Our Muddy, Wet, "Worst Hike Ever!"

Tige had the day off work yesterday, so after preschool we headed to Zion National Park to hike the Emerald Pool trails in the beautiful 66 degree weather. Kason and I both had brand new hiking shoes and new wool hiking socks. Nice and clean.
Everything started off great. Kason was again saying "we're discovering things" and "what a great day."

We reached the lower pool and loved seeing the beautiful waterfalls. We even managed a picture of the whole family.

We got to walk under the waterfall, which Kason thought was great.

Tige and I stopped underneath the waterfall to take this picture of the falls above. We didn't realize that Kason didn't stop and was tromping ahead through VERY thick mud!

One of his shoes got stuck in the thick mud and came off, so naturally he then took a step into the mud with his new hiking socks. We yelled at him to stop, and did our best to clean him up now that he has two muddy shoes, one muddy sock, muddy pants, and muddy hands. Urgh! We didn't have supplies for this--just a wipe or two in case Abby needed a diaper change. Keep in mind this is that nasty red rock clay-type mud.

Once we're out of the mud, we hike up to the middle pools and stop for a snack.

Then we hike to the upper pools, which had an awesome waterfall this time of the year. It was wet and breezy up there, and Abby was sucking in her breath with each breeze.

But she was still happy and smiling!

We hiked back down to the middle falls and had to make a choice--continue across the little river to make a full loop, or go back to the lower pools the way we came through the mud. We didn't want more mud, and the river looked so shallow and harmless . . .

So across the river we go. Tige went first, and Kason and I followed with me holding his hand. When we got in the water and Kason's feet started getting wet, he panicked and tried to lift both feet and was kind of flailing dead weight. I only had a hold of one hand. Tige tried to reach out to take him, but he was one step too far away. So as Tige reached out for him and I let him go, down he went face first in the river like a pancake--drenched from head to toe. He comes up screaming! Poor little dude. Tige stripped his wet shirt off, but of course, we had no change of clothes with us. His pants, underwear, socks, and shoes are drenched with cold water. We tried to down play it by saying "wasn't that refreshing?" Kason's answer, "NO! IT WAS NOT REFRESHING! IT WAS LIKE ANTARTICA!"

So Tige took off his dry shirt and let Kason wear it the rest of the way. Kason told everyone we passed on the trail about how he fell in the cold river. Tige and I realize crossing the river was not the brightest decision we've ever made.

We hiked down quickly, and had to strip Kason naked for our 45 minute drive home. We bundled him in my sweatshirt, his jacket, and any other dry thing we had in the car. We learned a lesson that we should be more prepared with changes of clothes (and a video camera) next time. Tige and I laughed about it all the way home, but Kason didn't think it was so funny. Just this morning he said "mom, remember that hike we went on where my shoes got muddy and I fell in the river? That was the WORST HIKE EVER!" I wonder how long it will be before Kason thinks it's funny . . .

Abby's First Hike

Last week (on Valentine's Day) we went to Snow Canyon for Abby's first hike. We hiked Jenny's Canyon and Johnson's Canyon, but forgot our camera. So yesterday we went to Snow Canyon again so we could capture hiking with Abby on camera. We again took the Johnson Canyon trail, but this time turned off to Scout Cave. It was a really long hike, but Abby did great and loved snuggled up against daddy's tummy. She slept part of the hike and the rest of it she spent licking the carrier strap. She loves to lick and suck anything that's close to her mouth. Kason also loved the hike and seems to never get tired (unlike his mom). He kept saying "Whoa! We're discovering things" everytime we saw a lizard, bug, bird, or animal hole. He also said "This is such a great day!"

On a separate note: I adore my daughter and she is at the perfect age. I wish I could pause her right now. She's perfect in every way. She sleeps good, eats good, and isn't mobile, so I don't have to chase after her yet. She isn't teething and isn't ever cranky. She's so happy and spends all of her time smiling and laughing. I can't believe she'll be 5 months old in a week. It's been the fastest 5 months of my life. We are truly blessed.

My Dad is . . .

