Grand Falls

When we were in Flagstaff over a month ago visiting Amy, she took us to see Grand Falls, a truly hidden gem. There are no signs to Grand Falls. It's on the reservation and I would think that they didn't want anyone to see it if it weren't for the few scattered picnic tables nearby. 

Amy showed me pictures of Grand Falls a few years ago: powerful, wide, muddy water falls that looked somewhat "grand" yet in my mind I only pictured them being dozens of feet high. 

Imagine my surprise to see how truly Grand they are. I write this, knowing that you won't understand from these pictures the scale. Because I didn't.

Grand Falls are only "grand" and "falling" twice a year during spring runoff or monsoon season. The rest of the year they are a dry wash. They were running a few weeks before we got there, but by the time we made the trip the water had trickled down so it was pooled in muddy puddles with only a small stream actually making it down and over the ledge.

We approached the Falls from the top, which meant some resourceful searching for solid ground in a semi-dry riverbed while avoiding the sticky squelching mud that was everywhere.

Sometimes we weren't successful. Like when the mud ate Beau's shoe and I had to rescue it for him.

As I said, I didn't understand that the falls were NOT just a few dozen feet high. They were actually a couple of hundred feet high. So I didn't understand Amy's concern that the boys (Luke, Joshua and Jacob), had gone ahead to the top of the falls - they were basically hiking to the edge of a cliff. I finally grasped this when I looked ahead and saw the boys scaling a wall to the left of the river bed. From my vantage point, it looked like they were climbing a wall that hung precariously over a vast drop off. I snatched up Marianne and carefully - because the riverbed looked like this:

ran ahead to make sure the boys weren't going to fall and die.

It turned out that the wall they were on was not over the edge of the falls, and I was grateful for their safety as well as my own heightened awareness of how high up we really were. 

Here is my view from the top of the falls:

And if you were to stand across the canyon and look at the falls, this is what you would see: See the picnic table on the top of the black ledge on the right of the picture? We were on the ledge in the center of the picture.

The kids enjoyed playing around the various pools of water.

I was worried about Marianne until she decided to sit and make a mud cake with Amy. They sat there for the duration of our visit and I was free to keep an eye on the other kids and take pictures.

Beau joined in her efforts, too, bringing her mud for her cake.

Beau found a cool "bridge" that went across two pools.

Beau and Luke enjoyed finding long sticks and using them to measure the depths of the pools. Some were only a few feet deep and some were seemingly bottomless. I irrationally worried about them falling into the deep ones, as though the depth had anything to do with their ability to swim to the top. Luckily we never had to test the theory and everyone remained relatively dry.

Except Bekah. 

Bekah always immerses herself fully in any experience. If she is painting, she'll have paint from head to toe. If she is baking, she and the kitchen will be dusted with flour. If she is watering plants, she'll be wet, and if there is mud on the ground it will also be all over her. I don't think she can help herself.

See?

"Joshua! Jump over this pool so I can get a picture!"

When we were done playing we hiked back up the riverbed to the van and then we drove around to the opposite side of the canyon. Amy stayed with some of the kids while Joshua, Luke, Beau and I hiked to the bottom of the canyon, the base of the falls. Can you see us?

When we got back to the top we loaded up and headed home. They side of the dirt road we were on had these whoop-de-whoops that the ManVan just had to conquer. The kids loved them. Amy opted to get out of the van to take pictures of us. She might have said that I was the worst driver ever and if I were Mike she would have punched me. But all of the kids objected and said I wasn't bad at all.

I thought these little hills were great fun! Forwards, reverse, fast and slow, we did it all!

Thank you for a Grand adventure, Amy!

Tea Party with Cutesy and Grandad!

My mom got the cutest dishes from IKea for a tea party. She's had them for a few months, and all it took was letting the girls get a glimpse of them, and suddenly a tea party was in the works. Mom and Marianne and Bekah went to Walmart and picked up delicious sweets like animal cookies, sherbet, mangoes and strawberries, whipped cream and mini Reese's cups. And of course there was orange juice and Gatorade for the tea cups. It was the most adorable table I've ever seen. 

