Vacation #2: Goblin Valley & Capitol Reef

Sometimes our other blog monopolizes my life. Then I look at this blog and realize it has been two weeks since I wrote a new post. In reality, Randy writes most of the posts on our Utah Valley Family Adventures Blog, and I do the editing and pictures, but then I have to pin it on Pinterest (which I am horrible at) and post it to Facebook (which I'm not very good at either). How do people keep up with all this social media? I must be too old.

Anyway, it's all just excuses. And mostly I want to say, I'm sorry. I have a lot of things to blog about, but you'll have to patiently wait as I post one at a time. So here is the latest, meaning what we did two weeks ago. 

We went on another vacation at the end of June. We went to Goblin Valley State Park and stayed in yurts. We had so much fun and it was really the best kind of camping with Seth. He could play in the yurt which had a wood floor and not fall/get dirty outside. The yurt had a swamp cooler, so we were able to keep a little cooler in the 100 degree weather. While we were there, we hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon and our family quickly labeled it "the best hike EVER!" We visited Capitol Reef National Park and the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. We wrote about all those places on the other blog, so here I'm just going to write that we had a lot of fun. Dax said he wanted to live at Goblin Valley and Mark tells everyone about the bighorn sheep we saw because that was the best part for him. I pulled some of my favorite pictures from the trip to share with you. 

In Little Wild Horse Canyon....aren't they strong?

One of 4 different types of lizards we saw.

Isn't that baby pronghorn precious?

We barricaded Seth on the porch so he could be outside, but wouldn't get by the fire.
He thought it was the coolest!

Mark looking at some petroglyphs.

Just a sweet moment

Such a big boy.

Seth loves hiking!

Mark & Dax tried to crawl in every hole they spotted...it was a lot!

Mark saw this guy laying on the ground and immediately knew it was an antelope squirrel.
We don't doubt him because he sits in the back of our van and reads the bird/animal book.

I caught them watching a lizard.

Goblin Valley is full of places like this.

Goblin Valley...blaze your own trail

We played hide and seek for a long time.

Great boys!

They loved this place.

The moon was big and beautiful all the time--day or night.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Baseball

I grew up playing softball, just like my mom did. I love it! I love going to baseball games and I went to a lot of games growing up. I love cheering for the team and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." I love watching my boys play baseball. Mark just finished coach pitch....and, I mean this in the most humble way possible, he was awesome. He could stroke the ball! He caught fly balls and stopped grounders. Mark works hard to be good though. You will often find him practicing baseball all by himself for hours in our yard. Dax just started T-ball and is so excited. He played really well at his first game and hit the ball pretty hard. Dax also stopped all the balls that came to him and always knew to throw it to first base.

Intense--always!

Mark getting ready to hit.

Dax is SO excited about his first game!

Uh oh...just as intense as his older brother!

Now, there are a few reasons I am starting to hate baseball. First, it monopolizes my husband's and children's lives. They watch every Red Sox game, read everything they can about the Sox, and sometimes I just want to toss the computer/TV out the window. I guess baseball is a good obsession, right?

Well, a few days ago, I found out about another reason to hate baseball. It is starting to cost me a lot of money.

Mark and Dax were playing baseball together. Dax hit the ball after Mark pitched to him and lost his grip on the bat (a plastic bat, by the way), and it shattered that window. So now we have to fix it.

Then, a day later Mark was hitting with the same plastic bat but using a soft baseball instead of a wiffle ball. He fouled it off and did this to our fence.

I've kind of been waiting for all of this to happen, but now that it's here I'm starting to have mixed emotions about baseball. Don't worry, I'm sure my love of the game will win out, but right now, I'm still a little peeved.

Seth's 1st Year

I had a coupon to Shutterfly to create this book for free (I did have to pay shipping). My older boys love their books I made for them, so I was glad to get another free coupon. I hope Seth likes it. They are letting me share it for free, so I thought, why not?

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

We LOVE Yellowstone!

Lower Falls in The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

We really do love Yellowstone! Every other year, I convince my parents and sisters to come with our family for a trip to Yellowstone. We have so much fun together. It brings back lots of memories of the trips we took when we were just 5 little girls, instead of 5 grown-up girls with husbands and children. This year we went with out my youngest sister who is serving her mission in Philadelphia right now. We missed her, but we still had a blast.

My sisters and I on some vacation
(Brittany is missing in this photo, so I am probably 8 or 9)

Look at us now...10 kids later!

We went on hikes, visited the geysers and hot pots, ate a picnic every day for lunch, slept in cabins, and saw a TON of animals. That is our favorite part, well maybe the family bonding and memories, but animal sightings are definitely one of the top highlights of the trip.

This year we spent a few days in Grand Teton National Park after our four days in Yellowstone. Our entire goal was to see a moose. And we came down to the wire--we saw two moose, both within an hour of leaving the park.

We are already making plans for 2015. The rest of this post is just a few of my favorite pictures from this trip--we took 368 pictures. Crazy right? It was hard to choose favorites, but here they are!

First, the animals...

Mama black bear and two cubs!

Coyote

River otter

Fox

Beaver

Mama moose

Daddy moose

Boy Elk

Mommy elk and baby with spots...so precious!

Now for the memories...

Seth loved walking around the cabin.

Dax LOVES waterfalls.

We hiked around this little lake with the cousins.
Randy led while I brought up the rear...just like little ducklings.

We love hiking, but sometimes 4 year old feet get tired.

Mark and Dax with Josh at Wraith Falls.

Everyone on the stagecoach ride.

A lot of time is spent using binoculars in Yellowstone.
No, this isn't staged....I turned around and hurried to snap this photo.

I love the way this picture turned out at Storm Point.

Happy Brothers!

Gotta have a walking stick.

More waterfalls...nope, he can't just smile!

Ockey boys

Hidden Falls in the Tetons--A really big waterfall.

Mark matched the flowers so nicely.

Seth and Dax before the wagon ride.

We went on a wagon ride to a cook out.
Mark is slightly afraid of the Indian in the background.

See that road? Randy must travel every possible road, so we traveled on this one.
We didn't see much, but we met some nice cowboys.
The Tetons are beautiful!

Video Post

I should be packing for Yellowstone, but instead I have been watching old home movies and uploading new ones from the camera. That is sort of preparing for Yellowstone because I'm trying to clear my camera so I have lots of space for pictures and movies. Anyway, since I can't post for awhile because I will be out of town for the next week, I thought I would leave you with some movies to watch. One for each kid! Enjoy!

Mark performed in his school's dance festival the last week of school. I felt bad for him because his mask kept falling off, but he never stopped dancing. We had a lot of fun watching him!

Dax had a preschool program at the end of the year. I pasted a few clips of songs together. I apologize that it is slightly random, but he was so cute singing all the songs that it was hard to choose just one!

Seth has been learning to walk. He is so stubborn! If we try to have him walk between us, Seth sticks his legs out so that he can't stand up. But if he wants to go somewhere then he can walk just fine. Here's a short clip of Seth walking and a few other silly ones!

Memorial Day

We stopped by the Manti Temple to get a picture of Seth for his temple book.

Today we headed down to Sanpete county for Memorial Day. I know, technically Memorial Day is Monday, but we like to go on Saturday when it is slightly less crowded. This year we spent the entire hour long drive telling stories about Grandma Ockey (Randy's mom) and Grandma Benson (Randy's grandma). Dax and Mark knew Grandma Benson so they shared their memories too. It was amazing to talk about these two ladies who meant so much to our family. We also shared a little bit about our other grandmas and grandpas that have passed on.  Last night I put a few pictures, funeral programs, etc in sheet protectors. When we arrived at the cemetery, we took the pictures and info over to the grave and shared. We always clean up the grave site as well...that is our tradition from the beginning (we take a big pack of baby wipes for wiping bird poop). We talked about how even though they didn't know Grandma Ockey, she helped shape their lives because of the things she did for their dad. We wanted them to understand why it was important to remember those who have gone before us, and this was the first time I felt like they sort of grasped it--maybe because they are bigger, maybe because we tried a little harder.

We also did a few other adventures. We visited Grandpa Ockey's farm. We always like to go and see what is at Grandpa's farm hanging out with all his sheep. Dax was slightly afraid of the chickens because they followed us around everywhere, and he really wanted to pet a lamb.  Seth LOVES cats. If we see one in the neighborhood, he has to pet it. So the two running around the farm were no different.

Seth was fascinated, and slightly frightened, by the animals and their loud noises.

Dax hurrying away from the chickens!

Must-- Pet-- Lamb!

Seth Loves the cat!

We even hiked to a waterfall up Manti Canyon (more info on the other blog). And we ate at our favorite pizza place in Ephraim. It was a long, but amazing day. The boys were so great in the car and I felt like this was the best Memorial Day for remembering. We'll probably do this again next year.

I like this one too!