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.

Nose

This would be why we call him "Nose."

And he's happy to meet you.

Busy Weekend: Draper Temple, Family Pics, State Fair, Dinner With Ert

This weekend we...

taught Milo how to play soccer:



I talked Casidee and Jayme into running a mile and doing bodyrock with me...

I like having them with me to do this because they push me to get it done and to push myself while doing it... but boy do they ever have more stamina than I do.

Cas and I joined the youth of our church on a temple outing to the Draper Temple.  I sure love being in the temple with that girl.

We headed over to Fotofly for some family pictures.  Let me tell you, we were laughing so hard through that session.  I can't wait to swing back over there to see the pictures and pick them up.

We hit the State Fair.

 Where we saw Babe the Big Blue Ox in real life.
Seriously, this bull was humongous, it's shoulders were as tall as West's head and it's hooves were as thick as my thigh.

Billy Goat's Gruff?

 This goat made me think of Billy Goat's Gruff... and that made me think of the time that we had Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma E's house and my brother Bill would get under the table (we were littler) and my cousins would laugh and say there was a billy goat under the table...

We loved all the science stations they had set up throughout the venue.
The Man showed the kids the trick to balancing all the nails on top of just one:

 The favorite for The Circus was the Lemur tent:

We hit Leatherby's where I ran into some old friends that I haven't seen in forever.
Man alive, I miss old friends.
Also, at Leatherby's, we discovered they have a "sampler" on their menu.  Have you ever done this?  You get five scoops of ice cream, but you only get to pick two flavors.  The other three flavors will be a surprise.
It was pretty fun to figure out what flavors they'd given when our ice cream arrived.

We joined Aunt Lindee at The Old Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square to celebrate her graduating post and landing a job on a police force.

We sure are proud of you Aunt Officer Lindee!

We love that place because the atmosphere is fun and the prices aren't crazy.  We can feel like we're taking our circus to a nice dinner without breaking our checking account.

Cas is taking Chinese in school this year.
She wrote her name on her leftover box in Chinese, and when she showed it to Sean he exclaimed, "that looks like cool Vampire writing!"
"Sean, it's not vampire writing, it's Chinese..."

To West.
-The Parking Garage.

This weekend we also discovered the TV show "Once Upon a Time" on Netflix. 
In love!
And it's kid friendly which scores high points in my book. 
We're catching up on the first season so we'll be ready for the second season to start on September 30th.  So excited!

That was our busy weekend.
Hope yours was just as good.

The Day I Ended Up Wet, On My Back, And Covered In Dog Fur

The other night we had a situation with our dog, Milo, that required us using the hose on his backside.

Milo hates baths and that's in a tub with warm water no less, so take him out into the backyard with the cold hose...

The Man gave me the option.  Hold Milo, or do the job with the hose.

Since the hose job had the possibilities of being "yucky," I decided that I could hold Milo.

I've always claimed that our dog Strider is the Clydsedale horse of dogs.  Apparently, Milo is also, he just doesn't care to exert it as much as his brother.

Milo did not want anything to do with that hose.  The Man had tried to do this job before I got home to no avail.  When we went into the backyard, Milo knew what was coming.

He tried to run and The Man held him in his arms while I got into place.  I watched The Man applying all sorts of muscle power against the struggling dog and knew that I needed to put a lot of weight into this.

I got down on my knees, pulled Milo close to my chest, and wrapped my arms around his torso and in front of his chest while I bent over, laying my body weight on him, enough to hold him there without crushing the ever living daylights out of him.

He struggled, but my hold stayed.

So The Man turned the hose on and began to spray.  As soon as that cold water hit Milo's backside that dog doubled his efforts of force.  I ended up covered in water and somehow on my back, arms above my head as I valiantly tried to keep my hold on the run away dog.  He was running on my hair and my face was being licked by Strider who seemed pleased as punch that it wasn't him who was involved in all of the hassle.

After all of that, the job still needed to be done.

So West held Milo.

And I got the yucky job.

And I got the yucky job done.

In wet clothes, covered in fur and dog saliva.

It was my turn to need a shower after that business.

****

Complete change of course, in case that story wasn't enough for you,  here's a beautiful thought for the day: