A little bit of fun!

Hell-o world, I am still alive! I'm sure no one was actually wondering, but each time I thought of updating I wondered! This past Saturday we went on a little adventure! My husband is so much like his dad, if they are not working on Saturdays it's a day to get out of the house! No house or yard work!!! Saturday is a day for DOING something fun or GOING somewhere not home! As this was one of Paul's Saturdays not working (as a coal miner it always varies) we had to GO! No one had any suggestions, so he had to come up with a plan on his own! The rest of us are usually up for adventure, just not planning it! He did well all on his own! We went "exploring" Nine Mile Canyon. This road starts in Wellington, UT (just east of Price) and eventually will end up in Myton, UT(between Duchesne and Roosevelt). Paul read the info and printed out driving instructions (6 times) and said the road was 40 miles. It was dirt, but easily taken in a "family sedan" according to the info sheet. I must say that it needed to have rained the day before, because my van is so dusty you almost can't tell its red! According to our info sheet Nine Mile Road was the most important in the early development of the Uintah Basin (I grew up there and had never heard of this?). The road was carved in the late 1880's and was needed to supply the 300 soldiers garrisoned at Fort Duchesne, and it linked with the nearest rail head in Price. For the next quarter of a century the road was the most heavily traveled in eastern Utah. It was the main route for stagecoach, mail,freight, an telegraph into the Uintah Basin. It was a 6 day journey by wagon from Price to Ft. Duchesne. Thankfully it didn't take us that long!!

This was the first stop we made to see petroglyphs up close! You can kind of see them at the side of the girls' heads. All along the way we saw a plethora of amazing petroglyphs! And the girls found them so cool, until they had seen ENOUGH! But we also got to see the "pigs head" rockAnd Nutter's Ranch which once had a 15 room hotel and a saloon. The ranch was also used as a relay station for the telegraph between Ft. Duchesne and Price, and one of the cabins housed soldiers assigned to the telegraph relay! And a ghost town (Harper). Also on this little trip we got to see one of the most well known petroglyph panels, The Hunter Panel. Even Nathan got to get in on the fun! He got to pose in this picture and go on a little hike to see lots of petroglyphs but mostly he was just chillin' in his seat!

When I said that Paul said it was40 miles, he didn't read all of his info correctly! In his mind(and what he told me) it was a 40 mile long dirt road that started in Wellington and ended in Myton. I wondered how that could be, but didn't ask, since I was just along for the ride! Actually, Nine Mile Road is 40 miles until you get to the turn for Gate Canyon. Gate Canyon is the road that you take to get to Myton, which is 37 miles long all by itself! I would suggest doing what we did, Do the whole Nine Mile Road and forget about Gate Canyon. When you've seen all you can in Nine Mile, turn around and go back to Price for dinner(unless of course, you have a good reason to go to Myton?)! Over all, this was a fun little day trip and enjoyed by all! Thanks Paulie!

No Such Luck!

Ok, so this past weekend (Feb 13-16th) we took a fun little trip to Moab, UT. Paul decided that he needed to try his Land Rover Discovery on some rock crawling trails. As my life sometimes goes, I didn't have a camera that worked with me! My wonderful husband got me a nice new one for Christmas and he thought it was so cool, because it had a rechargeable lithium battery. Just plug in a cord and charge it up. That's the problem...I lost the cord. Can't find it anywhere! I think that it went out with the copious amounts of Christmas trash(2 weeks worth of stuffing my garbage can and the 2 neighbors' FULL)! Anyway I digress...no cord, no working battery, no camera. At first I just thought I'd go to Radio Shack and get new one, they always have the cord I need, no such luck! They had universal chargers for everything but Kodak! Stupid Kodak! So finally I went to the Kodak online store, found what I needed, paid the extra shipping for "next business day" and planned on having time to charge my battery. No such luck! I ordered on Wednesday, we left on Friday afternoon and no sign of UPS. So I grabbed my "old" camera that was sucking AA batteries like crazy, but still in working condition. I thought we'd be fine and get some GREAT shots in Moab. No such luck! Saturday morning we get on a trail (I can't remember it's name, just that it was a moderate trail) and think it's a great photo op, and the camera tells me to change the batteries. I was prepared with a new set, changed them and tried to get a photo...No such luck! Paul got all of the kids out of the Rover and the camera would NOT stay on! Every time I pushed the shutter button...No such luck! The stupid thing would turn itself off. So for the rest of the weekend I tried to take pictures and Paul kept commenting about "great photo ops" or how it would be great if I had a good camera to take a picture with, maybe a nice one like the one sitting at home with no charge. So we really did go to Moab, did "Fins-n-Things", Kassidy really did cry like a little girl and almost pee her pants a few times (out of fear), Emma really did refuse to pee in the wilderness, Addison really did loose a sketcher sneaker (just one) some where along the trail, and Nate really did sleep through it all! I just don't have pictures to document any of it! But when I got home...my charger was sitting in the front seat of my van (the UPS guy didn't want it to get lost!)!

What a way to end the month...

My thinking was that if my family had to come for the weekend, we might as well get as much in as we could. That idea was great in theory!
We started last week with a bitter sweet event. Paul's beloved grandmother died! Granny Great was... exceptional! And she truly endured to the end! We were so blessed to have her as long as we did, but I wasn't ready to let her go! When Janice(my mother-in-law) called me on Monday morning, to tell me the news, she reminded me that we should be happy for Granny, since we all knew she was truly rejoicing. But I still cried! What a great lady Iris Bagley was, she loved to have any and all of us visit her, her highlight was getting hugs from the kids and listening to all of our "happenings". She would always ask, "So, what do you know?" My kids were so lucky to live close enough to see her often, she was just sad that she couldn't SEE what they looked like! So we had her viewing on Thursday and funeral on Friday.

Then Saturday we got to witness Kassidy become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! What a great thing this was! I don't feel like I should have my oldest old enough for this, but she won't slow down! I'm so happy and thankful that her dad was able to baptize her. What a blessing for both of them! And we were so happy to have such great family support! Thanks for the great talk Angie!!! Then back to our house that night for pizza and ice cream(thanks Grandma for the pizza!!!!!).

Bright and early Sunday morning(9am church), Paul named and blessed Nathan Paul Nelson! Normally he's a happy boy! This is what happens when his Aunties change his clothes and put him down! He is a bit spoiled, and does NOT like being put down on his back! Once again, GREAT family support(thanks everyone, we love you all!)! Then lunch for everyone at the elementary school, thanks to Royal for meeting the janitor there! Then we capped the day by watching Arizona loose the super bowl! Like I said, it sounded great in theory, but in truth, it was a tiring but WONDERFUL weekend! Thanks again to every one's support and love!