The Collins Family (Merrill & Weavers too!) - Part 1

Carri & Palmer had planned a vacation to CA and then to UT. Even though it was planned months in advance they just happened to come the week my Grandpa came home from the hospital and everyone came to say goodbye to him. We tried our best to spend time with my Grandpa and to still have fun.

Carri, Palmer and I went for a hike in Red Cliffs Recreation Area. We really didn't know what we where doing and first went on a hike to see some remnants of a Anasazi village site. It was ok but I was hoping for some wow factor to lure Palmer into loving Southern Utah. We walked back to the campground and found lots of people hiking back on a trail and they were all wet so we decided to see where that trail led and hit the jackpot. The trail followed the creek and lead to some awesome waterfalls and pools.

I didn't take my camera but Carri got some fun pictures of her and Palmer that need her to email me so I can add them to the post.

That night Carri, Palmer, Sam and I went to Ninja. Palmer was an exchange student in Japan in high school so I figured if anyone knows Japanese food it would have to be him. He said it was pretty authentic and told us some nifty trivia about the place plus the workers weren't even speaking Japanese, but Chinese GASP! I totally love Ninja and now I feel like it has some street cred from Palmer.

Where's Your Peeps?

We got chicks! Sam and his friend, Jim, decided they want to be farmers and started with chickens. Jim ordered 4 chicks and 2 where supposed to be ours and 2 were his but they all where going to live at Jim's house. Once the chicks arrived Sam wanted us to have our very own that would be at our house so he ordered 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Rhode Island Reds.

The chicks came in earlier than we thought so we quickly got a brooder together. Porter and Ruby love the chicks. Ruby is always leaning over their box and yelling "BABY CHICKENS, BABY CHICKENS, WAKE UP!" They may be little but I dont know why she thinks they are deaf.

We each named a chick, the boys named the black chicks and the girls named the yellow chicks.

Porter - Lite

Ruby - Maggie

Sam - Colonel Sanders but we call her Sandy

Krista - Beast (the only one left was the biggest of the bunch and since I named Ruby's chick Maggie I named mine Beast after the show Maggie and the Ferocious Beast)

Grandpa Collins

My Grandpa Collins is really sick so I cancelled preschool and went to visit him in the hospital. He broke his hip in January and had been at Kolob Rehabilitation but had to go back to the hospital due to renal failure. Years ago my Grandpa told me that when you have plaque build up in your heart that your arteries to your heart aren't the only ones that get blocked but also arteries to your kidneys, liver, and any other major organ. According to him that is why he has kidney problems.

My Grandpa has always said funny things like "nuttier than a squirrels breakfast" and ever since he got West Nile virus (3 years ago) his perception of reality was a little off. This visit was off the wall, he had times when he knew exactly what he was talking about like our discussion on religion, but other times he would tell the hospital staff that a forklift had moved his entire room from one building to another.

We know that he is really not doing well but the hospital is discharging him on Thursday and he is too much work for my Aunt who has been taking care of him for the last three years. The only real option is to put him on hospice care which means he is terminally ill and can't come back to the hospital, even if he gets an infection, but the hospice staff will come to his house and help take care of him and make him comfortable.

Zion National Park

We decided to have a fun family day hiking in Zion's. I had never been to the Kolob area of Zion's but we did buy a national parks year pass so I am sure we will be back again. We went on a hike that crosses back and forth over a stream. The hike started out pretty hard going straight down but once it got to the stream it ended up being really easy and the kids loved it. In the portion of the hike we finished we crossed over the stream around 10 times.

The problem with the stream was EVERYTIME we crossed it Ruby had to stop and throw rocks or she would scream and when we would try to keep hiking she would scream. We made it half was through the hike when we finally got tired of Ruby yelling and whinning so we turned around.

Despite Ruby it was a beautiful hike and the weather was really nice. We brought sweatshirts but soon decided it was too warm, but in spots there was still snow so it was really strange. Porter and I found a part of the stream that was still frozen so he stomped on it and tried to break through the ice.

Sam is really busy and we don't get to see him very much and we especially dont get to spend a lot of time doing fun things as a family so it was a much needed family day.

One fell off and bumped his head

Last night Porter tried to jump over my legs and off the couch. Well he under estimated how far he needed to jump and landed nose first into the carpet. I saw the whole thing and it was one of those moments that you just watch in horror because you can't move fast enough to stop it.

He kept telling us that his nose hurt and we were doing everything we could like putting ice on it but we couldn't really see anything particular. It wasn't until the next morning that all of the rug burns on his nose started to scab over.

And that is why we dont jump on or off the couch!

Popcorn & Oranges for Dinner

Growing up we always had popcorn and fruit (usually oranges sometimes apples) for dinner on Sunday night. Since I have had this particular dinner a lot I really dont like/enjoy popcorn. If I am at a movie or sporting event I will eat it mostly out of boredom.

Whenever we are at my parents house on a Sunday evening we have popcorn and fruit so my kids think it is a special treat.

I didn't have anything else to make for dinner so I let them eat popcorn for dinner with mandarin oranges on the side.

Boy did they think they were lucky!

Porter decided it was best to mix the oranges into the popcorn.

I have decided that making dinner on Sunday evening is such a pain. If you have 11am church then you are making meals all day. Breakfast, before church snack, lunch when you get home and then dinner. We are now at 9am but the reluctancy to want to cook on Sunday evening continues.

Little Trip - Part Three Pinto

After leaving MMM we headed to Pine Valley to find a road back to Cedar.  We found there are no roads through Pine Valley but did take some pictures of the famous church that was built like an upside down boat.  

We turned around and found a dirt road to Pinto.  We knew there was a road that turns off of highway 56 that goes to Pinto but we had never driven on the road so it was only a hunch that it would lead us back.  There was a sign to tell us that Pinto was 12 miles up the road.  On the dirt road we passed a car and as we each had to pull to the far side of the road in order to pass the people in the car had 

grouchy looks on there faces that looked like they were mad at us for 

not pulling over far enough.  Seven miles up the dirt road we found out why those people looked so grouchy, the road was impassible due to snow and they were probably just bewildered.

We turned around and headed back to Pine Valley and back towards Enterprise.  We found another dirt road to Pinto and decided to see how far this road would take us.  The whole drive we were just waiting  for snow to cut off the road around any corner but there wasn't any snow on the road and when we came upon a couple houses we were amazed that the dirt roads did actually lead to something.  

I took a picture in amazement as the first roofs appeared through the trees.  Its really hard to see the houses in the picture but we were so excited to finally make it to Pinto. 

 

Pinto has a couple houses and signs for the 3 or 4 roads that lead to Pinto.  Who knew such a small town in the middle of nowhere needed so many roads.  When we were outside of "downtown" Pinto we came upon this two story brick house.   After reading the historic site marker we found out that Pinto use to be a big stop for people traveling through southern utah.  The house was built as an informal hotel and boarding house, yet now it rarely has cars pass by.

We did eventually find our way back to highway 56 and found we weren't that far from Cedar.  Normally it takes 40 mins to drive home but since we had nothing else to do and decided to find a new route home it only took us 3 hours.