Scofield part 3

So after going on a drive early in the week we decided we'd try a second campground as well. So we spent our last 2 nights here near Electric Lake. Free camping, a bathroom, no neighbors, and a lake within a minute's walk. Lovely. We even compensated for not having a table with a lovely little kitchen nook Jer set up behind the tent on some big tree stumps.

We enjoyed plenty of marshmallows this week, going through 2 big bags I do believe. Mckayla's funny, she loves to roast them for other people, but rarely has any interest in eating one herself, and if she does, it is only 'warmed up, not toasted'

Kait on the other hand is all over those babies......and they were all over her!

And of course I did not leave home without my bike and running shoes, or goggles and wetsuit for that matter. Ok, basically I was completely ready for a race if one presented itself :)
I got some great training in prepping for a big triathlon there in a few weeks. You can view pics of the gorgeous riding I did on the course on my race blog here
Jer also got some training in. I've rubbed off on him and he has been training for his first half marathon coming up in August -and he's looking great by the way!! :), so to give him some downhill training we drove up to the top of Skyline drive and dropped him off 10 miles from camp at 9600 feet. Gorgeous view eh?
Well you see Daddy happened to point out how there was snow up there at the top, so Talm thought it would be a good idea to check it out. So we drove down the road ahead of Jer some and found a big patch of snow on the side of the road. I pulled Talm and Kait out of the car and we quickly gathered out supplies.
Here is Talm getting ready to strike! Don't you just love his face??

Get him!

Kait had just launched hers at Dad here, I believe it's the streak near the left side of the pic -never mind the light hanging down, our car's running, that's the important thing :)

Fun times. It's good for me to be spontaneous and light hearted, Jer says I don't do it enough.

The scenery down there was just so beautiful. Kind of dry around the lake, but blue waters, and thick forests beyond the borders of the lake. Quaint little brooks winding all over too. I love all the trains and railroad tracks down there as well. The area was just full of them. It's hard to see from this pic, but these sets appear to run straight into the lake.

The little lake I spoke of just below our campsite, Buldger Reservoir, was a cute little lake the kids had fun at.

Kaitie even gets in on the action

And guess what??.....
Talm caught his 1st fish that weekend too!!
Way to go buddy!

What a fun trip. The kids behaved well and had fun, no one got hurt, we didn't spend too much money, we did some super fun stuff, and the weather cooperated pretty well. Oh, as did our car, let me not forget to be thankful for that! This summer has been busy with races and work and such, and Mckayla will be starting 1st grade soon, so it was great to get out for a relaxing week with them and spend real quality time. Our babies are growing up fast, we better enjoy it every step of the way!

Scofield Part 2 - Small town holiday festivities

So the teeny tiny little town of Scofield had some 4th of July festivities going on we found out about including.......get ready.....a beauty pageant!! That's right, and it was free, so our cute little Mckayla got to take part. We had a day to figure out what she would do for her talent, and she decided on storytelling. Ironically she wore a dress up dress on the drive down, so we happened to have something glamorous she could wear. She hired Talm as her little assistant and fortunately remembered to use him toward the end :) Enjoy!

Hopefully you heard the whole story ok, but it's so stinkin funny and makes me laugh every time. That last line after hearing what the alligator eats, the wide mouthed frog says with puckered lips "Oh, well you don't see many of those around here do ya?" LOL!
She had so much fun and came down with a big ol smile. They gave all the girls a tshirt and little beanie baby. We all enjoyed watching the other girls do their talents too. Talm seems particularly in awe :)

After the 3-7 year olds were done the 9-13 year olds went and then it was time for awards. Despite her totally mellow low key attitude about it all, not treating it like a competition at all (which is exactly what I'd hoped she'd do, just go out and have fun), she still fiddled her little fingers while they announced the first attendant, then the second, then...........

My sweet baby is Little Miss Pleasant Valley Days 2010!!!

They gave her a real heavy metal tiara! I was so excited for her! She came down happy but didn't even know she'd won, just knew she was in the top 3. She kept her total low key attitude the rest of the evening. She did so great and had so much fun. We're so proud of you Mckayla!!

The sweet princess sharing her crown

That was the picture she drew for her story with her limited resources while camping. Scratch paper and a highlighter. Love her creativity.

How fun! This was such a neat opportunity. It really showcases her talent and creativity being able to come up with something on the spot. She had the Wide Mouth Frog book read to her at a library story time months ago, and managed to remember it. And then her cute little pic. She's just such a sweet character. She already talks about going back down next year to get to do it again. I wouldn't mind at all.

