More Driving! (a.k.a.- Spring Break)

Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.  So, of course we loaded up the car & headed south for some spring break fun! We were joined by the Whitemyer & Buss families, who luckily are also huge fans of cheap thrills and low-budg hotels :)

This was the plan: They drove down to our house here in Price & spent the night Wednesday.  Thurs. morning we headed out for Goblin Valley where we spent the day in the park and doing some local hiking. Thurs. evening we drove to Hanksville to stay at the swanky Whispering Sands Motel.  Friday took us to yet another park, this time National- we spent the day at Capitol Reef, not far from Hanksville and one heck of a gorgeous drive to boot.  Friday night it was back up to the Wallace Inn for some R & R before heading home Sat.

Here’s how it actually played out……..

First stop, Goblin Valley State Park

 

The kids had a fabulous time exploring here and climbing all over the hoodoo’s.  As we were leaving we realized we didn’t get a group photo.  At that exact same time a rip-roarin wind-storm rolled into town.  The ensuing pictures were hilarious…..

You can pretty much see all the moms yelling “Hold still damnit! I don’t care if there is sand in your eyes!  This is fun and we need a photo to prove it!  Don’t make me kick you!”  Bahahaha!! 

Slightly better….. (but not as funny)

After a windy lunch at the Goblin Valley campground we did the Wild Horse slot canyon hike.  This is one of my favorite slots just because its so easy to access and it can be enjoyed by any level of hiker.

 

After a long day of hiking we were so happy to retire at our awesome hotel.  I made fun of it a lot because it was so cheap and in the middle of nowhere, but in all honesty, it was pretty great.  I would recommend it to anyone, especially to all those poor saps we saw camping out in the wind tundra that blew in that night.  And really, who wouldn’t love a hotel that includes free breakfast at the gas station next door?  That’s what I call classy!

The next day we awoke to slightly lower temperatures than one would hope for on their spring break weekend, and we had a hard time deciding where to go. Rich called the visitors center at Capitol Reef National Park and said “Hi.  We are traveling with 6 adults and 12 children.  Tell me why Capitol Reef is the right place for us to spend our day.”  The poor lady on the other end of the line did a great job selling him the place, but really she had us when she said it was warm and not windy there. 

I’m so glad we spent the day there!  Capitol Reef is a beautiful National Park that is often overlooked because there are so many bigger, more spectacular parks nearby (Arches, Bryce, Zion’s, etc.), but we had such a great time.

We started our day with a hike to Hickman bridge.  Fun, short hike with great narration of the scenery provided by Amberlee :)

Next we found a great park to have our lunch in and us moms planned an easter egg hunt for all the kiddos.  We asked the husbands to take the kids to the visitors center for 5 minutes so we could hide the eggs and exactly 1 hour, 3 junior ranger badges and a short video at the park amphitheater LATER, they returned for the hunt.  men……

Pre-hunt instructions.  I had hid a five dollar bill in one lucky “golden egg” (which was actually green, but whuteva…) 

And they’re off!

Cute little Nelly actually ended up with the golden egg, and she was over the moon about it!

After the hunt we wandered around the park checking out the sites.  There was a fun Nature Center for the kids, tons of beautiful orchards with gorgeous spring blossoms, and an old historic pioneer house where they sell delicious homebaked goods.  So we stopped for some afternoon pie and ice cream!

At last it was time to head back to Price.

In hindsight, I suppose I shouldn’t have let my little puker ride home in Whitemyers car on a full bell.  Sorry guys! :)

The next morning, safe & sound back at the Wallace Inn, the men woke up at the crack of dawn for a little Mtn. Bike riding.

After that, it was time for our vacation to be over.

 

Or was it?????

 

So, Saturday afternoon, we climbed back into the car and drove North to spend Easter Sunday with our families.  I KNOW.  MORE DRIVING!!!!!

Here we are at the annual Harward family easter egg hunt.  Just for future reference, squinkies do NOT make good egg hunt prizes!

Proud to say I did their entire Easter ensemble this year on hand-me-downs.  (Or as my dear friend Jami would say- hamme-downs)

So, thank you Julie for baby J’s awesome dress!  Thank you Michelle for picking up Sparky’s shirt at the local garage sale :)  Thanks to Lisa for Smurfy’s awesome outfit- courtesy of the quads.  The list goes on, we could be here all night.  Anyway- I made it work.  They all matched & zero dollars were harmed for the making of this photo.

The Whole fam.  Hoppy Easter everyone!

Here’s hoping we can stay put for the next few weeks.  (Ya right!)

The LOOOONNNNGGGG drive

If you have read this blog even once, you probably know that I moved to Price.  I mention it about 5 times a post.  You probably also know that most of my life (family, friends, commitments, etc.) are still back up North.  This leads to a LOT of driving.  I would say we end up driving back about twice a month to spend a weekend with family.  In March alone, we went back for 2 baby blessings, grandmas ski day, and I made a separate trip to Logan with my sisters to see my aunts and Grandma Hansen. Its about 2 1/2 hours back to my hometown  (the drive to Logan was almost four and we did that one twice…..).  Not too bad.  Just fine by myself in fact.  But throw 5 tired, over-sugared kids in the car with me (btw we have no dvd player in our car) and sometimes I want to gouge out my eardrums with a fork so I can’t hear them anymore!

