The Happiest Place on Earth for Halloween

Well, after wrist surgery, I couldn't do much and Dave was getting tired to washing dishes, so we hopped in the car and drove to LA and went to California Adventure and Disneyland for 2 days. It was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun. Both parks were all decorated for Halloween and some of the rides had been changed for the holiday theme, so it was great.


This is the entrance to California Adventure decorated for Halloween.

Dave and I were greeted by Minnie Mouse!

At the Animation Studio, Dave and I were taught how to draw Disney style. Here is our artwork of Donald Duck. It was fun. I went back to another class and drew Grumpy.

This pic is for Mcrae. We enjoyed some time with Mater and Lightning McQueen, too.

One night for dinner we met Ladd, Dave's brother in Downtown Disney for dinner.

Here is the front of Disneyland all decorated for Halloween. The decorations were great, especially the Haunted Mansion.

Upon entering Disneyland, we were greeted by several characters all dressed up for Halloween. Here's Goofy in a skeleton costume.

And here's Mickey in his sorcerer's costume.

And Captain Dave Sparrow....

And Gayle Mouse, I guess. We don't have to grow up, do we?

Life's a Zoo!

This October Noelle came to visit us since she wasn't able to come help when I was injured this summer. We had a short but great visit. Noelle's daughter, Brynnley loves animals...stuffed and alive and those in books. Here she is carrying as much as she can hold. I guess I lucked out with making the nursery into a zoo with lots of stuffed animals....she couldn't hold them all, but she sure tried.


One afternoon, we went outside to play and she loved the flowers and cardboard boxes, who needs toys?

Here's Noelle and Brynn on a giant spider at Hogle Zoo. What a beautiful fall day it was.

The year has been a great year at the zoo for babies. We saw baby giraffes, an elephant, tiger, snow leopard, and a few baby monkeys. But the cutest baby was Brynnley, of course.

Here's Brynnley and grandma on the carousel. She liked it a lot.

At the end of the day, we all rode on the Hogle Zoo train. Quite a nice afternoon!!!!!

Who needs toys when you have large boxes to play in. Brynn loved her makeshift house and had fun bringing all the stuff animals in it. Her favorite was the large giraffe she called "Wii".

On Friday, Crae and his girlfriend came over to spend some time with Noelle. Here they are goofing around like old times.

Here's a short clip of the baby elephant we watched at the zoo. He is only 2 months old.

"Undaunted" Hikers

A few weeks ago, we and our friends the Bagley's, took a different kind of trip to Lake Powell. The weather was coolish, so we didn't do much water play, although Dave and Steve did a little. Janice and I have been reading the book "The Undaunted" by Gerald Lund and wanted to hike the Hole in the Rock. So we got up in the cool of the morning, drove 2 hours up the lake and hiked from the water line all the way to the top. It took us about 1.5 hours. We couldn't believe how rough and narrow the trail was at places, and had a hard time imagining the pioneers working their way down this trail. You could see a few wagon ruts and scrapes in the side walls, and a few holes where the road had been constructed, but most of the evidence of a wagon train is long since gone. It was a fun hike!

Here is a pic of the pioneer trail from the water level to the top. We went all the way to the top and up onto the mesa trail for a bit. Large boulders have evidently fallen and blocked paths and the road long since built. It was definitely a group effort to get to the top with lots of tugging and pulling all the way.

Janice and I were glad we bundled up and brought sleeping bags to wrap in cause it was a cold drive all the way.

Here are Dave and me at the beginning of the trail.

Janice, me and Steve Bagley almost at the top of the trail.

Dave here has discovered a new hole in the rock. We had to climb through this area to get to the top. I'm sure glad I wasn't a pioneer! But we are grateful for all they did.

Go Take a Hike!

