Christmas Family Time

We decided to do something with Bruce and Rhonda's family this year, so we went to Driggs ID and went snowmobiling. We all had a good time and it was fun hanging out with each other.

I got the biggest kick out of the guys playing snow football at the lodge during the Hanks family get together.

Sledding at the lodge. Other than taking a few pictures, I could be found by the heater :-)

My BABY is 16 on December 16!

It's hard for me to believe that my sweet little boy is going to be 16 tomorrow. Wow, 16 years since we went to the hospital? I decided that you are only 16 once so we planned to do something a little more special and take him out to eat...with friends. Since the Christmas banquet is on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and our family party is on Saturday, we decided to take him on Tuesday. I called up some of his friends mothers who said they would get their boys to the restaurant. I made a cheesecake and took it along. I should have taken it out to the car first and put it in the trunk. He is our chauffer now because he is accumulating hours for his license. He had the car running and was waiting for me to get in the car. The conversation went like this; "How come we're taking cheesecake to the Border?" Because someone might want some. "How come we are taking two cars?" Because Dad needs to go talk to someone in Baker after we are done eating. Even though he guessed something was up, I think he was a little surprised. A good time was had by all.

Christmas at our house

This corner has items that my boys have made over the years.

I like to decorate for Christmas. I really like the season of giving and good will towards all. We have lights up outside also and I noticed that Aaron and Ashley have some also. The Hansen's/Hanson's know how to light up Garrison. Merry Christmas to everyone

We had to waive the wave!

Beulah has wanted to hike to the wave by Kanab for sometime. It is a permit only hike with a lottery to boot! You can reserve 10 spots per day over the internet and then they allow 10 permits per day to be purchased over the counter if you are the lucky one. Beulah and Charice went to Kanab on Tuesday to put our names in the hat for Wednesday. Alas, we got one permit. Beulah didn't want to go by herself, so they put our names in the hat for another hike and we were able to all do the Buckskin gulch. This gulch is the longest gulch in the world (some say). It was very pretty! There was a couple of times like the part above where I started to freak out at the enclosed space, and had to give myself a pep talk that the walls weren't going to fall in on me and the sky was clear and we wouldn't have a flash flood. I'm glad I didn't opt for hiking on higher ground and not go through the narrows. We will definitely go here again. We are going to try to get permits for the wave again, though they say it is very hard to get them.
The batteries in my camera were dying and I had forgotten to replace them. Hence, I didn't get real good pictures and I used every ounce of juice the batteries had, before I had to quit taking pictures. But...Steve and Beulah made up for any pictures I didn't get to take. :-)

When I got home I looked at some internet sites of where we had been and everyone warned of rattlesnakes. Thankfully, we didn't see any. Thats all I would have needed...to be in the narrowest part and see a rattler. I think they could have buried me right there.

Trip to the Smokies

We met up with John, Joie, Mark, Maureen and Hailey in Charlotte North Carolina. We went on to the Smokies and met up with Cleon, Carla, Dominique, Alicia and Amanda. We are standing by the highest waterfall in North Carolina 230 feet.

Dominique and John were best buddies because Dominique LOVES his cowboy shirt and boots. As soon as he saw that John was wearing the same thing as him, he latched onto John and asked if they could be buddies. It was very cute.

This is the Billy Graham Library. This place is a wonderful tribute to Billy Graham and the ministry that he has had all over the world.

This picture is where our friends live. They built this house. They also have two beautiful cabins that they rent out to tourists. They sleep eight. I loved their cabins. Ginger decorates the cabins with fresh flowers in season, decorates them for the holidays and makes them very welcoming!

This is an old grist mill in the Smokey Mountains National Park. They still grind corn at certain times of the year. The grinder has been disconnected for the winter.

An old church in Cades Cove. Notice the two entrances...yep, one for the women and one for the men. They couldn't walk into church together. Cades Cove is a valley where people lived until the area became part of the national park service in the 1930's. When the area became a NP, they had to move.

This is in the living room of the house where Billy Graham grew up on their dairy farm. It was a very nice home.

