Hershey PA!

Well, we are here and we have been so busy I haven't had time to put any pictures up. We arrived on 9/11 and the plane made it safely despite the notorious date. Actually I have never seen the airports so busy.
Ryan came back East this time and we have had so much fun having him here. Every time I come Jaedon, Livy and of course Sofia have grown so much. These pictures below were taken on Sunday and because Ryan was holding Sofia in the car seat I thought I better put some close ups of her. She is just so cute and has the cutest little smile. We have had so much fun playing with all 3 of them.
You are so cute Sofia!

Ryan even had fun holding her and making her smile. We were glad to have him along on our trips so he could pack Sofia in her baby carrier.

We went to Lancaster on Saturday and Ryan was the picture taker in the front seat. I hope no one's soul is offended by these pictures but I love driving through the town and watching the everyday doings of the people who live here. I really wanted a picture of the wash hanging on the line and when we found a good picture there always seemed to be someone out in the yard. As you go through the town you will see them either driving their horse carriages or using the scooters that are in the bottom right of the above picture.

We had to take Ryan to the Farmer's market and sample all of the yummy food. We bought a little of the foods that are famous in these parts. Namely Shoo fly pie, Whoopie pies, cheeses and salami, apple maple sausage, homemade raisin cinnamon swirl bread, fresh fruits, and vegetables. We took it home and sampled it all. Ryan loved the whoopie pies and by the way Ryan you forgot to take your shoo fly pie. Shoo fly pie is a pie made out of molasses and has a crumb top, it it pretty tasty especially warm with a scoop of ice cream on top. We have enjoyed the yummy fresh fruits here as well.

We also went to a huge garage sale on Saturday. There was a huge neighborhood garage sale that went for blocks and blocks. It was kind of raining so most of them were actually in the garages. We found some great deals. The greatest deals out here are baby things and toys. Because they don't have very big families out here the toys are like brand new and you can even find many things still in the original packaging. Jaedon and Livy felt like it was Christmas and found many fun things for only a dime!! They have played with their finds for the last several days and have been very entertained. The scooter that Jaedon is on was one of his finds and he actually is riding it here in the Living room as I type this. We found some great birthday presents for Livy as well.

When we arrived in Baltimore of course we had to go to Phillips to eat it was fabulous and I could have ate crab legs all night.

I think Ryan enjoyed them too. It was a great night and we have had a great time here! I will have more to come. See you later!

Happy Birthday Kace!!

Today is Kace's 7Th birthday, I can't believe that he is 7! We celebrated his birthday before we left for PA. I love Kace's exuberance for life, he is such a happy inquisitive child. He loves to read and sometimes when I am having a conversation with him I have to remind myself that he is a kid because it feels like you are talking with an adult.
He is a great big brother to Tydon and is always watching out for him. I think Tydon has really missed him since he started first grade this year.

He looks like he is really bored with the process of the cake thing but he is kind of like his Dad and tries to hide his emotions, but inside he is saying "YEA! it's my birthday!"

We went to his soccer game after having dinner and yummy peach cake and ice cream, (Thanks Rachel it was delicious.) In this picture Kace was out for the minute because he had to take a quick potty break.

This was after the game when he was all red faced from running all over the field.

Happy Birthday Kace, hope you have had a very happy day!

We love you!

We will soon be back

We meaning Ryan and I will soon be back here...
Yes, we will be going to Phillips at Inner Harbor in Baltimore Maryland. I can't wait for the seafood and all you can eat crab legs. Mr. Jones will not be as excited because he doesn't love seafood as much as I do. ( he goes to just see me so happy.) We will then travel to ...
you guessed it! Hershey land.

I am even more excited about seeing these cute little kids, baby Sofia and of course MEL!! I talked Ryan into coming with me (even though he will be missing some major hunting), but because he loves us he is coming for a few days. It will be fun to spend sometime in Hershey again. So get ready Jaedon, Livy, Sofia and Mel here we come!

So long summer!

It is Labor Day today and in my mind it is the last official day of summer. That kind of makes me sad because I think it went by waaaay to fast. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Harvesting

This month seems to be the time when everything in the garden ripens at the same time. I have been trying to keep ahead of all of the fruit and vegetables, some days it seems like it will never end. I am grateful though that we are blessed with the bounties that we have.
Okay, I was going to delete this picture but it was kind of funny so I left it in. I guess you could say this is my excited look but it really wasn't taken while I was canning fruit. When I saw it though it expressed my feelings when I had finished doing the marathon canning days.

This is the time of year even the foliage and flowers act like their time on this earth is coming to an end, they have to get as much growing in that they can before the mornings of frost overcome their beautiful color.

I also finished with the apricot jam, choke cherry jelly and dill pickles. I haven't started on the tomatoes, peaches, and pears yet, but I feel like I have good start. Sometimes I am excited when frost comes but right now I am enjoying the beautiful summer days and the cool fall nights.

The passing of a great man

On Saturday afternoon Doug's Dad Douglas Cannon passed from this life. He had a cardiac arrest and even though he has had some health problems it was still quite sudden. Rainee and Doug traveled to Moab to be with his family, our hearts and prayers go out to his family and to his sweet mom, Joan.

Doug and his Dad have been very close and it will be hard for him to have him gone.

Our love goes out to all of them at this difficult time.

Busy or Bored?

It seems that when I am not keeping up on this blog I am either too busy or I am living a boring life and I have nothing to write about. Well this last week and a half have been very busy. First of all my apologies to Isaac for not writing something about his birthday. We did celebrate it when Rainee was here but I forgot my camera and I used her camera and I did not upload the pictures so they are still on her camera probably somewhere in Mesa right now. We had a Pizza party and had yummy cake and ice cream and then went to the Logan aquatic center with everyone and had fun swimming and going down the water slides. So Isaac my apologies for not honoring you on your special day. His birthday was Aug 12Th and we soooo love Isaac. He has always been such a peace maker in our home and always has a big grin for everyone. We love his smile. So Happy birthday Isaac we had a lot of fun celebrating with you, it was a very fun night.

Rainee and the boys came to visit last week and we had a very fun filled week, I don't know about Rainee but I am exhausted trying to keep up with all of their energy.

We had a little grand camp with them on Friday night, Rainee wanted them to experience a grand camp because she had such fun memories of when she was young and going to Grandma and Grandpa's grand camp. We will have to have one next year when more of the grand kids can come. I remember that in order to attend the only criteria was that you were potty trained. Well Bryce didn't quite fit that criteria so Rainee came up and got him before we went to bed. It was a good thing too because he had a blow out before she came up and we had no diapers so he just ran around the rest of the night bare bummed. We went up the canyon and took the trailer and had hot dogs and marsh mallows and built a fire and played bears and Indians. When it got dark Ryan told them some stories and then we went to sleep in the trailer, I am glad that we had the trailer instead of a tent because it stormed most of the night and we would have been quite wet. The night was quite uneventful except that Evan fell out of the bed a couple of times and was rolling around on the floor trying to figure out where he was.

It really must be a boy thing because I can't remember being excited about catching grasshoppers but when the Cannon boys came earlier in the summer that was one thing that they wanted to do, catch grasshoppers and feed them to the chickens and watch them gobble them up. When they were here before the grasshoppers were not out yet but they are here now and it didn't take them long to fill up a quart jar. They love to catch them but I THINK they like watching the feast more.

We also went to the County Fair and Carson told me it was the first time he had been to one. He said, "he had only seen it on TV and knew that there were pies and cakes". Yes, there were pies and cakes but there were also animals and tractors!

One of the afternoons we drove over to Lamont to cool off it was fun and we did cool off.

Everyone was up on Saturday and we had to get a group shot because we don't get together very often, we were just missing the Bassetts :( Doug flew in on Friday night and we spent the day visiting, shooting, (well the boys spent the day shooting) and then we went and had a volley ball tournament. We can get quite competitive.

On Monday we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Shaws and spent the day at Pine view.
I had forgotten how fun it is and have decided I want a wave runner because that was the highlight on the water. Kace, Layne and Carson were going to try the tube all together but it didn't quite work out so we just soaked Carson and Kace when they had their turn on the tube. Oh, Caitlin got pretty soaked by Doug on the tube as well.

The water was warm and we spent the afternoon playing in the water.

Doug and Rachel were the craziest drivers.

Evan loved the water and the sand.

Tydon just loved everything, the water, the sand and his cookies dipped in the sand.

Thanks Doug and Rainee it was a fun day!

Here we all are at the end of our fun day!

Oh, and by the way I have not been bored, just busy!!!

Celebrating Nate's birthday!

This last week we celebrated Nate's birthday. We won't say how old he is because it makes me feel verrrrrry OLD! He was born in 1976 so you can figure it out. Nate doesn't like people to make a big deal over him and especially his birthday, ( I think he takes after his Dad) but I feel I need to tell you a little about him. He is my oldest child and was the Guinea pig for all of our experiments as new parents. Of course you know that your first born always has a special spot in your heart and I know Dad and I love him for putting up with trying to figure out how to be a parent. Because he is the oldest he is the example for those to follow and he has been a great example to the rest of the bunch. He is a great Dad to Kace and Tydon and he has become one of Dad's good friends. We love you Nate and wish you a very Happy Birthday.

We had a little celebration for him and this video is some of what we did. Mostly we sat around and had Kace and Tydon entertain us, but we probably had some of the best entertainment of the afternoon from Mac. As Jessica put it," I think he just got rid of any manhood that he had." The water show turned into a water fight and then Kace didn't know when to quit so it turned into a crying fest. I think Kace learned not to start a water fight with Mac because when he says it's done he means it. Sorry Kace you are the guinea pig in your family too. So watch the video, it's kind of long and Yes, Mac is still manly.

The Marriott Reunion

This is Kace and Tydon running down the road and I think right after this picture was taken Tydon fell because he was going faster than those little legs could carry him.

We had the Marriott reunion on the 3rd of July but I have been so busy and had so many pictures that I have not posted about this fun event. ( I am really posting this for the benefit of Rachel because she keeps reminding me that I haven't posted about this yet.)

It was held at Monte Cristo this year and it was so green and the flowers were so beautiful because of our wet spring. It actually was a little cool which is hard to believe on the 3rd of July. We went exploring again and rode the 4 wheelers and mules all over the property. We went over to my Mom's property and walked down in the canyon and every time I go down there it amazes me how big the "quakies" are. Ryan was giving us the finer points of carving your initials in the tree and how if you carve them with just a single line they will last longer and you will still be able to see them in 100 years. I don't know how old these trees are but we saw some initials from the early 1900's. I don't know if you can tell by the pictures how big they are and I had this idea that Ryan should put his arms around the tree and show just how big around the tree is. Well, I got him to put his arms around a big quakie and as soon as I took the picture, I thought,"Oh, no! he is a tree hugger!" and then I said it out loud. Ryan really thought that I set him up for the picture but really the thought did not enter my mind until I saw him hugging the tree. We all laughed and Ryan said," Okay this will be in her next blog." I really did not take the picture for that reason. ( Really Ryan, I am telling the truth!)

Every time I see Rachel she reminds me that I have not posted the tree hugger picture.

Well here it is!!! I have proof! Ryan IS A TREE HUGGER!

I love you Ryan, don't be mad, it is a great picture.

Rachel tried to get the same picture from Nate when they were on their trip to Oregon and Nate said, " I'm not falling for that one again."

We had fun walking and hiking around and seeing all of the Marriott cousins that we don't see forever.

Tydon was picking a flower for me.

This is a picture of the old sheep corral that Jim found, there is a story about when Enos, my great grandfather, was young and he and his Dad Moroni brought the sheep up to Monte. They built this fence to hold the sheep in so that Enos could watch them. His Dad then left for several days to get supplies and left Enos alone with the sheep. He was quite young, I think they said that he was only 10 years old and he stayed all by himself until his Dad came back. You can follow the fence line around in a big circle and can see the old corral still on the ground. Enos was born on October 18, 1883 so that fence was made in 1893 and you can still see the old rails lying there. That was pretty impressive and made some of the stories we hear come to life when you actually get to visit the place where it happened.

Smile Jessica and Mac!

Smile Lincoln and Caitlin!

It was a fun day even though I found out that I married a tree hugger!

The second hike of the week.

This was the second hike I went on this week. It was kind of an at the last minute decision to go, (don't you love spontaneity.) Ryan was planning on going with the teachers on their summer adventure and I then realized that I had the same 2 days off. So, I ended up going with the boys and men on their adventure. I wasn't sure at first if I should go because it was going to be a long hike and it would be in the back country of Yellowstone. There are bears in Yellowstone and we would be on foot and sleeping in a tent in the middle of their territory!

These first 2 pictures are the before and after. In order to get where our destination was (Union Falls) we had to ford 3 rivers in order to get there. This was a new experience in which I had to bring an extra pair of shoes to wade the river and then dry off my feet and put back on my hiking shoes to travel to the next river. The rivers were a little deep in spots and most of the hike I had wet pants and then mixed with the dust I guess they were mud pants. It actually was quite refreshing though to wade through the ice cold river, (when I say ice I mean your feet and legs were numb by the time you got to the other side. You then felt the tingle pain of them coming back to life while trying to put back on your shoes.)

You can tell this is on the way out by looking at my hair because we went swimming in warm river and then I went to bed with my hair wet. I guess when you go back packing you have to expect some loss of luxuries ( such as a blow dryer, refrigerator, toilets, to just name a few.)

Here is our ritual of changing our shoes.

I will be forever grateful though to Ryan for packing a nice mattress, a warm sleeping bag and all of the things we needed for the trip. I just carried my clothes and towel and it still felt pretty heavy after 10 miles. Oh did I tell you how long this hike was? Well, the hike in was 9 miles
and then after hiking to Union Falls we then went to Warm River Falls,(I don't know if that is what you call it but that's what I called it.) So in 2 days I hiked over 20 miles!!! I have blisters to prove it.

The sacrifice of hiking though was definitely worth the destination, I have never seen a more beautiful, perfectly symmetrical body of water in my life. We stayed here for awhile admiring the grandeur of this beautiful world and then went on to our next destination.

Our next destination was where I could have stayed forever. The river was warm and there was this most beautiful falls coming over the rocks. It felt wonderful and was natures best Jacuzzi ever. It was quite deep in the middle and the boys had a great time jumping off of the rocks into the warm river. I was sad to make the 4 mile hike back to camp because I wanted to wake up in the morning and spend more time in this river. (I really didn't feel like making the 8 mile round trip the next morning though.)

We had a great trip. It was an experience that I will remember for a long time. My feet though are feeling like I may have over done the hiking this week.