What color is Autumn's hair?

While I was doing Autumn's hair this morning, she pointed at it and said, "orange color."

Autumn has a wonderful new habit of hiding objects under furniture and appliances. Two of my important kitchen lids have been missing for over a week. Yesterday, while looking for something else, I found the lid to the rice pot under the dishwasher. Today I found the other lid under the seemingly-too-narrow-to-fit OVEN. It was awesome. So then I decided to check other places. Under the couch I found two board books and several puzzle pieces. I've got more places to look, but eventually, I think I'll find the binky that was lost last week as well.

Eggs

Backyard Plastic Egg Hunt

Choose how you'd like your egg colored. I have many colors.
I'm an expert at dying them!

Nothing is more fun than dying Easter Eggs!

How predictable is life?

Yesterday I was looking at some of our family photos, and I found that I had photographed the same subjects two years apart on our family trips to Monticello. The first time we stopped at the Needles Overlook it was in the evening at Thanksgiving time in 2009. The second time we stopped in the morning after our recent campout.

It's common to want to take a picture twice of a nice mesa, but notice the rock with the crack in the foreground is also in both pictures.

2009

2011

More foreground rock.

2009

2011

Posing in front of the same fence.

2009

2011

I've decided that it isn't life that's predictable; it's how we look at life that's predictable. If we encounter the same situation multiple times without remembering the first experience, we are likely to react in the same way each time. I know am that way. I'm also sure I'll go to the same overlook in ten years and take the same pictures. Hopefully Jonathan won't still be holding Autumn then!

Guess who's running for president...

When I was in college, the governor of New Mexico was also an athlete. I remember running with him in the Baylor Pass Run which is a trail race over the Organ Mountains. The mountains are situated between Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range. The trail ascends 1515 feet up to Baylor Pass before dropping down into a campground on the other side. But I digress, Governor Johnson has now declared his candidacy for US President in 2012. Did I mention he climbed Mount Everest?

My Favorite Conference Talk

I've been catching up on General Conference talks that I "some how" missed a weekend ago. I really, really like President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood session. It's about living up to your Priesthood privileges. It's a talk for everyone. I love how he uses an airplane analogy in all his conference talks. I really liked how he talked about how we can know what our privileges are by being in tune with the Spirit and listening to it. It makes sense. I can't wait to listen to the next "catch up" talk!

Another Big Trip

Any big trip should start with an unusual evening cloud formation.

What trip would be complete without encountering a wreck that almost makes you late for a family funeral. Diana and Troy who were a few cars behind us, called in to say we were stuck in traffic, so they postponed the family prayer for us.

We don't think anyone died in the accident because the parking brake was set and because it wasn't in the news. At the funeral, Autumn almost did the actions for popcorn popping during the grandchildens' musical number. Unlike Grandpa's funeral two months ago, the weather for Grandma's funeral was very nice. People stayed at the graveside and talked for a long time.

From the cemetary, you can see the Burtenshaw house. Uncle Kim and Aunt Cindy live in the house right behind it.

After the family dinner, we got to visit with Jon's parents, Amanda, baby M., Alysa, Ray, Diana, and Troy at the Burtenshaw house.

When we were all finally ready to leave, most people headed for home. We, however, headed for the Windwhistle Campground near the Needles Overlook of Canyonlands. The campground was nice and quiet and well sheltered from other campers. While Jonathan staked down the tent, Autumn and I went rock collecting.

After our hotdog roast, we went for a walk on the nature trail.

The sunset was great and so were the stars later that night. Jonathan's parents stopped to say hi on their way home. They made it back to orem at 1am!

In the morning we packed up. (Jonathan's wedding ring is somewhere in the tent. We'll have to unpack the entire tent to get it.)

We were the only ones at the Needles overlook that morning.

We drove our Jeep along a gravel road for another 15 miles to see the Anticline Overlook. Just when you think the Colorado River did enough "damage" to the area, you get to see how

the rock is folded into an Anticline too. While driving along another sandy jeep road to get to the highway, we saw a group of houses carved out of a rock. I learned that it is called the Rockland Ranch and a group of polygamists and people of various other faiths live there on leased state property. According to a news article they are much more modern, open, and friendly than the Colorado City group. For a closer look at this place, see this visitor's blog.

Looking Glass Arch, near the Rockland Ranch

We made it to Orem, late Saturday afternoon. We enjoyed the 75 degree weather and just hung out in Jon's parent's backyard. Autumn learned how to hold on to big kid swing there. She is very good at it now. Jon and his dad when to conference in the evening and we played with Kloe and Jessica and Grandma while they were gone. We stayed in Orem until Sunday night when we made our way back to Logan to find all well there.