Our Trip to Southern Utah

As some of you know - we like to vacation "outside of the box". We like to do local favorites, and little known adventures that only locals may know about. (We are going to San Diego soon and we have some amazing things planned "outside of the box"). Over UEA weekend, we went for a little vacation to Southern Utah. We have friends who recently moved back there from Twin Falls, and we wanted to see them! They were so gracious to let us invade their home for a few days. The kids had a blast, and we had a great time as a family. We also enjoyed learning how to play the card game "Crap on your Neighbor".

The Wilson's were so busy - just moved back so they were still among boxes, Kurt was being called into the Bishopric that Sunday, Liz had to prepare a Gospel Doctrine lesson, and Chris even gave up his bed for Carl and I. Can I just say - WHAT A FAMILY!!! We love you Wilson's! They live on a bluff in Hurricane, Utah. This is the view from their living room:

Kurt and Liz took us on four-wheelers up their mountain. This is what we saw (The Hurricane Valley):

While we were there, we saw and did so many fun things. We drove the short distance of 20 miles and went to Colorado City, AZ. Yes, this is the polygamist town. Yuck! What an awful town it was. Dirty, trashy, homes only half done (but being lived in), etc... But, we did go to a park they have there that is HUGE! We're talking acres of old metal playground equipment. It was quite fascinating. We didn't see many Polygs, they must have all been in church since we did go on Sunday morning. But we were able to see "The Compound" (not shown below). There were so many homes with barricades built around them - I guess they don't want anyone knowing what they are doing in there...thank you!! I am not kidding. It was an adventure in and of itself.

The highlight of our trip - HANDS DOWN - was hiking the Narrows in Zion National Park with the Wilson's. Can I just say - A-MAZ-ING!! The pictures do not even come close to doing it justice. The Narrows are so amazingly beautiful. You are in the water about 75% of the time. We each had a buddy while we were hiking. Hunter was my buddy. We had so much fun. He was quite the trooper. We almost made it to the fork in the river (which we are told, is where the walls start to become really narrow - as in you can touch both sides of the canyon at the same time). This was our goal, but Hunter just couldn't go any further. Andrew, Carl, Kurt and Chris Wilson all made it to the fork and beyond. These are only a few of the pictures we took - if you want to see them all, you'll have to come visit us and we will show you! If any of you get a chance to hike the Narrows - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Even for little kiddos. You can carry them across the river at most spots without trouble.

When our vacation had to come to an end, driving home we took the SCENIC route. Now usually the scenic route is a short drive around the town instead of thru it. Well, our scenic route was an extra 2 hours of driving, but can I just say - we had a great time. We saw things that we would have NEVER seen unless we took the scenic route. We saw BEAUTIFUL fall leaves, we saw parts of Zion National Park that many do not see because it is on the West side - which is FREE, by the way - on a road that leads to Kolob Reservoir. We got trapped inside of a herd of sheep, and saw the Cedar City Valley from an unbelievably high mountain road. Here are a few pictures from our Scenic Route:

We had the time of our lives on this little vacation. We are so glad we took the opportunity to show our children just a small part of our glorious state of Utah.

Maria's Mission Call

My niece, Maria, got her mission call. She is going to be serving in the Nashville, Tennessee mission. January 2011 - July 2012. We were able to go thru the temple with her. What a wonderful experience it was! We wish her the best as she prepares to share the Gospel with someone waiting just for her in Nashville. We love you, Maria!

Halloween sign - Witch, cat and brew

I made this new Halloween sign from a graphic I found while searching for another Halloween graphic on my computer. Hailey loves the purple sparkly glitter I put on it.



Here is how to make it:
1. Order the vinyl decal from We Cut Vinyl (WeCutVinyl.com). My decal is brushed silver.
2. You can get the wood from us at We Cut Vinyl, too. You'll need to email me for information on that.
3. Paint or stain the wood. I only stained my mdf wood with ebony (black) stain. I wanted to try it without paint and I like how it looks. Allow to dry.
4. Apply vinyl decal. **On my sign, the way it looks is by default. I thought I messed up on mine so I had Carl try to sand off the vinyl decal - well, it didn't sand off, it just roughed up the vinyl a little bit - so I decided to just go with that and it turned out great!** I will have to remember that "technique" for future projects.
5. To get the glitter effect, spray board with a photography matte finishing spray. This is the one I used. But working quickly - sprinkle glitter lightly all over board (before matte spray dries). The glitter will stick to the spray and hold it in place.
6. Wrap wire thru holes and curl with needle-nosed pliers. I bought my wire at Metal Mart (be sure to ask for Mark Helean...he is the best one there!!) but I am sure you can get it at Home Depot or Lowe's, or other home improvement store. I don't remember what gauge the wire is, but it is pretty thick. Mark at Metal Mart would know if you called him - tell him you want the wire that you can hang pictures and craft items up with.


Happy Halloween!

Craft - Christ etched on glass

I have been wanting to make this for a while now and had a little time today so I tried it. I love it! What an elegant way to put Christ in so many things. It is so slight to see, but you do see it and it is so great! You may want to try it, too.

How to make your glass etching of CHRIST:

1. Order the CHRIST head decal from We Cut Vinyl, here. If you want just the head etched (like in my examples), be sure to type in the vinyl color text box: INVERT. If you want to etch everything else but the Christ head, then order it as usual. I used the INVERTED one, so just His head was etched onto the glass.

2. You will need glass etching cream. Available at some craft stores, and also online here. I apply it with a plastic spoon.

3. Glass to etch onto. I used a 5x7 frame. You could use any size frame, really. Or even a glass block.

4. HOW TO MAKE:

*Clean your glass.

*Apply vinyl decal to glass where you want it (you may want to measure and lightly mark where you want it to go), or you can eyeball it.

*Remove transfer tape.

*Lightly apply glass etching cream so it covers all the open vinyl/glass areas where you want it to etch (you can see an example of this here). Be sure to NOT get any of the cream on the outside of vinyl where you DO NOT want it etched. It will etch that glass too if it touches it. You may want to tape up around vinyl decal with masking tape to protect the glass where you are not etching.

*Let sit for about 5 minutes

* In as hot as water as you can stand, rinse etching cream off of glass. While still holding glass under water, peel off vinyl decal (the warm water will make the adhesive under the vinyl easier to remove).

*Dry off glass. You're done!

Any questions? You can email me! ywbooks@yahoo.com

Andrew and his swim team fundraiser

Andrew did it. He swam all 200 laps in under two hours. He actually finished in 1 hr 22 min 33 sec. He did great. He wasn't even winded when he got done. If I ever hear anyone say swimmers aren't real athletes I think I would just laugh in their face. I was so impressed. Swimming for that long STRAIGHT without any breaks...my, my!!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored Andrew with his fundraiser. We need to have the money turned into the school by THIS FRIDAY (Oct 8th), so if you haven't sent your money to us yet, please do so right away. Email me if you do not have my address: cvhacking@yahoo.com

So proud of you Drew! You are AWESOME!!

Here are some pictures from that night - he swam from midnight to 2 am. We got to go and count his laps so he knew what number he was on. It was a FUN night!