Bryce Canyon

Since we were so close to Bryce Canyon when we went down to Panguitch we decided to just spend the weekend down there.  The kids have never been here so we thought it would be a good time to see it.  When we got there the first night it was about five-thirty after we checked in to our hotel.  We decided to see if we could find a little hike to do before it got dark.  So we did one that was along the rim of the canyon.  It ended up being a three mile walk.  The kids did so good.  They stopped and looked out at every spot.  It was pretty cool down off the edge.  They all wanted to go hike down in there  but we knew we wouldn't have time before it got dark.

The views were really cool.

The boys  were out in front for most of the walk.  They said they needed to bet the girls.

Some how Drake got out of the car without his jacket so he started getting cold about half way through our walk.  Jay only had a long sleeve shirt on so he couldn't wrap him in his jacket.

I had a sweater on so he climbed in with me on the way back.  At the end was a little hill we had to climb back up.  Jay said he would carry him up it for me but when we got there and Jay tried to get him from me he wouldn't get out of my sweater.  He said it was freezing. 

When we got back to our room the kids still wanted to go swimming so we headed to the pool.  The kids swam for two hours.  When we got back to our room the three little kids got in a bath while Tyler waited for the shower.  He fell asleep waiting.  When the other kids got out and dress they were all asleep so fast and they all slept in good the next morning.  They had a busy day with getting up early to go wrestle, wrestling , hiking and swimming. 

The next morning we head out to do some more exploring.  This time the kids wanted to go down in and walk around all over this time.  Tyler and Mason chose to do a five mile hike this time.   They loved all the cool little arches they could walk under.

They thought this was a really cool way to get to the bottom. You had to walk from one side to the other to get to the bottom.

These little caves were pretty cool too.

The boys had to explore every little spot they could find.

There was a little rock bridge back there that we were looking at back in this little canyon.

While we were walking along we came up this little hill and found this little squirrel just sitting there.

Drake was scared of him and was starting to cry.  It was pretty funny.

The boys thought it was a great time to do some target practice.  They were throwing rocks and him and missing him by a mile.  Jay and I were laughing so hard.  The squirrel had to be laughing as hard as us because he just kept on coming up and running around them.  It was pretty funny.  They never even came close to hitting him.

There was one spot in the bottom of the canyon where people had stacked rocks on top of other rocks.  It was weird, but Drake liked knocking them down.

My family stopping for a short break.  The weather was pretty perfect.

This was about the last time we were all together on the hike.  Tyler and Mason kid of just took off on their own.  We would see them every now and again ahead of us on the trail and were just hoping there were taking the right turns. 

It was really pretty there.

Elly and Drake did so good on our hike.  Elly walked the whole thing.  Towards the end she was saying her legs hurt but she kept walking.

Drake would climb like this when we started to go up any hill even if it wasn't the steep.  It was pretty funny.  He didn't like going down the hills because he would slip and fall, so we wanted carried most of the time when we went down.

When we got back to the start, we made a big loop, we found the boys there waiting for us.  That was a big relief.  We told them they couldn't just take off like that and they needed to stay with in our sight.  They said Tyler needed to use the bathroom really bad so that was why they were hurrying.

We they drove down to the end of the south end of the park just stopping and looking at each of the turn offs.  Elly and Drake both fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.  It took us about an hour of driving down and back and looking at all the look outs.

The kids wanted to do one more hike which we had talked about doing that morning.  Since it was a short one and on our way home we stopped and woke Elly and Drake to do one more hike.  This one was called Mossy cave.  The kids likes throwing rocks off the bridge into the water.

The cave still had ice in it.  It was a really small cave and a really short hike.  There was suppose to be a waterfall to see while we were up there but there wasn't any water coming off it yet.

Drake didn't want any help on this little hike and so he slipped and fell when we were headed back to the car.  He still only wanted help getting back up and then he was off again.

We had so much fun, but needed at least one more day.  We went home through Boulder and Escalante and didn't have time to see everything we wanted to see there.  The kids slept most of the time we were in the car so that made it pretty nice.  The kids and I had so much fun with Jay.  He seemed so relaxed this weekend.  It was a fun spur of the moment weekend with our kids and a good memory for the kids.  

State wrestling in Panguitch

This year the boys did the traveling wrestling team.  We have had so much fun.  This year State wrestling was in Panguitch.  We headed down there early in the morning.  Mason was telling me he wasn't feeling good on the way down until I told him Grandma and Grandpa Teichert were going to come and watch him, then he was perfectly fine.  He makes himself so nervous before these matches.  It takes him two matches before he settles down and just has fun.  This time he was fine from the beginning.  Tyler and Mason loved having Grandma, Grandpa, Ammon and Brooklyn come and watch them.  The boys wrestled so good this weekend. 

The boys have loved their coaches.  They have taught them so much and had so much fun with them.

