The Other Stuff

So this post is about the other stuff we did on vacation, but I don't want you to think that because they don't each get a post of their own, that means that they weren't as great as Box Canyon or Delta. Mostly it's just because there are less pictures....just sayin'

1. Palisade State Park is a favorite of mine. I remember camping there as a kid, and playing in the resevoir. They also happen to have my favorite golf course;) We took the kids to play in the water there, and they also loved playing on the "beach", if that's what you want to call it.

2. So I had this crazy goal to run a 5k while I was in Utah - my brother-in-law, John, started getting into triatholons, and encouraged everyone in the family to join the "fun";) He found one in Utah during the time that we were going to be in Utah, and he said that we could do it as a team - Joe on the bike, me on the run, and John's daughter Hannah on the swim. Soooooo, I've been training for it since May. Before that I had not run since 1994 - I'm serious! And that was a for a P.E. class I took the first year of college. Me and running never got along. Then this really crazy thing happened - I started to like running. Totally weird. By the time we left for Utah I had gotten up to 2 1/2 miles, but I figured I could walk as much as I needed to. My goal was simply to finish the 5k (not run the whole way, and not worry about my time). A few of days after we got to Utah, I went running with my sister one morning. I had wondered if the change in altitude would affect me much, but I hadn't worried too much about it - I should have worried, because it KICKED MY BUTT! Wow, I could not believe the difference. I felt like I was in big trouble, but I knew I still had a couple of weeks to get ready for it and adjust. A few days after that we were down in Manti at Joe's parents' house, and John was staying there too. He mentioned that the stake there was having a 5k the next day - before I knew it, he had talked me into doing it, even though I didn't feel ready at all. Joe road his bike along side me, giving me support and updating me on my distance. I ran and walked, ran and walked, ran and walked..... Around the half-way mark I felt like I was done - I was dying! I suggested we veer off the stake's chosen course, and I'd just run the rest of the way home to Joe's parents house. By the time we got to the house I'd gone 2 miles and I was feeling way better. I thought, I can do this, and I kept running past the house. Joe was surprised - "You're going to keep going?" "Yep!" He cheered me on the rest of the way, and I completed the full 3.1 miles! I felt soooooooo proud of myself:) Here I am, all red-faced and happy.

3. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again - Utah has the BEST grass. I always spend a lot of time in Utah walking with my bare feet on the grass, or lying on my back on the soft grass and looking up into the sky. For some reason, this time I was a bit obsessed with the clouds - they all just looked so amazing, and I took a lot of pictures of clouds. Taking pictures of clouds seems a bit ridiculous to me, but that's what I did, so there.

4. I LOVE camping, but I just don't enjoy camping in humidity, and we don't have our tent with us here anyway. However, even when we were in Texas, and had our tent, I still didn't want to go camping there. Joe went a couple of times with the scouts, and I went with the Young Women (day time only, because I had a brand new baby), and it was not a pleasant thing. Yucky, sticky humidity. I LOVE camping in Utah, and I'm so glad that we got a chance to go. I realized that my kids had NEVER been camping before. I felt like slapping myself. I didn't, but I definitely deserved it. We went to Hobble Creek Canyon above Springville UT, and it made me want to move there so bad. Are there many things better than falling asleep to the sound of a river? Not many.In the pictures above, Alex is sporting a swollen eye from a mosquito bite. Shortly afterwards he got stung by a wasp on the head. The rest of the vacation he was telling everyone about it.

5. Playing in the rain - it's so polluted here that I don't want my kids playing in the rain here. Which is just terrible for my kids, because they love playing in the rain, and I used to let them do it all the time in Texas, so they miss it. Am I just being silly? I don't know. So I let them play in the rain in Utah, even though there was thunder - but after one particularly loud one, Joe called us all in, and I called him a buzz-kill:) Safety First!