Alicia took this picture of the buddies


On our way back to Charlotte, we got into a terrible rain storm. We were going 15 mph on the freeway and you couldn't see a thing. Tornado warnings were issued around the place where we were. The next morning when we went to the airport, our plane was delayed by at least three hours because of a bad storm in Minnesota. They told everyone who was passing through Minn. to try and find another way home. We ended up going to Atlanta where it started to rain when we arrived and our plane was once again delayed by one hour because of the rain. There was a break in the clouds and the crew was told to "get these people on the plane and out of here while you can." There was tornado warnings outside of Atlanta also. We were glad we were able to get to SLC the same day.

telephone booths, carts, etc

I have had the privilege of going to the Amish country in Ohio 5 times now. I've been enough times that I know where the cheap China shops to avoid are, and I know where the good quality "locally made" shops are. I have enjoyed every trip and find more little shops to go to every time.

These people don't have phones in their homes or businesses, but some of them do have a phone in a phone booth where you can call and leave a message. They will get back with you at their convenience.
This is a telephone booth by some houses

They put up earlage into these corn cribs.

We took a ride in a buggy

We usually eat a meal in an Amish home. This is a fun time to get to meet new people and have DELICIOUS food! I just took a trip with Joie, Sharla and Loretta. We had dinner in an Amish home. She had 27 people that she cooked for that night. She had also made over 600 doughnuts in the early morning for a big bake sale they were having. Once again we had a great time.

Wild Horses

This palamino was in the last bunch to come in and my camera card decided it was full so I didn't get them coming in. There was also a dark grey applousa that was gorgeous.
These are the babies separated out. They didn't get many babies today. I think there are
10 of them.

The helicopters herd them into this fenced off area and a Judas horse leads them into the corrals.

This is the corral where they sort them out and load them onto trucks to take to another sorting area before taking them to Delta.

This was one of the first bunches to come in. They hoped to get 75 horses today and they got 79, so they were all happy.


John, Sharla and I went to look for wild horses about two months ago. We saw 21 that night around Skunk and Conger Springs. I had contacted the BLM because I was concerned about there not being hardly any water at Conger Springs and wondering if they could put a little trough there to catch the drip. In the course of the conversation I was told about this gather they planned to have. John & I, Brad & Cheryl and Sharla spent the day with the BLM folks watching the horses come in and the BLM folks working the horses in the corral. It was amazing and I'm so glad I went. They are going to be corraling horses east of Partoun next week in the Confusion Range.

Here and there

(more on this later)

Hi all,

It isn't that we haven't been doing anything, I just haven't had my camera with me.

The summer went somewhere, but I don't think it went by me! :-)

Josiah is back in school, I am closing year-end at work and John is building a house for a guy up Snake Creek.

Jesse finally went part time on his night job, so now he is only working 12 hours a day instead of 16. He is renting a room from a guy that does what he did. (rents rooms out to other guys in his house) He is trying to sell his house.

Nick is working for a construction company and Tiffany works at a really good bakery sandwich shop.

We received some wonderful news this labor day weekend...We are going to be grandparents! Can't quite picture myself Grandma yet, but it's exciting news.

Well, like I said, since I don't remember June, July or August, here's what's happening so far for September.

Take care and keep posting. I enjoy reading about your happenings.

Anita

This is Mark removing trees to make the road up to Wheeler Peak. This is real horse and man power.

Cement edges around the graves at Garrison cemetery

finished product

camp on the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive (by the Osceola turnoff)

Another shot of the road

I have been going through old pictures to get copies made for the picture wall at EskDale. I am always amazed at how the pioneers worked and the machinery they used to build what we have today.

Hansen Outing

We decided to go camping with our family and Bruce's family. We went to the Aquarius Ranger Station above Loa and rode bikes and 4 wheelers on the Great Western Trail. There was water everywhere!

This is the ranger station. There is a propane cook stove, a wood stove, table, hot water, double bed and a set of bunk beds. My kind of camping.

Jesse built this raft under the condition that Logan would try it out with him. Logan and Josiah had to try the freezing water, and got wet. Nicholas and Tiffany tried to fish but they haven't stocked the lake yet.