Timpanogos Cave

We've lived in Utah County for 3 years now and had yet to make the trek to Timpanogos Cave. I went there as a child and remember thinking it was pretty cool; so for Labor Day, we made a family event of it, inviting my parents and all my brothers and sisters to come along with us! A mile and a half, paved trail, no problem, right? A mile and a half, a paved trail...straight up the side of the dang mountain! Holy cow! Good thing I'm in shape...(that's a good one, huh!)

Brooklyn made it all the way up the trail and into the cave before deciding she had to eat...NOW!! How many of you can say you've nursed in a cave, on your feet, moving through tiny openings, trying not to ruin thousands of years of cave formations? Ha! Bragging rights...or...something.

This deserves some explanation: All along the trail there are places marked with a red stripe. Signs nearby warn that there are frequent rock slides in the marked area and not to stop or stand there. We noted this bench on the way down. No warnings, in fact the bench "invites" you to sit and linger for awhile. However, a closer look may change your mind...

Here's some more pictures of our day:

When life gives you apples...

I was just coming out of a friend's house across the street a couple weeks ago when this sight greeted us. About a third of our apple tree had simply...fallen down. Closer inspection revealed thousands and thousands of carpenter ants had taken up residence in the tree and had eaten themselves (quite literally) out of house and home. All these beautiful, surprisingly worm-free apples were now within reach...what to do with them? APPLESAUCE!! I canned applesauce! The kids, who hadn't been big fans of the stuff, love it! Sadly, the tree will more than likely have to go. The fallen branch has been removed and sometime this fall, the rest of the tree will follow. To be honest, I won't actually miss the apples much...they're usually wormy and they make it really hard to mow the lawn; but oh, how I'll miss the shade! We have played under this tree every day of every summer since we moved here. We've chatted and picniced and climbed. This tree has been here for more than 50 years, we probably won't see it's equal (unless we buy a really old house someday-and considering the size of the closets in this one...it's not likely!)

Update

The first 6 weeks sure go a lot faster than the "last" 6 weeks! Brooklyn passed the 6 week mark on Wednesday and life is slowly (ever so slowly) becoming routine again. I even took all the kids by myself to see the Springville parade last week. Granted, half our ward was there and helped out a lot, but I count it a victory all the same! Here's a bit of what we've been up to:

She collected enough candy to keep us in treats for a month.

The "piggy" hot air balloon, launched for Art City Days along with a dozen or so others. We can see them from our front porch! Last year, they drifted right above our house, the people in the baskets threw candy to the kids in our front yard!

Caleb did his own hair!!

She didn't get a pink toothbrush from the dentist in the parade,

but seriously, does she really even need one?

McKenna got spooked by the sirens at the beginning of the parade and wouldn't go anywhere near the road for the rest of the parade. It worked out brilliantly!

Think the bow's too big?

Um...ya.

Boy does she love to "cheese!"

Her first bath!

No, it's not a headdress, it's half the bows we own!

Karlee

Karlee's preschool graduation was today, my third little Kindergartener (to-be) in 3 years.  After Grace, who was almost 6 and 12 feet tall when she started Kindergarten; and Caleb, who was 5 1/2 and the size of a tank; Karlee seems so tiny!

Karlee wants to be a "ballerina teacher" when she grows up.

Karlee's talent is "giving good hugs." 

It really is, she loves to snuggle, it's one of my favorite parts of the day.

Karlee marches to the tune of her own drum, luckily she has a pretty good sense of rhythm.

Little girls 
are the nicest things that happen to people. 
They are born with a little bit 
of angelshine about them, 
and though it wears thin sometimes 
there is always enough left 
to lasso your heart . . . 
--Alan Beck 

 

Finally!

Brooklyn Lillie 

7 lb 3 oz

20 inches

5/6/09

9:24pm

First, a great big "thank you for your patience" to those who continue to check in.  I don't pretend we're all that interesting, but hopefully this was worth the wait.  As most of you know, we've had a few "events" in our family recently.  It all started with our parade of birthdays in February, then there was Easter, Spring Break, Cinco de Mayo and finally the arrival of our sweet little Brooklyn.  This most recent event has really turned us upside down and inside out...and we wouldn't have it any other way!  The story isn't too exciting, we'd planned to have her on May 10th-my Grandpa Chamberlain's birthday and Mother's Day, but the hospital decided they didn't want to do any inductions on Mother's Day...the Dr. did offer to tell me how to fake labor, but I'm not that good an actress, so once that was off the table, we (mainly I) decided "the sooner, the better!"  So, we moved things up a few days to May 6th.  (After the fact, we realized May 7th would have been a much cooler birthday: 5/7/09...5-7-9, get it? Oh well, missed that one.)  We arrived at the hospital about 12:30pm...yada, yada, yada...baby at 9:24pm!  A bit longer than we expected, but I got familiar with iTunes and finally loaded some music on my iPod-time well spent!  Her first night was so quiet, we decided to leave the hospital a day early...her second night wasn't quite as nice, oops.  She's an angel, though.  We are having so much fun with her, she has quite a fan club here at home and so far hasn't spent too much time out of someone's arms.  To say we're thrilled to have her is an understatement!

*Check out the slideshow below for her first days at home...I know it says I posted it before she was even born, but it's just a blogger glitch.

Meet Brooklyn

Don't give up on me!

For those few of you who continue to check this blog, hoping (with less and less enthusiasm, I'm sure) that there might be something new here, I want to say "Don't give up!" I don't know what's happened to me over the last 2 months, but clearly keeping up to date hasn't been high on my agenda. We've had another birthday, and lots of fun, and are smack dab in the middle of another Spring Break. So keep watching, I promise I won't let you down!!