Taylor's mission call

Taylor put in his papers two weeks ago. He is so excited to serve a mission that he sent in his papers 100 days in advance of his birthday. We waited this morning for a phone call from the post office to tell us his call came in. Around 9:00 I called the post office and they informed me that if you want them to call you need to let them know ahead of time. So we spent a long morning waiting for the mail to be delivered. We took Taylor to lunch and when we came home there was his letter.

We called Taryn and she was able to come right down from Salt Lake. Taylor called a couple of his friends and we sat and waited for Taryn to get there.

Like Greg he hurried and skimmed down to see where he was going as he was reading the call and was a little disappointed to see California since he really wanted to learn a language. Then he got to the part of California Long Beach spanish speaking mission and was really excited. He can't wait to learn spanish better and serve in California. The weather in Long Beach sounds perfect and I as a mother am excited that it won't cost me an arm and a leg to send packages to Taylor. He leaves for the MTC on March 3 and will spend 8 weeks there learning the language. This summer he applied for the regency scholarship and to get it he had to take two on-line spanish classes. What a blessing for him that he has had that head start in learning the language.

His roomate at BYU will be serving in the mission right next to Taylors. His is also a spanish speaking mission. Exciting time ahead for us. Greg gets home January 28 and we will fly Heather and the girls in from Georgia before Taylor leaves so maybe for a few weeks I will have all of them under one roof again.

Final weeks at the cabin

We love and also dread this time of the year. It's nice when all the hunts are over and the ranch seems to shut down and we are the only ones up there. But we dread the thought of closing it up for a few months and not being able to use it. We went out Thursday night and late Friday night Taryn and her friend Trevor came out. After breakfast we bundled up and went for a ride over the loop.

The leaves have all fallen off and everything looks pretty dead but we still think it's beautiful. You get to the top of the mountain and you can see forever. Taryn and Trevor left around 1:00 so Taryn could get back to the Ute's football game. We weren't alone for long, around 3:00 Taylor and four of his roommates and his friend Jenny came up.

Taylor has really enjoyed his roommates and they all get along. His roommate went to Lone Peak but they never hung out until college. It was nice to be able to met them and it's great to know that there are awesome kids out there. Jenny was a trooper coming up with 5 boys. She said she is used to that having 5 brothers and no sisters. We left early the next morning to attend stake conference. They stayed that day and got up early to attend church at Tabiona. they arrived in time but nobody was there. After Taylor told us I remembered that my mom had said they were also having stake conference that weekend.

With the snow coming this weekend me and Steve headed out Wednesday to spend the day. The weather was perfect and we spent a few hours four-wheeling. We found a road that took us through really tall thin pines. It was so beautiful and of course we had left the camera at home. We got alot of stuff put away for the winter weather and before we left Steve had to go on one more ride. I choose to stay at the cabin and stay warm. It was getting around 5:00 and starting to get dark so I went out on our balcony to see if I could hear or see Steve on the four-wheeler. As soon as I stepped out a four-point buck stopped on the road and looked at me. I didn't move and we stopped and looked at each other for awhile and then he turned around and started walking into the yard. I ran downstairs and out to the deck and there in the yard was another four-point buck with about 10 doe. They looked at me for a minute and then one buck went one way with about five doe and the other buck went the other way with about five doe. So cool and of course no camera. Steve was wishing he had stayed home from his ride since he didn't see any wildlife on it. I think winter is here and after Thanksgiving we will have to shut the water down and give the cabin a rest for a few months.

Cave Tubing

We heard from a few friends that when we stopped in Belize we needed to do the cave tubing. Last time we went and saw the ruins so that sounded fun. It was about an 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the river and cave. Belize has alot of poverty and most of the houses were in bad shape. Seeing how most of the world lives really made me appreciate how lucky I am.

The river is a calm one and going through the cave takes about 15 minutes. They give you headlamps to wear so you can see in the dark. Luckily we saw no snakes. That was my biggest fear.

After going through the cave you get to float down the river. Of course we forgot the good dive camera and bought one of those cheap ones on the cruise, so that is the reason for the blurry pictures.
Our dentist told us that his wife got really cold doing this so I brought my short wet suit. The water felt great and I was wishing I had left the wet suit home.

