New things in the rain...

A few Friday evening's ago, we headed out with the twigs 

and their venturesome friends to try some new things.

The first new thing was geocaching in the rain. 

As we drove through the beautiful rainstorm 

along the foot of the mountains, 

lightening was flashing in the clouds where we were headed 

and I was worried our little adventure might be over

but just as we arrived the lightning stopped. 

We bundled up and set out to find the cache with our umbrellas and gps. 

Finding the cache was the easy part. 

The hard part was trying to get the crazy thing open. 

It was a puzzle cache.

We read the clue/story, took notes, 

and gave the directional combination lock 

our best try...up...down...down...down...right...up...time after time. 

Eventually, we were soaked, snookered, 

and ready to head back to the warm, dry car 

when I heard Hunter say "let's go look at the view!" hahaha 

Just like that the teenagers all took off through the drippy scrub oak. 

I love their love of this gorgeous world. 

Hats off to Jenny and Ben for being such good sports 

as this was not your normal Friday night hangout. <3

The next new thing we tried was just past the neon dragon. 

It's a little restaurant called Pig & A Jelly Jar. 

Our friends, the Dixons, have talked about beignets for years. 

I've always wanted to try them and this place has them. 

They also have fried dill pickles, fried green tomatoes, and pigberry shortcake. We got an order of each and passed them around the table. haha 

Just saying, sriracha aioli is the bomb with fried green tomatoes! 

We ended the evening playing Taboo and laughing till midnight. 

If you can figure out the 

"Up, Down, Left &..." cache GC3DF7Y, 

please give us a hint, we're all ears and thumbs! :)

Mini adventures with billy goats and a troll...

The twigs are both in High School but Hunter only has a 
High School Seminary class. 

All the rest of his classes are at the college 

so the twigs essentially have "Spring Break" on different weeks. 

Karen warned me years ago this would happen.
  (Thanks Karen!  ;)

This year instead of a week long "Spring Break" vacation,

we're having two separate weeks 
of mini "Spring Break" adventures.

Lucky us, 

Scottie & April joined us for the first of our mini adventures!   :)

The twigs were in Seminary on Friday afternoon

so we took off with Scott & April for a picnic and some geocaching

along the shore of The Great Salt Lake.  

Scott & April haven't geocached much but they sure have the knack!

Hucklemucklemoo baby!!

That night we picked up the twigs & their friends 

and the 8 of us headed out for a night hike.

It was beautiful!

In addition to the beautiful view,

 we got another opportunity to carry on our 

tradition of 

"Billy Goats Gruff."

If you look closely, 

you can see the twigs and their friends 

standing on rocks in the creek 

calling out in their most threatening troll voices

"Who's that tripping over my bridge!"

Scott & April love books

and tell the best fairy tales!

Whenever we're hiking with them and happen upon a bridge, 

the reenactment of the goats and troll begins.

Below, was our twigs

first thespians experience with 

 "Billy Goats Gruff."

The video makes us laugh, 
 - such good memories.   :)
Our cute little "baby troll in training" 
wasn't too sure at first but she picked it up quick. 

Our first "Billy Goats Gruff"

 This was the sight of another 

"Billy Goats Gruff"

episode.

"Trip trap trip trap..."

Christmas village...and the Gift...

The Mr.'s leg has been doing well enough we were able to make our annual Christmas Villlage - hurray! This tradition started many years ago when the twigs were just tiny.

 
We've had many "guest villagers" join us and have loved their creative ideas.

Like Grandma, and Katie...

and Liz...

and Joe...

and Katie...

and Katie.   :)
Don't know where Keith was in this picture but it looks like little Charlie is making a "bump" appearance.


We've had a wide variety of themes, like our  "Tree House Village" pictured above for the year we went to Oregon's Tree Houses on vacation and the "San Juan Islands Village" below, for our Washington adventure.

The "Redwoods Village" the year we were going to explore the Redwoods in Northern California...

and last year the theme was "guess where Zac will be going on his mission."

This year the theme was "Yellowstone in Winter" (not for an upcoming vacation though it's for sure on our bucket list). Our favorite part this year was our "guest villagers." We had our fantastic Sister Missionaries and some of Hunter's friends join us!

