Cascade!

On our first whole day in Utah we decided to get out and do something "easy". Cousin Michelle led us on a short hike to Cascade Falls. It's true that it's a short hike (1.2 miles), but at an elevation of close to 9000 ft, it was slow going! M fared a bit better than I, but then she had Grandma to hold her hand all the way there, and Papa Donny to give her short rides on the way back. 

M and Grandma on the way out to the falls.

View of the Dixie Forest

Rock formations off in the distance

Looking at Cascade Falls from the trai

The top of the falls - water shooting from out of the cave .

We made it!

It was a great start to our Utah adventures and whetted our appetite for interesting landscapes! 

Today Cascade Falls, tomorrow Zion!

Mountain Slide... smountain slide

Our next leg of the adventure brought us the rest of the way through Nevada and into Utah. 

We stopped in Cedar City and took the chance to pick up some groceries and eat lunch.

We also found some great signs....

Evidently Brian's Head slopes for any season...

 From Cedar City we planned to take a 30 mile highway to our destination, but we found that our road had been closed due to a mountain slide. It had been closed for a couple months and would be closed in the day time for at least another month.

We found an alternate route, much longer but through the Dixie Forest. We were able to stop and take some pictures along the way.

We finally made it to our cabin, called the Bear's Den. It's in a community called Duck Creek Village. It's a ring of cabins and facilities surrounding a marsh and meadow - very picturesque!

Let the relaxation commence! 

The "relaxation" portion of the day didn't last long. In fact it only lasted until more interesting people arrived.

Butterfly catching with Cousin Michelle

It ended up that they did catch some "fish". They were very green, leafy "fish" if you catch my drift. But it was fun.

Tomorrow we will venture out to the surrounding areas.... 

something has to break up the cycle of eating - nap- reading- eating. 

Utah, here we come!

We've (Mom, Grandpa Donny, M, Mimi and Reno) embarked on a great trek to Southern Utah!
We're on our way to meet some family and friends for a nice vacation near Zion National Park. Today we started in Ca and made it across HW 50 (aptly named the loneliest highway) and into Nevada. It's amazing how much ISN'T out there.. central Nevada is pretty desolate.

Mom and Donny's car... the only one in sight

 We experienced two traffic delays, they gave us 20 minutes each to get out of the car and "experience the scenery".

Traffic Delay #1, before we had run out of trees. 

The scenery became more and more desolate, but interesting with salt flats and rock formations.

We ended our day in Ely Nevada, a casino fueled ghost town. 

Thanks WNET!

Our next leg is through the rest of Nevada and into Utah. Let's hope it's smooth sailing!

Memorial Day Memories

This past weekend we headed out to the coast for some R&R... well, some of us did crazy bike rides.. but for the rest of us it was all about R&R.
The weather was perfect - warm enough to wear a t-shirt, even in Armstrong Woods! We all had a nice time and tried to stop eating long enough each day to get out and "do something".
One of those somethings was a trip out to the beach for sandcastle making and dog running.

M got to touch the water (that was as far as she wanted to go) and see some kites. The dogs slept the rest of the day, and most of the next. Ok, no lie... I'm still a little jealous of the dogs!

Many Hands Make Easy Work. Or Not. It Depends on the Size of the Hand.

M "helped" me paint this weekend.

Outcome : We both survived, the walls are painted, most of the paint is off of us. I learned that M likes to play Tag but thinks that when she tags you, she is "It". She was "it" at lot.

Between Rain Drops

We've been having some "weather" here lately. That's not something we can normally say here in Nor Cal...
But between days of pouring rain and hail we've had some beautiful days. This weekend we decided to take advantage of the warm weather and visited our park. Naturally it was well populated and M had a great time.

Spinning with Dad

Making friends....

She's doing so well.... making things that used to be so hard (if not impossible) for her look easy now. It's amazing to us how fast she is growing and how strong she is getting.

We can't wait to see what the next year has in store for her and what kind of big sister she'll be!

There's no App for that.

Lies. All Lies.