Mason ended up wrestling for first and second place.  Right before he was up this dad came up to hi and asked if he was wrestling for first place.  Mason told him he was.  This dad goes on to tell him how good the kid is he is going to wrestle and that he better wrestle hard if he wants to win.  That really bugged me that a dad would do that to a little kid.  I think he should have told him "I bet you can win if you just go out and wrestle hard."  Some people!!  Mason ended getting first place.  He was so excited.  He hurt his back during the match when he went to throw the kid so when the match ended he was crying.  I thought he must have thought he lost because it was pretty close but he said he was crying because his back was hurting.

We waited for a long time for Tyler's last match.  We missed his semi-final match because it happened so fast and Mason was wrestling at the same time.

Mason just wanted them to hurry up and give him his medal.  He didn't want to wait for it.  He kept asking me how much longer.

He finally got it and was so excited.  He got a shirt that says "state champion" on the back, his bracket and a giant first place medal.  He was one happy kid.  Last year he got second and this year first, so he improved but so did all the other kids this year.  Everyone improved so much from last year.

Tyler ended up wrestling for first place also.  He wrestled so hard, but ended up getting second.  He lost by two points.  It was close the whole time.  It was sad because he has worked so hard this year and wanted to take first so bad.  He got third last year and second this year so it was still and improvement.  I think he is ten times better this year then last.  When he goes to practice he is there to learn and get better.  It was all he wanted to do this year during the season.  To bad Mason is so much smaller because it would be nice to have someone closer to his size to practice with.  He had lots of fun.  I think he did a great job!

He had a hard time smiling about second place for me, but he did get over it and will hopefully be able to get first next year.

We had fifteen boys go to state this year.  One got beat out, 3 got third, 4 got second and 7 got first place.

The boys checking out Mason's bracket.

Elly and Drake had fun playing with all the kids too.  We made some great friends this year and had so much fun wrestling all over the state.

These boys were so cute walking around with their arms around each other.  The walked all over like this.  They had a couple more at one point.

 It was fun to watch the boys work so hard at something.  They practiced hard and wrestled hard at every meet we went too.  We were so proud of these boys.

More fun at home

When the boys are gone to school we have lots of fun at home.  There is never a dull moment here with Elly and Drake.  These two are always on the go with some kind of plan that is going to make a mess.  Today they were turning my living room into a kitchen and their bedroom.  They had my pots and pans, hot pads, dish towels, chairs up to their table(the piano bench) and a few blankets too.

They even ended up making a tent in there with the blankets and chairs.  They had so much fun and actually cleaned it up when they were wanting to go and do something else.

These two have so much fun playing together.  It is fun to listen to them from the other room.  Most of the time they are best little friends. Drake is always sad when Elly goes to play with a friend.  He walks around the house calling her name and asks me all the time where she is.  It is fun to see them be friends. 

Spring break

It took some talking to get these kids to want to go anywhere for spring break.  We didn't have time to go anywhere really.  We decided to go to SLC on Friday night.   Saturday morning we went to Heber City and watched my brother, Rodney, rope.  He did two events while we where there.  He did really good and that night ended up getting second in the team roping.  After watching him rope we went to Provo and rode Front Runner.  The kids have seen this train when we have been up there before but we have never had time to take them on a ride.  The kids where all excited to go except Mason, once we were on he was as excited as the others were.  Jay didn't ride with us because we were just going to go one way.

When we got to our stop the kids were looking for Jay.  They thought we were going to beat him to the train stop.  He was there waiting for us.  When we went to get off the train Mason jumped out and I was right behind him carrying Drake and the door shut on my leg and Drakes arm.  I was trying to get my leg out of the door and Drakes arm when it started to pull away.  Elly and Drake started to cry because the train was taking us away from our ride.  I was so  glad Jay was there to grab Mason since he was the only one who made it off.  I would have been going crazy if he was by himself there.  Jay ended up meeting us at the next stop and the kids were all happy again.  We learned our lesson from the last stop so we were all right there waiting for the doors to open at the next stop where we met Jay.  Tyler thought it was funny!  It was funny after.  I am just so glad Jay was there to get Mason.

We stayed in Lehi the next night.  Jay took the kids swimming because I had a headache and when they got back we dyed the Easter eggs.  That was kind of different since we have always been home for Easter, except one other time. 

The kids all love dying the eggs.

After we got the eggs all dyed it was time to fine a spot and settle down for the night.  The kids were all tired from going all day.  We had also gone to Boondocks and the new outlet mall where all the boys got new shoes.

Easter morning the kids woke up to find that the Easter bunny had found them even though they weren't home.  He brought them each a new swimsuit, kite and a bag of there favorite candy.

Drake loved finding the eggs, especially the ones that had some money in them.

When we got home the kids wanted to try and fly their kites.  The wind was blowing pretty good so we thought they would fly really good.  It took us forever to get them up.  We finally got them up.  Tyler flew his for at least forty-five minutes.

We had a fun weekend even if it wasn't too far away or very long that we were gone.  It was just fun to get away for a little while.