Winter Wonderland Camp!

Oh my gosh!!!! Camp was soooo fun! I love sleep-away camp, but I've never ever been to one in the winter!

The camp was up the mountains in this really neat lodge. When I got there I checked in and sat near the fire with the other girls my age. There were some really funny girls and I made lots of friends. Every night we had a HUGE hot dinner in the lodge near the windows. One night while Leah (my best friend from camp) and I were eating dinner we saw a porcupine out the window! How cool is that?!

Most days we woke up early, took a morning snowshoe adventure, play games and drink hot cocoa in the afternoons, and then take another afternoon snowshoe or sometimes a night snowshoe after dinner!

I took my new camera with me to camp, but didn't take a lot of photos. It seemed like I was having too much fun and always forgot.

On my birthday I was at camp and that night all the girls sung "happy birthday" to me and we even had a big cake. It was an ice cream cake. Who ever heard of having an ice cream cake in the winter? Anyway, it was soooo good!

Here are a few photos I took (and a few Leah took of me) -

Look! One thing we learned about at camp was animal tracking. We spotted moose tracks and rabbit tracks and lots of bird tracks! These are quail tracks, I think.
Most days were so sunny and warm! Didn't even need to wear gloves!
I tried to experiment with my new camera a little.
My main Christmas present - new snowshoes!
I love Winter Wonderland Camp!

Fall day at the farmhouse

Last weekend was such perfect weather that Mama, Daddy and I decided to take a day trip to the farmhouse. I wanted to invite a friend, but Mama said it was a family day. Wish Inky was here...

Anyway, we drove down and stopped for lunch at my favorite spot, Little Acorn. I got a hamburger, fries, and root beer, which was a perfect start to the day. Once we got to the farmhouse it was so pretty! The sky was pure blue and almost all the leaves were either yellow, red or orange. We took a walk and visited the horses and saw some hawks.

Then after awhile we decided to take a drive and spotted a great horned owl in Spring City!!!! I wasn't even in my lucky owl shirt, but Mama spotted him, and he was so cute and big! I love owls so much, they are my favorite.

We took lots of photos, visited the goats down the road and headed home after picking pears and playing with Zoey, the neighbor dog. I am so happy I went down there, it was a really fun day!

Fall day at the cabin

Sorry I haven't updated for three weeks. Mama said that I really needed to get serious with school work, now that it is September. This year I'm in the fifth grade, and I'm home schooled. I have three big reports this year, a science report (I'm going to research geology), a state report, and an animal report. All are very big tasks!

But yesterday I didn't study too much because I went to the cabin instead! It was such a pretty day there, the sky was deep blue and all the underbrush was changing to yellow and red already. Can you believe it? It is already fall!

After lunch I decided to take a walk and look for all the signs of fall.

Isn't it amazing that in the mountains the leaves have already started to change?
It is a perfect day, no clouds in sight!
Isn't this plant pretty? It is turning red.
I walk down to the pond to look for frogs, but it seems like they've already left.
But there are a lot of water skeeters!
This flower is called "Bread and butter", isn't that the neatest name?

It is hot in Utah! Even the moose are swiming!

Oh my gosh, it is so hot here in Utah! Inky and I are having such a good day together, we've been playing space most of the day, because 40 years ago man walked on the moon. Neat!

Over the weekend Inky and I took a little hike up East Canyon in Utah. Along the way we saw a tiny speck of brown off in a lake. Guess what it was? Yes! A Moose! He was so hot he decided to take a nice swim across the lake, then and long drink. After, he didn't get out. He just sat there cooling off. It was funny!

Here is the road up part of East Canyon, isn't it pretty?
Finally we get to our destination and start our hike. Yikes it's hot!
Do you see that tiny brown dot?
He's a moose!

Grand Canyon on the North Rim!

Inky and I wrote this together, here it is:

Daddy and Mama booked a cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon this summer. They asked me if I'd like to bring a friend because they knew it is hard being an only child and I said "yes! Inky!" Luckily Inky got to come and I was so excited! She arrived a few days before we left, and she was super excited too.

Both Inky and I are pro Junior Rangers, we've become Jr. Rangers at all the parks we've visited together, and that's a lot of parks!

On Friday we left Utah and and entered Arizona! I hadn't been to Arizona yet, so it was so fun to mark that off the list, plus exploring a new state is totally awesome. Pretty soon we entered the prettiest forests, there were HUGE meadows everywhere and pine trees all around. Then we slowed down to enter the park. Inky and I wanted a sign near the park entrance, like always!
Once we got to the North Rim we checked in. Yea! Mama and Daddy rented a little cabin on the rim! It was so perfect for us because it was close enough to a lot of the trails. We could even hike alone! Plus the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge was so so pretty. Inky and I loved all the old radios, the sculpture of Brighty the mule and the patios with really neat canyon views.

Over the weekend we went on a lot of really neat hikes. On one hike we even saw mules on the trail! One mule was really funny and had his tongue sticking out like he was really tired. He was so cute!

Don't we look awesome on our hikes? And check out the view.
We are close to the edge, but are being careful.

When Daddy and Mama wanted to relax at the cabin Inky and I worked on our Jr. Ranger booklet. This was a fun booklet because in once activity we had to be animal detectives. We saw lots of animals down there, mostly fat squirrels hanging around our cabin.

