Fireworks on the 24th of July

Lake at the Hill

Or, "Lake O' the Hill"?  Like Land O' Lakes?
It was calm, pretty, sunny, and we rented kayaks!  Only I put the camera in the car rather than bring it out on the water with me, just in case we tipped over or something.  We splashed in the water a while while waiting for the kayak rental place to open at noon.  I did NOT get in above my knees!! Yikes, that water was freezing to me!! I'm so spoiled by Hawaiian waters, I suppose. And indoor heated pools. ha. But Jonny and Caroline enjoyed it and so did the other families where were there.

I rented a tandem kayak and Jonny and I took turns paddling it. Caroline got to paddle her own canoe and did very well. We didn't quite last the whole hour before our arms were tired and somebody had to take a bathroom break. So we were done.

Working the kids hard really helps them to eat better!  Who knew?! (Well, I did. I just forgot).  We gobbled up a nourishing lunch and then went out and washed the car!  What a productive day.

Not only THAT, I got my eyeglasses adjusted and tightened, worked for 5 hours and got a guest room all straightened up for company. Woo Hoo!

 A grandma makes a nice, fluffy, warm and willing pillow to lay on. :-)

July 25, 2015 Cedar Breaks, Bio Blast, Alpine Pond. And no S'mores.

 We got all ready on Saturday for our excursions. Some were going Fishing with Grandpa (Little Liebhardt's and Tandy) and some were going to Cedar Breaks BioBlast with Grandma .

 Caroline is dissecting an owl pellet. I thought owl pellets were, ah, um, uh... well, pooped out. They are not. They are hacked out like a hair ball--it's non-digestable stuff from what they swallow whole and when Caroline got out the provided tools and went to it, she found really great pieces of skulls of little stuff.  Very interesting.

 Not quite as interesting to Jonathan. ha.  She wanted to do ANOTHER one! But we hunted for bugs instead.

 And we enjoyed the view. We wandered through the gift shop.

 And THEN we went hiking down the Alpine Pond Loop Trail. I have never been on that one before.  Quite frankly, I have not every spent much time at Cedar Breaks, but the three of us had a nice time. We were un-hurried. It was very quiet in the park in spite of lots of activities going on. So we just mosied and had a good time. 

 The wildflowers were truly spectacular after the wet spring we had.  Truly amazing.  And since Jonathan happened to have a tape measure with him, we measured wild flowers. Why not?

 Successful Hikers!

 Then we met up with the rest of our gang who had gone fishing at Panguitch Lake. They drowned some worms from the shore and had fun. Only, poor Lexi got a really BAD bloody nose!  Poor gal.

 We stopped at Sunset Point and took some pictures, or tried to. Those kids just DART. Quickly.

 I said to Jonathan, "Let me take one for your Mom and Dad!" as Ella and Braeden had just hopped down from the cute little log bench. And Jonathan struck this pose before I could hit the shutter!

 We are getting ready to head over to the star party...or to see bats. But the bat thing didn't pan out because they were walking down to the Alpine Pond--too far for Mike's knees, so we opted to all go to the Star Party at Point Supreme.  But first--take a gander at THAT beauty of a sunset. Pretty. Caroline took that out the car window.  We saw deer, too.

 Somewhere in there we had a picnic dinner, but apparently I didn't capture any photos of that. The star party was OK, but I've seen better. The best comment was Jonathan's after viewing Saturn with it's rings through one of the smaller telescopes that was set up.  "It's so cute!" he said.  Made the owners sure chuckle.  Me, too. :-)

 And, oh, yes. Why not a blood and guts picture to show that they really DID catch some fish? Lexi caught one and Tandy caught the other. Mike spent most of his time untangling lines for one person or another. AND he cleaned them for the fisherwomen.  Good guy.

SMILE!

 This was along the hike. I didn't discover where the descriptions for these numbered spots were until AFTER we were done hiking.  But it was still interesting to read the facts even after the fact. ha.

 A group shot near sunset at Sunset Point.
We were supposed to go home and have s'mores since the picnic area didn't allow fires for us to make them after dinner. But by the time we left the star party and drove down the mountain and unloaded stuff...well, it was way to late and encroaching upon the Sabbath. So the poor grandkids got a raw marshmallow, a chunk of chocolate candy bar and a raincheck from one tire grandma and grandpa.

I will devote an entire separate post of just the wildflowers. Just because they were so pretty.

Working with the Grandkids

Our carport has been transformed into an airport hanger!

And the Liebhardt love of maps (and Webelos) requirements continues on. This is Tandy and Mike assisting Braeden with some map reading.

I had Lexi give me a pedicure (well, she painted my nails), complete with tiny flowers. :-)

And a construction site, too! If you count all the air hockey games played, you would be counting for quite a while (so glad we didnt get rid of that after all!)

Mower

I haven't mowed a lawn in many, many years. And there is good reason for that. The last time I did it, it triggered such a nasty allergy attack that I figured it would not ever be my job again. Ever. Period. And that's what I have kids for, as Mike has reminded me. Well, kids are all gone, Mike was not feeling well, and those lawns REALLY neede to be mowed today. It was my only chance.

I should have taken a picture, but didn't (the story of my life). Oh, not of the lawns, but of how ridiculous *I* looked! Long pants and tennis shoes for safety. Dust mask. Ear plugs. And I couldn't even start the silly thing and made Mike get up out of his sick bed to do it for me. (He didn't die or anything).

I got the job done and later on in the afternoon, it even sprinkled a little, so the timing was perfect, as well.

When i got nto the shower imediately after, I regretted the fact that I hadn't washed the car while I was out there and all dirty anyway. Oh well. Next weekend maybe.

 V
Not me. We don't havea riding mower, and I don't have a Batman mask.