Cascade Springs

Dave's bro., Mark was here with his family last week and we took a hike up to Cascade Springs. Look! Old people still hold hands!

Here's Dave and Spencer looking as some trout in the cascading stream.

Here is the top of the cascades (and Dave). There was a fire here a few years ago and the trees are still trying to grow back. I didn't get a good picture of the lower cascades because my subjects wouldn't hold still long enough for a picture. I'm taking the cubs there in a couple weeks and I will get some good pictures then. They mind better than these guys did.

This is an elk we saw on the way down the canyon. Just before we got to this elk, a huge male moose was standing in the middle of the road with a huge rack. Dave couldn't get the camera out fast enough before he ran into the trees...the moose ran into the trees, not Dave.

See, I can do flowers too!

Carrie's not the only one with pretty flowers! This is the little flower bed I have next to my driveway. The rocks I hauled from Uncle Jack's farm. The big one in front is actually purple. You can't tell so much because the sun was so bright when I took this. Uncle Jack picked the purple rock out just for me. Actually, he took me around the farm a couple years ago and we went rock hunting. If you really pay attention, there are a lot of different kinds of rocks on the farm. They are also different densities so some rocks, although they are smaller, are much heavier than others of a bigger size. The big rock in the back here, when I was picking it up, a mouse jumped out from under it on to my foot and ran off. I screamed and dropped the rock immediately. Uncle Jack got a good laugh. These flowers are trying to hide the ugly green boxes they put in our yards.

Holladay Update

Ok, I'm going to cheat a little on this one. I wrote a letter to my Uncle Phil so I'm going to cut and paste a little from that.

We went up the canyon for a picnic when Dave's brother, Mark was here. At the same canyon, a bear had ripped open a tent and drug a 10 year old boy out of his tent and killed him earlier that morning. What a terrible thing to happen! I felt so bad for that family. We didn’t see any bears while we were up there.

The boys had fun. We had Dutch oven chicken stew and scones. I forgot the honey and butter to put on the scones, so we just dipped them in the stew. Delicious! This is Dave and his brother, Mark at the grill (Dave’s the one in the new green shirt I got him for Father’s Day). I put the food all together and the guys stirred it (this way they feel like they are doing the cooking).

This other picture is Jake and John building a stone walk across a small part of the river running next to our picnic area. John is the one in the white shirt, Jake is kneeling down and Spencer is the short one on the right. John wanted me to tell you that Michael crossed the river and Jake and John hurried and messed up the bridge so he would have to get wet on the way back. They found this very amusing. Michael, on the other hand, did not.

I took my little cub scouts up to Day Camp last week. Accept for how cold it was in the morning, it was pretty fun. This is my little cub group. The other leader is my friend Tammy. She is the one I play racquetball with. The boy on the far right is Spencer’s best friend, Scott and his mother is also one of my very dear friends. It was about 50 degrees when we got there and 90 degrees when we left at 1:00 p.m.

Two weeks ago, my bro.-in-law, Clair (Dave’s sister’s husband), invited my family to go out on the lake in his boat. The twins were the only ones who wanted to go and they invited their friend, Austin. Notice how dry the mountains look behind them. We haven’t had near the rain you guys are getting. In fact, it hasn’t rained the whole month of June and very little in May. Our house is located almost directly behind them in this shot. The shorter part of the mountain is called “Point of the Mountain”. It is the boundary between Salt Lake County and Utah County. All my brothers and sisters live in Salt Lake County (except Shauna). John is on the right, Austin in the middle and Jake on the left. I tried to get up on a water ski, but the ski was too skinny in the back and I didn’t have the arm strength to keep holding on to get up out of the water. I am going to exercise my arms to see if I can make it out of the water next time. I think I can make it if I take my own ski.

Hey, you can see what their faces look like without their hair in their eyes! Can you tell John's hair is starting to grow back to his normal color? They are getting their "man faces"!

The girl I never had!!

Last, this is a picture of my little friend Maddie. She just turned 5. The first time she came to visit me at my house, as she was leaving she said: “I love you Rose!” We have been best “buds” ever since. Her dad has been accepted to medical school in Henderson, Nevada and they are moving soon.


Isn’t she adorable! She is wearing a special necklace of mine that I got in Hawaii and gave her. We are going to have lunch tomorrow so her mom can get some cleaning done on their old house before they have to leave. I took these pictures so I could remember her. She has a special place in my heart!

Isn't this sweet! Maddie wrote this while I was talking to her mother. Her mom said she learned how to write my name, even before she could write mom or dad...awe!!!