Colorado and Butterfly Counting

I went to Boulder, Colorado for some training the week before last.  On a couple of the evenings, I was able to get away for some walks up in the mountains.  The picture above is from one of those walks.  I got rained on a little bit, just enough to cool me down a little bit.

Yesterday, Mariana and I went butterfly counting at the Big Oaks National Wildlife refuge.  Here is a picture of a Spicebush Swallowtail and a Tiger Swallowtail on some butterfly bush.  We spent an interesting morning learning the names of all kinds of butterfly species found in our area.

We had to take a safety class and sign a release before we went out counting butterflies, because Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge is the former Jefferson Proving grounds, where the army test-fired artillery for 50 years.  Mariana spotted this unexploded shell in a creek near a bridge where we were looking at butterflies.

Clifty Falls Park

  We have had such a busy summer so far that we haven't had time to go to Clifty Falls park which is right here in town.  So today we took an afternoon walk and enjoyed the shade and the scenery.

This next picture shows cake rock.  It looks remarkably like a big slice of cake with a bite out of it.  But I think even Isaac would have a hard time finishing this dessert.

Brick Breaking

Our school did a demonstration at the county fair yesterday.  Here is a link to a video of me breaking a stack of 5 concrete bricks.

http://www.martialartsmadison.com/another-brick-break-on-july-13th-2011-jefferson-co-fair/

In California

We have arrived in. Santa Clara. Along the way, we stopped at Carlsbad Caverns, attended sacrament meeting in Winslow, Az, and stopped at King's Canyon to see some of the giant sequoias. At a couple of rest stops, we also took a few minutes to see a awar memorial with several planes, and an antique tractor museum.

I wanted to post some photos, but I'm not sure if I can do it from the iPad or not. I'll have to ask James and Craig when they get back from the Apple gift shop.

Summer in full swing

Things are finally quiet again at our house after more than a week of excitement and guests. The fun started nearly two weeks ago when Jake and his family went to Logan so he could run in a trail race. It is normally about 28 miles, but Jake found out the night before that it would be shortened to 11 because there was still too much snow at the higher elevations. We were there for the race day on Saturday and we headed home that afternoon after lunch with Mom.

Lindsay and her children stayed at Leethams while Jake went back to Wyoming for the work week. We got to see them every day. At the same time, Jenine and Laila spent a week with us.

We had pictures taken with all of the grandchildren one afternoon. I think the photographer was a little overwhelmed. I think every child cried at some point. We haven’t seen the pictures yet but we will include some when we do.

We hung out around our house quite a bit. We also went to a new splash park in Alpine a couple of times and the Lehi pool once. Jenine, Laila and I went to Thanksgiving Point. We also drove the Alpine Loop road that just opened last week. All the snow damaged the road in several spots and they had to fix them before they could open it. There were several spots where water from the melting snow is just running across or down the road.

Jenine and I worked with the horses every day. Jenine has been taking riding lessons in Vegas every week.

One morning Jake and I got up early and hiked up to the Y on the mountain. It took us (me) about 50 minutes to make the climb. Then Jake decided he would run back down and see how fast he could make it. Then he would run back up and meet me on the trail coming down. He made it down in seven minutes. There are 11 switchback turns on the trail. He caught back up with me on the third turn from the bottom. The whole thing took us about three hours from the time we left the house, and that included a stop at Maverick. It was a great view and there were many people on the trail. It was also the morning of the Freedom Festival balloon fest, so we could see about 20 hot air balloons below us.

We finally had some hot weather. It was over 100 over the holiday weekend. It has been up to 115 in Vegas, so Brandon and Jenine thought it is a little cold at night here. Katie was wearing a sweatshirt because she is used to Wyoming and expected it to be cool. Anette finally talked her into a T-shirt.

On his way back to pick up Lindsay, Jake stopped in Star Valley and picked up a saddle that used to belong to my Grandpa Kennington. It’s still in decent shape considering that it is probably 80 years old. It sat in the living room most of the weekend and the grandkids all took turns sitting on it and pretending to ride.

Monday night the company was all gone. We went to a big fireworks show at Thanksgiving Point with Jed, Cally, Harvey and Grey. We got stuck in traffic for about 90 minutes after it was over so it was after midnight before we got home.

We hoped Mom and Dad would make it down for a day or two, but they were tired and recuperating from their trip to Indiana. Anette and I know the feeling. In three weeks we will be headed back to Wyoming for a baby blessing.

We hope all of you are having a wonderful summer.