Heritage Days

The last week of June is Heritage Days in Syracuse which includes free concerts, a fair, parade, and ends with fireworks.

We headed to Founders Park for a magic show since Jena is a big fan of magic. We took Gary's mom with us.

It was a magic show designed for kids. Part of the fun was listening to the kids laugh at the fun things he did.

Fireworks used to be at Founder's park and you would lay blankets on the grass and you were so close you could see them light and fire the fireworks off. Now they do it much further south in a distant field. We watch from Gary's mom's yard which is nice but not like before. Of course, nothing matches fireworks in Hong Kong while you are sitting on a junk. One of life's magical moments that everyone should experience.

Summer hike #2--Antelope Island

As a point of historical note, our first hike was done on June 20 and this hike was on June 23rd. I am a little slow in writing the post....being sick for a couple of weeks puts life behind in many different areas.

For this hike, we were joined with my sister Valerie, her husband Lance, their daughter, Kylie, and then Jena, Gary, Tosha, and I. My sister and her family were up for a week because of a family wedding on Lance's side. They spend 24 hours with us and we loved it. We fit in a birthday/father's day dinner and games with my dad and Karla. Then we headed to Antelope Island for a hike and a few minutes in the water of the Great Salt Lake.

This hike is about 2 3/4 miles long and is actually called the Lakeside hike. It travels along the western edge of Antelope Island.

Here at the beginning of the trail....before we started sweating in the heat

Tosha found this large rock that was hollow just off the trail so we headed up for picture taking

A view out to the west over the Great Salt Lake. This area and Syracuse would be totally a different place if this was a fresh water lake.

We had a buffalo which had settle on the trail. This is a picture of Gary taking a picture of Tosha who was posing as if she is holding up the buffalo (from Gary's angle). We watching him for a few minutes and then decided to take a 'wide' detour off the trail. It had a moment of adventure on our hike.

We also saw antelope, deer, and some lizards along the way

Treking along

There were also a few wildflowers in addition to the grasses along the trail

Heading off to the Great Salt Lake. Jena was the only one who actually sat down. Our time was limited so we didn't walk out to any areas that were really deep enough to try to swim or float.

The girls did spend some time trying to catch brime shrimp in their hands. The shrimp were brown or red. They caught quite a few although the pictures of it weren't very good. Tosha was the master "catcher".

It was a fun day and we were glad to share it with some of our extended family.

First summer hike

As part of Jena's summer PE program, she had to complete two hikes. The hikes that they went on as a class were too difficult for Jena to keep up on so we did our own.

The first was our family night hike through Syracuse. Syracuse and Davis County have built a nice trail system through the area so we parked one car at the southest end of Syracuse at Jensen Pond and then headed up about 2 1/2 miles and parked at an trail entrance in northern Syracuse.

Jena posing for a picture at our starting point

A bench stop along the way

A bird house in the middle of the wetlands

Heading under Antelope Road. I think this tunnel and walkway cost lots of money...I think a million, but I might be wrong.

If you look closely you can see a black bird that I caught in flight. We saw a variety of birds and heard many more along the way. We needed our niece Megan with us. She just completed a class on birds at Utah Valley university. Maybe we will get her to come on another hike with us to identify birds.

Our hike was in the evening so we got some nice pictures at Jensen Pond as the sun was setting behind us.

Hope you enjoy a Syracuse hike. Stay tune for Summer hike #2-Antelope Island.

BYU pjs.....and camp for Jena

Here is Jena sporting her new pajamas:

Jena is off this week to Camp Kostopulos. We re excited to hear about all the fun she is having. She went with her good friend, Kaitlyn. The camp has a swimming pool, a pond with fishing and canoeing, horses, arts and crafts, and all of the other things that make for a fun time. She told us she would miss us but that she was very excited to go camping with Kaitlyn. She took her camera so we may have some pictures to post next week.

Then and Now

As our family knows, Jena has worn the same pajamas for a number of years. I recently came across this picture of when she got the pjs for her birthday. If the date stamp is correct it was for her birthday in 2007.

She has worn them almost everyday since she got them. The only exceptions have been when she is going somewhere like Girls Camp and she will wear some newer pjs that fit better. But still at home she would return to her old familar pjs. The bottoms were finally retired last year when I found some pink/grey bottoms that matched the shirt.

