A Day in the Life

In April, we had visits from several of Gary's family members when he was put in as the Branch President. Kevin and Amy and their two adorable boys came a day earlier and stayed a day late to play and we had a blast! This is a day in the life of a Grand Canyon tourist at our house.


The day starts with a long drive. Waiting for your turn is the hardest part. Ethan makes a pretty good driver's education teacher.


After all those hard miles, a boy needs some refreshment. There is nothing better than sitting on the front porch with your cousins while eating fruit snacks. They are there own food group, right?


More eating. What? Do they think they are growing boys? We had been looking at several overlooks and they worked up an appetite.


Next on the agenda was a hike down the South Kaibab trail. We were quite the sight to other tourists. Six kids (at least one in a backpack and one on shoulders the majority of the time), one pregnant lady, camelbaks everywhere. You can imagine the looks we got. We were stopped once on the trail by a well-meaning lady making sure we all had sun screen. When we said we were fine, she proceeded to apply it to the kids. No joke.

The reward for our hike was an awesome view. This is the Oooh and Aaah point. Beautiful! I can just hear the boys planning their adventures as they look into the canyon.

There were several more stops on the way back up the trail. This looked like a perfect place to take a break.

Cohen and Truman really didn't want to go to bed but we thought they may be a bit tired after their adventures. I think we succeeded at wearing them out!

Hermit's Rest Trail

Over Easter weekend, we hiked the Hermit's Rest Trail. Rest isn't a word I'd associate with this trail. It was gnarly to say the least. Even though the hiking was a bit rough, we all had a fabulous time.


Here we are just getting started. What a beautiful place to play in each weekend.


A couple things happened shortly after we started hiking. Dylan started snoring - loudly and...

Ethan started peeing at every corner. I guess it's hard work hiking in the backpack for Dylan because he didn't make it very far awake. The backpack on Ethan's back is a Camelbak and he definitely knows how to drink from it. He had to pee every corner it seemed like even though we took him to the bathroom right before we got started at the trail head. He was amazed how far it would travel when he would pee over the side of the mountain and Gary and I were amazed how often he could go - and we mean really go! I think he had his water gone by the time we got back to the car and it should have been enough to last for a hike three times as long!

The return trip was pretty strenuous. Some of the steps were larger than Ethan's legs could step. He would climb to the next step until he was almost exhausted - I know I already was. Eventually, Ethan just held on to the bottom of the kid carrier and Gary basically pulled him up the worst of it. I don't know how Gary does it. I have a hard time getting just me up the hill and he is carrying Dylan and Ethan.

My men almost to the top. They just needed a quick refuel.

Help Me Bishop!

Today at church we became a member of the "Help me Bishop!" family only a slightly different version. Gary was conducting and asked me to give the opening prayer. He told me he would love to hold Dylan on his lap while I prayed. Great idea. Too bad no one consulted Dylan.

I go up to say the prayer and put Dylan down steps in front of Gary so he could go sit with his dad. He didn't want to apparently and when Gary grabbed him and put him on his lap the screaming began.

It was a short prayer. No one could hear it anyway since Dylan was wailing. I ended and turned to grab Dylan who then, loud enough for the entire 30 person congregation to hear, said, "I don't like Dad!"

Gary got up to continue conducting and, with his little smirk, said, "At least he didn't yell save me Bishop."

I think one of the reasons we are here at the Grand Canyon Branch is to entertain the members. Some weeks are more entertaining than others. This is probably in their top ten.

Softball Practice in the Grand Canyon

Gary started on a softball team a few weeks ago. They practice on the only baseball/softball field in town which happens to be at the Rec Center next to the school. This also happens to be one of the only places in town with grass. Lush, cool, tasty grass. They shooed the elk off so they could start practice and then, after about 45 minutes, they came back. There were almost 20 elk vying for position. I'm not sure if they wanted to be the center fielder or just the cheer squad but they weren't leaving. At one point, when Gary was up to bat, he hit one right into the middle of the herd. The fielders decided to leave it where it landed and come back for it later. Can't blame them!