uea - part 2

 We've driven by a million times, but never stopped.  On Friday we decided it was about time we explored Valley of Fire.  It's a state park in Nevada located between Mesquite and Las Vegas to the east.  It makes a nice little day trip.  It's a lot like the red rock parks in Utah, but I think more desert-like with random awesome red and white rock formations popping up.  The above picture is a little canyon on the Mouse's tank hike (short 1/2 mile).  There's lots of little caves and hiding spots in the rocks.

 A very pretty desert flower -- and apparently VERY poisonous!

 It wouldn't be red rock country (desert) without seeing a few lizards.

 Lots of great rock formations to climb around on.

 Matthew found a great little cave to climb up into and then found this little peekhole.

Ryan needed to do an ecosystems assignment for school, so he's filling in his worksheet while joining his brothers for a break on the rocks.

 This is mouse's tank -- a little bathtub of water in the desert.

 There are tons of petroglyphs on the rock walls.  They are well preserved and easy to see.

 We ended our day at Elephant Rock.  Can you see the trunk and body?

 Another great cave here -- Matthew had the whole caved mapped out into kitchen, bedroom, window, doors, and living room.

 Mark atop Matthew's cave.

 Me & Jacob on top of a bunch of rocks (that you can't see).  But at least there's one picture of me to document that I was there!

 On our way home on Saturday, we took the long route, going up through Pine Valley and then over to the Mountain Meadows Massacre site.  There is a nice monument there and this wall lists all the people/families that were massacred there - sad to say the least.

After lunch in Cedar City, we headed for home.  A pleasant way to spend a lazy weekend.

uea weekend - part 1

 We headed down to St. George for UEA weekend.  It was nice to get out of town for awhile and take a break.  Mark & I haven't been to Brigham Young's winter home for a very long time, and the kids had never visited it, so we made that our first stop.  The missionaries gave us a great tour and we learned a little church history.  Our next stop - the outlets.  Ryan forgot his swimsuit, and after perusing a few stores, I made a fabulous find at ON for $1.50!  Then it was on to the local corn maze and farm.  I have to say the corn maze turned into a bit of a disappointment, since we walked all the way through it and back in about 20 minutes, or less!

 But we did get to ride out and back to the maze in a trailer behind a tractor!

 The farm had some very fun things to play on, like this slide that dumps you into a cornbox.

 Then there was the rope swing.  This was by far the most entertaining and challenging.  We had to drag Jacob off of it when we were ready to go!

 And here was the trampoline.  A ginormous colorful plastic thingy full of air.

 The raingutter rubber-ducky regatta.

 A "real" old tractor that the kids could play on. 

 In checking this out, I concluded that it was the same model as the tractor I used to drive back in my good old growing up days on the farm.  (The tractor was very old even back then!) Most often I'd drive this tractor with the pipe trailer attached while my Dad or brother unloaded or loaded up the sprinkler pipes in the fields.  I also did a few stints with the hay rake attached.

After our farm adventure we spent some time at the motel swimming pool before heading out to dinner.  Just as we were about finished with dinner, Jacob's ear suddenly started to hurt.  After trying some tylenol and not getting any relief, we decided we better head to instacare. He had a nice ear infection going. Fortunately, some numbing drops, antibiotics, and a good nights rest, got him back on track for the next day's adventures.

ryan update

Yay! Ryan is out of the boot and into an ankle brace.  A checkup and more xrays revealed that he had a slight tear in the ligament and a bone fleck (a piece of the ankle bone got chipped off)  The ligament is healing around the bone fleck.  He has some at-home ankle exercises to help strengthen his still healing ankle and wears an ankle brace with normal shoes.  Full-fledged basketball playing is still a couple weeks out, but we got the go-ahead to start slow with practice! 

backyard quidditch, matthew style

Matthew invented this backyard quidditch.  The "broomstick" is one of those suck water-squirt gun guns tucked between his legs.  Then he can fly by swinging on the swing laying on his tummy.  Pretty creative I'd say!  He even got the brothers involved once by having them chuck a ball towards him so he could bat the "quaffle" with the broomstick.