Circus Adventure: Toquerville Falls.

We've recently decided that with all our visits down south to Sand Hollow and St. George, it's about time we actually start exploring the area and seeing some new things.  There are so many places we haven't discovered yet.

So when I got word that such a thing as Toquerville Falls existed, I knew it had to be added to our Labor Day Weekend trip to Sand Hollow (here).

{pic source here}

We found directions to find the falls on THIS post.  My only correction would be the street you turn on is actually Spring Dr. not Spring St.  A small detail, but one that made us question if we were going the right way.

Be fair warned that you do need a vehicle with higher clearance.  My brother drove a Subaru car up and he scraped a few times.

I would highly suggest find this place.  Being as we visited it on Labor Day Weekend, it was crowded with a lot of people.  But I know others who have visited and had the entire place to themselves.  I'm keeping this puppy on my to do list for the next time we head south so we can check it out and play on it when it's not crowded.  Also, the water in the bottom pool was stirred up when we were there.  I'd like to visit it when we can see the bottom better.

Regardless, we had fun.  

Everyone jumped off the bottom fall, including our dog, Milo.  Now that was a sight to see.  I wish he would have told me he was planning on doing that so I could have caught it on camera.  As it is I only have him checking it out behind West as West jumped...

West (and Strider and Milo)

And then in the water after West pulled him out from under the falling water.  I think Milo got a little disoriented with the water falling all around him and he didn't seem to know what to do.  West had to grab him and pull him out.

Milo, West, Sean

After that people kept asking if we could make our dog jump again.  Truth be told, we're not sure he even did it on purpose the first time.

Please keep in mind, when jumping from a waterfall, it's important to wear a frog floatie.

Cali

Safety first.

Jayme

Tayler

Cali jumping with cousin Brenna.

Casidee

Sean

Brynn

Sean

This would be the trip that Casidee cut open the bottom of her foot.  But not from jumping.  She simply cut it by standing there.  Well, on a sharp rock.  So take note, as I would suggest with any publicly known adventure, take water shoes of some sort.  If the rocks don't get you, the broken glass will.  Generally speaking, not necessarily here at Toquerville Falls.

I think next time we go I'm going to spend a little more time on the upper part of the falls.  I like the view from up there.

Tayler

 And of course we drug all our family and friends with us.  When you go on an adventure with us, you can't miss out on any of it.

Hanging with Grandma Julie.

Summer the Way I See It. And a Communications Teacher Who Sucks at Communicating.

I'm finishing up summer semester and I couldn't be more happy about it.  My chemistry class was easy enough, simply do the work out of the book and take the chapter tests.  All online.  No group projects.  No midterm or final.

My communications class has been a different story all together.

The assignment instructions where out of date (save on a floppy disc...) and when you would email for clarification on certain points of assignments the teacher would answer back with, "oh, you don't have to worry about that part."  Assignment after assignment.

Did I mention it's a communications class?  Because honestly, the man needs to be better at it with his online class.

But it's done.  Aside from the two part final that opens up on Monday, you know, the day I need to head to Girl's Camp at 6:00 in the morning... I'm done.

So come Monday... since the two part final is online, but locked, I can't decide if I want to just stay up Sunday night until it unlocks at midnight and get it done before I go to bed... or wake up 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning to do it before I head of with a trailer full of sleeping bags and three bus loads of teenage girls for a week.

Because apparently if you're not sleep deprived on the first day of Girl's Camp, you're not doing it right.  And you can forget about catching up on your sleep while you're there because holler if you stay up past curfew with crazy girls playing vroom (who can't get enough of spelling your name with your butt?  We can't) after baking in the heat of the day and then getting up before the sun to hike to see the sunrise or other such tom foolery, like breakfast preparation.  Can I interest anyone with a pop tart?

The weekend after Camp is just two days of sleep.

If The Circus will allow it.

Three of them will be there with me this year though, so I imagine I might get away with it.

Don't get me wrong.  I adore Girl's Camp.  It's the best part of being a Young Women's leader.  Well, one of the best parts anyway.  I can't wait to get my sleep deprive on  because honestly, it's so worth it.

And The Man might come up for Wednesday night and Thursday with our neighbor so heck yes to that.

And then a week and a half break of sweet blissful nothingness until fall semester starts and I have to tackle math.

Summer has been heaven sent.

I still need to move to a state with a more steady climate.  And an ocean view.  If only I could bring myself to start over, but frankly, I'm sick of moving and starting over.

We'll see.

For now, here's the last week the way I've seen it, in between the bouts with work and school, you know, the stuff this past week that has actually mattered:

Extra points if you can tell me what delicious book I've just started.  Chapter one always holds such exciting promise...

Why I Love Pizza Buffets

Sometimes all you need is your family and a pizza buffet.

I love that my sister Kristin came with my adorable nephew Wyatt, because I don't get to see them nearly enough.

I love that my Brent-Dad showed up in his leathers, even though he hadn't ridden his bike.

I love that Papa Mike knows he's always welcome.  I love this picture.

I love that Grandma Julie just needed a Circus fix and made it all happen.

I love that Kristin was already wearing a Halloween shirt.

Because Halloween is the best.

I love that Jessica and Brenna matched in their high pony tails and cutesy sweats.

I also love that Tayler caught me in the background doing "your eyes are on crooked" with Brynn.  My Grandma Martin used to do that to me all the time.  I've been thinking a lot about that wonderful lady this weekend for some reason.

I love that even with our incredibly long table, everyone is grouped together by the end.

