Backpacks, Rain & Hikes...Oh My!

It is starting to be a tradition to go backpacking with Nancy and her family during the summer. This year we went to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We camped for a couple of days in the tent trainer and then did a couple of days of backpacking. While we backpacked Race stayed with Grandma and Grandpa back at the main camp site.

The first full day there we did some small hikes and saw some places. We hiked to the head waters of the Colorado river. I had to stay in the car because Race was sleeping but Ron got some great pictures on their hike.


The next day we started the backpacking part of our trip. Here is a picture of Nancy, Gwen {family friend}, Chloe and Phoebe and all the packs. Here we are out on the trail. It was a little hot and the packs were heavy. But we made it to the camp site.


The next day started real early for part of our group. Darrell, Nancy, Kyle, Jared and Gwen headed out to summit Longs Peak at 4:30 am. We started out at 8 am to hike to a glacier lake. We made it to the turn off and found out that it wouldn't be the best for the kids so we rested and headed back to camp. The girls did about 6 miles that day. They are great hikers.After we got back we had lunch and then our other group joined us about an hour later. We all agreed that we didn't want to spend another 1/2 day and full night in the tents due to rain again so we quickly packed up our site and packed out of there that day. More miles for the girls. My parents were happy to see that we were off the mountain and Race was even more happy to see his family again. The next day we did a couple more little hikes around the park and walked the streets of Estes Park, CO.


We headed home on I-70, much prettier but much longer than the I-80 way. We were all happy to get home and get clean. Now is when I start thinking....where are we going next year?

My favorite time of day........

When Race sleeps.
(Oh, the bumps on his face are from playing outside a little too hard.)

Happy Birthday Brooke!

On July 10th we celebrated Brooke's Birthday. She choose to have a cake from Wal-mart. We had family over to celebrate and she opened up presents.



Her favorite presents are her golf clubs and her Littlest Petshop stuffed animal. She can't wait to go golfing with Mommy.

May Happenings

I know it is July, but I have been a little busy and need to post what happened in May. I don'thave anything in June. That is sad of me. So here is May.

Dance Review
After doing three little girls hair, make-up and putting glitter all over their bodies we were ready to show the world their dance skills.

The twins loved their outfits and I have to say do did I. Brooke did one dance that took 2nd place in competition. Brooke is a great little dancer.




Kindergarten Field Trip

I decided to go on the Kindergarten Field trip. They went down to the Young Living Farm in Mona. They took a wagon ride, planted sun flower seeds and played on the play ground there and even had a snack. They had lots of fun.
Race's Birthday


We just had a small gathering of family over for Race's Birthday. His cake did not turn out real smooth in the oven. It was high in some places and low in others so I made the best of it and turned it into an off-road race track. He liked it. :) He got a tool case with tools in it that Grandpa Osborn is helping him with.




Twins Graduation

I got Brooke out of school and we attended the twins graduation. It was real cute.

Ireland


Ron had a business trip that included Ireland...so I had to go with him.

Sunday - We touched down in Ireland at 9:00 am got to the hotel around 10:00 am and the first thing on my list to do in Ireland...go to church. :) After church we went and got set up in our hotel room and then went walking around.






We walked down Grafton Street, it is a popular shopping area. We ate at a Japanese place and then walked around St. Stephen's Green. The tulips were in bloom.

A couple of days later it was real warm, for Ireland, and the green was full of people laying on the grass eating and just basking in the warm sun.

Across the street from St. Stephen's Green was our hotel. The Shelbourne.
It has some great history and many well known people have stayed there.
Many celebs and dignitaries. While we were there Daniel Craig was using the
Princess Grace Suite for a press junket. Ohh I so wanted to see
Daniel Craig - but I never got a glimpse of him.


Monday I hopped on and off the city bus tour that goes around the sites of the city. I hopped off at several places but two of my favorites were Trinity College to see the Books of Kells and to Kilmainham Gaol. Much history at both. It was amazing to find out the history of the Republic of Ireland and how young the country really is. While I was the there the 6th president died. He wasn't the current president but they have had under 10 presidents. wow!


Tuesday I took a tour down to the Cork area.


We visited the Blarney Castle - I kissed the Blarney Stone. We had a tour of the city of Cork and then we went down to Cob'h, Cove or in the old days Queenstown. I saw the dock that my ancestors took to get on the boat as well as the same dock that Titanic passengers took. I saw the White Star office that all the immigrants passed through. The JFK Memorial park and visited the Heritage Center Museum, which documented out the different decades of what the immigrants went through in Ireland and on the boats. I saw the memorial to the Titanic, and one to Annie Moore the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island.
It was a long train ride back after an event filled day.










Wednesday - my plans were derailed a little and I ended up taking the Luas, the light-rail system to Ron's office and had lunch with him and Stephen. Then I took the light-rail back up to the hotel and caught a bus up to the mission office. Ron wanted a BOM and I need to get some information on some contacts down in the County Kerry area for my Friday adventure. So I didn't take any pictures of the day only of our dinner. We got dinner at Lemon. It is a crepe' and sandwich place. They were closing so we took it to go and ate it at the hotel. It was a little chilly so I stopped at a Starbucks to get some hot chocolate. The hotel kept us in constant supply of water. Simple dinner.

