Spectra Point and Ramparts Overlook Hike

Last Saturday, Cassidy and I went for a Hike up Cedar Breaks. We did the Spectra Point and Ramparts Overlook Hike. I checked the weather beforehand, but only checked for Cedar, not for the mountain. My bad! It was a little chilly and windy, but I said we'd get warm once we got moving, plus the sun was out. (Luckily, Cass still brought his hoodie on the hike! I needed it on the way back!) 

The trail was super muddy, so our shoes got very gross, and there was some snow on the ground. It was a tough hike, but the view was amazing! The contrast of red rock, snow, and the bristlecone pines was pretty neat. 

View from the trail head, no hike required!

all muddy! And this was just the beginning!

a lookout point along the trail

I tried to climb the tree . . . no dice

Spectra Point

Soaking in all that is Spectra Point

more Spectra Point

Cassidy's Video, with even more of Spectra Point :)

Yes, he climbed over the protective railing . . .  

Back on the trail towards Ramparts Overlook

Bristlecone Pines

See? Totally cool! Not what you'd think at all!

I made it! But just barely . . . can I blame my tired legs and lack of balance in the mud on the baby? 

Ramparts Overlook

Squirrel got so angry at us! He was yelling and hissing!
He was right over head and I was nervous he was going to jump on me! 

You can't really tell, but the backs of my legs were all muddy too!
But I was so glad to be back at the car and done hiking! It wore me out!

Swallow Family Reunion

Yes, my dear sweet readers, that picture was taken yesterday.

August.

Although, to be fair, I shouldn't delude you into thinking it's snow. 

It's just hail!

Yesterday, Cass and I headed up Cedar Canyon for the Swallow family reunion. It's Swallows from Cass's great-grandparents down, so there were some folks I hadn't met before. Everyone was really nice and it was great to meet and spend time with everyone. The Fillmore cousins came down, too, so it was great to see their familiar faces!  

Cass left my camera in the car, though, and then it was raining, so I didn't get any pictures.  But despite the rain, thunder, lightning, hail, and short power outages, 

 it was a nice afternoon. In fact, the lightning was pretty cool to see! 

Sheri, one of Morrell's cousins, is the family historian. She put together some packets with stories and information about some of the ancestors. She told us a few of the stories and her mom, LaDawn, passed around an old silver teacup. It was really neat to hear some of the Swallow family history and it's a great asset to have those packets in our home. It inspired me to do a little more research into my side of the family, but that might be short-lived . . . 

Merry Wives of Windsor

Last Wednesday night, I was saw Merry Wives of Windsor. It's performed in the outside Shakespeare theatre. Every night before the show there's a Green Show [free!] outside of the theatre, so Cass and I went over early to see the Green Show, too. 

The stage for the Green Show. The theatre is behind it. 

The Green Show was great. The characters are gypsies, and they sing, dance, and tell/act out some stories. It was really great. Cass knew one of the actors, so it was fun to see him. I really liked the gypsy girls dancing with their skirts. I love dancing in big swishy skirts!  After the Green Show, Cass's first mission president and his wife came up to say hi; they brought their grandson down to see the show. It was great to see them and catch up. 

My seat was great, about six or seven rows back. I had a great view for a great show. If you're not familiar with Merry Wives, it's about this trickster, Sir John Falstaff, who decides to get himself some money by turning two women into his lovers. Falstaff, thinking Mistress Page and Mistress Ford like him, sends them identical love letters, hoping to make cuckolds of their husbands and steal their wealth. Unfortunately for him, the women show each other the letters and make their own plans. Meanwhile, it's time for Anne Page, Mistress Page's daughter, to be wed, and three men would like to be considered: Slender, Dr Caius, and Fenton. 


As with any Shakespeare play, this was given a "content advisory" since Merry Wives contains "a small amount of the Bard's usual innuendo and double entendres." So, of course, I found it hilarious! All the actors and actresses were great. Anne Page and Fenton were a little dry, but they also had the least amount of stage time, so that makes it difficult. It may, in fact, be the way  that Fenton and Anne were written and not  the actors. I really enjoyed Mistress Quickly (Kymberly Mellen), Falstaff (Roderick Peeples), the Pages (Andy Nagraj and Melinda Pfundstein), and the Fords (Jacqueline Antaramian and John G Preston). They were all amazing!


If you have the chance to come down to Cedar to the Shakespeare Festival, I highly recommend this show! Just bring a blanket or a coat so you don't get cold, and then catch a cold, like I did! 

Best Tip Ever!

So this week and last week, I've had a part-time gig of driving around the patrons of the Shakespeare camps for the Shakespeare Festival. 

And this morning, I got the best tip ever!!

Yup. That's right. I get to see Merry Wives of Windsor, Scapin, and Les Miserables.

For free!!

Pioneer Day

SUU Athletics put on "Thunder at the Beach" up at the res for Pioneer Day, and Cass and I thought it would be fun to go and get out of the house. Plus, they were giving out free shirts with a picture of Cam Levins, an SUU athlete who gets to run in the Olympics this summer, on them to the first 500 attendees. 

We left early, expecting a big crowd, but when we got to the res, there was hardly anyone there. We got out of the car and it was super windy! 

It wasn't quite noon yet (starting time) so we read our books despite the wind and the very cloudy sky. 

"Thunder at the Beach" turned out to be quite a foreshadowing name. Within a few minutes we were making a mad dash to the car & deciding if we should leave or if the rain would let up. The rain quickly turned into a torrential downpour. We decided to head home. Lame day! 

Whitaker Visit!

Because of Cass's job duties this summer, it's been hard for him to get out of Cedar. So a few days after I got back from Darci's wedding weekend, Chris, Nathan, Pyper, and Dylan came down to visit us! Dylan is a just a *teeny* bit of a workaholic, so they came down Tuesday after he got done at work. Wednesday we played at the park and had Cass give us a tour of campus. That night Chris and Nathan went to Les Miserables at the Shakespeare Festival, so Dylan and Pyper came to chill with us. Luckily for Cass, Pyper wanted to watch his favorite movie: How to Train Your Dragon. After that, Cass picked The Borrowers, which I didn't think I had watched but it felt super familiar. Plus I just love John Goodman, even when he's the evil villain! And Hugh Laurie! So young! And, apparently, it's a great flick for Harry Potter fans: Arthur Weasley, Draco Malfoy, and somebody named Slughorn are also in The Borrowers.

On Thursday we went to the Parowan Gap to look at the petroglyphs. Some people think they're just old graffiti, but I thought they were super neat! 

the "zipper 'glyph"

"I'm king of the rock!!"

Pyper by the 'glyphs

Dylan in his cave

After our field trip to Parowan Gap, we went to the res. Who knew that Cedar City had a res?

Dylan went further out than anyone else

Pyper had a blast playing in the water!

We loved having the Whitakers (and Dylan!) come and visit!

You're welcome to visit any time! 

Girl Time!

This past week my mom and sisters came down to visit, and this is the only picture I got!

Ammon had football camp down here at SUU, and my mom, being the good chauffeur that she is, drove Am & his friends down to Cedar. Jenn and Jordyn came along for the ride so we could have a little girls vacation! 


They got down here Sunday night. Jordyn was super hyper after the car drive and all she wanted to do was run around! Jord  slept on our couch that night, probably so she could have poptarts for breakfast :) 


Monday morning Jord and I headed over to the hotel & we played in the pool with Jenn.  Mom just hid in the shade. After Cass got off work, we all went to the theater to see Brave. It was a cute movie. Not what I was expecting from the commercials, but I liked it.  Jordyn, of course, LOVED it! After dinner we went back to the hotel to play in the pool again. We practically had to force Jord out of the pool when we got cold! 


Tuesday we went down to St George to do some shopping. Mom got some really good deals on clothes for Jord and some non-gender specific baby clothes. Gap was 40% off on top of them already being marked down, so I was able to get Cass some jeans without holes in them! Yay!


Wednesday we went to Park Discovery so Jordyn could play and then headed back to the pool that afternoon. Jordyn even got brave and quit requiring her floaty! After dinner we had a little nail painting party & then Mom made funnel cakes. Delicious! 

It was great to have some girl time & I loved having my mom and sisters down to visit! We had a great time! 

If I had a twitter. . . aka #ihatemoving

• Woke up this morning, Hubby had unpacked the kitchen! Yay! 
• It sounds weird to call him hubby. 
• Moving is sooo  much easier when you don't have work/school. 
• Dirty colored walls and showers are hard to clean #ihatemoving
• Ahh! I broke the wall!! #ihatemoving
• Old apartment = clean and empty! Now to tackle the new. . .   

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We sure did & posts are coming soon! 

Quick Update!

Hey folks! We're all settled in the new place and finally got the internet set up! So no worries, I am, in fact, alive, and sooner or later I'll get back to posting about the books I read. Which, ya know, is mostly for my pleasure :) And then maybe I'll write about my life!

Good News!

[she's dead! the witch of the west is dead!

the wickedest witch there ever was-

the enemy of all of us here in Oz-

is dead! Good News!!]

