abeNanna Split

Our disclaimer is that the title of this blog is the name of our newest geocache. What more appropriate title than a banana split???

Now this is one way to prove just just how our "addiction" is advancing. Today abe and I went out into the desert and put out three new geocaches. We started by planning on putting out one by this really cool rock that the Priesthood used to have activities by. Then we found another neat place and put a micro cache. After that we stopped and put our last cache out. When we got home, between conference and lunch, we logged them all in and are awaiting final approval from geocaching to see if they will be activated. Oh, and I forgot to mention the puzzle cache that we put out just specially for those Taco's who live right outside of town. The fun part of this is waiting for the caches to appear on the geocaching website. Then you just sit back and see who gets there first.

Celebrate

10 years since this picture, which was taken around our 20th wedding anniversary. Where has the time gone?

I was trying to remember little things about the actual ceremony. I don't even know what time it was, or if we ate anything at all that day. I do know that all we had at the reception was cake and mints and nuts. But where the mints homemade or not.

I remember going to buy my wedding dress. Mom had made both of the other girls, and I thought she would make mine. But she had been so sick earlier in the year (we almost lost her) she didn't want to try it. I knew what I wanted my dress to look like. They had the perfect dress, but for some reason I don't even remember I didn't try it on. I ended up with a different dress. One I really didn't like, but mom did.

I made one of the bridesmaids dresses, but when it came time to put the zipper in, I chickened out. Mom was still not steady enough on the sewing machine to do it, so she sewed it in by hand.

Our cake had a banana nut top layer that we ate on our first wedding anniversary. I don't know if the rest was chocolate or vanilla or what. I wanted my sister-in-law to sing at our wedding, but instead we had one of the other members of our small branch sing "Annie's song" (John Denver). We were married by our bishop, whose name was Tom Jones.

We invited family and a few friends to the actual ceremony and then later we had the reception, I think we invited the whole community (of course, that would only be about 350 people). Abe's best friend and his whole family were there. Several of my aunt's and uncle's came from all over the country. One of my uncles was a professional photographer, so he took the pictures.

The invitation we chose had a picture of a flower on it, with the inscription "Love is the flower, marriage is the fruit." This was because my dad explained plants in almost that same way. It made me think of him and his wisdom.

Now so many years later and I am so glad that regardless of the ups and downs, we have made it this far. When we spend time alone together we relish every minute. We love our family, but the main thing is that we love each other so much more than we did then. He IS my very best friend.

Message from our bear

Last night came with a phone call from our middlest of children. It was good to hear his voice from those thousands of miles away. Although I wasn't home he did leave a message on my phone and he was able to talk to dad, Jesse and Brie . When he was here in July he mentioned a girl that he had his eye on. She is in his unit and would be in Iraq with him. He had talked to her a few times at church, but hadn't gotten up the nerve to ask her on a date. The good news is he finally took the step and she told him she had been hoping he would. Is there love in the air in Baghdad? We'll keep you informed, who knows, maybe we'll have to start planning another wedding.

Attack of the caterpillars

On our visit to The Valley we decided to stop by the Cemetery where my great parents and great-great grandparents are buried. Leaner and SLA had never been there and it seemed like a good thing to take up a little time. The usually barren cemetery was covered with all sorts of wild ground cover but we entered anyway. After walking in a few feet dacheese noticed the caterpillars that were crawling everywhere. SLA pushed at one with her foot and it curled up and gooed at her. A weird green goo out of it’s mouth. We also noticed that each one had a horn on it’s back. We trudged through the growth and the caterpillars until we reached Mons Larson’s grave, where he rests peacefully next to his two wives. By this point the girls had reached almost panic mode from these scary pillars.

We tried to find a way out where the undergrowth wasn’t as dense and the caterpillars weren’t as numerous. This was impossible as they were everywhere. At one point we reached what looked like a dead end, the brush was probably four inches deep, which meant that your foot could actually be below the plants and a pillar could attack you. We found the one area that we could get through and headed straight for the exit. While waiting for everyone to get out alive SLA noticed one of the pillars was actually coming towards her. As the area echoed with her screams, the rest of the group hastened to escape from the terrors of this daytime cemetery.

With one final act of defiance, Leaner told anna to kill one of these ferocious pillars. So, being such a good mom, anna took her at her word. As anna stepped on the pillar, the head of the beast curled up onto her sandal as if to attack. This did not stop anna from fulfilling her motherly duties. She again lifted her foot and placed it squarely on the monster. What was left of the poor innocent critter was an empty skin and green juice.

Were these really something from beyond the grave? Or were they just blameless caterpillars fulfilling their lifes purpose on the greenery that grew in this old cemetery? We will never know, but we will always remember the horrors in the graveyard.

Afterward

Driving home dacheese looked down at her foot and spied one of the pillars that had tried to hitch a ride. She placed it on the arm rest next to SLA, who was driving. SLA almost swerved off the road, but managed to regain control of the vehicle and dacheese threw the offensive critter out of the window.

Out with some fun guys or is that fungi?

Thanks hairball for inviting us to the mountains for your celebration. It was cool and wet and we had a really good time. The rain has done some wonderful things to our forests between the wildflowers and the grass there are things growing everywhere.

We took Chester Copperpot with us for a little geocaching and hiking. Along the way we managed to take a few pictures of the "plethora" of mushrooms/ toadstools in the undergrowth.




We even managed to find one of the mysterious red dotted fungi from years past. In the same general area - and also on the reservation - maybe they are only found there???