Gymnastics

We were able to visit Amy a few weeks ago at the tail end of our spring break. The first morning I took the kids plus Mikey (the rest of her kids were in school), to a fun play-class at the gymnastic-place. It was supposed to be for kids under five, but the employee said we could play if the big kids didn't trample the little kids. We agreed.

It was really fun to see the kids tumbling, doing flips into the block pit, hanging like monkeys from the rings, and belly flopping onto the vault-thing.

Here's some pics:

Wood shop Friends Strike Again!

My dear friend Kristine texted me a few months ago..."Ready for another woodshop project! I need a coffee table!" I looked up some pictures of tables and found one that was simply beautiful. She agreed with my opinion, and soon she, I, and Taffy were at Lowes, picking up wood. Marianne was able to practice her routine on the parallel bars while we loaded the cart with 2x6's and 1x3's.

This is a view of the table top, made of 2x6's. It is 38" square. It's assembled with pocket holes and screws.

Taffy jumped ahead and finished her table before the rest of us. She picked a beautiful blue color. The turned parts of her legs share the same origin of my own legs. She found a coffee table at a thrift store that was octagonal and had eight legs. We cut that table up, and used the turned parts as the middle portions of our own legs. 

Here we are putting together Kristine's table. If only we had realized at this point that the leg closest to both of them was attached upside down. Don't worry, we figured that out...Later. Kristine's legs came from Osborne woods. She ordered them online, and they came very quickly and were stunning. See how beautifully they stained? She put one coat of the stain on them and then finished with two coats of a satin polyurethane. So pretty!!

The finished product! In the official, as Taffy puts it, "finished project picture place." She was understandably proud of the finished piece and I know for certain that everyone from church to yoga practice saw pictures of it!

The next week we put my table together. By this time, we were very good at assembly, and it only took us about an hour. So we spent our saved time sitting on it and chatting. So fun, the stories that come about in the woodshop!

Ah, a little out of order, here is the center part of the coffee table leg that Taffy and I used to build up our own legs. This piece is only about 8" in length.

Taffy and I both added 4x4" pieces to either end of the turned piece. She liked hers there, but I wanted a little more width and detail, so I then wrapped my 4x4 pieces with molding. My dad helped me get going on that part. Making these legs was the hardest part of my table, or rather the most time intensive. I picked out marigold chalk paint for my table to add some color to my living room. This picture is taken after only the first coat. I wound up doing three coats, just to get the middle to be the same color as the ends.

I decided, at the eleventh hour, to stencil my bottom shelf. I used stencil material in my Silhouette, cut out the desired pattern, and then rolled the brown paint on with a foam roller brush. After I took this picture I sanded it down quite a bit...although I don't know that you can tell, even in the finished product.

I tried finishing my piece with soft wax. It was very easy to work with, but felt sticky for quite a while. I tried then putting on bronze wax, but the bronze color was too translucent and I don't think you can even tell. So then I got some really old antiquing gel out of my paint box and brushed it in the crevices. The leg on the left has antiquing gel, the one on the right has wax but no gel.

Once the table was assembled, I waxed the whole piece and then applied more antiquing gel. Then I finished it all with two coats of a satin clear coat. And then I took a picture of it in the "finished product place."

Then the boys helped me carry it inside where it was instantly put to good use.

And even vandalized by my husband's shoes.

I'm sure there will be more projects to come. I love each and every one! Long live the Woodshop!

A few more pictures from the Zoo

Sweet cousins. Love Sarah's elephant pants.

I was very happy with how the tiger face turned out. Pretty girl.

Marianne of course hung out with the boys the whole time. She's just one of the boys!

Beau and Mikey, wild crazy loud boys.

Looking at the giraffes...Now turn and look at me! CLICK!

The zoo baby takin shares a name with Beau!

We were actually all in this same spot years ago when the baby rhino Chomper was introduced to the public.

Don't feed the tigers, Grandpa!

On the playground.