The next morning we headed out early Mount Pleasant, another small town about an hour away near Fairview and Manti. They had a great parade starting at 11am, so we had plenty of time to get there without waking anyone up. Really fun being in a new place without a ton of people, in an older small town. We'd like to make a tradition out of this, finding new places to go to for festivities like this each year.

My sweet baby Kait, and Mckayla loved waving to everyone, and Talm, well, he's our handsome Talm.

These kids and their madness for candy! Mckayla is quick and catlike in her reflexes running after it, and Talm, well he'll go for the first candy he see's being thrown, even if it's 30 feet up the road with a flood of kids, then he'd come running back at full speed proud to show us his loot. Funny guy. We tried to explain that if he stayed in front of us the candy would come to him and there'd be less kids, but whatever. We let them do their thing. They seemed to fair pretty well for themselves!

After the parade we wandered farther into town and let the kids buy a few tickets to choose a ride at the carnival. While it would be fun to give them endless tickets to let them ride to their hearts content, I kind of liked offering them enough for one ride. They could choose it, then they would enjoy their choice, no one would argue, we wouldn't be standing in hot lines all day. It worked out well. We even had the guy doing the ride Talm and Kait wanted, let her on too.

The festival had a mountain man feel to it and the kids enjoyed the wooden swords and rubber band guns. Talm tried real hard to get to take this puppy home.

After the carnival we headed to Palisade State Park, a quaint little lake just outside of Manti. Spent the afternoon playing in the water. We had a inflatable bed thing and life jackets, so Talm and Mckayla climbed on and I tied a rope from the mattress to me and towed them around the lake. Not more than 250 yards to this little dock, but they had fun. They only capsized once, right next to the dock, which ended Mckayla's fun, but Talm probably floated 1000+ yards behind me. He loved it and of course treated it as a pirate ship. I hear plenty of 'full steam ahead!'s.

Jer also had the chance to try open water swimming for the first time, and I think he did great!

It is hard work though

After a nice afternoon and evening we headed back up the canyon to Scofield where we got to watch fireworks shot off of the island in the middle of the lake. Very cool watching fireworks reflect off the water. One of the funnest 3rd/4th of July's ever, for sure!

Happy 3rd of July everyone!!!

Scofield! Part 1

We had the chance to escape for a whole week for some family time. No race involved, but some time to get away and have fun as a family. We went to Scofield because I have a race there this week and wanted a chance to train on the course a bit. We're cheap and don't like paying full campground prices (especially for a week), and the state park campgrounds really weren't anything cool, pretty packed in and baren. We went to the other side of the lake up a little 2 mile canyon called Fish Creek Drainage and camped in the little $7/night, 8 site campground. We had a site up on the top that was very secluded and had lots of room for the kids to run around.

Talm, our master packer in training (Jer is a true master packer)

Campsite #4, Talm's favorite. We even had the hammock hung up in trees to the right

Isn't the view amazing?! The big river ran down the canyon to the reservoir

Mckayla literally 10 minutes after arriving. There was some loose dark dirt here and the kids got COATED in it!

We spent the next couple days checking out the state park (we checked out a state park pass from the library for the week - awesome! Gets you into any state park for free!), fishing, and playing in the water.

This cute little bridge is below the dam where we fished first. The cute little moments I try to take with the kids I just love. The kids and I ate a picnic lunch up on that bridge while Jer fished below. We could watch him fish, the kids would try to scout out the fish in the river below as it was really clear. Then we had a little squirrel friend come join us on the bridge. The kids had a fun time throwing apple chunks at him and watching him scurry over to them and eat while sitting up on his hind legs. Kait decided to get into the action and throw her paci at him. Smart little squirrel went right after it taking a nibble at the little handle thing on the outside. Yeah, Kait was none to happy and looked at me with sheer panic on her face. Luckily the squirrel didn't take off with it and disaster was diverted :)

Mckayla also caught her first fish!! She was so excited, hooked it herself and all!

Jer is a die hard fly fisherman, he'll tell you there's no other way, and I love that he's taught the kids the art and that they love to do it with him. They even tie flies with him. This particular instance was funny. I don't think Jer has ever kept a fish since I've known him, he's very pro catch and release. Well the night before he decided to bring one up to camp for dinner so the kids all observed. This next day when Mckayla caught hers Kait kept saying "cook feeesh Mom?? cook feeesh??"

So we don't have the best pics of them playing in the water, in was windy and cloudy a lot, but they did have lots of fun. Kait is just obsessed with her swim diaper, seriously, I don't know what it is. She just goes crazy about it at the mention of it or water or swimming. Silly girl. Mckayla has an obsession with mud and loves to get her arms and legs coated as soon as possible. Talm is a true pirate at heart. He'll find anything to be a boat, this time being a piece of driftwood and rocks on top to be the ship mates. Good times