It was a fun excursion. When we got back to where the buses were parked we had lunch in an outside resturant. The food was delicious. It beats shopping in the little tourist shops.

Friends, friends and more friends

This week me and my high school friends were finally able to get together. Gini and Leisa meet me at the cabin and we drove to Heber to check out all the cute boutiques and do some shopping. Later that afternoon we meet up with Annette for dinner in Kamas. Then we drove back to the cabin and visited until midnight. Leisa and Gini had to head home that night, so me and Annette were able to visit some more before we feel asleep. The next morning after breakfast and a quick ride, Annette left for a quick visit to her mom and then home. I'm grateful that I had such great friends to grow up with. It's amazing that we still have so much in common. Can't wait until next year.

Friday night Galloways and Krugers came up for the night. It was nice just to have adults and be able to visit without all the kids wanting attention.

I knew it would be cold so Ali brought up her snuggi and even shared with me.
It was cold the next morning but we bundled up and went four-wheeling. The leaves are gone, but it's still beautiful. My nephew had seen a moose earlier that morning so we were all on the look-out for it. Whoever spies it first gets to choose where we eat for the next year. I guess we will take turns since nobody spotted it.
That night we played games. I love to play card games and it was fun to have someone to do that with. After cards we switched to catch phrase and we all about died laughing when someone tried to describe hanky-panky. I will never be able to hear that word again without laughing.

Becky showing off her CNA skills getting a sliver out of Steve's finger. I had a great time this week with friends. The cabin is a perfect place to get-together and just relax. We have had so much fun with friends the last couple of weeks that we need to start inviting earlier next year so we can have more memories.

Weekend with friends

We had such a fun weekend with our friends Ben and Jolene. We lived in the same ward in Layton with them and still enjoy spending time together. They arrived Friday night and we stayed up until 1:30 catching up on our lives. For anybody that knows me that is amazing. My bedtime is usually around 9:00.

We had the best weather. Beautiful and sunny. Not so great for the deer hunters but awesome for us. We took off on the four-wheelers up to Tom's cabin. Jolene got out her fishing pole and I said she should put a swedish fish on the end, she did and Steve and Ben told us that it was a dumb idea. About 5 minutes later she caught one. In fact she caught 5 fish while we were there. I enjoyed myself just sitting in the warm sunshine and watching. The men took off to four-wheel so Jolene had to kill and take the fish off the hook. We decided it was easier to kill it first and then take the hook off it's mouth. I was no help. I really don't like touching things.

Here is Ben taking his four-wheeler up a steep hill. He didn't make it the first time, but did the second time. I can't watch people do things like that.
The view at the top is breathtaking. You can see forever. Luckily for us there weren't any deer hunters.

Right before they left we brought the pistols out to shoot. I think I scared Ben and Jolene to death because I'm horrible at shooting. I really need to practice, I just wish they had really cheap fake bullets to practice with. The real ones are too costly. The day ended to soon and we had to head back to the real world. Thanks Ben and Jolene for the great time.

Fun two weeks

We have had a great two weeks. I went with Steve to Florida to work. He worked and I relaxed. I do have to laugh that they call it the sunshine state, because it's mostly cloudy when I visit. I didn't mind the clouds because it was so hot. The hotel had a pool and I was the only one that layed out during the day. So it was very relaxing. I don't think I could handle more then a week of doing nothing. On Friday we loaded up and headed to Georgia. Heather and Kevin live about 6 hours away from where Steve works. We were a little early so we just walked in to surprise them. Braelyn shouted out our names and came and gave us a big hug. Berkley just looked at us and then came and sat on my lap. It felt so good to have my arms around them again. I couldn't show up emty handed and heeded Heather when she said they didn't need anymore clothes or toys, so I bought them each an umbrella and Braelyn some cute boots to play in the rain.

The girls love being outside so we spent most of our time out there. Luckily it had cooled down a bit from our trip in August and I could handle being out there.

