Riverside Delights

April took the children for a hike along the Logan Riverside Trail in the canyon yesterday. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and snakes were slithering.

Dallin fell asleep shortly after we started. Erin threw plenty of rocks into the river at numerous places along the trail.

April played around with the macro function on our camera.

There was some type of fungus (?) on these chokecherry leaves.
Are there any plant pathologists out there who can help us identify this?

Then she played with the zoom function too, and took this shot of Wind Cave
on the opposite side of the canyon.

Ian gave his mother fits running up, down, and all around, usually standing too close
to the steep areas. Fortunately he didn't slip and fall off any ledges.

We were all on the lookout for snakes. Ian found the first one, a garter snake. Then April found a yellow-bellied racer, then Ian found another racer, and Megan caught it with her expert snake-catching techniques. You all should see this girl in action. She makes her mom proud! Megan held onto it even though it kept biting her. We saw one more garter snake by the water but it was too quick for us.

Here is a close up of the feisty serpent.

As we were hiking back to the parking area, Ian was in the lead. He suddenly yelled, "Look!" and a young moose that was standing on the trail took off running. The moose hadn't been there too long because a couple of fishermen had passed us not 5 minutes prior to our moose sighting.

We were pretty pumped up after seeing the moose! When we returned, we visited the waterfall area. Then the children took off their shoes and waded in the water to cool off before heading home.

We were surprised to see it was already 6:00 when we got in the car! What a fun afternoon we'd had (while poor Kevin was working hard sitting in an office writing a certain document that needs to be completed).

"TAKE US FISHING!"

Every day this week, the children have been begging to go fishing. We took them back to Benson Marina on Friday night.

We had to get an official license for Megan because she is now twelve! Ian borrowed Mom's nice fishing pole since Mom chose to not renew her license while Dallin still needs lots of care. Erin used her Dora the Explorer pole that Dad got her last year after Megan's beginner pole got broken (guess they're not made to last through 3 children).

Ian's friend, Golden, called to play with Ian as we were getting ready to leave, so he ended up coming along for the adventure too.

While everyone else started fishing and Dad was busy baiting and unhooking, Mom and Dallin took a walk nearby searching for an elusive killdeer nest. The killdeer parents kept swooping back and forth, calling, and unsuccessfully trying to draw attention to themselves. Since Mom knows their tactics she ignored the parents while walking slowly with a search image of a well-camouflaged nest on the ground. Imagine her surprise when she found a fuzzy, large chick instead of eggs! Can you see it below?

How cute is that? Only Dad and Erin could be distracted from fishing to come and look at the baby. It held perfectly still, not even blinking. Then Dad took the camera from Mom and tried to get a closer photo and scared the baby. It was all legs! The little thing took off running and squawking. We decided to leave it alone so it wouldn't run too far away from its parents. We wondered if there was more than one baby and if they were perhaps hiding individually since they were so big.

That distraction made Mom and Dallin miss a couple of fish the children caught, but they ended up catching so many later on that we were able to obtain photographic evidence of everyone's success.

"Yellow belly" catfish were the only species of fish caught, and most of them were thrown back since they were so small. But much fun was had by all. Megan caught the first fish, Erin caught the most (7!), and Golden caught the biggest. Kevin thinks he wins the prize for the smallest. In about 2 hours we collectively caught 23 fish!

Dallin had a blast again and can't wait until he is old enough to fish for himself. He cheered the others on by squealing and shrieking with glee.

Making Soap

We had a super fun co-op soap-making class the other day at the Huntzinger's house. Kami had all the supplies and equipment and only charged $6.00/batch. Maybe we should have made more than one!

Step #1: Line the mold with at least 4 layers of wax paper. We used a cardboard box, but if we get more serious about this, we will construct a simple mold out of wood. The mold needed to be 49 square inches.

Step #2: Carefully measure out the water and lye in separate containers. We measured by weight. Lye (sodium hydroxide) can be dangerous, hence the use of gloves and safety goggles.

Step #3: Take it outside to combine the lye and water. The fumes can be pretty overwhelming! Carefully stir until the lye is dissolved, then leave it to cool for a few minutes.

Step #4: Measure out palm oil, coconut oil, and olive oil by weight. Melt oils together in a small bucket.

Step #5: Add lye mixture to oil bucket and use a hand mixer to combine everything. When it starts to thicken, add essential oils for fragrance if you wish. We chose a combination of "Essence of Vanilla" and "Lemongrass." Mix until it gets thicker, like yogurt consistency.

Step #6: Pour quickly into your prepared mold and cover the top with a layer of wax paper and a lid. Wrap the mold in towels to hold in the heat (to complete the saponification process) and leave it undisturbed for 18-24 hours.

Step #7: Remove soap from mold, peel off wax paper, and cut into bars. Put in a paper bag and let cure for 3-4 weeks.

Our soap turned out very nice, with a great subtle scent. This might be the start of a soap-making phase for our family since half of us have sensitive skin.

Grandpa, do you have any leftover materials from your soap-making days?

More Random May Activities

Fun on the Beach someplace in Japan

Check out these two cuties! Yuuki (4) and Haruto (21 months) are April's cousin's children who live in Tokyo, Japan. Someday we hope to meet them.

Aurora's Wedding Shower

Our friend, Aurora Wallis, is getting married in a couple more weeks. We've known Aurora since she was 8 and have watched her grow into a beautiful young lady (makes us feel pretty old, however). Erin was more than helpful with unwrapping gifts--to the point of embarrassing her mother--sorry, Aurora!

The shower hostess is married to an avid hunter (note the bison rug and stuffed grizzly in the above photos).
He has an impressive collection of animal mounts.

Family Home Evening Walk

We went for a stroll on the trail near Benson Marina to watch the birds and the sunset.

Dallin LOVES riding in the backpack, and he LOVES birding with his siblings.
We saw grebes, red-winged blackbirds, kingbirds, killdeer, ibises, pelicans, and a night heron.
Ian also found a chorus frog, but it was too dark to take a photo by that point.

Cute conversation with Erin:

Mom said, "You have a sharp eye for finding birds." Erin replied, "Mom, I have TWO eyes!"

Mothers, Landscaping, and Plugholes

With copies of pictures from the other day's photo shoot, we visited Grandmas in SLC to wish them a Happy Mother's Day. Originally we were going to Sugarhouse Park for a picnic, but after seeing all the crowds we opted for eating in Grandma Young's newly landscaped yard. It has been completely transformed since last year (even the beloved blue spruce is now gone).

Prickles came with us because Ian was worried about leaving him alone for a day.

Later on we visited Great-Grandma Young. She loves to hear the children play the piano, and Megan serenaded her for most of the visit. David and Jackie stopped in before we left, and we enjoyed catching up with them.

Uncle David entertained everyone with some impromptu Mother's Day songs, one of which we caught on video:

For another rendition, you can check out this link.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photo Shoot 2009

We had some success getting new photos of the children at Denzil Stewart Nature Park.


The Clan

Dallin's interest in looking cute did not last too long.
We were very happy to get this portrait of him.




Erin had such a variety of animated expressions that we almost made a collage of the rejects.
These two are our favorites of her "angelic" poses.

Ian does not like to smile with his teeth showing.
There were many more photos of him in the tree, but he was acting pretty goofy.

And here is the most cooperative of the bunch.
Megan holds still, smiles sweetly, and is an absolutely lovely young lady.