Halloween 2021

We started our Halloween festivities with the school parties.   Spencer really wanted his mom to come help.  Luckily it landed on a Friday so I wasn't working.  Aaron also wanted me to help because I've never been available during his party so I spend the morning hanging in the classroom with both of my boys.  

Raquel and Joe hosted their adult only neighborhood Halloween party so her kids got to spend the night with us.   We enjoyed the witches hunt at Gardner Village together.  

Our ward did their annual Trunk or Treat outside this year.   The boys were good sports to participate in the parade.   Afterward it was all about candy.     Thanks to Emily and her hand we won the most creative car award.  

We are at the phase in life where hurry and take a picture because all my kids are heading in different directions.   

Spencer found a different costume he wanted to wear every other day but decided to be a power ranger at school and a Ninja for trick or treating.     Aaron with the help of his fabulous Nona became Mace Windo from the Clone Wars.  

Jane and her friend Mia teamed up to become Sully and Mike Wakowski.  They did a great job on their sweatshirts.  

Emily loved her alien costume so much that she and Alix sported it once again for the Halloween dance.   I was proud of them because the night of Halloween they both decided to hang together and give out candy because the infamous Pepperwood party is where all the bad kids go.  

 

Bobcat of Cub Scouts

 Aaron joined my friend Kathy's cub scout troop.      He's a natural boy scout.  He loves anything he can do with his hands and learning all sorts of new things.  Monday's after school gives him an opportunity to learn while doing with the other boys in his troop.   So far he's got his knife safety license, building belt loop and is working on the cooking and forensic ones right now.     

Introduction to cup scouts and his first pack meeting.

Field trip on 911 to Sandy city park.  

On his birthday I got a text saying from Karen Aaron's Cubmaster that she would like to bring something over for Aaron on his birthday.  I made sure when the doorbell rang that Aaron answered it and having only met Karen once wasn't sure how to respond to her candy gift.  After she left he came into the kitchen saying "Wow I didn't even know her and she brought me candy.  I love being in boy scouts" 

Receiving his Bobcat badge.    It's a tradition in this pack that you fish out your wrapped up badge in a plate of whipped cream.   Aaron loved it. 

Prepping for the Pinewood Derby.   Bart spent a lot of time asking and researching how to make the best car.  I love seeing them work together and bond over things like this.  

racing the car.   Bart and Aaron worked so hard on the car but had a tricky wheel that kept coming off.   Aaron left the house with a good attitude saying I'm just going to be happy if my wheel doesn't fall off during the race.   He's wishes came true and the wheel stayed on.   He even beat his dad's old derby car from his time in scouts.  

Jaker's and apples

 The Farm Bureau hosted a Fall Agriculture tour.   It sounded like a fun filled day for the boys and I so I signed us up. 

We started at a Halloween Festival called Jakers.   They started with the owner of Harward farms talking a little about his farming business and how his wife Sarah started with a small pumpkin patch that turned into agritourism that 40,000 people attend each fall.   

The corn maze, hay bail maze and tractor ride were highlights at our time at Jaker's but my boys really just wanted to play in the corn kernals.   

After playing for a while we participated in a couple of classes.  One was all about pumpkins and the other was all about apples.  They fed us lunch and then we  boarded a bus down to McMullin apple orchard and Mountainland Apples.

Aaron is an attentive learning and found it interesting that according to the apple tree owner, apples picked in the fall can last in a refrigerator until February if they haven't been waxed.  So why wax them they asked.  The orchard farmer said they suppliers wax them to preserve them yet it does the opposite.  

They let us each pick an apple and Aaron is convinced that unwaxed apples taste way better and he is only going to eat unwaxed apples from now on.  (I didn't tell him that because we don't have an apple tree he will be eating a lot of waxed apples)

After the tour of the apple orchard we loaded the bus again and headed to Mountainlands apple packing plant.   It was interesting to see what happens to the apples after they have been picked and before they make it to the grocery store.   I found it interesting that the plant operates through the winter and into May.   I asked the manager where they get the apples from and he said they put fresh picked apples in a room full of nitrogen and remove all the oxygen out of the room and then they don't keep ripening.   

 

On the way back to our cars the farm bureau women gave us a couple of packets and challenged us to take agriculture to the classroom.    I decided to share the lesson "All about Apples" with Aaron's Boy Scout troop and made up a bingo chart with the info.  We tasted a few different types of Apples, whipped up some apple dip and created apple "monsters"  

I met a really nice lady who I sat by on the bus who has an "urban" farm in Bountiful and grows and sells a ton of tomatoes each year along with other things.  We talked all about pumpkin growing and I'm committed to growing some next year in my yard.  She then got excited when I said I was thinking about doing an apple lesson to Aarons boy scouts and told me email me the pictures when  I finished the challenge and they would pick a winner at the next Farm Bureau convention.  