Well, it's out of the wheelchair and leg brace and back to activity. We had our friends, Doug and Pat Vilbaum, come into town from Texas, so we just had to go camping and show them some of the state....so we went to Zion's National Park. We had heard a lot about Angel's Landing, so we hiked it one afternoon. Had we known what it was before we started, I don't know that we would have attempted it. It certainly isn't for anyone who is afraid of heights. At places it was 800-1200 feet straight down with only a 4 foot walkway and a few chains to keep you on the path. What an adventure and sense of accomplishment.




Here I am at the very end of Angel's Landing. The picture does not give the heighth justice!

Here is Pat and I hiking our way down. There is an 800 foot drop off to the right of the rocks behind us. Hold on girls!

Dave and me at the very end of Angel's Landing. Boy, it was hard to look down and not get dizzy!

The Vilbaum's and the Lambert's atop Angel's Landing. Where are the angels?

Here is just part of the hike. We had been hiking for 1.5 hours when we came to this ridge. Can you believe we hiked across this narrow area? It was crazy.

More chains and a big drop off on both sides.

Here is a picture of Crawford's Arch. It's kinda hidden in the scenery, but look close to see if you can find it.

Bambi and Friend

It snowed yesterday, so it's getting colder, and these guys decided to come down out of the mountains. We found deer droppings on our grass this afternoon. Wonder if we'll have deer all winter? These guys are pretty young.

Peachy Keen

It's September and peach season here in Utah. We came home from a trip to peaches all over the ground. So believe it or not, Dave and I spent the entire Monday in the kitchen canning peaches, making jam and vinegars. He's domesticated in his retirement. Thank you Dave!

Crae's Owie!

As most of you know, our son, Crae, got his hand caught in an industrial crane at work at Kennecot Copper mine. Here are a few pics of his hand with pins sticking out from all the broken bones. He's healing slowly and we're not sure about another surgery. Timely for Halloween, kinda looks like Frankenstein don't ya think?!

Great Times at Lake Powell

Well, we had another week at Lake Powell and had a great time. Weather was great, no rain, and there was hardly anyone there, so we had smooth water most of the time. We ended up with only 6 on our trip due to a last minute cancel, so we had more water time than we could handle. The best thing was that I was able to wakeboard and surf again, Yea. Oh I love Lake Powell!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gayle doing a bit of wakeboarding.

Surf's up!

Fishing was great around the houseboat this year. Dave caught quite a few fish. Bass, catfish.

Janice Bagley, me and Laurene Hutchings enjoying the sun

The Allens at their best

We arrived in Spokane in August. What a beautiful place it is, with all the pine trees. One Sunday, we went to Riverside State Park, which is about 1/2 mile from Noelle's house. Here we are on an overlook with Brynnley.


Here's one of the few times we got Brynn to sit still enough for a fun picture. We were so close to the cliffs, that Noelle didn't dare let her out of our grasp.

Of course, what kid doesn't love to eat rocks and sticks?!

The Allen family atop Riverside State Park.

We went camping of the Pend Oreille River. Brynnley LOVES to camp and eat plastic. We had a great time, but we seem to bring the rain wherever we go, so we had to leave earlier than planned. But it was still a blast.

Brynnley and Daddy

A little fun at Bennedito's. We went out to dinner one night and here we are entertaining Brynnley with our lips. Oh what a kid she is!!!

Our Trip to Washington State

Since I hadn't been out of the house much since May, we wanted to go to Spokane to see Noelle. We traveled the long way around and went to the Seattle area first. What a pretty place, but didn't like the weather much. Here's a few pics of the area.

Snoqualmie Falls outside of Seattle



The Lochs on the Sound

Us in front of the gardens at the Space Needle

Pike's Market...what a fun place.

Just a small sampling of fish at Pike's Market

The imported flowers at the market place were beautiful and cheap. $10 a bundle.

We drove through Mt. Ranier National Park and on one side of the park all we saw was fog. So needless to say, we never saw Mt. Ranier.

On the other side of the mountain, it was clear and looked like this with all the wild flowers.