Summer at the Cabin

We spent the 4th of July at my dad's cabin near Cedar City, Utah. This has become a great tradition that we love so much. And this year we got to stay for 2 weeks. No phone, No TV, No traffic. We loved every minute.

Grandpa, JoJo, Sierra and Ryan

We decided to do a project on the cabin for dad. Bill, the girls and I went up early and sprayed a sealant/finish on the entire cabin. We spent a couple days preparing the cabin- cleaning, taping off windows, etc. then Bill rented a sprayer and got busy.

It was fun to work together as a family. We wanted to somehow repay Dad for the many things he's done for us, especially the pro bono legal work. Dad was very suprised when he arrived....he didn't know we were going to be there or about the cabin work. The finished cabin looked beautiful and hopefully it will help preserve the cabin for many years to come.

It is so beautiful there......at 9,000 ft. it is much cooler (jackets in the evenings and mornings), aspen trees all around and lots of animals to enjoy. The girls had so much fun discovering all the little critters....they played with caterpillars, went looking for deer each night (saw several good looking bucks), watched rock-chucks, fed hummingbirds in the feeder, and we had 5 bird nests with eggs and babies in them. Heavenly Father's creations are so amazing.

We also went on a couple great hikes. The summer mountains are so green with wildflowers everywhere. We hiked to a stream one day for lunch and then to the top of a big hill another day. Of course, Bill wanted to keep going and going...there's always one more hill to climb. We came across a couple run down cabins and horse corrals. When we were tired of hiking we would take Dad's new Ranger out on rides. Ryan even learned how to drive it on her own.

Most of all, we enjoyed playing with cousins and family. We loved watching the parade in town on the 4th and going to the park afterwards for games and lunch. Ryan and Sierra both won their age groups in the foot races. The reward.....$1.00 !! What great memories....I can remember doing the same things with my cousin, Jenna, when I was a kid. The only thing I missed was Grandpa Osborne cooking hamburgers with the Lions Club at the park.

Cousins Zack and Kaya with Ryan and Sierra at the park