However we are pleased to announce that Jena is now the proud owner of BYU pjs and she has formally retired her High School Musical shirt. She had found some BYU pjs on the internet and said that she wanted some. We took the opportunity when we were at BYU in May to take her shopping at the BYU bookstore and she found something she liked. There was a transition time when she alternated between both sets of pjs but the other day I noticed that she had put the shirt in the DI box. It is now official. She no longer has her High School Musical PJS.

(Life's little moments...recorded for posterity!)

Construction--Beginning of Week 3

It was a slow week in the construction area because the main framer for the construction company was hurt so they had to arrange for someone else to come lead the framing of the roof. The roof was framed yesterday.

Here is how things look today. We have been having rain today so we are hoping that the place where the new roof connects with the old roof is secure. So far no leaks!!

Side view with Jena modeling on the deck

Looking toward the house

Shingles removed from our roof....they haven't shingled the new roof yet so we are hoping things are still watertight on our house roof

Jasper on the new walkway to the pool (we will put our above ground pool up when construction is completed) The dogs love our ever changing landscape. They easily jump over piles and around new obstacles. And they love to find new scraps to bring in the house and chew on. Silly dogs!

It will be so great when it is done.

One more Father's Day shot

A tee shirt Jessica gave Gary a couple of years ago. He happened to wear it at the Hall reunion and Jena took this picture. Not his favorite picture but perfect for Father's Day.

He is certaintly our "Joe Cool" dad!

Happy Father's Day and our talks

Happy Father's day to all the fathers who would happen to ever read this blog...especially my own dad (who also celebrated his birthday yesterday), Gary's dad, and of course Gary. My life is different because of the influences of these men in my life.

Random pictures:

Gary and Jena at Snow Basin

My dad

Gary and Scott and Ben (from our Family pictures taken last year.)

Gary's dad at Jena's birthday in 2007 (It is apparently the only digital picture I have of him other than one where he is sticking his tongue out at the camera.)

The other highlight for today was the Jena gave her very first talk in Church. She did a great job. She was nervous but she didn't hestitate when it was her turn to speak. She stood tall and spoke clearly into the microphone. She chose to talk about families (She was suppose to chose a topic from the True to the Faith booklet.) I helped her write it after reading what was listed in the booklet. It was amazing and we are so proud of her.

I also had to speak today because they had asked the Primary Presidency to speak on righteous attributes of fathers using a scriptural person. I spoke on Mormon and the attribute of teaching. Anyway, I didn't cry while Jena gave her talk, but the young woman who spoke after Jena started her talk by commenting that the MiaMaid class was so blessed by the spirit Jena and Meggan brought to their class that could come in no other way. That made me cry. Debbie, the Primary president, was already teary during Jena's talk so we were glad that we had Hadley's talk to get control. Then the Primary children all sang for Father's Day which is always a cute sweet moment. Our secretary, Amy, spoke after the kids sang so that was good to have a moment to stop the tears. Amy had never spoken in Church before and she did a great job and looked very calm. I am so lucky to serve with these amazing, sweet woman along with Kristy (who spoke on Mother's Day so didn't speak with us today).

Again, Happy Father's Day!

Construction--Week 2

I went out last night in my robe to catch some pictures of the work progress to date on our back yard construction project.

They removed only a part of the deck in order to allow them to dig and pour the foundation for the support beams for the roof of the deck. They are building the roof first and then building the new deck under it. That protects the deck from contruction damage as much as possible.

The biggest change is the addition of some cement.

I wanted to be able to walk from the house to the deck without walking on grass. So we added a firepit area, room for a picnic table and a path to our up-ground pool (which we will put up AFTER construction!)

This will be a comfortable backyard with some fun things when it is all done (It is probably a 15 year project if you include my garden scale railroad and my grandmother's garden.) Hopefully the "bones" of the yard will be put together this year.

As I am sure I have mentioned, I am not really a "yard" person although I do love flowers, bushes, and trees and I actually like working in the yard. The problem is that I want to work in the yard when I have time or "feel like it" and yards are a more everyday or every week type of demand. Hopefully our new back yard will be more organized and useful to all of us. IF so, you might even be invited over to see our new deck....

