October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween. Cam baking pumpkin muffins while singing Sugar by Maroon 5. Doof and her sidekick Agent B. 

October 30, 2022

Halloween weekend with Ry home. Pumpkin carving where Tanner went all out on his carving, puzzles, painting, pumpkin cookies (after pink pasta for dinner), drawing monsters, apple crisp, some Minecraft of course, and a Baylie bath. 

October 27, 2022

The sunset tonight was 5 stars! It was awesome chatting with Cam during the long drive thru lines at Costa Vida and Chick Fil A. 

 

October 24, 2022

Today at work a patron said goodbye with, “May the force be with you.” This may be my favorite interaction yet at work.

October 23, 2022

Great Sabbath. Church and chatting after church. Randall’s house where they made us dinner. Then telestrations had us all laughing. Camrie and Sadie were cracking me up today with Penny and just in general. We got our first snow of the season tonight. 

October 22, 2022

 Our annual Friend Zion retreat concluded today. I love this time every year where we see some beautiful stuff and strengthen our friendships. This year we added a rappelling adventure so I could be completely out of my comfort zone. 

We left for Deb’s cabin early Thursday morning. We stopped at kannaraville falls and enjoyed that hike. That water is always make your feet hurt cold but it was so beautiful. There were some fall leaves plus beautiful canyon walls plus gorgeous water falls. Fabulous chill hike. And I didn’t hate the new metal ladder like I thought I would. I also bribed a kid to go under the water fall for $2. 

We picked up some extra snacks and a game of Yahtzee at Terry’s food and drug (and hardware) in Orderville. Enjoyed our evening at the cabin. 

Friday we got the four wheeler and side by side running to help with our point to point hike. We dropped Lorien’s jeep off at the East Mesa Trailhead and then rode the four wheelers to Stave Springs Trailhead. We hiked 8 miles of down into the canyon and back up. Echo Canyon via East Rim Trail and then up to Observation Point. Echo Canyon really did have awesome echoes. Cool If you geek out at stuff like that like I do. It was awesome to see a side of Zion I hadn’t seen before. We saw 6 people until we got to where the Observation Point trail heads off. Plenty of people at OP. But a guy pointed out the California condor soaring by Angel’s Landing so that was cool. More geeking out by me. :)

Came back to the cabin for chips and salsa and then picked up the four wheelers with a side trip to look out over Jolley Gulch. Evening at the cabin was getting ready for our Birch Hollow rappelling adventure. Aaaaahhhh!

We started our day early and with my anxiety sky high. I was so nervous to rappel. Something about only a rope and waking off the edge and me being at level 1 with rappelling experience. Birch Hollow had 10 or 11 (we lost count) rappels and the first two are probably the hardest. I told everyone I wanted to go second so I could watch someone and then go down so I wouldn’t stress more. :). I tackled the first rappel and after that I was good to go. I was still totally nervous but I knew I could do it. The cool rappels came at the end as you’re in more of a slot canyon setting. One rappel was over 100 feet. It was pretty cool though and just straight down with no obstacles - just long. 11 rappels was a lot and I’m still processing as even though it was cool and parts were fun, the anxiety was high and I’m not sure I actually enjoy it. :). Then we hiked out Orderville canyon to the truck, drove a horrible road back to where we started, ran back to the cabin and hurriedly packed up to head home and beat the storm. Well we didn’t beat the storm and the drive from beaver to Nephi was so scary and wintery and slow. But thankfully we made it home and have another fabulous Zion weekend in the books. 

October 19, 2022

Pizza game night here with the Draperfi and Randalls. I ordered too much pizza and scored too many points at 5 Crowns but we laughed at “hoof hearted” and had a good evening. And we even had a cool sunset to look at out the back glass door while playing games. Also - playing rock band with Mason and going to Silver Lake with Rachael was fantastic while they were here. 

October 18, 2022

Happy Rylie’s birthday! That amazing girl is 20. She’s a smarty that is so helpful and funny and just awesome.

