Three Years Old!

Has it really been that long? Three whole years since this little guy was born? I can't believe it.

Things Garrett likes:
-Jumping, running, wrestling, swimming, swinging, and anything else that requires energy
-Playing "Lions" with dad
-Airplanes, trains and cars
-Milk, peas, green beans, and any fruit
-Little Einsteins

Things he doesn't like:
-Going potty on the toilet (ARRGH)
-Playing alone
-Haircuts
-Dinner time
-Lightening


Famous statements:
"My eye pop out"
"Two an hap" (Two and a half)
"Dabo Nani Nock" (Doggie, Blankie, Milk)
"Luh U too" (Love you too)
"My people"
"Bye my fwend"
"Daddy no eat me!!"
"Dallin hit me!"

We are sure glad to have this sweet guy around. He always has a twinkle in his eye and mischief on his mind!

Mesa Verde

Garrett looking at Spruce Tree house, one of the ruins you can walk down and tour. It's really cool, they let you walk through the ruins and climb down inside a Kiva.










At Balcony House you have to climb a three-story ladder to get into the ruins, then you crawl through doorways and walk up a huge rock that has hand and foot holds carved in it-very scary for those afraid of hights! Gina and mom did a great job with their positive self talk and mantra of "Don't look down, don't look down".







Trenton's wife, Lisa, is one of the first people Garrett runs to when we get together! They are good buddies!

















Adam, Dallin and Brady climbing the tall ladder! They had a blast! No fear on their part!

More Random Pix

Awww, ain't that cute! The newly-weds.













I was baptized in the Dolores river next to the bridge. We did a little tour of Circle K Ranch one day of our visit and had a great time sharing memories.










We call him "Tree Man".


















The Dolores river that ran in front of the cabins we stayed in. Across the river were the campgrounds. In the back-ground you can see the mountain we called "Big Red". As kids we loved to climb it to get a bird's eye view of the ranch.

Random pix of fun!

I just picked a few pictures that I took of our fun trip. Halle, the adventuresome one almost fell off the side of the road looking for wild raspberries.

Garrett and Jude sure did have a lot of fun together exploring and learning.













Kyle in front of his favorite camping spot-the cabin! We stayed at some fun places at a campground Priest Gulch one mile south of Circle K Ranch where we grew up. Mom and Dad got two cabins and two camping spots for our crew. It was a GREAT place to be. The one exciting element was that the camp ground was across the river from the cabins. So, when we wanted to visit we could take the short-cut across the Dolores river or the long way through the park and across a bridge.

Boys on a Plane

Infinitely scarier than snakes on a plane, boys on a plane would terrorize anyone!

We had a rough trip back from mom's funeral. Maybe because we were all tired and grouchy. Katie (love those lips) did a great job with keeping Dallin occupied, I wasn't so good with Garrett.

Funeral for Mom

Yeah, I can't believe it either. My mother passed away the morning of August 12, 2006. Just two weeks prior, she spent a terrific week with us in the mountains of Colorado hiking and sight seeing. She was the first to suggest a hike or some other adventure. I still can't believe it.

Saturday the 12th my dad turned over in bed and grabbed my mom's hand, as was his custom for waking her, and said; "Dindy, you are cold!" She went to sleep Friday night and never woke up. She was 56 years old.

Later, the autopsy showed her heart had extensive damage from a heart attack several years earlier-news to all of us, including her! When her heart fibriliated in the night, it just didn't start again. She passed away peacefully, not even waking my dad. I can imagine she is as shocked as we are waking up on the other side.

Family came from all over to comfort us and pay their last respects-it was a great family reunion, she would have liked it!

As a family we (my brothers, sisters and my dad) picked out the casket for her and buried her in the Grover cemetery-a brief walk up the hill from where she and my father lived for the last 12 years.

My sisters and I picked out the flowers-she loved flowers. She always had a flower garden in front of her kitchen window and around the front of her house.




Each of the grandchildren chose a flower to keep to remember her by. Garrett didn't really understand what was happening, but it was hard on Dallin-he was quite emotional.

Before the casket was closed, they both touched her and said "goodbye". I think that's what I'm saddest about, they will miss the birthday presents, phone calls, and getting spoiled by her.





Untill we get a head-stone, Gina suggested we use this one given to her by her friends .

The flowers are from her garden picked by my dad. He went up one day to bring her flowers and plant poppies in the cemetery near where she is buried.

We spent a week in Wyoming with my dad and my other brothers and sisters trying to figure out what to do with ourselves without her making a list for us of things we needed to get done :-) We miss her.

We're singing in the rain...

Well, may be not singing, but smiling at least!

We stopped BRIEFLY at the four corners monument and snapped a quick picture while getting rained on! One of the many times we got rained on during our vacation!

The "big" cousins

That's what Dallin calls his older boy cousins that he adores. Jonathan (my cousin) and his three oldest boys came to Colorado with us. We had such a great time with them!



They are such mountain boys! Always game for a hike through the woods (even without a trail), mushroom fights, seeing the sights, and allowing the little boys to tag along!

I think we've found someone to rival uncle Maury's fashon sense!

Russell Campers

Happy campers, that's what we were!

















We helped Adam celebrate his 34th birthday in the mountains of Colorado, complete with a "Bob the Builder" cake!

Aspens and ferns

This is what I remember most about Colorado-mountains and mountains of Aspen trees! One of my favorite things we did was hike to bubbling spring above Circle-K ranch.

The hike was long (just another hundred yards-ha ha) but beeee-uu-teee-ful!







It felt like a horse ride-without the horses! All of us in single file through the trees on a small trail.












We took the scenic route on the way home, just pointed our boots downhill and went! Dallin had a blast-two steps then falling and sliding for 5 feet, then two more steps, etc. all the way down.

Then SOMEONE started a mushroom fight...beware we still owe you!!!







At the top of the spring where the water comes out of the mountain there are several trees with carvings on them from hikers/campers from the past. We found one that says "Big D"-Dallin thought it was for him!

You can see my dad carving his name in the tree again-he already had his initials there from years past. He even found MJ+DP he carved when he and my mother were teenagers!

Do you know where your kids are?

That was the question asked of me on a beautiful Sunday morning...no,I didn't know where Dallin was! We had dressed him and sent him to play with his cousins. Fifteen minutes later they were hollering at us from the top of Bear mountain.

Shoeless, he had climbed the mountain with all his big boy cousins!






My eye pop out!

That's what Garret would tell everyone when they asked about the scratch on his face. He said it in such a dead-pan manner some believed him! The little cousins had a great time asking him what happened just to hear him say in a serious voice "My eye pop out!"

The Jones Rebellion at the Heaton Ranch

Here it is, a bird's eye view of the Heaton ranch-a beautiful place tucked in a valley between Orderville and Pangwich on Highway 89. The cabins are off to the left in the trees and around the edges of the meadow you can see all our tents-enough to fit 74 of us!! What a group! We went hiking, caught snakes and lizards, swam in the pond (and played in the boat) made day trips to an ice cave, a great waterfall, and Bryce Canyon! WOW! What a great time!



Happy campers, that's what we were! Even with a pond so close to the cabins, I wasn't worried about my campers. It was an understood rule that everyone was to watch the little ones around the pond. Garrett loved sleeping in the tent, sitting in his own camping chair, playing in the mud with his cousins, and throwing rocks in the pond.













We were one of the first tenters to arrive and picked a great spot at the edge of the meadow under a pine tree that gave us good shade in the afternoon. We also had front seats to the football games, frizbee games, horse rides and other things that spontaneously happened in the meadow. Adam's favorite thing to do was kick back with his book.

Sleeping in the tent became a great adventure when a HUGE thunder storm rolled in and gave us a great light show complete with hours and hours of drenching rain. Everyone was miserable and floating away-except us! We were very proud of our water-tight tent! The boys slept amazingly well through the thunder and lightening and were ready to play first thing in the morning!

This was a great beginning to our week-long vacation!