Hogle Zoo

Grandma and Grandpa took my family and Sharie's to the zoo while Sharie and Adam where out backpacking.

In the playground, Stacy did not want to be in the picture. One of my favorite things about this picture is Ryan and Richard together. Ryan's arm is around Richard's shoulder. Even with all the miles between them, they are still best of friends.

This picture was taken three years ago. I had to add this photo because of the picture above. These boys are so cute together.
We are at an animal show. Thomas was chosen to be one of the helpers.

Emmi watching Thomas and the animal show.

This was such a cute picture of Emmi, I just had to post it.

Emmi was good at the zoo, but nothing really caught her interest until she saw the Warthogs. She did not want to leave. She would have climbed in with them if we had let her.

The kids all took a ride on the new Carousel. I tried to get pictures of all of them, but they didn't work out. Melody is standing near Stacy, making sure she is alright.

By the Zebra's, Stacy was real camera shy today.

It was a hot day. Grandpa ran out to the car to get a cooler full of drinks for all of us. Emmi wants grandma's water.

Thomas and Stacy playing in a giant egg.



Playing with the ground hogs.




Getting ready for the train ride and to see the buffalo.


Trying to get all the kids to pose for the camera. Stacy decided she was going to be shy, and would not look at me. The west sun didn't help matters either. It was hard to get anybody to look at me.

Old and a few newer pictures of the backyard.

Ugly back yard. If you look closely, you can see it's all on an uneven slope. It's all thorns and we can't do anything with it.

Ugly patio with overgrown raspberries (that the only nice thing about the yard, all the raspberries you can eat). This area is not fixed up yet. It's next on our list of things to do.

New Sod


More new sod. We flattened the top and bottom half of the yard. We put in a little hill instead of a retaining wall.
Trying to give you an idea of the slope and height of the hill. All I had was my cell phone for these pictures. Sorry the quality is not too great.

Our yard was measured wrong. We received 4,000 ft. of sod instead of 5,000 ft. It's been raining while we've waited for the new sod to show up. Marc's raking up the ground getting it ready to put down the rest of the sod.Grandpa Whitehead and Marc's dad showed up and helped us lay the rest of it down.

We had to lift the backyard gate so it didn't get stuck in the top soil and new grass. Marc laid some bricks down, under the gate, so Cinder doesn't sneak out.

Holes

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy`s life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure Mark Twain ...




I think this biggest hole went in about 4ft. The kids were very disappointed to see how quickly the landscapers destroyed it.

New Yard

Now we have a yard that the kids can really enjoy playing in.


15 ft. trampoline, Marc would only let me get one for the kids if it had a net around it. The kids love this toy the best.

This game is called Ladder Ball. Here are a couple links to see how it's played. One is QVC showing it. The other's a real cheesy one from Youtube.


Badminton, and volley ball, this net is a little short so young kids, like Chelby, can play too. Ryan loves badminton the most. Unfortunately, the net was put up too close to the house and all the shuttlecocks (4) are on the roof at the moment.

We don't have trees yet, they are coming in the mail...I thought they would be here by now. They will only be little sticks, so maybe in a couple of years (decades) we will enjoy some shade also.

Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley State Park


Mt. King's Chair...at least that's what the kids called it.

Chelby was lucky enough to get to it first.

Having a lot of fun climbing. Even Grandpa joined the kids on a set of rocks.

We found another Lizard, we named him Reggie.

The kids enjoyed Goblin Valley, but we did not stay for too long. We were all tired and hot from visiting Mesa Verde the day before. We did not have the energy for another hot day. We will have to take the kids back for a longer visit when it's cooler outside.

Mesa Verde

Our camp pet, the lizard. There were many of those and Jack Rabbits.

The kids were asked to guard the ladder, until the ranger had made sure every one else had caught up with us.

It was a long way down and a long climb up. Here is a shot of the top of the Ladder we had to climb to get out of this area.

Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings






Beautiful View we had while listening to the ranger talk of the people who use to live there, The Ancestral Puebloan people.

A rain storm came upon us really fast. We had to sit under these cliff's for over an hour waiting for the thunder and lightning to pass. Then we got to climb many many feet of ladder, while it was still raining hard, to get out of there. We were all soaked to the bone, but had a great time.