Amy visits NM

Amy and Mike brought their kids to New Mexico for a cheap adventurous spring break. They also brought our other sister Amanda's daughter Madison along so she could enjoy some girl cousin time. Madison and Sarah were super sweet to Marianne. Madison brought her this super cute shrug, and Sarah picked out her clothes. 

Amy is expecting her fifth baby this June. She's torturing us all by not finding out the sex. We decided to tackle an easy sewing project and made these booties for the baby. It was simple enough, but then Luke and Mikey and Jacob all wanted booties in their size. And not just slippers, but booties just like these but bigger. It took a little pattern enlarging and tweaking, but eventually Luke had a wearable pair of super soft slippers. I didn't finish Mikey's while he was here, a fact that he reminded me of daily.

I think I've mentioned how Marianne idolizes Joshua and Luke. She adores them, loves them, wraps them around her little finger. Here is Joshua showing Marianne his Clash of Clans game.

They were all lucky enough to be here for St. Patrick's day. We ate lots of green food and had a wonderful feast of corned beef and cabbage and soda bread and mint brownies.

All the girls stayed with me that night while the boys went to Los Lunas. We rented "Annie," which was fantastic, stayed up late, ate popcorn, had a dance party, and sang all of our favorite Annie songs several times over. Thankfully they were just as kind in the morning and they all slept in, even Marianne.

In the morning we met up with everyone at the zoo. Before we left, I told the girls I'd paint their faces like animals. Bekah picked a tiger, and Madison and Sarah were butterflies/fairies. Marianne was a lion. I almost felt bad later when Bekah related to me that a little girl and her mother had seen their painted faces and the mom had promised that she'd let her daughter get her face painted too. Maybe I should set up shop at the zoo!

It was a slightly cloudy day that eventually gave way to a drizzle, but it was not cold, and the animals were entertaining enough.

Amy and Mike, both carrying some weight...

By this point - the train ride back to our vehicles - each and every one of the kids was fed up with picture taking. So I tricked them into this one. I said just stand in a line, youngest to oldest. No pictures. And then I took their picture anyway. That's why Sarah and Bekah are looking so betrayed.

After this picture was taken, Joshua said he'd like to run on the trail back to the zoo instead of taking the train. I said I'd accompany him, because I was in running shoes, and despite being in jeans. We had a lovely run, not much more than a mile, beat the train, and wound up running around to the front of the zoo because we couldn't get in the same way as the train. Joshua was very nice to me and didn't run too fast.

Piedra Lisa Trail with the Ludingtons

A few weeks ago we took some time to go on a hike on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Carla, Doug and their kids came with us, along with two other excellent hiker boys that we picked up to come along and motivate our own children to hike well. We had intended to hike a different trail, but because of a series of events that delayed our departure (including a few minutes to dance on the sidewalk to Maroon 5's "Sugar" while waiting for the boys), we wound up taking a closer trail. Piedra Lisa trail is just a fifteen minutes away from our house, and while it was a little steep, it was a beautiful hike.

 I stayed at the rear with Carla and the slower kids. Rus and Doug were somewhere in the middle with the bulk of the kids, and the older kids were who-knows how far ahead of all of us. We enjoyed critical glances from passing hikers at the brood of eleven children that we were herding up the mountain. It was really fun to just enjoy a leisurely hike with the slower kids while visiting with Carla. She is a wise, wonderful friend and mother.

 I can't believe how stunning the colors are in this picture. It really was a beautiful day! A sad side note: As we were hiking the trail, in fact the whole time we were hiking the trail, a search and rescue helicopter seemed to be hovering and circling the top of the mountain. I learned a few days later that while we were enjoying our hike far below, a 17-year-old girl had stepped over the railing at a trail on the peak of the mountain (to get a better view), slipped on an icy patch, and fallen to her death. So sad.

 Marianne was a walking fashion statement on our hike. Bear shirt, leggings, and fluffy skirt with hiking shoes. Rus made me stop and get a picture of him and her, saying, "she's just too cute."

 And she kissed him...

I'm so grateful for my family and for beautiful places!