FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

GOOD - Friday we tandemed (yes Tiff that was us you saw) on down to Summerfest to culture ourselves. Partook in art, food, and music. Good times. Was a little worried about our beloved tandem bike getting stolen, but the town of Logan proved themselves worthy and left it alone. Thank you Logan, thank you!



GOOD - Saturday we hit my favorite summertime morning spot the Logan Gardner's Market. Unlike our usual mooching self (love samples) we actually made a few purchases...homemade salsa and yogurt smoothies. Lovely. Was a little sad that the vegan cupcake lady was not there this year. We are pretty much the opposite of vegan, but her cupcakes are awesome.


GOOD - Bear Lake. In keeping along with our goal to "know our own backyard" we decided to NOT *gasp* set up swim shop at Rendezvous Beach and instead headed to Bear Lake's north shore (sadly not as beautiful as Oahu's north shore...). $5 later (entrance fees suck) we were in and pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves (see pic below).

Ok so not completely to ourselves. We did have some tweens who thought that they needed to blast the likes of Justin Bieber and some sort of rap crap from their boat and sing at the top of their "still waiting to hit puberty lungs". Not a delightful sound.

Oh and we got our volleyball on for the first time of the season. Oh how I love volleyball. Not sure what my leg is doing in this picture.
GOOD - Sunday=church. Always good. Except we got out like 10 minutes late. That is not good.

GOOD - I gave Clayton his Father's day present. Remember (probably not it was 5 years ago) when we did this?

Well now we are doing this...Paragliding...awesome...

GOOD - headed out to the 'rents to celebrate Father's Day with the fam. GOOD food. GOOD times. I love pops reaction in the pictures below...

Upon opening the present... "oh an external harddrive. It is EXACTLY what I was hoping to get. This is as good as BYU winning a national championship. You guys are so amazing. Best. Family. EVER. " Ok so I added the extra conversation because let's be honest, it is a booooring present.

ok so here are when things took a turn for the worse...

BAD - So there we were (every good story starts like that)...

The fam was all hanging out in the backyard talking after chores. All of a sudden we noticed that Tydon was missing. Someone said that he was across the street. Since Clayton and I had been sitting on the four wheeler (all the good seats were taken) we volunteered to go get him and bring him back. Tydon had decided that he needed to pick up a load of hay with his small tractor. Clayton (who was driving) picked him up and put him in front of him and turned around to hand me Ty's small tractor so I could hang on to it as we went home. As Clayton was turned around handing it to me the four wheeler started going...real fast. Tydon had pushed the gas all the way (he is only 3). We barely missed a cement wall, but started heading for the next wall. Clayton was finally (it was only seconds but felt like forever) able to turn us a bit so we didn't hit the second wall. He hit the break but it was too late and the four wheeler flipped and we went flying (or so it felt). I don't remember much after that. I remember getting up and looking for Clayton and Tydon and feeling relieved when I saw them. Tydon was such a trooper. He only cried a little bit. Clayton was completely dazed. He talked about how his head hurt and put his hand up there and realized that it was bleeding. I tried not to panic (kinda hard not to do when your husbands hand is full and I mean FULL of blood) and told him to sit down and put pressure on it. Still in panic mode I didn't think that I could leave him to get help and didn't know what to do. He got up and said that he could walk. We hobbled back to the house. The whole time Ty was saying, "I'll fix you. I'll get you bandaid". It was very cute. Tydon was so brave and didn't even cry as we were walking back to the house. He just kept reassuring us that he would fix us. Anyway to make a long story short I ended up taking Clayton to the hospital to fix his head hole (trust me it was a hole). He got 5 staples in his head, has a broken rib and a ton of road rash on his left side of his body (from his shoulder to his ankle). I fared much better. I have a smaller gash on my head (didn't need stitches), sore butt, road rash on my elbow and back. Ty who is 3 years old has the least amount of injuries. He walked away with some scrapes on his arm and leg. Just thinking of what could have happened to such a small body makes me sick. The whole situation opened our eyes even more to how precious life is. We all could have been killed and yet we were spared. I know for a fact that the Lord was protecting all three of us that day and will forever be thankful for his mercy in keeping us safe. You can read Rachel's side HERE.

So you really didn't think that I would tell a story like that and not have pictures did you!?!

THE UGLY -

WARNING: the pictures below are not for the weak. They are bloody and gross.

Thanks to Rach for providing me with the pics.

At the hospital as we were waiting for the good doc to come come in with his staple gun, Clayton asked me, "Ummm...didn't you bring your camera? Aren't you going to take pictures?"

rock on!

Before the staples

this does not do the whole justice. It was the size of the Grand Canyon with fatty tissue and goo coming out.

During the staples

sweet nail gun

After the staples

I am so thankful that we are all ok. Especially Clayton and Tydon. Clayton really is the love of my life, my best friend, and definitely my better half. I don't know what I would do without him. Love you Clay-on!!!

