Mini Backpacking Trip

Now that Terral's whole family lives in Cedar again, we've had a lot of fun hanging out with his two sisters and their husbands. For Labor Day Weekend, we took a little trip to a place we like to call Raspberry Canyon. That is of course not its real name, but it was rechristened by Chris (ha ha! rechristened by Chris!) while I was on my mission. Anyway, it's really close to home, and it is GORGEOUS. I was filled with wonder by my Heavenly Father's creations.

We saw lots of interesting things, but the arch and the two waterfalls are what bring most people to the canyon.

This is us en route to finding a campsite. We were standing below the arch, but my puny camera couldn't get us and the arch.

We were sure hungry by the time we set up camp and got dinner going! BTW, if you ever need any ideas for backpacking food, Terral has some good ones.

We had a lot of fun that evening just talking, laughing, and playing games. The next day we did some more hiking. This was when we reached the falls. And the canyon's namesake: yummy, little, bitter-sweet, wild RASPBERRIES!

Here are a few more of my favorite points of interest.

And a few more shots of us.

M & M Visit

My side of the family gets together for a big FHE every other month. This month it just didn't work with schedules to find a time when everyone would be able to go. Terral and I ended up being among the non-attendees because of a previous commitment, but Mom and Matt took pity on us and came to visit us in Cedar! I was really glad because Matt will be going back into the mission field soon, and I wanted to spend some more time with him. Plus, he got to see our new-to-him apartment.

We didn't do anything particularly exciting, and to be honest, I was still feeling quite a bit of anxiety from school starting, etc. But we did enjoy each other's company! Here are some pictures of Matt being goofy.

Mom made some dinner for us the first night, since Terral and I didn't get home till after 7pm. She was also helpful with some little things around the house. I kept telling her I could do it later. I don't want her to feel like she has to work every time she comes to visit, but she said that she enjoys helping out, so we were grateful. She had some good relaxing time too. Isn't she cute?

This is her on our formerly teal leather couch. She helped me to basically re-upholster it last spring break.

Yay for family!

(Normally you can't see that foam under the couch, but we didn't put it back very well after Matt slept on the hide-a-bed.)

Thanks Mom and Matt! We're so glad you came!

Finally Fence

We finally got a fence put up around our garden! Chris's dad got some free chain link from someone at the beginning of the summer, but we didn't get posts until a few days ago. The boys did a lot of work putting the posts in. We girls helped too, of course.

The plan is to put some barbed wire between the chain link and the top poles--then it will be finished. Oh, and the gate still needs to be attached. In the mean time our garden feels so much safer! No Deer Allowed!