I love that Sam-I-am gives me an excuse to actually call someone "Sam-I-am" on a regular basis.

I love pizza buffets.

We go to Rock Creek Pizza.

You should too.

Oh, and take your family.

the weekend was busy... and a diy menu chalkboard

Do your kids ever do this?

The Circus makes up menus and names of a restaurant when they're making themselves breakfast or lunch.  They do this all the time.  I came home on Friday and found this lying on the counter.
One or two of them will write out the menu, have their siblings order, and then they proceed to prepare and serve the food.
They crack me up.

This weekend I got my hair done.

Before

After

 It's called the melt.  We faded my hair into lighter tips.
I'm in love.
I think next time I'll go with a slightly lighter color so it's a little more obvious.
I love how soft my hair is after I go to the salon.  Maybe next payday I'll have to go buy the products they use so my hair will always feel ultra soft.


This weekend we pulled the Navi up onto the grass for a car wash and the girls were a major help in getting it done inside and out.
Cali provided me with some entertainment:

Saturday I was crazy busy.
I got the grocery shopping done which included stops at three stores. 
I cleaned the car inside and out.
I took the steam cleaner to Tayler's mattress.
I steam cleaned the dinning room carpet.
I got my laundry done.
I made homemade pizza.
I babysat my niece and nephew.
And I made a chalkboard in the kitchen.

I'm so in love with this chalkboard.

Thanks to Tayler for taking pictures.

I had to make sure I hung plastic everywhere on the cabinets and I hung it from the ceiling in front of the pendulum light so the mist wouldn't put a chalkboard film on other surfaces.  I also covered the pink counter top, although seriously, I think a chalkboard counter would be an improvement over the pink counter.

Jayme was mesmerized.

 That stuff really misted while I sprayed and there was a fine film everywhere.
I thought I had covered up plenty, but I was wrong. 
We were immediately wiping counters and cleaning out the sink with soft scrub.

When we were "finishing" our kitchen (here) for our refinance, The Man put a frame around this cabinet end.  It used to connect with more cabinets which hung over the bar, but we took them down to open up the room and to make the room feel bigger and lighter.  So The Man put a frame around the end piece to make it look more finished.

The Man also had some left over chalkboard paint in the garage from when he made Sean's closet doors a chalkboard before I met him.

We happened to have the plastic and painting tape from our remodel adventures.

All I had to do was buy chalk at fifty cents a box.  I bought a box of colored and a box of white.

This project cost me a whopping dollar.

Beth would be so proud.

Next I want The Man to put a frame around a partial wall that we have in the kitchen so I can make that into a chalkboard.  It would be great to keep the shopping list, kid's friend's phone numbers, and school project due dates on it.
He's not quite sold, but I don't think he's against it either, so I'll keep up with asking him about it :).

While I'm working on getting him to agree to the wall chalkboard, I'm going to get busy with making our towel tree in the bathroom (here).

I really need to get that done so the kids will stop leaving wet towels on the floor.

Yeah right.

Grandpa Brent, Grandma Julie, and Aunt Kristin came over for ice cream and brownies on Saturday night.

We decided to surprise them with some candles and a robust round of Happy Birthday to celebrate both Grandpa and Grandma's recent birthdays.

We sure had a lot of kids at our house.
And that makes me giggle because really, all but three of them live with us.

Sunday was lazy.
We watched Mirror Mirror finally, loved it.
Except Snow White had some serious eyebrows going on.
It was distracting.

I hope your weekend was as perfect as mine was.
The chore to-do lists got completely finished, we have good food in our house, we had fun projects, and we were surrounded by people we love the best.

What more can you ask for?

independence day

Our Independence Day was surrounded by family.
We joined Grandpa Dick and Grandma KC at IHOP for breakfast.  Can you say, "red velvet pancakes?"

The girls were super helpful in prepping our desserts for Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie's BBQ.

I survived baby and toddlerhood. 
I love childhood. 
I don't want another baby, but I'd be okay with pausing time with were The Circus is right now.

Didn't they do a good job?

The Man was working on a welding project in the driveway, but I was ready for some holiday fun, so I called up my "twin" brother and his brood (the whole three of them ha ha) and they drove down to my neck of the woods for some relief from the heat swimming.

Christian

Casidee

Sheri who screamed all the way down from the high dive

Nick's awesome back flip

Christian

Brynn vs. the high dive.  She isn't at all like her mom...

Casidee vs. the high dive

The conga line while swimming.  A must.

After getting water logged and sun burned we headed home to shower.  Christian decided to tag along with our crew.

If you feed the boy ham, he'll walk your dogs.
Twice.

We spent our evening with the family at Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie's house.
Where I got to snuggle on baby Wyatt.
He can come visit any time.
I still don't want one, but I can be okay with spending time with that little boy, no problem.

When I started talking about how I'd left my smoke bombs at home, my dad decided to show me up by handing me a real smoke grenade.

How can you not want to pull the plug on something like that?

Sam says, "that looks pretty good," as he adds a little more.

We ended our night sitting on a hillside near our house, perched above the entire Salt Lake Valley.
The city lights of the valley were spread out before us and we could see all the aerials being done at homes throughout the valley. 
When 10:00 rolled around, we were able to see the amazing fireworks displays of five parks.

How grateful I am to live in a country that allows me my freedoms.
I can make my own choices, and live my own life.
And although I have a handful of different countries that I'd like to live in for a spell, there's not another country I'd rather call home than this one.
God Bless America.