NUDE FALLS

I often complain (shocker, I know) about living in Utah and how I would rather live somewhere more beautiful and exciting. Truth be told Utah is very beautiful and exciting. I have always know this, but often forget it. We have many diverse landscapes...from the red rocks to the pine forests. Clayton and I have made goal to explore more of what is in "our backyard." Ok so it was something I made it a goal to do and have dragged Clayton along, yet again. He hasn't complained, poisoned my cereal, or strangled me in my sleep yet so I'm thinking he is ok with the idea. That is one thing I love about him...he is always willing to go along with all my crazy ideas.



After exploring "the ranch" the previous weekend, this last weekend we packed up and headed a few hours south to Fifth Water Waterfalls in Diamond Fork Canyon (close to Spanish Fork).



Wow!



I think I was shocked with how beautiful the area was. Could have been all the recent rain that made everything all green. The green mixed with the red rocks and dirt was gorgeous.



The trail leads to a couple of waterfalls and some hot springs. Upon seeing the first waterfall we noticed the hot springs and then the naked old dude. Awesome. Having a good old time in his "birthday suit" smoking away on his cigarette. Lovely. I hope the boy scout troop we passed got a good look. We knew that this was a popular place for people to hang out in the nude (why else do you think we chose it? kidding mom) so we were prepared. naked old dudes are gross.


Anyway we kept our eyes on the trail and ventured out to see the next waterfall. This one was my favorite. A two-tiered beauty.


There were probably 8 or so different hot springs. We headed back to one that wouldn't give us views of a the autonomy of men. I have decided that there isn't anything much better than sitting in warm water with a waterfall in the background.

First waterfall

Second waterfall Sitting in the hot springs=heaven on earth

As we headed out we saw another old dude stripping down. This one was Asian. Apparently Asian's like to hang out naked too.

On our way back home we stopped for...what else...FOOD. First stop YOGURT BLISS in Spanish Fork. Some of the froyo was runny and they had a very limited selection of toppings. Price was $0.39/oz. However, they did have some good flavors that we hadn't tried before. Clayton liked the Mango Tart and I liked the Chocolate Raspberry.

After stopping at REI and getting absolutely no help from the sales guy is a kilt and Teva's (seriously a kilt!) we headed to SLC and Este Pizza. It has been awhile since tried one to the Utah lovavores on our food bucket list. The locavore recommended is the Pink Pizza ("pie topped with tomato-tinged ricotta"). We got half Pink Pizza and half Clay Pizza (appropriately named after Clay-on). The Clay is a meat lover's pizza (pepperoni, ham, sausage, and meatballs). Both pizzas were really good, but I think we both liked the Pink Pizza better. They are a New York style pizza co. so the crusts were thin. Not something I'm a huge fan of. The atmosphere was extremely laid back. There seemed to be quite a few students there. It also seemed to have a very liberal vibe. Price was comparable to most pizza joints maybe a little pricier. We paid about $15 for our 14" pizza. In all it probably won't be a place we go back to again. It was good and I'm glad we tried it, but neither of us left feeling like we definitely need to go back.

And that's a wrap.

WEEKEND AT THE RANCH

'Bout time!

For the past 6 years we have known each other Clayton has continuously talked to me about "the ranch."

1) "Ranch" water

2) diggin' fence posts at "the ranch"

3) all the times he spooked himself out when sleeping at "the ranch" with his cousins.


4) etc, etc, etc.


Every year when summer came around he would say "we should go camping at the ranch."


So how many times has he taken me to this little piece of heaven on earth (earth=Weston canyon)?


ONCE


well now...TWICE.


He finally found the walk to match his talk. Bless his heart.


Naturally we picked a weekend when it was raining. That's how we roll.

Once a year or once every two years, Clayton gets his favorite treat...hot dogs. As for myself...it is no secret that I'm not a huge fan of the dogs unless they are blackened to the blackest black over a campfire. Notice in the picture below how Clayton has four dogs to my one. Guess he was making up for lost time.
Time it takes Clayton to roast a marshmallow: 5 hours, 48 minutes and 25 seconds
Time it takes Heidi to roast a marshmallow (to perfection I might add): 2 seconds.
Burn baby burn. There is no other way to roast.
Am I a pyro? Maybe.
Am I impatient? Definitely

As we sat in our camp chairs staring into the fire we heard coyotes in the distance. Awesome, yet creepy at the same time. I wasn't scared until Clayton got silent and started starring out into the distance. I asked him what he was looking at and...silence. Asked him again and...silence. To me the silence = coyotes close by. To him silence=answer in his head and forget to answer out loud (don't be alarmed this is a normal habit of his). I started starring in the direction he was looking and saw a dark spot. My eyes started playing tricks on my mind and made it seem as if the dark spot were moving. Obviously we are safe and sound because I am here typing this today. The next morning upon investigating the "dark spot" we found it to be a big sagebrush. Nice. Sorry that wasn't the ending you were looking for/expecting.