And by the by, there was one thunder storm while we were there that had the loudest thunder I've ever heard. If you know me, then you might know that I've NEVER woken up at night because of a thunder storm - never. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, "Wow, did you hear that thunder storm last night? It was so loud, I couldn't sleep." And I'm like, "Oh, there was thunder?" But not this time - one second I was dead asleep, and the next second I was sitting bolt upright in bed, listening to the the loudest thunder I EVER heard! It shook the house, and rattled my bones. I gotta say, it's a scarily awesome way to wake up.

6. Playing with cousins....it is a sad, sad, sad thing that we don't live closer to cousins.

My kids have great cousins, and magnificant aunts and uncles, who we all miss terribly. We wish we had more time with them every time we go to Utah - there is NEVER enough time! One night the kids got out some old lazer tag equipment that belongs to their uncles. Grandma bought a million batteries, and we loaded them in so the kids could play.

Radical Man!

This is my nephew Jack.

We call him Jack-Jack for short;) I am completely and totally enamored with this kid, and he probably doesn't know me from beans - but when I first saw him on our vacation he ran up with a huge smile on his face and gave me the biggest hug - LOVE! One day Grandma made some peanut butter bars and the kids came running in to tell us that Jack had eaten the chocolate off the top. I went into the kitchen and found this.

The robot did it! (I'm sorry, I just thought that was funny)

7. Visiting Temple Square is always a treat for me when we go to Utah, whether it's the Conference Hall, the Temple Visitor's Center, the Tabernacle, the Joseph Smith bldg., the Church History Museum, or seeing the Christmas lights. This time we visited the revamped Children's part of the Church History Museum. If you haven't been lately, you should go.

They have this whole dancing part where you can dress up, and then you watch a video of a woman, man, or both dancing, and try to follow the moves. It was a big hit.






8. I caught Alex rockin' out all by himself.


9. Another day, I went outside and caught my dad doing this with the kids:)


In that video he got Alex around the neck, but mostly he was getting the kids down around the waste, so it really wasn't dangerous:) This is so completely hilarious to me, and also quite impressive, considering that is just a regular soft rope (a real lasso, or lariat, is made from stiff rope, which makes it easier to keep the noose open). I mentioned in my last post that my dad grew up on a farm, and this was something he learned way back them. Look at him going strong at the ripe old age of 68 - I LOVE MY DAD!!!

10. I don't really have a number 10, I just couldn't leave it at number 9. However, I do have one more thing to post about our trip - Lagoon! - so I guess we could count that as number 10;)

Blast From the Past

Joe's mom grew up on a farm in Sutherland, which is just outside of Delta. Her dad was a cattle rancher, raising his own cattle as well as taking care of other people's cattle, and raising crops to feed his own cattle as well as others. When he got older his son, Joe's Uncle Howard, took over. Real cowboys:) When Joe was younger, his family lived in a trailer on the property for several years. His dad was a teacher there, and everyone else helped out on the farm. Now Uncle Howard is retired himself, and he leases out most of his acres to other farmers. I'd been hearing stories about Delta for years, but had never been out there. I was so excited to go out there, and it did not disappoint - it was another of my favorites of our trip. Yep, Delta. Who knew, right?:)

Our itinerary included a stop at the cheese factory (no pictures).

Horseback riding on Red.

Making new friends.

Tractor ride.

Visiting Fort Deseret.

Collecting sunstones at Sunstone Knoll.

Riding the 4-wheeler.

A weenie roast around the fire, and reminiscing about "the old days".

And a beautiful sunset to end it.

It was a great day, and I can't wait to go back. Uncle Howard reminds me a lot of my Great Uncle Asay. He had a farm in Wellington Utah, and when I was a kid we'd go out to visit him every Memorial Day (which was my favorite holiday, next to Christmas, because I loved visiting Uncle Asay so much). I loved watching Cora with her Great Uncle Howard - she really took to him - it was like watching myself, and I was flooded with old memories while making new ones.

I also thought alot about my dad. He also grew up on a farm in Wellington, but his dad had a stroke when my dad was a teenager, and they had to sell the farm. That's when they moved to American Fork, and they've been there ever since. I asked my dad if he thought he would have ended up being a farmer if his dad hadn't had that stroke, and he reckoned he probably would have been.

It's crazy how drastically our lives can change, from the paths we think we are going to go down, to the ones we actually take. 13 years ago, Joe NEVER would have thought that he'd be in the military (he originally planned on getting a degree in mechanical engineering), but here we are in Korea, on a completely different path. Can you tell that going to Utah makes me sentimental? Plus, I just watched the season 4 finale of Doctor Who, and Donna Noble took a right turn instead of a left turn, and it changed the whole universe!;) Not a Doctor Who fan? Hmmmm, that's a shame.

The Ascent

We just got back from a wonderfully needed vacation in Utah. It was wonderful. It was needed. Documentation is essential, but will take up more than one post. I will start with Box Canyon.

Joe's brother Jesse suggested some of meet at Box Canyon for a "little" hike. We were all game - there were 6 adults and 10 children (ranging from 11 years to a 2 month old in a baby sling).

If you've never been to Box Canyon in Utah, it is a popular spot for rock climbing and repelling. It is also a very narrow canyon.

At first, it seemed like this would be more of a nice walk than an actual hike.

Then we started coming across obstacles - big boulders that had fallen down into the canyon.

They weren't anything too bad. Some we went around.

Some we went under.

Some were bigger than others, and maybe just a little menacing.

Some of the kids were showing a little nervousness, but everyone was having a good time.

Then we came to something a little more difficult.

This was much too steep/difficult/high for any of the kids to climb. Jeanette (my sister-in-law) said that maybe she should stay behind with the baby, and I voiced concerns that some of the kids were getting scared, and that maybe it wasn't the best idea to go on.

But Joe's older brothers, John and Jesse, were determined, and assured us it would be fine.

Jeanette and I consented, and I climbed ahead of Jesse and John (with some difficulty), so that the three of us formed kind of a human ladder of sorts, by which we passed the kids on up, and got everyone safely to the top.

That was the first of many times that we did this. The next picture was at the hardest point, were we had 5 adult in a row (I'm on top, then Joe, Jeanette, Jesse, and John, who you can't see, is at the bottom).

Not only were we passing the kids, but keep in mind that we had a 2 month old baby in a sling that we were passing as well. Jeanette and John were kind enough to re-enact this for me, since I forgot to take a picture of the actual process.

Several times Jeanette and I expressed how absolutely CRAZY this was, and perhaps the CPS would be coming to take our children away later. Quote of the day: Joe says, "I'm glad I'm not up here alone, in case I get stuck, someone else can cut my arm off. I don't think that I could cut my own arm off." Nice one Joe;) But we made it the whole way, which was to a dead-end for us (since we didn't have any climbing equipment), at which point we turned around and retraced our journey.

I think the kids all felt very accomplished, and we all put our hands in together and shouted for TEAM LIDDELL!!!

I was the one with the camera the whole time, and as I was taking pictures, I kept thinking about this picture.

It's called "The Ascent" by David Linn. It was printed in the Ensign magazine back in 1996 (I'm pretty sure that was the year, but I don't remember the month). I remember, because I was on my mission at the time, and I cut it out of the magazine and put it in my journal. I still have it. The caption at the bottom of the picture said, "The Lord has taught that one of our responsibilities as members of the Church is to help our fellowmen through this life, 'every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God' (D&C 82:19). As we are lifted, and as we in turn assist others on their mortal journey, we transcend the darkness of the world and enter the light of the gospel."

The trip up Box Canyon ended up being one of my favorite things about this vacation. Reaching the end of our journey together, and with each other's help, reminded me how grateful I am to have married into the Liddell family. I love them all as much as I love my own Petersen family. No matter how hard life's journey is, no matter what obstacles we come up against, we can get through it together as a family - pulling, pushing, lifting each other up. None of us can make it on our own. Families are Forever - it's one of the most important parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ.