UP! House

Thought I'd share a picture of the Up! house we visited this Summer. It was in the Parade of Homes and we didn't have tickets so couldn't go inside, but it was fun to see.

4 wheel Mt. Trumbul

Friday, Apr. 29 Mom and I went on a 4 wheelin ride down around Mt. Trumbul, Arizona. We drove the trucks to the old schoolhouse in Mt. Trumbul and unloaded the 4 wheelers. We went for an 80 mile ride out west of there. We were tired and sore by the time we got back. We were not on our 4 wheeler as the Saturday ride had to be on street legal machines. Ken Beckstrom lent us a machine that Barbara usually rides. It is not as comfortable as ours and Mom had a hard time. We saw a lot of country, but not the beautiful scenes we see on most of our rides. It was just a ride.

After getting back to the trucks and gassing up, we went south 13 miles to the Bar 10 Ranch that was started by Tony and Ruby Hafen. Ruby was the love of my life when I was in first and second grade. Anyway, we had dinner there. It was really good. They had a program and I had asked them to sing "Happy Birthday" to Mom. She had implored me to not tell a soul it was her birthday, but I couldn't resist. We all sang to her and then the host sang a love song to her while she sat in a chair out in front of everybody. When the program was over, they invited us to have birthday cake. It was fun.

We slept in a covered wagon. The wind was blowing full tilt and it was cold. Mom climbed into bed with all her clothes on. It didn't take long before she was taking them off. We actually slept quite well and quite warm.

They served us breakfast and then we lit out on a ride down to the Colorado River. I suppose it is still the grand canyon down there, but we were a lot closer to the river than when you are on the north or the south plateau. The first place we stopped was at Pa's Pockets.

The pictures were supposed to be here, but came in on the top. One is doubled because I don't know what I am doing. The doubled one we don't know what it is. There is a rock wall and a smooth rock surface. It looks like a spillway, but wasn't. The sign and cabin are self explanatory. The other one is the "pocket. They built a concrete dam in this canyon pocket and it catches the water which they then pipe out for their livestock.

Next, we drove to the Grand Canyon. I'll try to put those pictures here, but it probably won't work. It didn't work. They are the first 5 pictures. Anyway, we went on another leg of the ride which again was just a ride. By the time we got back Mom was really hurting. We were glad to see the pickups, get loaded and get home.

By the way we paid $200 for the opportunity to spend a night in a covered wagon. Sorry, I didn't take pictures.

Love, Dad

TAKE THEM TO THE STOCKS!!!

Thanks Jana for another fun night!

We hiked up to the Y today. It was a pretty steep hike but even the little girls made it without being carried and we had a good time.
The gate to the trail

Sitting by the Y

Looking over Provo from the Y

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip. You can tell by how happy Mom & Dad are that they just love us so much!

If you want to see more pictures, then click the link to our blog!

Branson

Mom and I went to Branson the last of May with Rosalie and Tom Scholes. Our flights didn't look good on Saturday, so we went to SLC on Friday the 28th and stayed with Teri. Teri thought we needed to be picked up, so she sent Scott to the airport. We had rented a car and were to Teri's while Scott was at the airport (sorry Scott). We didn't get on our flight to Memphis on Friday, but found one to Atlanta, so we went there and got a hotel for the night. Sunday morning we flew to Springfield, got our car and went on to Branson. We didn't get to the resort until noon and church was at 1:00 and about 30 miles away. We made it. Church was very enjoyable. The people were very friendly. The gospel doctrine teacher was one of the Duttons who perform in Branson.

Our resort is just a 100 yards from a huge Lake (740 mile shoreline). We can see it out our window. It is beautiful. We drove part way around it. The resort is OK, but not a real nice one. It doesn't even compare to Worlmark.

We went to several shows: Twelve Irish Tenors, Six, Noah, a dance show, a Chinese acrobat show, and on a riverboat for a show. They were all good, but the best was Noah. I was hesitant to go as I thought it would be a spoof. It was the real story of Noah. They built the ark and gathered the animals (many live ones). When the 2nd half began after intermission, we were sitting in the ark. There were cages and animals on three sides of us. It was about 60 feet high. It is impossible to describe, but was utterly fantastic. We liked it so much, we paid to go on the backstage tour. It was fun. My legs hurt so much, I finally asked for a wheel chair. Mom pushed me around in it.

We also went to Silver Dollar City. It is kind of like Lagoon, but much more on historical things like the blacksmith, glass blowing, woodcarving and turning, etc. It was good. My legs gave out again, but I made it. They had a country music concert that evening that we went to. It was good also. We only went on two rides, a water raft one that soaked us and the train. While on the train, we got robbed by two Missouri hill billies. It was fun.

In between the shows and the sight seeing, Mom and Rosalie just happened to get in a lot of shopping. We went to the outlets and other shopping venues.

We left Saturday morning.

Love, Dad

In May, we went on a 4 wheeler ride out to Hole in the Rock. We drove to Escalante on Thursday and checked into a motel. They gathered for dinner, but we were late so we didn't go. We were invited out to a brothers home for a little dialogue about the trip. He has a place in a canyon that is very nice and sheltered. We enjoyed his talk as he told us about the settlement of Escalante and the Hole in the Rock expedition. We even had smores afterward.

Friday morning we drove out on the road to the hole. The road goes all the way out, but this was a 4 wheeler activity, so we went in pickups for about 20 miles and then on 4 wheelers for the other 25. It was about a 50 mile round trip on wheelers.

Our first stop was at Dancehall Rock. We had a guide who talked to us about their experience there. Here's a picture of Mom and Dad dancing at Dancehall Rock.

These next pictures are from the backside of Dancehall Rock. They are huge depressions that you can only get into and out of with a rope. We were told that sometimes the parents would lower the kids down in and then go party and dance. They wouldn't have to worry about their children running away or getting lost.

From there, we drove on out to the "hole." It was awesome. I can't imagine taking wagons down there. They did some blasting and they drilled large holes to put cedar posts in to expand the shelf to drive on. I don't know how they did it. I don't understand how they even thought they could go down it. Not only did they go down, but I am told they came back up it for over a year in going back and forth. I am totally amazed.

From there we went up on top of 50 mile ridge. We rode along it for awhile and then down to the trucks and back to Escalante.

On Saturday we chose to go in trucks up to "The Devil's Backbone." It is a ridge at the top of the mountain north of Escalante, that is very narrow and falls off in deep straight down canyons on either side. It is so narrow, they built a bridge to get vehicles from one sid to the other. It was awesome.

Saturday morning we drove up to the "Devil's Backbone" which is a ridge that falls off in steep canyons on either side. The ridge is so narrow, they have put a bridge across it. These photos show the steep fall off on either side. We were going to go to some falls, but they weren't signed very good and we missed them. We decided that was good as I am still having big problems with my legs.

We drove on home. As always, it was good to be home.

Love, Dad

P.S. Thanks to Bonnie and Dave for the blogs they posted. If you haven't read them, they are on the side of the Moss Family Blog. Bonnies is the "3 girls + 2 boys" and David has the other two.