Spring Break-ing Part Zion

The Andersen's (our friends three houses down) invited us to hike Zion with them.  We did.  It was beautiful.  The weather was sunny and nice.  Green things are starting to grow.  But I must admit, I prefer Zion in the fall, with the leaves changing and falling.  Perhaps we'll have to go again in a month or two to see the green and growth of an every season Zion. But I know we'll have to arrive early, for I'm not a fan of hiking in the hot.  Plus, today Zion is still off season, so we are able to drive in the park, without the shuttle system.  Again, I love that we are less than an hour away from this amazing place!

Ethan (in green) is in NQ's Primary class at church. Today we did the Weeping Rock hike and then the River Walk.  Ashton was tired on the River Walk. Nathan and Ethan too, had a hard time with the last third of the return trip from the River Walk.

Spring Break-ing Part Vegas/Garden

Tis that beautiful time of year.  A week off of school.  Spring weather in the air.  What to do? Enjoy it!



We took an overnight trip to Las Vegas and stayed at Circus Circus.
We:
Saw circus acts
Ate at the buffet
Played at the Adventure Dome
Nathan Rode the "Thunder cats"
Played arcade games
Both boys won stuffed animals at the Midway playing various skills games
Swam at the pool (FREEZING!) and enjoyed the hot tub (lovely and warm)
Toured the Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay before heading home.

Just over 24 hours for that little adventure.

The next day, on Tuesday, we starting to some serious gardening.  We have much more to plant, but we did get our two raised beds framed in with the railroad ties.  We planted Shane's peas, corn and squash.   And I threw a LOT of flower seeds in the ground in our other beds, most of the seeds are old, but I'm hoping some might sprout. 

Growing from his little seedlings

The Popcorn on the Apricot Tree

Little Squash shoot.

Up to Dates in Feb and March

The Arch in Snow Canyon.

After making it home from Bear Lake, the Petty Clan and our ability to stave off the flu came to an abrupt end.  Nathan had stomach flu, Shane got the pink eye, and Ashton and I also retained the body ache, head congestion, cough, and sore throat variety.  This is especially sad when we spent the whole of Shane's Birthday driving home from Bear Lake and were then unable to do much else for a while. We've been pretty miserable around here.  For several weeks.  It's been gross. In the warm weather we've had doors and windows open.  And we've gotten out of the house in effort to clear out germies.

With that in mind, I had a few cake orders come in. Believe me when I tell you all of the surfaces I used were disinfected to the MAX, the dryness on my hand and fingers have not yet recovered from the Ajax, bleaches and wipes I've been using. The cakes turned out pretty adorable.

Ahoy, It's a Boy!

Hand crafted ruffle skirt

In the garden I painted tree trunks to protect them from bore and heat stress. Shane, using his 4-wheeler, hauled our railroad ties into the veggie garden area!  I'm SO excited! It's looking like a real garden spot!!  And Shane's started some seedlings in the house. His corn, peas, and squash are sprouting out like CRAZY!! No pictures yet, but you won't have to wait long!

After a while Shane found himself the perfect present to compensate for his missed birthday.  He got a gun he'd been wanting and some bullets and we all went for some family shooting time.  Nathan is wearing some goofy socks for "Dr. Seuss Crazy Socks Day"  I think he looks adorable.   Shane is very happy with his Birthday present, we couldn't have picked anything he would've liked better!

I had a hair cut on March 1st. (I hardly felt like sitting there with flu symptoms, but pressed on)  Before and after.  I like the short flippy hair, I've NEVER had hair this short.  I like it.  I like it long too.  But it's been fun to style and use product in this new cropped cut.

Nathan got in trouble at school at recess.  I guess a child thought Nathan wasn't letting him go down the slide (Nathan says this is NOT so,) nevertheless, the other child jumped on top of his body, and began choking Nathan.  And because Nathan felt defenseless, he bit the other childs hand to get the kid off of him and to get him to stop choking him.  We went in and talked with the VP.  He was very kind and told Nathan that there were three adults supervising the recess, and that if he could open his mouth to bite, that he should've been able to open his mouth to call for help. Anyhow, Nathan has his 1st official warning, and should there be another trip to the VP's office, Nathan will be sent home for the remainder of the day. (The other child was also sent to visit the VP.)

And because I thought I'd share what we had for dinner tonight: Pot stickers and for dessert a Nuttela fried wonton sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.