Its getting kind of old.  So that’s why when my sister made this snarky comment….  “Why would we come visit you?  You’re HERE all the time?”…… I almost came unhinged.

Glad my family doesn’t all feel that way.  That’s right.  We got some visitors!!!!!  Oh, you know how this makes my heart sing!

Thank you Marty & Lisa for coming down to visit the poor, sad, lonely Wallaces, and for understanding “WHY” this might be something we all might enjoy.  (Even though I had to beg, plead, and twist your arm…)

We took them down to the Wedge to see the Little Grand Canyon overlook.  Seth was kind enough to herd all 11 of our kids down buckhorn wash in one suburban so that Marty, Lisa and I could go for a run on the dirt road inside the canyon.

That was fun, but hard!  Seth took all the kids to see the Indian ruins while we ran.

And then we drove down to the old swinging bridge and had a picnic by the river.

 

The Harwards have a new little puppy named Dash.  He is a little rascal. Seth sent him for a swim in the river.  Luckily he could swim!

Marty wanted to replicate this super cool picture he saw on some runner-dude’s blog.  He did a good job, only my camera once again wrecked the picture!  I think the problem is fixed for good now.  Marty tinkered with it a bit and hopefully I won’t inadvertently wreck any more photos!

We spent the rest of the weekend lying around, letting the kids play.  We attempted to watch conference on Sunday, but I am ashamed to say that by the end, all four adults were asleep on the couch after such a busy weekend.  Oh dear.  Well, I do tivo it, so perhaps I can catch up later.   Thank you Harwards for being such good sports, and for wandering out of your comfort zone for the weekend!

Grandma’s Ski Day

A few weeks ago, the Pantone family spent a wonderful, beautiful day together at Snowbasin which we will all remember for a long, long time.  We gathered in honor of Seth’s Grandma (the kids Great-Grandma).   Grandma’s story is best told by herself, so I am going to paste a copy of a letter she wrote to the Snowbasin Adaptive Skisports program to explain to you her situation:

“On March 10, 2012, I had the most amazing day!  I will be 80 years old (ugh) in Nov.  I learned to ski when I was about 7 years old and had continued to ski until I was almost 60 years old!  Then, everything came to a screeching halt.  I had a brain cyst removed and it left my right side paralyzed.  Then a year and a half later, my husband and I were riding our motorcycle and a lady ran a stop sign....that accident caused me to lose my left leg below the knee.  Since then,  I have been somewhat restricted in my activity.  That is, until Mar. 10 !  My daughter, Lesli and her husband, Art Unrein (an instructor at the Basin), talked me into going for a ride with the Adaptive Ski Program!  I was a little hesitant at first because I really didn't know what to expect.   I had considered myself a good to excellent skier (in my day), having been taught by Cory Engan, Earl Miller and Bob Beck and I didn't want to be disappointed.  Well, I WASN'T!!!!!  Dustin gave me the ride of my life!!!!  It was sooo much fun!!!! When I saw the delight on some of the children's faces, who were handicapped in various ways,  I became a firm believer in the Adaptive Sports Program !  Snow Basin should be proud of the job they are doing.    Thanks to your Adaptive Sports Program (and Dustin) for a wonderful day, spent by me and my family! 

Janica Olsen Pantone.” 

WOW WOW WOW- Grandma, you are an amazing woman and it was such a privilege to share this special day with you!

Before viewing the following pictures, please note that several of them are completely WRECKED by accidental overexposure.  I was so sad that I did that!  But, I am posting them anyway because they’re all I’ve got and it was such a great day!!!

The whole group (minus Ben and the subie fiasco :)  A snowbasin photographer also took this shot and I so badly want to hunt him down and get a copy since mine was wrecked!

Grandma Jani skis!!!  Oh, I still cry just looking at the joy on her face!

Look who else had a big day!  Yup, we got baby J out on skis for her first time.  It was hilarious.  She didn’t want to put any weight on her legs, so Seth mostly just held her up.  Maybe next year :)

 

Afterwards, she was so exhausted, she passed out on the patio in her Great-grandpa’s arms.  (Agghh!  So mad this one is wrecked, too! And the next one!)

Scouts

So, during this time we have spent in Price, I have been serving in the Scouting program.  This is officially my first experience with scouts in any form and it has been an eye opener learning about all the the mechanics, logistics, bureaucracy, and social hierarchy of it all!  I am currently the only wolf leader in charge of three different packs from our community.  While it isn’t that many boys, sometimes its confusing keeping track of them and which pack they belong to.  I have enjoyed spending a little extra time with Sparky, and I’m glad I am learning the ropes now, since I have three boys that need to go through the program, and I assume scouting will be a big part of our lives for at least the next 10 years.

Last month was our Blue & Gold banquet.  My boys were in charge of a skit that went terribly awry…… but, they had fun.  I guess that’s all that matters, right?