On the last day we said goodbye to our little cabin on the rim and said goodbye to the lodge. Before leaving though, we got our Jr. Ranger badges!

Isn't our cabin neat? Can you see Daddy on the porch?
We got our badges!
We have lots more photos from our trip that we'll upload into an album soon! Until then, you'll have to wait!

Inky and I are back!

Inky and I just walked in from the Grand Canyon - it was so fun! We want to do a full joint post, but it will have to wait, I'm tired. Until then, here we are-

Weekend with Mari

Do you remember Mari? She is my friend that I went to Thanksgiving Point with last fall. She is so silly and we have such a fun time together. This weekend Mari and I went with our Mama's up to a friend's cabin! It was so rainy, but I taught Mari that you can still have fun in the mountains in the rain. Mostly we played inside over the weekend, but finally the sky cleared up a little bit and we took a hike.

Mari and I love the woods in Utah! We like to pretend we are little squirrels and live outside even in the rain. But little squirrels also have dens, and they are warm and cozy!
We even spotted a squirrel on our walk, but he ran away to quickly to take a picture. We had to be extra quiet from then on...
Also the woods were FULL of wildflowers! Mari and I decided to pick some to share with Mama in the house. Aren't our bouquets beautiful?
Guess what else? Mari is working on growing her hair long! Can you tell it is longer than last fall? She says she wants it to be as long as mine, maybe even longer!

Cabin in the rain

Mama and I took a girls trip up the cabin today with all the girls in my family! We got there and took a nice walk and cleaned up a little. When we were making lunch it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Grandma's doggy Willow could hear the thunder and started getting really scared and was shaking. I was trying to tell Willow it was okay, he's so funny.

After we had hot chocolate the rain cleared up just a little. I explored near the meadow and looked at all the yellow wildflowers covered in raindrops. And then it started to rain again! We all decided we were too cold and we came home. Now I'm warm in my PJs in my room, and of course it is raining outside!
There is even snow still up at the cabin in places. Isn't that amazing?

Road trip to Eureka

Yesterday the weather was really good so Mama, Daddy and I decided to take a family road trip to some ghost towns. We packed a lunch and left around 11. It took a really long time to get to Eureka but the drive was really pretty. When we were almost there Mama said we should take a different road and we found a really neat ghost town called Mammoth. Mammoth was an old mining town that now has only a few people living there. Eureka wasn't much of a ghost town anymore, though, because the mine has re-opened and lots of people have moved into town again.

But, on the way back we stopped near Warm Water Springs and looked at the old Tintic Refinery. The springs fill a big field and birds and fish live there, we even saw a blue heron. Across the field we saw a big refinery that was abandoned! It was so neat. Once we came home we did some research on the location, and I learned a lot about mining in Utah. They were able to refine metal there in the 1920s! Wow!

Can you see the refinery behind me? Up on the mountain? It looks like a castle!
See? It is really big.
And there was an abandoned train track there, which was neat to explore.

Mother's Day weekend and hike

It has finally stopped raining in Utah. The good news is everything is green and the tulips are still in bloom, the bad news is Kirsten didn't get to see much, too much rain!

BUT, on Mother's Day it was beautiful! Daddy and I planned a little hike to a waterfall for Mother's Day, and I got to spend Saturday alone with Mama all day, we went to the doll show! We met some of Mama's friends there and then went and got Mexican for lunch after. It was a very good Mother's Day weekend.

I love to go hiking. I can hike a long ways all by myself.
Isn't the trail pretty? I might want to show Mari this trail soon.
And look at the waterfall at the end!
And everything is so green! Mama and I decided to pretend we were fairies. Her name was Fairy of the Glen and my name was Waterfall Dancing Fairy.

Springtime in the garden

Kirsten and I have been having so much fun! This is a busy time of year for my home school. My new favorite subject is biology and Kirsten and I have been learning so much about plants and fungi for the last week we thought it would be fun to go to Red Butte Garden and test our skills.

FINALLY the weather has cleared up a little bit. After our sunny day on Easter it snowed and rained again for an entire week, but today is just perfect, a perfect day for the garden that is. Kirsten was very interested in Red Butte Garden, their gardening methods in the desert of Utah, and how the entire garden is actually built on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains! It was so fun to walk around and look at the daffodils, which were all in bloom!

We are excited to explore the garden. Kirsten is excited because it is NOT raining!
Look at all the daffodils! Hundreds and hundreds were in bloom.
Aren't they pretty?
I even wore my yellow garden shirt!
Kirsten and I walked all through the garden and spotted lots of birds, butterflies and squirrels. It was fun! Kirsten even saw one extra fat squirrel she named Nutty.

My spring walk

Mama and I have been dealing with spring snow this week, but today is partially sunny but still a little bit cold. We decided it would be a good day to put on our spring coats and go for a walk.

I brought along an empty Easter basket in hopes of filling it with things I found along the way that remind me of spring.
First I decide that any good spring basket needs to be filled with fresh green grasses, right?
Next I discover a tree that is beginning to sprout. I pull off just one sprout and add it to my basket.
Down near the river I gather some of the prettiest and roundest river stones that remind me of bird eggs and I add them too!
Along the walk we spot a beautiful shy hawk.
And I discover the first flowers of spring growing along a steep bank, yellow dandelions of course!
Happy spring! Enjoy your Easter basket!