 I'm manifesting to the world that I want to win whatever swag coming my way.  🤞

School Photo's 2021-2022

Emily age 15.   Sophomore @ Alta High. School 

Jane age 12.   7th grade @ Indian Hills Middle School 

Aaron age 9.   3rd Grade @ Sprucewood Elementary 

Spencer age 5.   Kindergarten @ Draper Elementary 

 

Bluff 2021

 We debated about what to do for Fall Break.   Teasdale was out because our house was booked plus we've spent oodles of time there this past summer.   We didn't want to go to far away since the kids and Bart only had a couple extra days.   All roads led to us going down to the Escalante cabin but then I said you know I've always wanted our kids to see Bluff and the family history at the end of the Hole in the Rock Expedition.   Why don't we explore that area.     Plans were made and we trekked down to the 4 corners area for our fall vacation.

Bart used to travel to Albuquerque often before the pandemic hit.   He knew just the spot off the highway for a quick hike up to the arch.  

We then made our way down to Bluff where are first stop was Bluff Fort.  Such a fun and historical place to be.  I love feeling the connection to both sides of our family at this place.  

 

My family history with this site (according to my dad a walking family history book):

My great great grandfather Wilford Woodruff "Wiff" Pace lived in New Harmony.  His sister Lucinda Redd and her husband James Monroe Redd were one of the families called to settle the San Juan Valley.  Wiff was single at the time and went along to help.  When they arrived each person was given a certain amount of acres.  Weiff having no intention to settle down there gave his acres to his brother in law and best friend James Monroe Redd and then headed back to be with his mom in  New Harmony and later on to settle Wayne County.  There he married and named one of his son's James Monroe after his sister's husband and his friend.

Bart's family history with this site (according to recording at the Barton Cabin.  Reading Undaunted, and history book of life of John and Mary Larson.   

Mary Barton as a young child came across the Hole in the Rock with her older sister and parents.    Many of the wagoners claimed to have been the first wagon to go down the Hole in the Rock but one account talks about how none of the horse teams would go down it was decided to try Joseph Barton who had a pair of blind horses.  Because they were blind they willingly went over the edge and then all the other teams followed.  Interesting enough Joseph Barton never claims to be the first to go in his account uploaded on family search.  

The Barton cabin remains at the Bluff Fort.  I can only imagine how hard it was for Harriot to start a new life in such a small cabin and birth and raise 5 more children with her husband away much of the time with his freight company.   The story was told in the audio recording that Harriot Joseph's wife insisted that her family take a picture.  Many of the family expressed their bad attitude and complained about having to sit so long for this portrait.  Not long after the portrait was taken Harriot died in childbirth and her 8th child died a few weeks later.   Whoever told the story at the cabin said she took great comfort looking at the picture whenever she missed her mother and was so grateful they took it.  

Mary being a teenager at the time took over much of the motherly responsibilities of the house and her younger siblings.    She later married John Larson and moved to Moab where she raised Bart's grandma Golda and then later moved up to the Salt Lake Valley once her children left the house.   

At the gift shop anyone who was a descendant of the company signed this book and they gave us a CD of the history of Bluff Fort which was playing in the gift shop.  

We got to our motel "Bluff Dwelling Resort" around dinner time.  We were happy to find a fun playground right out our door, a heated outdoor pool close by and the Cedar Shack Cafe was still open for us  to order a couple of pizza's and enjoy our night at the resort.    The boys and Jane loved the challenging obstacle course.  

The next day we were up bright and early.  Our first stop was the 4 corners.    Paid the overprice entrance fee, took some pictures, bought a souvenir Christmas tree ornament, and checked it off the every Utahan should do list and moved on to the next stop. 

  

We then ended East through Cortez Colorado and up to Mesa Verda National Park.    We showed up unprepared to a closed visitor center and only a ranger sitting out front handing out maps explaining all tours had to be reserved weeks in advance and her suggestion is to take the loop tour because the hike to the cliff cave is very strenuous.    So we followed suit and learned a little through an audio tour and really enjoyed the end where you see the preserved cliff houses through telescopes.  It's really incredible to think they could live on a cliff.     We could also see the short hike down to the cliff dwellings on the other side of the canyon and realized it's completely doable but at that point we were on the wrong side of the canyon and missed our opportunity.      

If I've learned anything from covid is that it's killed National Park experiences.