They had a cowboys theme for the banquet and each boy was supposed to decorate a “cowboy” themed cake with their Dad.  Seth & Sparky made cake pops.  Ok, I made cake pops, but they decorated them and it was hilarious.  Seth kept giving them ridiculous hair-do’s.  He would say, “This one is a Justin Bieber cowboy”, or “This one is a Johnny Cash cowboy”.  Needless to say, they were all sort of sloppy, drunken cowboys, but they were still a hit.

It was nice to have Blue & Gold behind us, but then we moved right on to Pinewood derby the next month.

Sparky has already participated in a pinewood derby back in Mtn. Green.  He did terrible.  Out of about 25 cars, his probably placed 24th.   Seriously.  It was so slow.  But Sparky was a good sport.  He really didn’t even mind that much. Seth decided they were going to build a much better car this time around.  But, despite his best intentions, he got busy and somehow they ran out of time to get it done.  So, at the last minute, Seth told him “We’ll just race your car from last year again.  (even though it was a TOTAl dud.)  All it needed was a new pair of wheels since the kids had broken off the old ones. After Sparky glued on a new front wheel set, we noticed that the car only ran on 3 of its 4 wheels and we felt so bad that once again the poor boy was going to have to race a total dud.

As luck, (or miracles!)  will have it, we soon learned that only having three wheels touching the ground is actually a GOOD thing- in fact, a feat that people actually strive to achieve!  (Who knew???)  Little Sparky’s car took 1st in 2 of its 4 races, and 2nd in the other 2. He and one other boy had a race-off for first place, and Matthew’s car beat him by 1/100'th of a second.  It didn’t matter.   Sparky was positively beaming.  Oh thank you Lord, for throwing this sweet boy a bone.  He needed it.  He was so happy!

And this is his sweet trophy, which now proudly resides on his dresser.  Its a good thing he has it to remind him of better times when the next derby comes along and we go back to the Wallace way…….racing a dud. :)

The Hive

So excited for this sweet little boutique in Mtn. Green next weekend!  (So excited that I will BE in Mtn. Green next weekend!)

Click here to see all their great stuff & get info. about times, location, etc.

I’ve already picked out just the right item from one of my favorite vendors, Leila Bird's Nest.  So cute- I can’t wait!

BTW- the Wallace’s will be in town for the blessing of our brand new niece.  Can’t wait to see Ben & Megan & Maria & meet the beautiful tiny Malan.  We also have a family ski day planned at our favorite resort, Snowbasin.  And when I say family, I mean FAMILY.  Aunts Uncles cousins, the works.  Why all the hub-bub?  Seth’s Grandmother (our children’s great-grandmother) will be up there trying out the adaptive ski program.  This will be one for the memory books folks.  More to come on that.  See you all soon!

A Ghost Story (among other things….)

Last week, our Sunday drive took us to an unexplored-yet-by-the-wallaces area of town.  It started when I complained to a neighbor that I can’t find anywhere to run around here and she asked if I had ever tried the old paved railway that leads up Spring Canyon.  This sounded curious indeed, so Sunday afternoon we drove the kids up to see what she was talking about.

Spring Canyon is just a mile or two outside of Helper, leading up one of the side canyons off of the main highway.  As it turned out, there used to be a mine up there, with a railroad that hauled coal to and from the mine.  Since it is no longer used, they paved over the tracks and made it into a great walking path to go exploring the canyon.  Perfect! It was actually a beautiful day for late February, so we headed on up.

Along the path we started noticing several really old remnants of structures that were probably old mining homes in the canyon.  So after our walk we got back in the car & decided to drive a little further up the canyon to do some exploring.  To our surprise, we stumbled upon a genuine ghost town  (or, after later research, several ghost towns).   There were TONS of old houses, buildings, sheds, bridges, all sorts of cool stuff. It was so much fun to explore.

This one is really hard to see (taken from Seth’s cell phone), but up on the hill there are at least 3 large homes or stores, or whatever they were once upon a time……)

An old staircase that leads to…….nowhere now :(

 

When we got home we looked online for information about Spring Canyon.  There was a lot of interesting stuff available.

This is a picture of the town of Rains, just one of several old mining towns that were located up the canyon. I found it on blog that belongs to a “ghost town chaser” if you will.  He travels around looking for old ghost towns to explore, and this was one they visited.  He did a fantastic write-up about the famous “White Lady”, apparently a well-known local ghost story.

Read it here.  Such a fun article.  I love a good ghost story.  I think most small towns have a White Lady somewhere in their history.  I remember as a child visiting the Logan Cemetery every year with my family and seeing the Weeping Woman statue.  She had a little “White Lady” tale of her own that my cousins and I loved to scare ourselves silly with.  And of course there was the White Lady of the Ogden cemetery that my friends and I tried to conjure up late one night in high school.  Oh dear…… the stuff kids do!

Anywho… if you have any interest in the history of this old town, or just want to hear a good ghost story, read that article I highlighted above.  Its super interesting stuff.

And that concludes our Sunday afternoon exploring for this week.  It was a good one I think.  I am loving learning so much and seeing so many new places that I would never have had the opportunity to explore had we not moved here.