October 16, 2022

What a wonderful sabbath day! Took the sacrament and successful first gospel doctrine lesson. Good dinner and apple crisp. Also - This weather! And my family! And the gospel!

October 15, 2022

I just like watching my kids have fun together. Minion cake and other stuff and they were all smiles which means I was all smiles. We had dinner at Costa Vida where Sadie was working and came through with a discount for us. Cute Papa Costa Vida Ria worker.

In other news, Darren put the trailer away for the winter. That’s sad. Where to camp next year?

 

October 14, 2022

What a good fall day. Another fall hike with D. Secret parking spot to Ridge to horse flat to lame horse back down ridge. Yellows were amazing! The view from the ridge trail across to the mountain were gorgeous. I loved all the yellow patches. So many yellow patches. Then the yellow at the summit. So bright and such tall trees with the blue blue sky.

Then it was pumpkins time. Our pumpkin patch was Smith’s which worked just fine. Great time carving followed by some pink pasta. Kenz made delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. 

 

Ry loves carving pumpkins and Kenz was extra giggly and Cam was thankful and Sadie rocked her pumpkin and it was a fabulous time.

October 13, 2022

Awesome fall hike in Silver Lake. Sigh. 

I think Darren and Baylie also enjoyed it.

October 11, 2022

Good morning watching some XC. Kenz was coaching in Orem. It was such a beautiful fall morning with amazing temps and mountains of red. Sigh. Kenz is such a great coach.

I made it home in time to welcome Steve home. I was proud of my Red Sox and Jeter welcome home signs. 

October 10, 2022

I just had to run up the canyon to see the display of fall. The yellows were fabulous!. So many people up there looking at the leaves and yet in my quick 2.5 mile hike I saw one person on the trail. (The Summit parking lot was nuts.)

 

October 9, 2022

Draper birthday celebration in South Jordan. Good times with everyone, including Mason and Rachael. Some SkyJo and chatting with everyone and a delicious pasta bar. Then there was a huge moon that came out while driving home. 

October 7, 2022

Happy Cam’s birthday! 18 it is. We learned that at 18 you can sue and get your own pet. 

Bday breakfast was fruit with a hash brown patty and sausage. We went to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory of course. Me, D, Kenz, Tanner, Rylie, Sadie, and the birthday girl. We had the worst server ever but we got mizithra so all is well. Some presents and Minecraft rounded out the celebration. 

Camrie at 18

Loves - Kirkland applesauce from the fridge, Baylie, Minecraft, sisters, California, tonight dough Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, her bed. 

Likes - Caprisun, minions, K-pop, walks with Baylie, fruit, perfume. 

Dislikes - tenderloins, work right after school, climate change, hot weather, when Sadie ignores her texts. 

 

 

October 1, 2022

 One night camping in Devil's Garden Campground was awesome!  Just D and I and the tent.

We drove to Arches Friday and found rain. Rain in arches was pretty cool. We saw a few little waterfalls. Stopped at The Garden of Eden where Darren spotted an arch. I named it Candace Flynn Fletcher arch. The little pools of water were cool and the clouds were awesome! We opted to bring the tent instead of pull the trailer. Hike to delicate. Cool arch. Hiked back and caught a beautiful sunset. Dinner by flashlight and then tent chilling.

Saturday was another fabulous day. The old Kelty tent stayed dry through the night rain. Thunder and lightning were kinda cool from the tent. I spent the morning gazing at the rising sun in the campground. I love this campground. It’s magical. Came upon some deer way close. They were happy to eat and let me watch them. We had some morning rain which made the red rock shine. Storm passed quickly and then we headed into the Fiery Furnace. This place is so cool. Discovery of an arch I named Doorway Arch. Extra wandering in the furnace plus Darren showed me Surprise Arch which I loved. Awesome couple of hours. A crow flew over us between rock walls and we heard the flapping wings. That’s one of my favorite things. Back at camp a Cottontail hopped right past me in our campsite. This was a great overnight in Arches. This place is magical to me.