On an unrelated note to Wicked, but most definitely good news --they found us a place to live and Cass gets to keep his job! It's a little further away from campus and while I thought it would be in the same ward it's not going to be. But everything is going to work out just fine! Thanks for all your kind thoughts and prayers!

Potentially Homeless

Well folks, Juniper's days are coming to an end. It's been a long time coming but it's now inevitable. There are multiple leaks in the plumbing causing thousands of gallons of water under the building as well as rendering the heating almost useless. Housing had a big meeting today for all of Juniper residents and broke the news. There were cheers. There were tears. Most of the residents are freshman and the news completely overwhelmed them. Housing is working on finding options for the students that are pretty generous. But they're still freaking out that they're homeless. And for the moment, we don't really know what's going to happen to us. So we are potentially homeless too!

My Family Came to Visit

This past week was UEA, so my parents and siblings (minus Jenn and Adam, who had school, and obviously Elder Stone :)) came to Cedar to visit. They rolled into town Thursday afternoon. We just hung out  that afternoon and went to the Hong Kong Buffet for dinner. As always, it was delicious. I love me some Chinese food! After dinner I went over to their hotel to swim (Cass stayed here to do homework). Jordyn was a chicken at first, but then she warmed up.

Friday Cass still had class, so my mom and I planned for our activities to stay local, thinking we could go to St George and on our hike on Saturday. So we went to the Iron Mission Museum that morning. Dad thought it was super cool. Jordyn liked the Shakespeare exhibit and dressing up. Ammon and Matthew just liked the candy from the gift shop. Next we headed up to Park Discovery so Jordyn could play. She had a blast-- and Ammon even played on the tire swing! That afternoon we saw Footloose. I thought it was great. The dancing was awesome. Oh I miss it!

That night we all went to Mexican and then back to the pool. Cass came and Ammon even came down to the pool for a little bit.

Saturday we were supposed to go to St George and to the Lava Tubes, but my parents' van was being a butt, so they decided it would be better to just head back to Mapleton. Good thing they did -- the engine burned up and died in Nephi!

It was great to have my family come down and visit! Love you guys! Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

.: Busy, Busy, Busy! :.

This weekend went up north to visit. Cass really wanted to go to the mission reunion so he could see a companion coming in from California. We left Cedar Friday afternoon, after I got home from school, and took another mission buddy up with us. My parents took us to Tucanos for dinner that night-- delicious!!!

We headed up to the reunion and Cass got to see some of his old old mission buddies, so that was good for him. We spent that night at my parents' house.I had to wake up Jordyn when we got there cuz I missed her :)

In the morning we watched conference with my family, then headed up to Orem to see baby Aminoa, our newest cousin. She's Bou and Vania's baby. She's only a few days old and is so tiny and precious! She was about five pounds at birth (same as Jordyn) so I thought I was prepared for how small she would be. I was wrong! I had forgotten how small five pounds really is! But She was just gorgeous. I just love her! 

That afternoon we went up Grandma and Grandpa McCoy's.  We watched the rest of conference and then all the menfolk went out to eat before priesthood while the women and children had our own party. We had Cafe Rio and made "hair pretties" and bracelets. And, of course, I ran around with and played with the little kids, especially Pyper! They were great though; I had fun!

We spent that night at Chris's house and watched the Sunday morning session with Chris and Pyper. We then began the trek southward; first stopping at Forbes to see his new baby, Oliver. He's about two weeks old, so he was about twice as big as Aminoa! And he was such a little cuddler! 

Afterwards we stopped to visit Morrell, who had just spent the weekend on the farm, and then back to my mom's house for Sunday dinner. My cousin Whitney and come down from Rexburg, so it was nice to see her in addition to the rest of the crew. 

Johnson Family Photo!

We made it back down to Cedar last night (and I finally had a good night sleep!) but we had a great weekend! It was great to see everyone!

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to my home! 

First, we have the living room:

 

Next we have the kitchen: 

The bathroom: 

The Library: 

  (No, we do not have too many books!)

And last, the bedroom! 

 

I like to move it, move it!

oh, wait. . . no, I don't. Moving and packing sucks! This weekend Cass and I packed up both our cars with his junk and drove to my house. This morning he carried on to Cedar, and we unloaded my car's worth of his stuff into the garage. But here is all my stuff! 

One wall of my room *just tilt your head a little*  (also I'm very excited and grateful for my new vacuum -- courtesy of some amazing Swallows :) )

The landing of the stairs. . . it's almost entirely books and shoes!

Tilt your head once more to see the foot of my bed with some of our new bedding -- The large quilt on bottom is from Grandma Swallow. 

 

 

 

So this is what I have packed so far . . . now just to get it to Cedar!