…we like living here is the close proximity to the mountains. Even though we were fairly close in Colorado, it was not like we are in Orem.We are able to eave our house and be in the canyon in just about 5 minutes from a couple different directions.  We can be to a number of different trail heads pretty quickly and enjoy this benefit of living here.

This last Saturday, I took the three boys and went up the canyon through Pleasant Grove to the Battle Creek trail. It was fun because it leads to a waterfall that is about half a mile from the parking lot so even Clay can come along. I ended up carrying him on my shoulders for about half of the time, but that is not a big deal, he had fun so it was worth it.

We took our time getting up there and stopped a number of times for snacks, water and to throw rocks into the river. The boys even went in it a couple times on the way.  Eventually we made it up there and played around in the water for about a half hour or 45 minutes, then decided to head back down the mountain.

Here are a few pictures of the day up Battle Creek:

There is a cave about half the way up to the fall that the boys like to take a little break in. There is also a wooden bridge just before this cave that they call the “Cowboy Bridge”. Then this is the “Indian Cave”.

Here we are on the way up. Shortly after we started we all had hiking sticks, including Clay. He thinks he has to be exactly like the older boys.

Koby jumping through the river up by the waterfall.

Here we are getting back down the mountain. There is this small pool of water part of the way. It makes for another good place to stop and throw rocks and get dirty, so of course it is a good place to spend a few minutes.

Now up this coming weekend is our wards “Fathers and Sons” campouts and Koby and Spencer have been really excited to head up to it. I’ll keep you posted on the fun!

I have some more pictures on my flickr page here.

This is really cool. Prepare yourselves.

Ever since I had a garden in this house, it has been a hassle to water it consistently as I would have to go outside and drag the hose around the house and set it up to water the whole thing evenly. Then after it was done I would have to go out and wrap the hose up so it wouldn’t burn the lawn where the hose was. If I was ever out of town for any length of time I would come back to a dead garden and would have to start over next year. What a hassle.

So last year, I got some landscape timbers and built it up above the ground in raised beds. I spent a lot of the time ripping up old weed block that was under the dirt and getting rid of strawberry plants that were more of a pain then they were worth. To prep the ground and get it how I wanted took most of the summer and then it was too late to plant anything, so I had to wait until this year.

So this last week, Koby, Spencer and I took on the second phase of the project, which was to haul in dirt to fill the bed to capacity and then put in a couple sprinkler heads to water it more evenly and automatically. I am pretty excited about it.

That took us a couple hours on Tuesday night and then a couple hours Wednesday morning to finish and get seed in the ground. I am interested to see how they come up and how the sprinkler’s work out this year, especially because we are going to be out of town for a few weeks later in the summer.

Here are some pictures.

This is when they dumped the dirt off. It was from Happy Life Gardens (their Garden Blend soil)

Here we are getting ready to start. There was 3 cubic yards and the pile was about as wide as it was long. It was bigger then the picture makes it look.

After each wheelbarrow full, the boys had to get a ride back to the front with me. I think it took about 20 loads to take it all back so I got my workout that day. I remember doing this with my dad, so I didn’t mind them riding too much.

Here it is finished with the sprinklers running. I planted Pumpkin, tomato, peas, cauliflower, bell peppers, squash and zucchini. We are excited to see how it all grows.

See I told you that would be cool. (Life is all about the small successes.)