Yesterday Kason informed us that his daddy is just like Handy Manny because he can fix anything. There's probably no greater compliment from a 5 year old boy, right?

Also, the other day Kason caught us kissing in the kitchen, and he started pouting and said "you guys are kissing each other and no one is kissing me!" It was pretty funny. And I proceeded to smoother him with kisses.

Print your Blog into a Book

If you've ever wanted to print your blog or have been trying to figure out how to preserve your blog memories, I'm going to be your new best friend! Today I received my blog for 2008 in a beautiful 8x10 full color, hardbound book! It's like a beautiful journal/scrapbook of all our family's memories and pictures. I'm so excited. And I'm going to tell you how you can do it too!

Front Cover
Sample Layout. The text is Tige's memories of Abby's birth and it actually wasn't included in my blog, but I added it for this book. The pictures were all imported straight from my blog.

Sample Layout. All of this was imported straight from the blog, and I just changed the layouts to accomodate how many pictures I had on that blog entry.

Here's what you need to do:

1. The website is http://www.blurb.com/ I have made other books from this site, like a biography about my grandma, but I was thrilled when I found out they had a fast and easy way to "slurp" your blog straight into a book. You can visit the website for information on on pricing--which varies depending on your book's size and how many pages.

2. Create a membership with a username and password (it's free) and then download Blurb's "booksmart" software (it's free too). This is the software you'll use to make the book.

3. Open the Booksmart program, and click Create a new book. It'll ask you to choose the size you want. You'll then choose a background theme (as you can see, I choose a "dark room" theme with black pages and white writing). You can change this later if you don't like how it looks.

4. It will ask what layout you want and you'll choose "Blog to Book." It asks for your blog username and password, and voila! It "slurps" your blog straight into the book. It will list all your blog posts, and you check all the ones you want included (so you could do it year by year, or skip ones you don't want, or whatever). THAT'S IT!

It uses a default layout with a text box and a spot for 6 pictures. If you had more pictures than that with each post, the rest of the pictures will be placed on the following page. I then went through each page and choose a custom layout that fit how many pictures were on that particular post. Some have one large picture on the page, and other posts have several smaller pictures (see samples above). You can customize to fit however you'd like.

It was quite easy to navigate through and make changes once you're in there. You could customize each page to have a different background color or patterns or whatever you want. I did mine mostly all black with white writing because I didn't want to fuss with it for a long time. Overall, it didn't take too long. Next year, I'll make it fancier, but I wanted to see how this one turned out first. You can preview it on screen, and when it's ready, click order.

If you get started and need some help, I'd be glad to answer any questions over the phone or e-mail. Let me know. I'm thrilled with my book and that our memories and pictures are preserved in a printed, bound book. (Who has time for a journal or to stay caught-up with scrapbooking, right?)

The Diorama Saga

Kason made this "Diorama" at preschool with a bear cave and animals. They worked on it for weeks, and he talked about it frequently. He was so excited when it was done and he finally got to bring it home from preschool.

Well, when Tige got home that day, we went out to eat and left the diorama on the kitchen table. What we didn't know is that the main box part of the diorama was a cereal box. Remember what our naughty doggie did with Tige's Christmas present wrapped in a cereal box? Yep, you guessed it. We came back home, the diorama was all ripped up on the floor as the naughty doggie had smelled what she thought would be a tasty morsel. Kason was devastated! He cried and carried on and said "I worked sooooo hard on it!" Anyway, thankfully it was just he bottom box part that was ruined, but the backdrop and the animals were fine, so I found some white paper and fixed it up good as new. We've even added a few more animals to it since this picture. Needless to say, it's not stored where the naughty doggie can get it anymore.

Great Grandparents

My Grandma Bev recently brought Grandpa George over from the rest home for a visit. He took a little nap in our comfy recliner while she read and told Kason stories. Bev is the best story teller on the planet! Kason didn't want her to ever stop. Then last weekend, Tige's grandparents came for a visit. They met Abby for the first time and listened to Kason talk endlessly about sharks. We went out for dinner with them--always to Golden Corral, which is their favorite. We have some great-grandparents that we love!

Grandma Bev
Grandma Maurine

Grandpa Bill