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.

Little Trip - Part Two Mountain Meadow Massacre

We decided to take a family trip and find a different way home from Enterprise.  Just outside Enterprise is the Mountain Meadows Massacre site so we decided to stop and take the short (220 yard) hike to the memorial and overview of the valley.   

Growing up in California I had never heard of Mountain Meadows Massacre until I 

moved to Utah, my husband said it is part of Nevada and Utah history curriculum so people, especially in Cedar, know all about it.  

It was interesting to overlook the area and think about what would motivate people to kill unarmed travelers, especially 135 helpless children.   Having read many accounts of what happend it seems like there must have been a lot of confusion and fear but it still seems unexcusable.

The kids enjoyed the little hike and the beautiful scenery.

Little Trip - Part One Enterprise

This weekend we decided to take a trip out to Enterprise to plant some seeds in Sam's parents greenhouse. We had heard that the greenhouse already gets to 90 degrees in the day and overnight stays above freezing. Last year we had tons of plants growing indoors because we were so excited for spring but around here you can't really plant outdoors until late may/early april. This is the greenhouse all nice, clean and so far plant free:

We had gone up friday night and our plan was to wake up and start planting. We went out to the greenhouse around 9:30 and it was already 55 degrees. Sam tried and tried to get the sprinkler system to work in the greenhouse but we didn't know how to turn all the valves back on from being winterized. So in the end we actually didn't get to plant anything :-(

We are planning on going back in a few weeks hopefully when Sam's parents are there to tell us how to turn the water on.

                                                          Just hanging out in the house.

Thank you Grandpa!

My father-in-law gives flowers to all the girls in the family and I started getting them after I married Sam and became a part of their family. Having flowers sitting out around Valentine's day always makes Sam look good until someone asks who they are from.

This year was the first time Ruby understood that one of the vases of flowers were hers. The delivery man came during her nap so when she woke up she was totally bewildered.

This is what she said:

Ruby pointing at the first vase: "Ruby's flowers?"

Mommy: "Yes they are from grandpa"

Ruby pointing at the second vase: "Porter's flowers?"

Mommy: "No they are Mommy's flowers from grandpa. Grandpa gets the girls flowers."

Ruby pointing at the first vase: "Ruby's flowers!"

Ruby pointing at the second vase: "Mommy's flowers!"

Ruby pointing at the first vase: "Ruby's flowers!"

Ruby pointing at the second vase: "Mommy's flowers!"

on and on she would go, back and forth. She would forget about it for 30 mins or so and then the whole conversation would start all over again.

Thanks again Grandpa Dodd (Ron), we loved the flowers!

Bedding

Porter and Ruby shared a room until 8 months ago when Porter wanted his own room, so I split them up. I painted Ruby's room dark brown from the newly installed chair molding up. I sewed all of her bedding and put her name in pink vinyl on the walls with pink pompoms hanging from the ceiling, so cute.

We had family come before Thanksgiving and I put a blow up bed in Ruby's room for my Mom to sleep on. Ever since then Porter has insisted on sleeping on the blow up bed in Ruby's room because he doesn't want to sleep by himself.

Luckily I had bought all the turquoise/brown fabrics that coordinated with Ruby's pink/brown fabrics because Walmart sold out of them a week after I bought them. So I made a new cover for Porters comforter and I have been trying to add as much turqoise to the room as I can and I have moved him back into Ruby's room. So this is what I have been busy working on:

Porter has been asking for a "silky" for months so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make one. I used the same material from his comforter for the front and this silky chocolate brown for the back and I sewed a ribbon on the front so he could hang it from his shelf. After I gave it to him he kept asking where's the silky side, crazy kid. I dont think he knows anything about silky's except that his cousin Parker can't sleep without his.

"Camping" In the Front Room

Porter decide that he and Ruby needed to go camping so they pulled out a ton of blankets and some couch pillows and to make their sleeping bags and went camping in the front room.
I have no idea why her face is so messy

My sister, Carri, gave Ruby the purple Care Bear last year and it reminds me of her because Carri is our Carre Bear. I thought Carri would like to know that Ruby loves her Bear and she decided to take it camping with her.

The Dentist

Ruby and Porter both got to go to their first dentist visit.  Porter was very brave.  He went with his dental assistant, laid down on the chair and listened to Finding Nemo without a second thought.  He let the girl clean his teeth, spray and even use the sucker.

Ruby was another story.  She was cautious but aftersome convincing she let the dental assistant look in her mouth and clean her teeth.  I did have to hold her hand to make sure she stayed on the chair.

  

After the cleaning the dentist came over to look at Ruby's teeth and put floride on them but she wanted nothing to do with him.  We tried everything including her sitting on my lap but she just cried while keeping her mouth tightly clenched.  We let Porter get checked by the dentist so she could see how easy and painless it was but she didn't care.  Both kids teeth look fine except Porter's brown tooth but we can't fix that.

Afterwards they both got a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss.  They were both were very happy to get new toothbrushes!

Of course Ruby has no problem opening her mouth to show me her teeth.