Jake's Adventures

Here's Jake chiming in with a blog addition:

I had an opportunity to travel down to the Grand Canyon as part of a Geology class I am taking this semester.  It was a lot of driving with 10 people stuffed into a 12 passenger van.  But it was fun and very enlightening.

The roads we traveled on this trip are some that I have traveled my entire life.  I have traveled I-15 from Logan to St. George ever since I was a little kid.  I learned a lot about the mountains and valleys that I-15 travels along.  I will always look at this stretch of road differently.

Like most of my classes, I am the oldest student and it was different to spend 3 nights with young people.  It wasn't too bad as I had brought my own tent.  I often went to bed early as I used every bit of time to try to catch up on the lack of sleep I have been getting due to Breahna.

The first day we drove to the Grand Canyon.  I can't remember really going there during my childhood, so I was looking forward to seeing it.  

I was amazed at how deep it is.  I have seen some pretty deep canyons, but nothing to this magnitude.  I got really nervous as I get skittish on cliff edges and high places.  I got brave enough to lay on my stomach and look over the edge.  3000 ft down lay the river.  It was incredible and disorienting.

I also got pretty anxious watching my fellow students goofing of near the edge. It was a long way down.

The next day we drove through Zion's and then along US-89 through some of my favorite parts of Utah.  These pictures are sandstone that developed from ancient dunes.  The lines in the sandstone are the depository side of migrating sand dunes.  Like most of the trip, I had been to Zion's several times and never really known the history of these marvelous formations. 

More Zion's pictures

Our last night of camping was just outside of Moab.  We camped along the bank of the Colorado river.  The rock formations are incredible here with a lot of horizontal sedimentary rock layers, massive uplift, and differential erosion.

On our way home, we stopped by Dead Horse Point to view the incised Green and Colorado river.  The power water has on rock is impressive.  What majestic creations.

 

Overall, the trip was very good.  The driving was extensive, but I learned a lot.  It was nice to get away for a bit.  But I was excited to get back to Kristen and the kids.

Springing Through March

Hard to believe we're already halfway through March. This has been a good month with not much going on. Here's an overload of pictures to show what we've been up to:
Jake and I love having friends join us for dinner. We both love to cook and open our home to share good food and laughter.
Here's Jake working on deep dish pizza:

Mostly, we just hang out at home having fun together:
Alexander keeps stealing my camera. I love uploading my pictures and finding treasures such as these pictures:
Yes, Alexander took this one! He was holding the camera out in front of him:

A few more from Alexander:

I can always tell when Alexander has been using the camera. There are at least a dozen very lovely self portraits. Hope he doesn't ever try to lie about using the camera because there is always proof - ha ha ha:

Alexander loves having his picture taken:

here's the many faces of a mom throughout the day:

The best way to start a morning; a pile of kids jumping on mom and dad:

(poor Kaleb, his lips get so dry they crack and look terrible!)

We have been especially loving this warmer weather:
We pulled our picnic table outside and have enjoyed several lunches out in the sunshine:

I love spring, it's my favorite season. I don't like the transition from winter to spring. It's especially fun around here. Our driveway always floods. There are always big puddles and mud holes.
The neighbor kids seem to always be playing in the water and the parents seems to always be yelling, "stay out of the water!"

I had to go buy Kaleb another pair of shoes. He only had his winter boots and a pair of everyday shoes. He doesn't even own church shoes or sandales! He needed a spare pair of shoes since he always gravitates toward the water and can't seem to keep out and thus, keep his shoes dry.

More outside fun:

This baby girl is 9 months old. She is 18 lbs and is 26" long. Healthy and happy. She doesn't sleep very well at night but she's still a happy girl during the day.

She loves crawling through our tunnel. She is actually pretty possessive of the tunnel and doesn't like to share with anyone else:

She loves to eat. Anything and everything. Maybe she'll be our meat eater?

She loves balls. Loves to throw, roll and catch

she especially loves it when someone will play along with her.  

She also loves her big brothers. They can get her laughing pretty hard.
One of her teeth FINALLY broke through last Saturday night. I hope the others follow soon. Maybe she'll miraculously start sleeping at night?

My friend sent me a giant box of cloth diapers. I am excited to cloth diaper and hopefully save a little bit of money. I don't think I will do it full time but at least while we're at home.

Also, did I ever mention how much Alexander loves weapons? Especially guns? It's actually pretty funny. Everyday household items seem to always be turned into a gun or 'light saver'
Our local grocery store has quite a few toys as well. They have these marshmallow guns. He wants one so bad. He always carries one around the store.

What a fun little guy Alexander is!

Kaleb is as well, he just doesn't like his picture taken...but I did find a few on my phone. How awesome are these little guys in their bowties?
And Kaleb, oh Kaleb ... found him outside in the snow with no shirt or shoes!

A funny Kaleb story. I was getting ready for the day when he came in and asked "can you hear Alexander?"
"uh no, what's he doing?" He mumbles, shrugs, and walks out. I come out a few minutes later to find Alexander locked outside in a snowstorm. In his pajamas, no coat and of course no shoes. He's crying, scared and cold but just fine. Really Kaleb? That is what we call a failure to communicate! If anything you could have at least opened the door for your brother!

I have also been busy working on a few projects:
I made four of these things. It's an all-in-one changing pad and diaper-wipes clutch. Through randomness a gal sent me an email with a picture of something similar and asked if I could make her one. She loved it so much she wanted three. I didn't charge her nearly enough. Now I know if there's a next time how much I need to charge. The project was simple enough but the materials were expensive. I also made her some matching wipes cases:

I made a 4th one for a friends babyshower. To go with this friends present I made this fun little card. I thought a diaper card was perfect!

I also made this little bag to hold Jake's headphones. I need to make one for myself. It looks like a ladybug to me.

Jake is keeping busy with school and his church calling. He's decided to attend school in the summer semester as well. This way he'll be done one year quicker. Only 4 semesters to go - yipee! He has decided he wants to do something with geology. If he had taken his geology class the first semester he would have changed majors. From computer science to geology. I never saw that one coming! This school will only let you have one major. They want you to get in and get out. He tried to talk to them about doing a major and a minor with computer science and geology but they wouldn't go for it. Someday he hopes to go back to school somewhere and get a geology masters. For now he thinks he has figured out a way to incorporate all three of his educational pursuits. Audio, computer science, and geology. A seismologist! It deals with wave lengths, computers, and geology. I pray this will work out for him and he can find a career he loves.
The lucky guy is going on a geology fieldtrip through the next 4 days. They get to go to the Grand Canyon and Sand Hollow (the Stevens family will know exactly where I'm talking about). A tiny part of me in jealous then I realize how cold it would be to be outside camping. No thanks. I'll enjoy my warm bed and sleepless nights in a warm house.

Aside from being seriously sleep deprived; life is fantastic!