RedRock Geocaching

Just in case you are trying to orient yourself...

This picture was taken from the red rocks Northish of the St. George Temple.

I think it's called Pioneer Park.  

I never thought that you could find so many hikes, trails, nooks & crannies so close to downtown SG

 Cole was just climbing around these rocks like a lizard.  Kinda freaking me out.

 Once we discovered how much space was out there to be discovered, we pulled out the cell phone/GPS and looked up some caches.

Found It!

 Had to take a picture of myself to document my participation.  I love how you can see my arm in the reflection.

 Kelli & Sierra

 Cole & Rick were looking for another cache...the clue said that it was in a nook & cranny.

There were lots of nooks & crannies.

 Still looking...

 Found it!

Then we had to find our way back down.  We decided to follow this fault line.

 Perfect weather.

horray!

 We were a little thirsty, so we found this pond.  It was mostly clear, so we took a big drink.

Not.  We had to listen to the giardia story again.  

We won't be drinking stagnant, green, pond water, EVER!

This was a fun hiking area.  Easy for the kids (not so easy for me, just 24 hours after running the 1/2 marathon, my toes were not yet working correctly).  Lots of trails.  Lots of cool rock formations.  Close to the parking area.

Surprise!

The first surprise is that my mom agreed to come to St. George with us.

The second surprise is that she brought Halle with her.

The third surprise is that Brandi and Hunter called on Friday and said that they were on their way (with Cami & her 3 kids.  surprise!)

 When we were in St. George last weekend (Presidents Day) we discovered that on February 25 there would be a Washington City 1/2 Marathon.  And the starting line was right out the back door and across the golf course. 

We pretty much quit our running training last fall and only started running again a few weeks ago.

The furthest I have run been running lately has been 7 miles.

So, on Tuesday I tried running 10 miles.  did it.

On Wednesday, Rick ran 11 miles.  easy.

So, on Thursday, we signed up for the 1/2 marathon.

We couldn't resist since the starting line was right out our back door.

It was a small crowd that seemed to be in the younger age groups.  I was the oldest one there!

It was a fun course.  I would certainly do this one again.  

I loved running through the Virgin River Gorge.

Mile 10 (uphill) kicked my tail and was the only place where I walked (about 1/4 of a mile).

This is also when Rick texted me to tell me he had finished.  His best time ever:  1:52.  wow.

He turned around and started running back to meet me.

He met up with me at mile 11.  I was so happy to see him.  

But I knew it meant one thing:  I would be running the rest of the way to the finish line.

I was mostly happy.

I finished with my 2nd best time ever:  2:39

Rick ran a total of 17.5 miles yesterday.  Wow.

Then it was PARTY time.  

We celebrated my birthday with sandwiches followed by cake and ice cream.

We had planned to go out to eat somewhere nice.

But, this is more my style.  Plus, I didn't want to walk.  at all.

 Brandi gave me the cute necklace that I am wearing and Rick surprised me with a cute silver ring from Tiffany's.  Big surprise!!

Red Cliffs Recreation Area

Rick pays our fee

Flash Flood Area...good thing we waited until it stopped raining.

Summer

Rick

 Cole

 I didn't get many pictures of Cole since he ran the entire time.  

Rick went ahead with him to keep track of him.

I say, let him run. wear him out.

 Sierra

The only evidence that I was actually on this hike.

That and the fact that the pictures are posted here.

 Sierra

 Taking some self portraits.  I couldn't help it.  It was so funny watching them.

 I love Sierra's expression on this one.

 Sierra & Kris

It was a little chilly as you can see the snow in the background.

But, once the clouds cleared a bit and we were in the sun, it was a great day for a hike.

This one is supposed to be really fun in May, when the weather is hot and the water is clear.

Bakery

This is how we celebrated the Super Bowl:

We created a Bakery.

Rick had some boxes sitting around.

He asked Cole to take them to the garage (to recycle, of course!)

Cole asked if he could play with them for a while.

(why do I buy the kids toys when they are happy with boxes?)

So, they made a bakery.

 They served Valentines Candy,

 and homemade brownies.

 Can you see the tip jar on the left?

 Cole even made Rick pay for his bakery items.

The bakery box is still in the Library.  

I have noticed a few things disappearing such as Lifesavers and gun.

I have peaked in the Bakery windows and there are little containers full of things like dry macaroni.

Because everyone knows that Bakeries sell a lot of, gum, lifesavers, and dry macaroni.

Here is Cole's Valentine Container:

 Luckily I had this container on hand for a different project from the past.

I found some stickers.  I was thinking I still had some tractor and dump truck stickers, but I couldn't find them.

I was able to find some hearts and some letters.

At first Cole did NOT want to put hearts on his container, but it didn't take long for him to see my vision of this project.  

Bless his heart.  He used every single heart sticker from the stash.

We didn't put too much advance thought into this project.

We were still attaching stickers while tying shoes and zipping coat and running out the door to catch the bus.  (complete procrastination)

Also, Cole was super frustrated with me for choosing his valentines.  

They were Transformer Valentines that came with a pencil.  

We folded the Valentines just a bit and the pencils slipped into the slits.  

Perfect.  Not.  Because girls DO NOT LIKE Transformers.  Everyone knows that.  

He was so reluctant to even take his Valentines to school.

I think Sierra finally convinced him that it would be OK to get a Transformers pencil from a boy.

When he came home from school he was grinning from ear to ear with all kinds of candy, chocolate, and sticky stuff hanging out of this little, round, heart-covered box.

Such a hit and he was so pleased to give out his pencils because he got about 5 pencils back--all of them different.

In Contrast...Sierra's Valentine Container:

Sierra had sketches and drawings in preparation for this creation.

She came up with this idea completely on her own. 

And carried it out without any help.

Except the glue gun is still out and construction paper grass is all over the house.

It is called "Love Shack"

Here is the best part...

She had Rick help her download "Love Shack" by the B-52's.   

Then she got permission from her teacher to play it on her ipod while her classmates walked around the classroom to judge the Valentine containers.  

It was a competition that she took very seriously and is still waiting for the results.

I'm not sure why all of these teachers think it's such a good idea to send this assignment home for the kids to do. (parents to do).  And I'm not sure why they think it's such a good idea to make it a competition.  It was almost like Reflections and Science Fair all over again.

To My Valentine

One of my "Vintage Valentines"

Oh, how I love these.

This one was never sent through the mail so it doesn't have a postmark or date,

but the ones that do are all about 95 to 100 years old.

The only thing is says on the back is, "To Elsie"

I'm not sure why school teachers think it's so awesome to send the kids home with a challenge to decorate their own valentines day boxes.  

And I'm not sure why my kids take on the challenge to design the most creative valentine box complete with music...

What happened to the good old days when we took a brown paper grocery sack, painted some hearts on with poster paints and stapled the top down?

more to come.

Happy Valentines Day!