A Big To Do!

We celebrated Lincoln's birthday today. He does not actually turn 2 until the end of the month but with everyone heading out of town for different vacations, it was now or never. Lorina made up some awesome invitations and we sent them out to friends and family inviting them to join us for a BBQ swim party get together this evening.
It was so much fun! A great big thank you to everyone who found the time to celebrate with us! Lincoln really loves all his great presents. We could hardly pull him away from them when it was time to go to bed! :) He was so excited about everything especially all his new cars and balls! He sure is a cute little guy, but I might be a little biased!
The party was great. I was a little worried the water in the pool would be too cold since the weather has been quite overcast lately. But the kids did not seem to mind too much. The food was great as usual-I might be a little biased about that too! Thanks for the great BBQ Justin!

Piano Recital

Rydman, Emerie, and Quincy had their first piano recital today. They have been taking lessons since January, so this was their first time on "stage". They all did great but I think they were all a little nervous. Each of them got a chance to do three pieces to show off the different skills they have learned.

Good Job guys!

Hiking with the Scouts

Justin and I are currently Den Leaders for the Bear Cubscouts in our ward. This month we are working on earning the Leave No Trace Award. Part of that award is teaching the Boys about the front country guidelines and how to interact with Nature using these guidelines. So we took the boys up to Redrock to help meet the requirements for the award.
Instead of taking them to a trail we have done before, we wanted to experience something new and push them out of their comfort zones. So we decided to do the Keystone Thrust Fault Line trail. And I have to say it was a great choice. Thankfully, the weather was somewhat overcast. I don't think this is a hike you would want to do in the full heat of the summer. There is not much shade to be had anywhere on the trail.
It is a pretty straight forward hike and was very well marked. Which is good because if you happened to take the wrong turn you could end up doing the Madre Spring Loop which was 6 miles long compared to out 2.2 mile hike! :)
It is also not a very popular hike, or at least as not as far as we could tell. The turn off is not marked, and the main access road is dirt, so you could very well pass it without thinking twice. We did not see another hiker until we were near the trail head as we were returning to the car. It was kind of nice to be "alone" with nature!

Does Everything Come in Pairs?

Okay, perhaps we should all stay off the roads for the next little while. As you might have seen, my Mom was in an accident on Friday afternoon. Who would have guessed that my grandparents would have the same experience the very next day! That's right on Saturday afternoon my grandparents were heading home from the store when they stopped at a stop sign, and the guy behind them decided that must be an optional thing to do!
Thankfully once again everyone was okay. And their car was still drivable. But it just makes for one more thing they have to worry about. I think I am going to stick to walking for awhile! :)

Accidents

Do you ever feel like when things are at their hardest, things tend to only get harder! My poor Mom was out shopping this afternoon and got sideswiped by some lady who did not even slow down for her RED light! The crazy thing is my Mom was not the first one in the line of cars. Two other cars were actually in front of her. SO this lady had to be totally unaware of her surroundings! Luckily, she has a larger model car so it offered more protection than a smaller car might have. As you can see she was basically hit right on the driver side door, so it is a blessing that she is okay. But I guess the insurance company has already decided to total the car. They are not even taking it to the body shop! It is going straight to the junkyard!!

Hiking Ice Box Canyon

We took advantage of the holiday today and the fact that we were both off work by heading up to Redrock canyon with the Meads and the Thompsons. Instead of heading for our standard destination we decided to hike Ice Box canyon. It has been a long time since we have made it all the way to the end of the trail, but that was our goal to day. And I must say that we accomplished that goal!
It was a much longer hike than I recall, but it was fun. Justin carried Lincoln for the first leg of the trip and probably would have carried him longer but once we were in the canyon it was too hard for Justin to duck the tree branches and climb the boulders at the same time! So I took over and carried him the rest of the trip. Let's just say he is one heavy little dude!!
But it was nice and Lincoln had a great time. He is fearless! He just wanted to try and keep up with the bigger kids and did a pretty good job of it! He was so tuckered out from the hike that he fell asleep in the backup on the way back down the mountain! Must be tough to be carried around all day! :)

Sometimes...

I hate to admit that I have my share of "Blonde" moments! Case in Point- This evening for Dinner I wanted to make Parmesan Chicken but realized I did not have Parmesan so decided to make fried chicken instead. I had also decided to make BLT pasta salad to go with dinner, which I have actually been craving for awhile but have not made due to not having one of the ingredients. Can you guess which ingredient I did not have?? That's right I have not made the salad because I did not have Parmesan cheese!! But that did not stop me this evening. At the same time I realized I did not have Parmesan cheese for the chicken, I was cooking the pasta! Argh.. what a dork I am. Sadly, I did not get to make my salad but I do have the pasta ready to go for when I actually have all the ingredients! :0)
And to make my dinner even more exciting I decided to experiment with how heat would effect plastic. Here's the process in general if you ever have the desire to follow suit: Shortly after removing your boiling pan of noodles from the oven to be drained, grab your large newly filled flour bucket and place it on the stove. Measure out the necessary amount of flour and proceed with your cooking as if nothing is occurring next to you. Upon completion begin to clean up the kitchen. Attempt to grab the flour bin, only vaguely wondering why it does not respond to your attempts at putting it away. Become serious about getting it back in its proper place and give it one final tug, At which time the bottom separates from the main piece and flour releases all over the stovetop. Thinking quickly on your feet you turn the flour bucket over to try and save at least some of the flour, which results in the lid popping off and the rest of the flour taking its rightful place on the stovetop as well. So there you have it, a simple way to prove that heating up a plastic container will cause it to melt!