Sad, sad day

I had to retire this beloved  towel yesterday after 20+ years of service.  My paternal grandmother made a towel for me and each of my siblings when I was probably 7-10 years old.  My mom might be able to research or remember exactly when we got them.  I LOVED my towel.  I thought grandma did the best on my towel, cuz she loved me most of course.  {I'm sure the others thought likewise.}  Purple was my favorite color, still is probably 75% of the time.  My grandmother passed away earlier this year and I remember her for being such an active woman.  She was always making crafts for us and she and my grandpa would drive down to Texas all the way from Montana in their pick-up and RV to spend time with us.  And she made such yummy food and sweets, she always had the coolest earrings and had some fantastic traditions.  Like hosiery for the girls every Christmas, trinkets in small little origami boxes made from Christmas cards, handmade kitchen towels to hang on the oven {that I now (mostly) learned how to make} and wearing very festive clothing.  I loved her and this is mostly why I loved this towel and used it for so long.  I use it all growing up, took it to college with me and on every move since.  I've known for a couple years now that I needed to let it go.  It was getting so threadbare (you can see through it there in the middle) that I could have dried myself with those brown paper towels and it would feel the same.  I've had a new towel sitting out for me for the past month since we've been in our new place, trying to work up the courage to let my special purple towel go.  After taking this picture my sweet husband kindly disposed of it for me but I felt better knowing that I had immortalized it with this picture.  Farewell dear towel.  Lost but not forgotten.  The memory of it will live on just as the memory of my sweet, dear grandma.  XOXO

SUMMER!!

Summer came and went so fast this year.  Like every year.  Seems like we've been moving just about every summer I can remember as a married couple.  Well, this summer is hopefully the last for that for a long time.  I already posted about our awesome trip from East Coast to Utah and about our fun Colorado trip and here's the post about the rest of our summer. 

While daddy was at work we most recently went up to Bridal Veil Falls and did the little "hike" from the parking lot, even after a morning of shopping for school clothes and a picnic I didn't hear many complaints about too much walking.  Only once we were within 5 feet of the car on the way home.....funny how that works.  B, having the longest legs for the quite chilly water, was the most fearless in playing at the bottom of the falls.

Little A and J spent most of their time going back and forth on this log.  I was pretty impressed at my Bug-A-Boo's balancing skills!

These are simply gorgeous falls and as you can see they are a popular spot on a warm day.

Things got a little crazy at Utah's Hogle Zoo.  Big J's sister got us in free, Thanks!!  Unfortunately a dinosaur got the best of my boy.  Luckily, he recovered.

The T-Rex was quite fierce.

Four Cuties

The kids' cousin got to stay with us at grandma's for a whole week!  That was just about the highlight of their summer.  They're way excited about cousins on Daddy's side of the family and this little tyke is a ball of fun bursting with energy.

And of course we went to Temple Square.  This time we went to the Beehive House, which I haven't been to since I was a small gal.  Other than them rushing us through it like it was on fire it was a nice tour and the kids enjoyed seeing all the antique things.

Notice any similarities between the statue and us??....

We also played with snakes.

And petted goats.

And rode horses.

And waited for the "This is the Place" train.

And rode the mini train.  We also panned for gold here and got paid in lollipops.

We also visited the moon.

And of course no summer is complete without climbing.  This is at a place I haven't been to before in Ogden.  Pretty good climbing but also a bit crowded.

On a hike around Mirror Lake.

Little J caught some yummy trout at Mirror Lake.

Look at all those fishies!  They were yummy!

Oh my goodness, her first fish!  She wouldn't touch it but sure reeled it in with confidence.

Um, Yeh, there was a LOT of snow for the end of July.  They had just barely that weekend opened up this particular camping location and there were still bits and pieces of snow around the campsites.

On the way home from Mirror Lake we stopped by Provo Falls and boy were they worth the stop!!  Just beautiful!

We also played with their aunts new pet bunny, Crackers.  Isn't she adorable and oh so SOFT!!

We visited Wheeler Farm and saw animals and fed ducks and geese.

And we did swim lessons, though I didn't get any good pics of that but either before or after almost every swim lesson we did a little bouldering.  

We read lots and lots of books.  I had to capture this sweet moment of little J reading to his sister.

We got our keys!!!!  And went to work right away on the yard, buying and moving furniture, setting up the house and getting to know the neighborhood and neighbors.  It's really fun to own a home again!!  Only I think we've seen money fly out of our savings faster in the last two months than in my entire life (excluding college....maybe).

We also went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, on a $2 Tuesday day.  The museum has a really cool physics exhibit right now that was very hands on and loads of physics fun.

And little J lost his first tooth!!  Maybe I won't be able to refer to him as "little" J anymore!

Ah, what beautiful children in such a splendid garden.  We really enjoyed ourselves here at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens!!

This fun contraption was right next to our picnicking spot at Thanksgiving Point.  You pulled different levers and many of the levers sprayed out water from the top or the middle, etc. and got everyone wet.  Oh was this a fun experience in August!!  We also saw, for the first time, them blowing glass and making glass flowers.  That was way cool and B wants to come back and do a flower for her birthday.

Did you know Thanksgiving Point has a Children's Garden?!  I didn't.  Or else my kids would be in swimsuits in this pic.  Way fun and what lovely gardens!! And to top the day off it was also a $2 Tuesday so we didn't spend a fortune to get in!

The children's garden also had a maze.  Little J is fanatical about mazes and all the kidlets really enjoyed trying to make it through this maze to the other side.  It's one of the better children's mazes I've seen.

SO, that's our summer in a nutshell.  But, before school officially starts we're skipping away this weekend to one of our very favorite camping/climbing spots, in Maple Canyon only about an hour away.  I hope not a summer goes by without making it to Maple at least once!!