Balloon Festival

The Balloon Festival held the 4th week every June is an incredible town event here in Panguitch. It lasts for 3 days with a mass assension of 30-40 balloons every morning starting at 6:30 am. Vendors sell down main street for Friday and Saturday. A little carnival is set up at the bank for the kids. However, the highlight really is Saturday night. At dusk, main street is closed off to traffic and all the balloons line up, inflate and glow just right on the street. It's beautiful. There's 2-3 live bands playing on mainstreet at various locations, great food vendors and alot of people just milling about and enjoying the atmosphere. This year I was unable to attend but Jeff and the kids got into all the action!

These pictures really don't do mainstreet the justice it deserves, but the balloons will light up for about 7-8 blocks. When the weather permits (i.e. no wind) the balloons will stay up for a couple hours just glowing.

This year because of weather, wind and rain, there were less balloons in the morning assensions. However, not all residents of Panguitch can say they have the best view from their back door like we do!

Girls Camp, City Creek 2009

Girls Camp this year was held at City Creek, just 5 miles west of Junction heading up over Beaver Mountain. It was beautiful. We were pleased that no rattlesnakes or bears were brave enough to venture into camp. The area is well known for both. In fact earlier that week a rattler with 13 rattlers and a button was killed just on the road into camp and a bear was tree'd just 2 miles from camp. It rained on and off the first day and was just beautiful the second and third days. We had a great night the first night when Laurie Hansen (a nurse midwife) from Cedar City and her 5 daughters presented us with a wonderful song and thought fireside. The next night we did a Hold to the Rod walk. I am so grateful for what an opportunity camp gives us to let the girls know and feel of their Savior's love for them. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve these girls and their leaders in the stake. They are simply wonderful!
All the stream pictures are mine because mom didn't have as gorgeous camp ground as me!This is McKenna here your co-pilot (uh... blogger) the picture above was a little stream that was right behind my wards campground. It was gorgeous I had to take pictures of it!

Why can't girls seem to go 3 days without washing their hair? It's beyond me why thy would rather dunk their head in a freezing cold stream!

Well dang, mom everyone knows that cold showers are refreshing so why not a cold hair bath thingy-migger. It was great Baylee, Frecia, Megan, and I washed our hair in the stream while Kenzy (the black sheep of our group and a year younger then us) washed here hair in the faucet at camp. Much less exciting then washing in the stream. We didn't see any little fishys though because the water was freezing! I think we spent about half an hour trying to get our feet to warm back up!

Skit night is always a great night. The girls have a lot of fun.

What is Girl's Camp without the skits?

Riding in the back of the truck! Riding in the back of the truck! Hit em, Bump em, Skin my rump! Ouch, Riding in the back of the truck, Ye Hah!

We were the caroling caravan. The 3rd and 2nd years made up the caroling caravan first then everyone else decided to join us.

I love the opportunity girls camp gives to just be able to sing "Father Abraham" without any cares in the world! "Father Abraham had seven sons and seven sons had Father Abraham and they never laughed and they never cried all they did was go like this with the right and the left and the right and the left and the head and the hips and the tounge and the knees and the elbows and the EYES..." (Ha Ha great song! Even if you wouldn't sing it with us.)

Schmutz Reunion

For the first time ever, we held a Schmutz Reunion for just my family. We had a great time (especially since John was in charge) just hanging out for the day. It all started off with the truck being loaded up with hikers. Off to the K-Hill it was and up to the tippy top they went!

It all comes down to a helping hand in everything we do in life. Just like on this hike where all the kids made a line up the cliff and helped each other up.

McKenna, Garrett, and Kimber pointing to Grandma's house. I'm surprised Jeff let them get that close to the edge!

When I was young, I remember playing with all my nephews and nieces. Now that we are all older and married with our own children, Grandpa and Grandma have a new batch of little kids running around their house. Here they are just hanging out and telling crazy stories.

Good food and great family just go hand in hand. I love my family and am grateful for each one of them and count myself blessed to belong to such a wonderful heritage.

Free Fish Day

Jeff took Garrett and Kimber to Tropic Reservoir the first Saturday in June for Free Fish Day. They both had a blast catching 4 fish each! The were even so kind as to share them with others who would actually eat and enjoy them. It's a great day with games, prizes and lots of families fishing in the freshly stocked reservoir. Nice catch guys!

Bus Ride from Cheer Clinic/Cook Out

(P.S: Start at the bottom and read up. Something got messed up with our computer.)
Garrett eating his perfect smore. I know, he didn't even share it with me!

Addy and I eating our hot dogs and drinking some awful cherry 7-up (It was gross it tasted like cough med. need I say more?).

After I got home from the cheer clinic we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows down in the stream-bed. I was too lazy to change so i just threw a little sweater thing over the tank and left the shorts on.

That's Sierra she was trying to go to sleep but Bay and I kept bugging her.

Baylee and I acting like the goof-balls we are. We were at cheer safety clinic and were really bored on the way home so we pretended we we pro singers. Unfortunately Bay couldn't keep a strait face in any of the pictures.

Summer's Start

Truly I know that I have limited talent when it comes to photography skills so please excuse the shakiness. In February Jeff and I went out to eat at McGraths Fish House in Orem. I saw this sign and didn't have a camera with me. I tried to take one of it on my cell phone but again my photography skills severly damaged the outcome. Anyways, Jeff and I recently took McKenna up to BYU for EFY (Especially For Youth) and I had him take me by the restaurant again. Thank goodness no one was sitting at the table where this sign was or they might have had to move for just a minute while I got my amateur shot. Anyway's I love this sign! Kindof indicative of the fish tales told here!

Since we have lived in Panguitch for the last 8 years I have only seen the lilacs bloom one other time. At that time we didn't have any bushes but this year we have been blessed with their sight and fragrance!

Addison has been begging to ride a bike so Jeff just put on the training wheels on McKenna's and Kimber's old bike. We haven't got her off it yet!

My visiting teacher is a wonderful seamstress. She saved me by lining a dress for me when I had to talk in Stake Conference. Just yesterday she showed up with this this dress for Addison for the summer. I am grateful to be blessed with such a wonderful friends! Thanks Kay!

Graduation!

8th grade graduation is quite a big deal here in Panguitch. The class is in charge of their program and they really did a great job with a slide show and presentation gift to their teachers. After the graduation, literally a couple of hundred awards were presented to the students ranging from academic awards to athletic ribbons. Their principle gave them each a new dollar bill in serial order and challenged them at their reunions to bring their dollar and see how many kept them, how many were missing and to reflect on where they all were and why. Kindof an interesting challenge.

We are proud of you McKenna and look forward to all the great things you will be able to do and learn in High School!

Spring! Yeah!

Welcome to Spring in Panguitch. Although it comes around a little late, it truly takes my breath away! It's always amazing to me to see all the new life and growth around town. Addison I drove all around town singing Popcorn Popping On The Apricot Tree while taking pictures of some of the most beautiful trees we could find.

Nothing is better than sharing a Ding-Dong with a best friend while playing at the park! Addison and Jaci love their play days together and I love the warmer weather!

This white tree is my favorite in town. Its the perfect tree in my opinion. This is Merle's tree, a widow in our ward who has the greenest thumb in Panguitch. She inspires me every year that my garden will succeed and every year we learn a little more how to cheat the short Panguitch growing season. I can't wait until ours trees get this big and beautiful!

The flowering plum (at least I think that is what these purple trees are, maybe they are crabapple - correct me if you know) are among my favorite. They are found all around town and bring a beautiful splash of color to our area. I love Spring!

Oh I love spring! I love sunsets! I love Panguitch! I love moments when your just happy to be alive. Taking pictures is definitly one of my passions. Sunset is my favorite time to take pictures, everything seems to be taking a final breath and glowing with the final light of day. I love living out of town to take pictures of the country-side, but close enough to ride my bike into town. I got a new camera and I just discovered the button the turns the picture sepia and such. I'm trying to decide if I like the red wagon or the sepia wagon better. Comment and let me know!

Happy Cinco De Mayo! In Spanish class Sr. Houston made us all margaritas and pina coladas for Cinco De Mayo. I loved it! The pina coladas were the best! Love ya!!!