Memorial Day Weekend Day #3

Monday was a gorgeous day weather-wise…especially for geocaching! The Geo Idiots and Wonton Cache’n (Baron, Donette, Brie and Colby) got together for a fun outing. We decided to tackle at least part of the Ogden Geo-Clue caching series. Modeled after the game of Clue, there are 10 caches (the nine rooms plus the Secret Passage) scattered around Ogden with hints (suspects, weapons and rooms) to help you discover the coordinates of the final cache location. We were able to find 6 of the 10 spots, trade treasure and write down clues…plus work in a picnic. We’ve already scheduled Round Two for 2 weeks from now!


We started the day at the Wasatch Memorial Gardens in Ogden to decorate Donette's brother's (Greg's) grave with balloons and rocks painted by Brie and Colby.

Checking out the treasure at our first cache of the day...The Library.

Enjoying a picnic lunch at The Library.

A pinecone at The Library

Grandma and Brie gathering wildflowers at The Kitchen.

Excited to find the cache at The Kitchen.

Brie and wildflowers.

Colby with a double-stuffed oreo (blue icing) in one hand and blowing the "parachutes" off of a dandelion held in the other, at the Conservatory.

Brie and her Bling at the Billiards Room. She seemed to collect jewelry at nearly every cache.

Hiking along the Taylor Canyon Trail to The Lounge along Ogden's east bench.

Back home in Farmington for a few more caches. This one took us out to see (for the first time) the Farmington FrontRunner Station. We think you have to climb up and over the tracks through this structure.

The actual station on the other side of the tracks

Fun to find Cache #600!!!...Trailhead for the Farmington Legacy Parkway...located about 250 S. and 600 W. It is part of a nice trail system that runs parallel to I-15 and Legacy highway from Farmington to North Salt Lake.

Memorial Day Weekend Day #2

After spending the night in Roosevelt we visited the Nine Mile Canyon Monument in Myton and found a few geocaches there and by the Duchesne River. Then we drove on to Heber for lunch, down Provo Canyon, through Lehi and Eagle Mountain and out to the tiny farming towns of St. John, Clover and Shambip which are now known as Rush Valley (about 15 miles south of Tooele). We had never been to this area that was settled by my relatives. A geocache hunt took us to the St. John cemetery. A 5-page list of graves at the gate showed a page of Russells! I’m probably related to half the people in town. I found the graves of my great-grandfather John Thomas Russell and his wife Agnes Charles as well as his father, the famous Captain William Greenwood Russell (whose birthplace in Liverpool we visited last fall) and his wife Elizabeth Vickery. While looking at the graves, a guy from Riverdale (at the point of the mountain) walked up and started talking…a distant cousin (!) also a descendant of William Greenwood. It was fun driving around the area. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, but suddenly a wind came up and dark clouds rolled in with rain and lightning.

Dad at the Nine Mile Canyon Monument (tall, thin rock slab behind him). Ah, some blue sky!

Grave of Captain William Greenwood Russell and Elizabeth Vickery at St. John Cemetery.

At great-grandfather/grandmother's grave

We found this lane in the Clover area...notice the black clouds approaching!

Classic old barn

Memorial Day? Must Mean Mud! Day #1

Dad at the balancing Pig Head Rock! Can you see the eyes and nose?? We found a geocache here.Memorial Day Weekend last year included a muddy geocaching adventure to Yuba Lake with plenty of puddles, mud-caked hiking shoes and globs of mud that were still falling off from under the car through the winter. This year we picked Nine Mile Canyon east of Price (where we stayed Friday night.) It was misting, drizzling and downright down pouring, on and off, throughout the day. We never saw a patch of blue sky, but we still had a great time. Nine Mile Canyon has supposedly the largest concentration of petroglyphs in the nation. We downloaded about 50 waypoints from the internet to guide us on our tour of the canyon which ended up being about 100 miles and 8+ hours long. We saw lots of very interesting Fremont Indian rock art, ancient granaries and watch towers, ghost towns and ranches. The unpaved backcountry road was sometimes gravel, sometimes washboards and sometimes just plain mud! But it wasn’t crowded or dusty!! The canyon was probably a lusher green than any other time of year and the moisture enhanced the colors.

