Timber!!!!

Dumpster day was upon us yesterday. As an annual event, Tara and I try to get rid of at least 2 or 3 major items when the dumpsters are left for the day. Unfortunately, everyone else on the block has the same idea. You have to get out pretty early to actually have room for your trash. Even though I was stuck at work, Tara was able to get rid of the left over rocks from the dog run, a lot of old brush, the burned up BBQ grill (it took about 3 hours for someone to take a dive after that treasure), and some rotted out timbers from the backyard. Still, we wanted to get more out of clean up day. Our prayers were answered when Dave from next door said he wanted to work on the the Chinese Elm trees that crossed from his front yard into ours.

I've wanted to tackle this project for years, so when the offered was made I jumped on it. Before you knew I had scaled our pine tree with the sawsall and was lopping off branches left and right. It was a little tricky when I started to cut some of the major branches, but there's nothing like the sound of the crack when gravity takes over and the branch comes down. The first one was a bit scary as it broke and headed right for the roof, but our little pine held up the carnage and the carport remained relatively unscathed. After about an hour, the cutting was finished and we had removed 3 large limbs from our least favorite trees. The rest of the night was spent cutting of the foliage and saving the limbs for firewood. I can't tell you how glad I am we finally cut down those awful trees! It's even better that everything was cleaned up before bed and the dumpsters around the block were full to the brim.

Changes to the Cabin

Friday night we stayed up at the Houtz family cabin as we traveled to Price for the funeral. Nothing major, just a chance to get an hour closer to central Utah. Plus, we really wanted to see how the kitchen turned out. For Memorial Day, you'll remember we spent the day tearing out the old kitchen with Tara's family. Over the past 6 weeks the Houtz' have been hard at work installing: new flooring, new cabinets, new appliances, and even new lights. It looks amazing!

Even though we don't get to the cabin very often, we're always happy when we arrive. Kennedy absolutely loves spending time in the loft. She could climb up and down the ladder all day long if we'd let her (safety means she doesn't go up or down often). This trip Jason and Kristin went with us, so it was a great chance to share the cabin with others. They are great to the kids and it's fun to have an aunt and uncle so involved with their niece and nephew. Alex absolutely loves his Uncle Jason and could spend hours laughing with his buddy. I think this is the first time in years that we've taken someone up to the cabin with us for the evening, I hope it's not the last.

Goodbye Doris

I've been waiting to write about Doris' death for the past two weeks, since they were waiting to have her funeral until yesterday. I wrote about Doris and her battle with cancer last year during one of our visits down to Southern Utah. After four years and a lot of treatments Doris returned home on July 28th. I have to say that I'll always remember her kindness to my family. She and Dean have been so nice to my kids and they were excited anytime we dropped in for a visit. Doris was a great woman and I'm happy to say that he career as a teacher is truly inspiring to me. For 41 years she taught students and always went the extra mile. I only hope I can do the same.

The funeral was a simple, graveside service. I was asked to offer the invocation. Jason, Evan, and my dad all served as pallbearers. My mom gave a wonderful tribute to her friend of 40 years. I know it was difficult for my mom, since she really loved Doris and it's hard to say goodbye to such a friend. She really did a nice job though and I know everyone was touched to listen to my mom recount many of Doris' qualities that made her such a great person. In the end, I want my mom to know that Doris was a wonderful woman and she really meant a lot to me and my family. We loved her and are glad that's she's finally free from her pain. Goodbye Doris.

Park City with my Pals

Last night I was able to get together with some long lost friends, Bryan and Chappo. Yes, I know I've seen each of them in the past eight months (I saw Chappo less than a month ago), but it's been two and a half years since the three of us have been together. Somehow, everything worked out that everyone's in town at the same time.

Chappo is in Park City for a conference, so Bryan and I drove east to hang out in the high life. We had dinner at the Wasatch Pub, Chappo's choice, but the beer was great. I mean the beer battered shrimp were great. After some heated political conversation - some things never change - we headed out on the town to cruise Main Street and talk about the exciting world of 30 somethings trying to cope with kids, marriage, work, church, culture, and ball. We may not have solved the world's problems, but it was a lot of fun to see some of my best friends and recapture some of our high school memories.

Kanarraville Falls

There are a lot of great things about life down in Southern Utah: days go slowly, the country never seems to end, there's always somewhere to explore. For our family it's been a lot of fun to go down to New Harmony and visit my parents. We like to think of it as a way to escape the city and enjoy the desert landscape. we found another great thing about Utah's Dixie last weekend: Kanarraville Falls.

I guess the secret came out about a month ago when the Spectrum (Cedar's newspaper) published an article about this fun little slot canyon just east of town. Sure enough, there were plenty of people in the canyon last Saturday when Tara, Big Al, Vaughn (my dad's friend), and I went in search of some adventure.

From the spot you park your car it's about a mile walk to get to the mouth of the canyon. At that point the countryside changes from a desert landscape into a slot canyon oasis. The walls are about 15 feet apart in some points and there are two separate waterfalls to enjoy along the hike. The problem is to continue the hike you've got to climb each of the falls.

The first fall had a log ladder which helps you climb the 15 feet or so to get on top of the water. It wasn't too bad, just go slow and hold onto the rope. All four of us made it up in no time, but it's a bit trickier going down. I know going down was the whole reason Coleton didn't come with us on the hike. It's a bit scary to look down about 20 feet while holding onto a skinny rope.

The second fall was an awesome climb. We had encountered some 20 year old boys while in the canyon and as we approached the second fall they were debating about whether or not to go up. Knowing that we were in search of a geocache above the fall, there was no debate for me. I grabbed hold of the rope ladder and pulled myself up rung by rung. Once I got to a certain height, I was able to climb a log the rest of the way. Sure, I wasn't very graceful, but I was the first one to the top. You can only imagine that boys quickly followed me to the top, once a "old man" had made the climb first. It took a little more of an effort for Tara and my dad to make it to the top, but we realized that the log had several knots which made the climb manageable for everyone.

Kanarraville Falls was a great hike and I'm really glad we went. I've really enjoyed going through various slot canyons around the state and it's good to know there's one only a few miles away from my parent's house. I'm sure we'll hike to the falls again soon, maybe next year we'll get Coleton to come with us!

See how I really made it to the top:

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