike and enjoy the beautiful outdoors that he loves so much.  Can't wait!  Love you!!  (I also love that I was just barely born when this picture was taken!)

Just what the doctor ordered...

Joel had his physical today.  Last step for his mission papers!  After the physical, he got a TB test and then we hit the lab and they drew some blood too...so even though the doctor said he should be taking vitamins...we thought a little chocolate was in order too!  We go back Monday to have the papers signed and get the results of his test...can't wait to start the interview process and get those mission papers in!!  So exciting!!

Joel also "officially" became an Eagle Scout this week!  Here he is with two of his amazing scout leaders...Scoutmaster Budge (a GREAT leader!) and Scott Olsen (a GREAT resource and mentor!)...Joel's former Scoutmaster Olsen (Scott's son) was a great help too getting Joel to this point.  
 And of course with Mom and Dad...who watch and cheer from the sidelines...the Clovis Veteran's Memorial building has a beautiful addition to their building...so many things to look at!

Fun times ahead for this young man...there is a lot going on in the next little while!  Stay tuned...

Mom's Birthday...

Today my mom would be 79!  I love this picture of her because it is her natural smile.  For some reason she hated having her picture taken, and she hated smiling for the camera!  But here she is, happy and smiling!

 I try to imagine her life as a young girl...I have read the stories and seen the pictures, so it is fun to imagine it all.  She loved all her sisters so much and was close to each of them...Here she is (on the left) with her sister Evelyn who is just older than her...

 And here she is with Evelyn again (Mom is on the right)...with her natural, beautiful smile!

Love and miss her smiling face.  I hope she is smiling down from heaven on us and knowing how much we love and miss her!  My brother brought up a good questions today...Do they serve Texas chocolate cake in Heaven?  I hope so!  She would love it.  Happy Birthday Mom!

House hunting and long lost relatives...

Here are a couple of pictures from Friday I forgot to post...the kids playing in the playhouse...Makayela was cleaning, and cleaning...she swept the whole thing out and all the stairs too!  Carson and Jackson had fun too...

 Jackson would only smile at me from a safe distance...

 but I snatched him up for a quick picture...snotty nose and all!  

 On to Friday...out of the four houses we had lined up to look at, 2 were no longer available.  Crazy!  So we looked at TWO.  The first one had some potential and the price was great, and it was right next to the elementary school...but the freeway was right behind it.  We couldn't even see anything in the last house because I think an episode of "Hoarders" was being filmed there.  It was awful!  You couldn't even see the house there was so much STUFF.  They will never sell it.  So once again we were disappointed.  Back to the drawing board!  We drove around several neighborhoods just looking for "for sale" signs but didn't see too much.  We drove back out to Eric's for a little visit and then on to the highlight of my day...meeting my great Aunt Edna!

 She is my Grandma Brown's baby sister and I never even knew she was still alive, until last year when I was working on my Aunt Bev's life history.  Aunt Edna is 97 years old and reminds me a lot of my Grandma!  I felt close to my Grandma as I visited with Aunt Edna.  She lives in Lehi, walking distance from the Budges!  Literally right down the street! She lives with her daughter Jeanine who I have been corresponding with.  We visited with them for about an hour, looked at some pictures and just did some "catching up."  It was a very sweet evening for me and I loved meeting them!

After we visited there we went a little further up the street to my cousin Denice's house.  Her neighbor had just put up a for sale sign!  It looks like a nice house, and it's one we have looked at online before, but they are asking more than what we qualify for.  She called them to see if we could come and see the house, but no one was home.  Oh well, we can dream!  We had dinner at IHOP and prepared for our trip home the next day.  It was a quick trip, a mostly fun trip, but uneventful in the house hunting department!  Sunday was a long drive home...we did the whole 12 hours (make that 13 due to the ugly traffic outside of Las Vegas!), it was stormy and ugly all the way from Tehachapi to home...but it felt good to get home!  Now we have to keep shopping online and try to find a home in Utah.  We are thankful for safe travels and a nice weekend, and grateful for good friends and family and long lost relatives!  

Friday in Utah...

Friday morning we got up early and headed for Eric's house...Dave dropped me and Joel off and he went on to visit Schneider Electric in Salt Lake...we spent the morning visiting with Eric, Randa and their kids...Dave came back around noon and we went off to meet up with our realtor and look at some houses.  We had a list of about 10 houses to look at in the next two days, but apparently once the sun comes out in Utah, everyone buys houses!  There were only 3 of the 10 still available to look at!  The first two were absolute ancient dumps.  No way could we live in either one!  The third turned out to be a town house, and though it was lovely and newly refinished on the inside, it only had 4 bedrooms and a tiny yard.  It wont do.  So we went back to the realty office and looked up some more that we could hopefully look at in the morning.  We picked out 4 to check in the morning.  We were disappointed but not discouraged, and we went back to Eric's for a fun Friday night!

 Eric showed us the headboard he is making for Randa.  It's beautiful!  Then after a nice barbecue dinner, we introduced the Farnsworths to Pizookies!  Their oven was on the fritz so we baked them over at the neighbors.  Nice neighbors!  

Here's the first batch!  We divided them up so everyone had a taste while we waited for the second batch.

 Jackson gave it his approval...

 Makayela liked them!

 Eric totally approved...

 Kai liked them too, but he had a hard time posing for me!  

 Joel wouldn't pose at all...but I got his pic anyway!  Everyone liked them and I seemed to have missed a picture of Dave and Randa.  We enjoyed our evening with them and discussing all the possibilities of us living in Utah.

And Eric entertained us with some fun videos, and he was our TV screen!  We soon headed back to the Budges hoping for better luck in the morning looking at houses!

Budge bed and breakfast...

After our fun morning in St. George, we headed on down the road for our destination.  When we had driven up to Salt Lake in November for Clif's wedding, we saw this unusual sight by the side of the road...a huge ditch with all these OLD rusted out cars in it...we noted the mile marker and tried to find them on our drive back home, but could never see them.  So we watched again this time for them and stopped to take a picture!  Joel went down the hill and up to the fence to get some closer shots...

 I can't wait to see what he does with it for his photo class.  The green car reminds me of one that used to sit out in my Grandpa Brown's field and we would sit in it and pretend to drive...we played out there in his old car for hours.  I can't imagine how long these cars have been here or where they all even came from.  It's out in the middle of NOWHERE.

 And of course as we got closer to our destination, there was snow on the mountains!  They had a huge snowstorm the week before and got 5 inches of snow!  

They sure look pretty though...from a distance...

We arrived at the Budges about 7 p.m.  Jan had a wonderful dinner all ready for us.  Neil was at the temple so we didn't see him until later but we really enjoyed our visit with them.  All of Clovis 2nd warders really miss the Budges!!  We stayed in their walk-out basement, it is bigger than our house!  Here is the room Dave and I stayed in. 

There were two other bedrooms, Joel took his pick...there were two bathrooms and this cute little play nook under the stairs!  

A living room complete with fireplace, Wii, exercise bike and treadmill!

Full kitchen...

And this lovely picture on the wall, which on closer inspection I realized was a puzzle!

I don't remember which day she did this, but when we came back from our days' travel, we found Easter baskets in our rooms filled with all kinds of goodies!  AND she had put some food in our fridge in case we needed something to "snack" on...meats, rolls, salad, and hard boiled eggs which had been dyed and had our names on them!  Spoiled us good!!  The best hosts EVER!

Friday is the day to go look at houses!  We are excited to move to Utah and start our new adventure!