The Hall.....cough, cough, Reunion....cough....

This was the weekend of the Hall Family Reunion in Park City. We thought it would be fun to share our annual Hall Women trip with our families, so set up a reunion for this weekend. We went back to a resort that we had stayed out for a couple of years which turned out to be perfect. Hardly anyone else was staying there, so it was a quiet and beautiful spot to spend some family time.....

unless of course, you are home sick with some flu bug that causes you to lose your voice and spend the days and nights coughing and sneezing and running a fever. That would be me. Gary went although he is just about five days ahead of me with this bug. Not the best time for us to have a reunion but Gary and Jena tell me things went great. Mom Hall enjoyed having her four children, three son-in-laws, 15 of her grandchildren and spouse, one soon to be grandchild's spouse, and two great grandchildren spend some time together.

They had dinner and a "talent" show, then swimming in the morning and some time at Park City Mountain Resort on the Alpine Slide, etc.

Gary and Jena provide the photos from the weekend:

View in front of the Lodge

Jena modeling the great robes from the lodge.

Swimming in the pool

Ski lifts up and a slide down

Some of Jena's up close views of their condo:

Construction is about to begin.......

It is hard to believe but we have lived in our house almost 13 years. Now I know for some people at our age that isn't a very long time but for us, it is double the length of time we lived any where else in the world. I like our house and have been very happy about its design and function which is good since we tried to put in all the things that we thought we wanted and needed (and were willing to pay for) when we had it built in 1998.

There are just a couple of things that I had wished we had done differently....and one is getting added this month. We have wanted a covered deck almost since we moved in as we have a south exposure. We planted some beautiful aspens which did a good job of shading our deck but were very hard on our yard with their crazy root system. So we have pulled out the aspens and Circle H construction will begin work tomorrow on a new Trex deck with a roof, lights, and fans and adding some more patio so that we can walk for our house to our above ground pool on cement. We are very excited but know it will be a hard month with two dogs who are used to walking in and out of our house through the doggie door in the back door. None of that during construction time..........

Here are some "before" pictures as we had to clean off the deck and get the yard ready. We have a small piece of fencing that separates the back yard into two parts....one for dogs and the pool and the other for the playarea and our garden. During construction the whole area has to be opened so Gary built a fence yesterday around our sandbox and garden to protect that area from the dogs. Gary is a handy person to have around when it comes to this type of thing (and many other things of course.)

Notice our pool ladder over the fence...it is our access to the sandbox and garden for the next few weeks.


Gary has been sick all week with a bad cold with a fever but he has still managed to get things done for this construction. He is still in that miserable state where sleeping is hard because of coughing which makes you feel worse because then you are tired and sick. He was hoping to feel better by now but not quite yet..........

Jena is now officially a ninth grader, so hard to believe. She is looking forward to a summer of camping, summer PE, and reading (my plan). She is busy making a gift for Tosha's birthday at the end of the month.

Tosha starts a new job this week, serving at Cracker Barrel, a local restaurant.

No other news to report from the rest of the clan. We are looking forward to a night at Park City on Friday as we have a Hall Family Reunion up there this weekend. Fun times.........

Flags con't.....

We have been enjoying our flag pole and our flag. It is a nice thing to go out in the morning with Gary to post the colors and then to lower the flag at night. Gary takes the major responsibility for the task, but it is nice when we can do it together.

On Tuesdays, the flag pole gets "extra used" as the Webelo Scouts use it to practice flag ceremonies. On the first Tuesdays one of the scouts told Gary, "Wow, you put in a flag pole just for us." It made us smile. Not just for them, but it is fun to watch them post the colors, too. Here are some pictures from their flag ceremony last Tuesday.

They are working on their citizenship activity pin for Webelos. They took a test to learn about the mayor, governor, Vice President and the President of the United States. As part of that, they had to do service in their community so after the flag raising and the test, they headed to the next street over and cleaned some window wells for a couple of families in the neighborhood. They did a great job jumping in and cleaning up the leaves that were there.

On the subject of flags, almost 100 flags were posted in our neighorhood on Memorial Day. Shortly before collection time, we had a heavy rain fall so we headed out quickly to get the flags down in the rain. Here's what it looks like when you have 100 flags drying in your garage.