Thursday - I spent the morning completing my plans for Friday and then I took off for Howth. I walked up to the closest DART station. I passed by Marion Square which has a statue of Oscar Wilde and grabbed a picture of that. Then I took the train up to Howth for lunch down in the sea side town and a round of golf at the Deer Park Hotel Golf and Spa. The views were fantastic and the golf not bad. It wasn't a links course but the view and the cost made up for it. I had to walk up a long road uphill to get to it but the road had so many picture moments. We had dinner that night with Stephen and his wife Julie. We ate at a place called Bleu. I had Crab Linguini, it was so good. My favorite place I have eaten at in Ireland. The company was good and the dessert was to die for. It was a great day!


Friday, April 18th My Birthday, Happy Birthday to ME!
Today was my special day.
I had an early start to the airport to board a prop plane to go to the other side of the island. There I rented a car. Drove on the wrong side of the road. Got lost a couple of times. Drove through Killarney National Park and ended up on the Beare Peninsula. I drove down to where my ancestors had come from. A very rocky area where they were minors. O'Sullivans are all over the place and I was able to find stores with their names on it. I went to the mining museum and had a great drive. I drove back up to the Kerry Airport and caught my plane back to Dublin. I got back and was real tired. Ron still wanted to take me out for my birthday so I went back to the restaurant Bleu and had the same thing, so good. I did get a different dessert and it was just as good as the day before.



Saturday - Ron left for India and I went on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. I went on a train to Limerick and met the tour there. It was a great little tour which had 32 people on it. Perfect. No big tour bus or anything. First we went to the ruins of a ring fort. Then to a portal tomb that had remains from 3600 b.c. After that we went down to Galway bay. Due to a road rally race we detoured up corkscrew hill and then on to lunch at Gus O'Connor's pub. That was tasty. I had seafood chowder and a diet coke. Then on to the cliffs. This was a lovely windy chilly day. It ended with a long ride back to Dublin. We had to get off of the train early because of work on the rails and had to take a 45 min bus ride into Dublin. The hotel room was lonely with out Ron there but I was busy packing for my flight home early the next morning.

10 things you may or may not know about me

1. I am finished having kids. Many think I am too young to stop - but if you really know me, you would understand.

2. It takes me about two days to get adjusted to my husband being in my bed after being on a business trip. Which is real hard when he is only in town for two days a lot of the times.

3. I love photography and wish I was better at taking them and at post production

4. I am currently getting open water certified for Scuba diving.

5. I played soccer from Kindergarten to 5th grade on an all boys team. Stopped until they got a high school team and played varsity my Junior & Senior years. I have always wished I had taken it further but in those times they didn't have expansion teams in Utah for girls.

6. When I was young I once crocheted a long line (because I didn't know how to make another row) of yarn four houses long. We measured it on the road out in front of our house.

7. My favorite colors are orange and blue - Which you might already know - but what you may not know is my least favorite color is burgundy. It was even one of my wedding colors but I really don't like it. It just happened to look good with Blue and Green. The hip colors of the mid 90's

8. I hate plain white walls in houses. Houses deserve to have color and personality that matches the owner. So I would have to say I love, love, love well painted walls in a house. I lived in my house for a couple of years before I could get the walls of the main part painted and I am so loving it.

9. I love turning the calendar at the end of the month. I can't wait to see what the picture is for the next month.

10. I love my birthday! I love having a birthday no matter what age I am. I love having a special day just for me. I hope that is something that I instill in my kids. I look forward to my birthday every year and I hope that they always do. That they look forward to 16 as much as 30. Every year is a year that I got to spend with my family. A year I got through with twins. A year of vacations, camping trips, fireworks, water fights, raspberry picking, picnics under the sycamore tree on warm days, Sunday walks, jumping in leaves. A year of good and bad but always a year of family.

extra one
11. I am always thinking about the next trip. W either it is with my kids, just my husband, or with my sister. In the back of my head is always a trip somewhere.

Ok - Angie...i finally completed my list you tagged me for. Enjoy all!!!

Down Right Creepy!!

I got a phone call from the National Order of Police Officers. At least I think that is what she said. She kept calling me by my name, not Mrs. Terry but Angela. Does this lady know me? Have I talked to her before? Have I requested her to call me by my first name?? It was just creepy. As she keeps going on with her speal, she keeps using my first name. I said I wasn't interested and then she used it again. So I cut her off and told her that using my first name was creepy and she didn't know me well enough to do so. She kind of laughed and I said bye. Is is so much to ask for a total stranger not to call me by my first name? Serving at Dalton's I tell the patrons my first name. I don't mind if they use it to ask me a question or get my attention- I told them my name. But I think it is just a little weird to have a strange phone solicitor call me by my first name.