May 2018

A few highlights from May...

Achievement Day Cupcake Wars.  Ella wanted Grandma Harston to help her.  They did Minion and emoji cupcakes. 

We went to a play cousin Grace was in.  Abby and Ella decided to stuff sand into their clothes.  Abby likes to play the piano.  She puts her book up there and plays and plays.  

Darren built a bike rack for 10 bikes. Super proud of his skills.  Tyler and Darren have been riding a lot.  So proud of Tyler as he pushes himself to do hard things.

Abby had an end of year program.  We have loved Kinder Prep Academy.  She learned French, art, reading, and music which included piano. Another special moment was seeing Darren and Ella reading a book together before bed.  

 I loved Mothers Day.  It was so fun and relaxing.  I enjoy quiet moments and a good nap.  I have been helping the Young Women learn to climb and rappel.  It is so amazing to see them learning and gettting more confident.

 Darren took the kids to Logan for a weekend.  I was gone to Moab for a mothers day weekend.  Besides all the rain they had a good time.  I am glad they got out in between the rain.

Grand Canyon R2R Memorial Day Weekend

We got to go to Arizona for Memorial Day weekend.  It was a two day fast trip.... to hike the Grand Canyon.  We drove down Sunday morning early.  Got there mid afternoon on Sunday. We saw a few sights but mostly just got to our hotel to get some sleep.  We quickly packed up and got into our beds at 7:00 pm.  We woke at 3:30 the next morning to eat and head out.  

We went down the South Kaibab trail. 6 miles of down hill.  Usually not so bad but I had a sprained ankle that wasn't happy and Ella's toes were slamming into the front of her shoes so she wasn't too happy either.  We listened to the book Because of Winn Dixie as we hiked.

We made it down to the Colorado river after 7 miles.  Beautiful bridge. Beautiful water.

We stopped by Phantom Ranch to get water and eat.  Then headed out again to start the 14 mile hike up.  It was gradual at first then the last 6 miles were up and up and up some more.  We loved watching for Chad and family.  They were coming the other way.  We chatted, switched car keys and headed back out feeling pretty good.  Half way done.

We stopped a lot to drench our hats and bandanas.  Ella caught a frog.  We stopped at the Cottonwood Campground to stop one last time.  Fueled up.  It was a long 6 miles.  Lots of up hill.  Tyler and Ella were great.  Such a hard hike.  22 miles.  So proud of my kids.

Zion- Boundary Canyon & Imlay Canyon

Weekend getaway to Zion.  We hit Boundary Canyon and Imlay Canyon.  Boundary was 5-6 hours.  Getting out the MIA exit was brutal.  I can understand why its called MIA.  We got a few hours of sleep and headed out for Imlay.  A 4 hour hike, with a sprained ankle, then another 8 or so hours rapelling 25 rapels/jumps into the water.  Then 2 miles walking out of the narrows.