Camping and Backpacking

Last week we took our family down to southern Utah for some camping and backpacking. We camped at Cedar Canyon which is about 30 minutes north of the Kolob Canyon entrance to Zions National Park. We camped there for 2 days then went backpacking for 3 days and 2 nights in Kolob Canyon. On our drive down there we made a spontaneous stop at Cove Fort which is a refurbished fort built by the Mormons. It was really interesting and I'm glad we stopped. I have listed some of the things we did and saw and then I attached a slideshow with pictures and videos of our trip.

*Had 3 Dutch Oven meals - YUM
*Josh and David hiked to Angel's Landing (5 miles round trip)
*Met a lady who was 85, still working in the gift shop, has 16 kids, 92 grandkids, and 6 great grandkids. WOW!
*Had big fires and burned anything we could find
*Played cards
*Backpacked about 13 miles in all (10 with packs)
*Saw lots of beetles and named them according to the alphabet
*Laughed a lot
*Put at least 7 frogs on Josh at the same time - he looked like frog man
*Saw the "largest natural arch in the world" - Kolob Arch
*Skipped rocks
*Jumped off rocks into a river
*Filtered water
*Ate melted Snickers Bars
*Took the shuttle in Zion National Park
*Died of heat on the way up to Angel's Landing (at least Gaylene did)
*Saw billions of stars
*Saw a wild turkey (Josh saw it anyway)
*Named every Disney movie we could think of and also candy bars
*Tanner and Rachel recited the entire movie of Finding Nemo
*Got dirty
*Got wet
*Got very, very tired
*Had a great time

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Tera's Wedding

My niece, Teralynn Hill, got married in the Draper Temple on Saturday, June 18th, to BJ Nordgren. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful couple. I was so glad I could be there. Weddings are such happy events... and romantic too.

Tera with her mom and dad (her dad is my brother) and her grandparents (my parents).

Tera with her brothers and sisters

Bert Powell Family Reunion

A few weeks ago, June 10-11, 2011, to be exact, we had a Bert Powell Family Reunion at our home in Draper, UT. Friday night was taco night and we also had a photographer who took lots of fun pictures and portraits. Then Saturday we had a big picnic at Draper Park. It was tons of fun. I am so glad everyone came and we really did have a great time. I hope everyone is planning to get together again soon.

I've posted a slide show. It has a lot of pictures but they go fast and I am just terrible at thinning out pictures. It was interesting to see that I had a lot of pictures of some people and not many of others. In fact, I don't have any pictures of several people except for what the photographer took. I don't know if that's because some people hide from the camera or I am just not very good at getting everyone.

Thanks everyone for coming. It was a blast!

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Another Iris Bloomed

I just had to post a picture of the iris that was blooming this morning. Isn't that orange amazing? I think it's my favorite one so far.

Savannah Sunset

An Iris Garden

You may or may not know that I love to work in the yard and grow flowers and vegetables. That doesn't mean I'm really good at it but I keep practicing and some things work out really well.

Last fall I ordered some different varieties of Iris to plant in my front yard. I thought it would be fun to do lots of different kinds. I think I planted about 12 different ones and I only lost one plant during the winter. The rest are doing quite well and they've started to bloom. I'm posting some pictures because the Iris is such an interesting flower with such beautiful shapes and colors. I think it is one of God's masterpieces. I hope you enjoy seeing these first few blooms.

Dodger Blue Iris

Harvest of Memories Iris

Alizes Iris

Luxor Gold Iris

Jamaican Dream Iris

Joshua's H.S. Graduation

Graduation Day.... again. Josh graduated from Itineris Early College High School today. We enjoyed the whole thing (Rebecca thought it was too long) and we are very proud of him.

Proud parents.