After our detective work was done we went mountain biking.
As you can see Clayton had a combination of mud, cow poop and rubber for breakfast. Breakfast of champions I say!

When we got done, Clayton's helmet left a pretty impressive present. Pretty sure he should keep that style going...

After a few hours of intensive, physical work we realized how stupid we were for breaking a sweat because there was a 4 wheeler at our disposal. Much easier way to see the wilderness with much less effort.

Love, Love, Love camping. We had such a great time. Thanks to Clayton for taking me to see more of "the Ranch" and thanks for protecting me from the coyotes.

COAST HIGHWAY DAY 5

DAY 5: the LAST day - sigh...


-Woke up at the butt crack of dawn and drove from Corvallis to Tillamook.
-Checked out the competitor ... Tillamook Cheese Factory

It's only appropriate that I would be the cow...I'm just sayin'
I took a picture of this for my pops.

Pops,

If this is really how "A Day in the Life of a Dairy Farmer is" then maybe you should consider changing producers. Your daily schedule is waaaaaaaay harder than this. At least you get breaks to check Cougarfan.com right!?!

Love,

Your daughter who loves you and has fallen in love with the Oregon Coast and would like to visit you there

Notice how many pieces of cheese Clayton has on his toothpick. We take advantage of the unsupervised samples.

This picture is also for my pops. I have (or should day "had") about 5 of his "free" producer and vendor sweatshirts in my closet. Each time we go to Trenton I "borrow" one. After years of doing this "borrowing" and having pops blame it on either Cort, Brandon or Mom, he has finally caught on to my ways. So to get back at him for taking back all his sweatshirts from me we were going to buy these competitor ones...until we decided that $50 to make dad mad wasn't worth it. Don't worry pops our hearts are still with Gossners.

-Ate ice cream at Tillamook for breakfast. Ice cream = breakfast of champions I say. Pardon the awful picture of me. We got up early...

-Spotted a waterfall just off of the road on our way to Portland.

-Went to the Portland LDS Temple. Loved it. Wish we could have done a session, but it was Memorial Day and a Monday.

I loved the doors. Sorry you have me blocking them in the picture...

-Found a Trader Joe's and stocked up on our favorite dried mango.

-Drove around Portland. The only other time I went to Portland didn't leave a fabulous impression on me. I was around 11 years old and with the family in the rockin' dodge caravan. it was probably the 2nd time I had been outside of Utah (not counting Idaho). Dad stopped the van and got out to ask for directions. I immediately made mom lock the doors because it was a big, dark city with homeless people. I was sure that they were going to kill dad. Pretty sure it was my first time seeing a homeless person. I was sure from that moment on that Portland was evil. Well come to find out that Portland is not evil. Who would have thought. I wish we could have spent more time there, but we needed to get to the airport.

I was surprised how much we liked Oregon. We fell in love with all the beauty of the coast...how green everything was, the big trees, wildlife, lighthouses, waterfalls, small towns, etc. There was so much to do and see that we didn't get to. Guess we will have to go back.

COAST HIGHWAY DAY 4

DAY 5


-Woke up in an questionable hotel. I call it questionable because we are pretty sure they left a dirty towel hanging up behind the bathroom door. gross.
-Took advantage of the Hotel de Questionable by loading up on their unsupervised continental breakfast of granola, muffins, and bagels.
-Got ready for church. It was Sunday after all. In order to conserve packing space Clayton went to church in his hiking shoes. Nice.
-On the road again. Another amazing lighthouse on the Oregon coast.
-Went to Devil's Punchbowl. Pretty inactive, but an impressive sight anyway.

-Realized how great the song "Hallelujah" is by Leonard Cohen. Gets better each time I hear it.

-Hiked to Drift Creek Falls. Passed a lot of pansies who didn't want to get muddy. Beautiful falls.

-Hiked to Munson Falls. Was going to make Sunday a waterfall/hiking day but two of the other falls we were planning on hiking to had closed trailheads. Usually one to bypass those signs, but the "No Trespassing: Fine up to $5,000" sign and the fact that it was Sunday kinda kept us on the legal side.

-Drove a lot

-Drove more

-Passed a lot of towns we wanted to stop in, but couldn't because of time

-Drove more

-And more drivin

-Arrived in Corvallis to see Clayton's good friend from Hawaii, Heather.

Heather-You are AWESOME! Thanks so much for dinner, the gift and letting us crash on your floor. It was good to finally meet you and I know that Clayton really enjoyed seeing you and catching up. I wish we could have spent more time, but seeing how we didn't even come close to doing everything we wanted to on the coast we will be back. Next time you come to Utah give us a call. Thanks again!!! ps next time tell Blake to skip his meetings so we can meet him:)