I saw this cute haunted house kit at Macy's. You make the form with chocolate rice krispies. I can handle that. Then we let Braelyn decorate it however she wanted. Heather helped do Berkley's.
We were able to attend church with them. Luckily they only live 10 minutes from the building. Their ward has been very friendly and welcoming to them. It was fun to meet some of them. They had one new member that after church has a bag of candy that he hands out to all the kids. They have nick named him the candy man.

One of my Grandpa's cousins live in their ward and it was his 91st birthday so we were invited over for cake and ice-cream. Afterwards we visited with him. It was amazing the things he could recall and the stories he told of my dad and grandpa. It just goes to show what a small world this is. I tried to make every minute count and here is a picture of me and Braelyn dressing up to go to dinner at the queen's house. The weekend went to fast and we had to leave that night to make it to the cruise the next day.
Our first stop on the cruise was Key West. It was bigger then I thought and the houses were so cool. I would have loved to walk through them. We just walked around the town taking in the sites.
We went to a musuem and learned alot about the history of Key West. At one time they had more millionaires then anywhere in the United States. It was a fun town to visit but I don't think I would want to live there.
The second day we were in Cozumel. At the last minute we booked a snorkeling trip. We meet alot of nice people of the trip, but once you scuba dive, snorkeling is a bit boring. That night was formal night. We got our own table facing the ocean and had a nice dinner. I do love being able to try new food. We usually try two appetizers. The deserts were a bit disappointing. I guess that is good since then we only ordered one.

Here was the exciting part of the cruise. We were still at dock in Cozumel and were planning on taking off in an hour. A storm rolled in, just as the Carnival cruise ship took off. We were on the top deck and felt a big rock of the ship. We thought it was from the waves of the Carnival cruise ship taking off. We were talking to some friends we had made on the snorkeling trip when over the speaker we heard "Echo, Echo all crew members to deck four". Then we knew something was up and ran across the deck and this is what we saw. Carnival had crashed into us. Everyone from our boat ran up to the top and all of Carnival's people were on their side. Luckily no serious damage and they were able to get pushed off us and on their way. We did have alot of fun harrasing the Carnival cruisers.
We were grateful in Belize that they just anchor and we didn't have to be close to Carnival. In Belize we took the cave river run. It was fun and we got to see alot of Belize while driving to it. We bought a cheap water camera so I have to wait to get the pictures developed and then I will post them. The last day was a day at sea and the weather was perfect. Not a cloud in sight. They were running a spa special so I talked Steve into doing it. My girl was wonderful and I felt so relaxed after it. Steve didn't have the same luck. We spent the day outside soaking up the sun and of course eating. It was fun to be with Steve and I'm lucky I have someone in my life that I enjoy spending time with.

I did it!

When we built the cabin our dream was to have a stone fireplace run through the middle of the cabin to the top. We even had the floor of the basement reinforced so we could do it. We had someone give us the bid and when we were told it would be $25,000.00 to do it we realized that our pocket book would not allow that dream. So we thought that it would look nice to rock the outside of the basement. We had just become empty nesters so when Steve went to Florida I decided that I would rather be alone out at the cabin then here in Cedar Hills and that I would put up the rocks. Steve did help me get the first couple of rows in and we gathered enough rocks we thought to finish it. So the next week I drove out and started working some more on it. Since they are real rocks I had to be picky about where they would go because they had to rest on the rock below it. So I would pick up a rock and walk it all the way around seeing if it would fit anywhere. Most of the time it would not and I would start again with another rock. After doing a couple of rows I would have to let them set and really dry. It was fun at the first but towards the end I was tired of it.

Luckily my mom came over one day to help. I was almost out of rocks so she helped me gather some more of them and then spent about 5 hours scrubbing the grout off the rocks I had already put up. I'm so grateful for her help. This weekend I finished the last couple of rows and started to grout between them. Of course we had not bought enough mortar and had to do a quick trip to Park City on Friday night to get some more. Saturday Steve was able to help me finish grouting between them.
It was so much work and I hope my back recovers from it, but it looks great. I can't believe I did it. And the grand total was around $80.00. Not too bad.