If we get to choose our own Heaven, Wyatt's heaven is going to be GOBLIN VALLEY

After a weekend camping in Goblin Valley I'm feeling rejuvenated. There's something about camping in the dirt, getting really sweaty from long hikes and coming home reeking of campfire that fills up my happy tank, ya know? And there are moments that happen on trips like these that just don't occur any other way. Like watching Steve and Wyatt simultaneously diving to the ground and scampering up a dry river bank on all fours in pursuit of a lizard. As you can see they caught that lizard. And the look on Wyatt's face? Pure joy!
We took Wyatt on the best hike. Little Wild Horse Canyon. It is an awesome hike through a slot canyon. 9 MILES! Even I was surprised that Wyatt made it that long. We went at Wyatt's pace (stopping to catch centepedes, dig holes in the sand, etc.) but we were out in just over 6 hours. Now thats some good family time that I've been craving for awhile now.

Daily Monotony of the Last Week

Steve & I got to be substitute coaches for Wyatt's soccer team the last two weeks b/c Jackie has been livin it up in So Utah two weekends in a row. We really had fun. I loved to watch Steve as coach to the 4/5 year olds. He did a great job. He is so patient and so good at teaching them all the important soccer skills such as where to stand as to not give the other team a chance. :) I can see more coaching of Wyatt's teams in our future...

Plus, the past two Saturdays 30 mins. soccer games have constituted our "quality time" together for the entire last two weeks. Steve has been super busy w/real estate work plus our rentals have been a nightmare as of late and has been working sometimes through the night til like 3AM. Poor sleepy guy. After we had to evict a guy for not paying his rent, he caused a bunch of damage in his apartment in our triplex including stealing the copper drain lines! I couldn't believe it. A person has to be pretty hard up to literally cut the drain lines out of our place just for the scrap value of the copper. We also have a home in Rose Park that we rent out that our tenant just moved and left the usual messes so I spent a few days this week trying to get the yard back into decent condition and cleaning inside. Here is a picture of the home we lovingly call "Goldie".

After feeling cooped up from cleaning Goldie I had to get outdoors again so Mark & I took Wyatt on a little hike to Ensign Peak. (Lame hike, but low enough that there's no snow...) We had fun hiking around the foothills behind the trail, too. We ended up having to bushwhack our way back down to our car. I love that Wyatt likes to hike. I just can't stand to be indoors for long and hiking is a good activity for us mostly b/c its an activity outside that I can do w/a 4 year old. (If only I could get him mountain biking so we could ride The Crest or Pipeline. Someday...)

And yesterday we had a rainy good time at the Zoo for our ward playgroup and then Tracy Aviary for a preschool fieldtrip. We still had fun even though we got rained on all day. Wyatt is his happiest when he's with his friends.

The Human Body

Wyatt and I saw this movie yesterday at Clark Planetarium. Fascinating movie. We saw our bodies as never before. The technology used in making this film was so cool. Our bodies are amazing - God's pinnacle creation! I think this is a must see - so educational. My favorite part of the experience was Wyatt telling Steve this morning "Sperms come from daddies and they have heads. Do you have sperms on your head, Daddy?" Hmmm....

BTW - It's Clark Planetarium's 5th anniversary so all shows all month of April are only $5 bucks. :)

Are you a UTAHHHN?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So when I was hanging out w/Julie last week she said that she could totally hear my parents Utah accent. She said she couldn't hear it on me, though. I've had people ask me where I'm from before. This quiz doesn't really consider the idiocincricies of the true Utah language, though. i.e. I didn't see a question for "do you say what the heck?" :)

Eldorado, Texas & Polygamy in Utah

Ok, I'm officially addicted to blogging. I'm spending too much time at it lately. It's just too much fun.

So, it's early in the morning and I can't stop thinking about this story in Texas. Is anyone else losing sleep over this? (Here's a few links, sorry I don't know how to copy the video here)

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3051546#
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3054784

I realize this is a touchy subject... I hope I don't offend... but I have some thoughts...
I don't think this is a case of "Religious Freedom." I think that this is Religious Abuse - abuse that is being covered up in the name of religion. These girls are born into servitude. I've felt for a long time, and I continue to feel that Utah should do more. Mark Shurtleff (Attorney General) has said that it's just not possible for our State Social Services Agency to handle the situation. I say - "Work it Out!" Perhaps we could pull a Mitt Romney and put together a volunteer effort. (Mitt was the force behind the massive volunteer effort at the SL Olympic Games). I know that I, for one, would volunteer as a foster parent for this situation. I believe that Utahns would rally together and help out. We really should, its the right thing to do.

Anyway, anyone else have any thoughts? Please share and don't worry if you don't agree with me... we're all different colors of the rainbow - makes life interesting. :)

Wyatt through the years...

Since this blog is supposed to somehow take the place of the scrapbook that was never created for Wyatt... here is a sampling of the professional photos we've taken of Wyatt through the years. He is 1 month, 4 months, 8 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2 years, 2 1/2 years, 3 years, and 4 years old in the pics. (Sadly a few of those ages are guesses - but they are close).

First Hike this Spring

Julie & Charlotte

Bad pic of Wyatt and me but hey, thats how it goes...

We went to St. George for my cousin's wedding Saturday and Julie met us there! We decided we'll have to "meet in the middle" more often. We had fun hiking into "super clawer's" (Wyatt's term) cave and soaking in Snow Canyon's spectacular scenery. Plus everyone got just a touch of sunburn... (normally a bad thing) but yay! for the sun!

Brotherly Love

My little bro and I went snowboarding yesterday at The Canyons. Just a little shout out to Marky boy. He inspires me b/c he lives life for today and he loves every minute. It seems like I'm always in a hurry and why? I'm kinda in the middle of the "rat race" all the time. I love spending time w/Mark b/c he reminds me to do the things I love and enjoy the moment. Love ya, Mark!

Milestones

Wyatt's a swimmer! (Okay, maybe for just a few strokes, but hey he's keeping his head above water so he's as good as I am...) We have just finished a session of swimming lessons and we had so much fun. Wyatt absolutely loves swimming and he's really starting to get the hang of it. I love watching him learn new things!