Sister Fortin and Sister Nicolasora stopped by tonight to see the finished project as we were still going strong way after the time they had to leave.

Some of our favorites village creations were Nate's cabin even after it plummeted to the ground. It turned out looking the most "rustic and woodsie" of all and ya gotta dig that wreath.  :)

Old  Faithful was well represented and had a little river flowing out from it complete with a guy on a raft, thanks to Nate.

There's too much to say about Rachel's cabin with her hilarious "domesticated bear pen" and the cutest mailbox ever. Don't ask about the sour patch kids holding hands...     :)

If you know Hunter well, you probably know he loves goldfish crackers, like he believes they and carrots make up a food group all of their own...the "orange" food group, so of course his cabin has goldfish on it. He also made a chariot pulled by...what else...bears!     :)

Liam's circular entry way was the boss! He also had a little slide in the back of his house. Nothing like a little playground to say home in the woods.   :)

Vanessa had creativity all over the place. I love a campfire on a cold evening, and I love village campfires - we've had many - her's was one of my favorite! She also had a slide out of the back of her house complete with her initials.   :)

Em's pretty pathway added lots of interest to an otherwise sparse field of snow but my favorite of her creations...

...was her reindeer on their own little pretzel bench. So cute!!!
Speaking of cute, check out that bomb of a "Grand Prismatic Spring." Sister Fortin came up with the idea of melting Jolly Ranchers in the oven to get the gorgeous color. Beautiful job, Sister Fortin!!




The Mr. had a very manly chimney and some cool roof tiles this year. 

I copied ideas I'd loved from years past with my chairs and porch. Love a nice porch! Oh, and there's my copy of Vanessa's fire - thanks Vanessa.   ;)

Sister Nicolasora is from Manilla, Phillipines so snow and Yellowstone were foreign concepts to her but she got right into the white stuff and made an awesome cabin. Love her sweet little door.  :)

Sister Fortin got us all going on the chimney idea this year - thanks Sister Fortin! She made a sweet fence around her cabin too. The little skiing sour patch kid in the front of her cabin was Nate's contribution as this was the best ski hill around.  :)

Put it all together and here is our "Yellowstone in winter village!"

Before the Sisters left for the evening, they shared this video with us, because as fun as the holidays and villages and presents for friends and family are...the very best gift...the first gift...was Him.    xoxo

He is the Gift

Oregon with radical Styles, Mr. Sandman, Zac's Buddy, sweet Nouget, and trippy Mocha...

We like to try new things on our summer vacations. Over the years we've had a blast experiencing things like zip-lining...

...scuba diving...

...jet boating through rapids with this guy at Jerry's Rogue Jetboats...

...who was expert at doing 180's in rapids like this (their picture, not mine, cause I was soaking wet and laughing myself silly)

 

...which made our hair look like this.

So when I asked the Mr. and the twigs what they'd like to try this year (bungee jumping, hot air ballooning??) I was a little surprised to hear them say horseback riding on the beach. It didn't sound crazy high-adventure but it did sound beautiful so I made reservations. This little paragraph, however, on the participant agreement form got my adrenaline racing as I realized it may be "high-adventure" after all.

     ...A horse,regardless of its training and usual behavior, may act unpredictably causing you to be thrown or injured by the horse. Horses may bite, kick, buck, lie down, or stumble. Saddles may slip...Your horse may collide with obstacles such as creeks, bridges, wild animals, stumps, rocks, and cliffs..."

The last time we rode a horse it looked like this. Don't you just love Hunter hanging off the back.  :)

I sure hoped I wouldn't collide with any bridges, wild animals, or cliffs as my horse was biting me and my saddle was sliding off!

No worries, the horses were gentle and the ride through the forest and along the beach was totally beautiful.   :)

 

The picture quality is a little wonky, sorry. I wasn't letting go of the saddle horn for nothin' on account of my vivid imagination and those participant agreement tidbits.

We rode along a stream and through a forest out to the dunes and then onto the beach.

 Some of the horses were more willing to enter the water, like Zac's horse, Buddy.

Our guides, Emily and Matt, were on the ball at every turn and even took a picture for us. Thanks guys!

Zac on Buddy, our girlie on Nouget, the Mr. on Sandman, me on Mocha, and Hunter on Styles.
We love this world and God's breathtaking creations!