Big desert varnish rock

Tiny orange flowers

First panel of petroglyphs...we ate our picnic lunch here (in the car) and waited till the rain slowed down.

Canyon wall of squared-off rocks in the Book Cliffs between the Price River drainage area and the Uintah Basin.

Old ghost town building

Dad and Petros

Part of a 100-yard-long panel of petroglyphs

Ridgeline in Cottonwood Canyon

It was "raining mud!" Mud was actually flipping up from our own tires and raining down on the windshield.

The CRV is stating to get a mud coating...it got a LOT worse.

Mom at The Great Hunt Panel

Beautiful red flowers...a variety of Indian Paintbrush

A look into the back seat. Do you see anything out of place? Yep, we didn't realize at first that Dad had grabbed a sofa headrest cover along with his jacket.

Tooth Ache

Just in case any of you haven't heard me whine about this yet, or if you want to realize that your problems could be worse...just know that one of my teeth "exploded" last Friday. An abscessed molar is very painful and finding a dentist on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday is an impossibility. At the near "breaking point" I finally got antibiotics and Lortabs to barely get me through until I spent 3-1/2 hours on Monday and another 3 hours on Tuesday having a root canal re-do (much more complicated than a regular root canal.) The crown couldn't be saved, there was decay under it, and a perforated root added to the complications. You know me, I can't ever do things the simple way. The dentist accidentally nicked my tongue (big canker sore now) and my jaw and gums are very sore. I can't bite or chew on the right side. I missed the lovely weekend weather and 2 days of work. The dentist said it could take 2-3 weeks before all the pain is gone! I'm planning to be off the 8 Advils a day by this weekend. Be sure to brush and floss and give those grandkids their fluoride!

MOM'S DAY 2009

Just sharing some photos from the Mom’s Day outing at Sugarhouse Park. It was a pleasant evening…a little nippy/breezy at sundown…but the Kentucky “grilled” chicken was yummy, the Frisbee was fun, the thoughtful gifts and kind-sentiment cards were much appreciated, and being together was good. Thanks! and I’m glad I’m a mother.

The picnic-in-the-park bunch.

Autumn and Colby having fun waving hello.

Abram and Colby playing soccer.

Enjoying dinner.

Happy to be a mom and grandmom.

Airie and Abram.

Sunburnt Autumn.

Mom with the goregeous bouquet from Baron and Donette. My favorite flowers--daisies (Shasta and a Gerbera) plus a giant orange sunflower--WOW!

The gardening gift of bucket hat, outdoor smock and matching gloves from Airie and Abram.

Playing frisbee...OK where IS the frisbee???

Brie on the jungle gym.

Grandma and Brie and the swing.

Sugarhouse Park was loaded with beautiful trees in full bloom.

Closeup of blossoms.

Snow-capped mountains in the background.

Blossoms, pines and snowy wasatch mountains.

All the nice gifts and cards including Sheri Dew thoughts and Utah chocolate truffles from Autumn.

Made-by-Robin apron in my favorite yellow and orange colors...I like lemons, too...and classic Voila card by Briton, of course.

Other side of classic card by Briton...love the red sabots and is that a shamrock? By the way, my 5 traveling shamrocks are several inches tall now with 4-5 stems each. And a hummingbird "buzzed" Dad outside on Saturday and chirped at him asking where the food was. I had the feeders ready and so we put them up immediately. 2 little hummers arrived within 10 minutes.

Card from Talmage and Sydney.

OK can you guess the title of T's picture?

1) Stemless flower with multi-colored petals

2) Blue bracelet with multi-colored jewels

3) Grandma's pond surrounded by multi-colored rocks

4) Blue car with multi-colored wheels

Actually, not much of a challenge!