5/28/10 - 5/31/10 Pine Valley Camping

This Memorial Day Weekend we went camping with Misi, Marci, Marley, Macey and their extended family in Pine Valley, UT.

We were about 3/4 mile from Pine Valley Reservoir and took several hikes to the scenic (though fisherman infested) reservoir. Apparently the area is a big summertime destination for the St. George/ Las Vegas folk. There were more Nevada license plates than there were Utah license plates at the campgrounds. Being Memorial Day Weekend, we were lucky to get one of the last available campsites in the whole valley! We ended up at the Equestrian Campground, which was not the best for Lori's horse allergies, it didn't have the best campground amenities, and was much less forested than the other camp areas. But since most of the group was interested in doing little more than sitting around the campground relaxing, and since we had a total of 17 people and 6 vehicles, the extreme roominess and privacy of the campground was ideal for our group.

CAMPGROUND - Pix of hanging at the campground:


THE KID CORRAL - a huge benefit of using a horse camp:


THE KID CORRAL - video:


HIKING - THE LAKE - Between the 4 of us in various combinations, and with various company along, we took a total of 7 hikes to the vincinity of the Pine Valley Reservoir:


HIKING - THE LAKE - videos:




HIKING - THE MEADOW - Unfortunately, the lake was typically infested around it's entire shore with hundreds of fisherman, practically standing shoulder to shoulder, who do not take kindly to rocks thrown in the water, splashing about, giggling, and general horseplay as is typical of small (and not so small) children. So Lacey and Ron did a little exploring and found a great fisherman- free meadow with the stream running through it where we were able to enjoy pine cone races, rock throwing, stick fencing, toe dangling, and various other activities on multiple occasions:


JEEPING - Forest Service Trail # 31040. Ron and Lori bribed a Marci and Rae with ice cream to watch the kids for awhile while they went exploring in the Jeep. Armed with the most recent Dixie National Forest MVUM (Motor Vehicle Use Map), we went to check out a road that showed on the map as legal only to ATVs and motorcycles. However, when we got to it, the sign on the ground stated that the route was open to ALL motor vehicles! So we took it. It was a nice short trail (about 2 miles long) that was fun, but not very difficult. There were a couple of places where it was certainly more suited to ATV-sized vehicles, but was still easily passable to a carefully driven full- sized 4x4. Other than a single incident that involved breaking a large tree branch to clear the trail, sliding face first about 20 feet down a steep hill, and a couple of bloody scrapes, it was a very enjoyable ride ;)


5/28/10 - 5/31/10 Pine Valley adventure stats:

adventure days=3.0
work vacation days used=0
highway miles=687
off-highway miles=12
hiking miles=12.0
average lodging cost per night (3 nights)=$5.00

5/29/10 Riley Turns Two!!

[Note: In order to maintain this blog's chronological continuity and to cover up our delayed documentation of the past couple of weeks of whirlwind back to back family adventures, the next several blog posts will be deceitfully backdated to the actual date of their associated adventure/event, giving the appearance that these posts were actually made in a timely and sequential manner]


Our Riley is now 2 years old! His actual birthday was swallowed up by our camping trip with Marci's family in Pine Valley, but we decided to pull out the pix related to his Birthday activities in a separate blog post. Grandpa Sam, Grandma Judy, and Uncle Braden came up to Pine Valley from Las Vegas to see Riley on his birthday as well.

Also, on Thursday, Kiley and a few of her family came over to celebrate with him. Kiley got a video of the now infamous "Baby Diaper, Riley Diaper" comedy act. So I have stolen that from her Youtube and added it here as well.

Birthday Pictures:



"Baby Diaper/ Riley Diaper" Video:
Background: We had our niece Sagee staying with us for a few days about a month ago. Riley got a kick out of the difference in sizes between her diapers and his. So we started this dialogue with him where we would hold up Sagee's diaper and say in a high- pitched, girly voice "Baby's Diaper!" Then we would hold up Riley's diaper and say in a deep, manly voice, "Riley's Diaper!" The act has become a winner and Riley loves to perform it on demand, when offered an incentive such as candy, or in this case, popcorn.

5/24/10 Lacey Graduates from Preschool

After 2 years of counting, ABC's, nursery rhymes, songs, sign language, and learning to read; today Lacey attended her last day of Preschool! Miss Tiffany held a graduation for all the kids who are moving on to Kindergarten in the fall.

We are very proud of Lacey! She is very excited for Kindergarten!

Enjoy some pictures!



Here is Lacey reciting "There Was A Crooked Man:"



Here she is receiving her certificate:

5/7/10 - 5/9/10 Las Vegas

5/7/10 - 5/9/10 Las Vegas Adventure statistics:

adventure days=3
vacation days off of work=1
highway miles=990
off-highway miles=5
hiking miles=1
average lodging cost per paid night (0 night) = $0.00
average lodging cost per total nights (3 nights) = $0.00

This past weekend, we took a trip to Vegas to attend Judy's graduation! We stopped at Valley of Fire State Park on Friday to go hiking and took Judy on a short Jeep ride on the Logandale Jeep Trails. Didn't hike much, didn't jeep much, but had a great time hanging with Ron's family and had great weather! Gay went with us as far as St. George so she could spend the weekend with Marci. Although not recorded in photograph, Lori got a breakfast and a couple of homemade cards from her kids, and Ron and Lori each got to spend part of Mother's Day with their Mom's.

Enjoy!!!

By the way, for some reason, after you click on the play button on the slideshow, you have to click the other play button below for the slideshow to start, but if you click too fast, the whole web album pops up in a new window, if you click too slow, the second play button hides itself. Annoying. (Note, those viewing via email or Facebook might need to go to the live blog at http://rllrtolman.blogspot.com/2010/05/5710-5910-las-vegas.html to see the picture slideshows)

VALLEY OF FIRE SUNRISE:
We left St. George at 4:30amMDT to make it to VOF by 5:30amPDT for sunrise and breakfast. It was beautiful! Next time Ron should remember the matches so we don't have to eat cold, dry oatmeal for breakfast!


VALLEY OF FIRE HIKING:
Judy, Sam, Amity, Wayne, Haley, Davin, Treton, Jessica, Chelsea and Lisa all met us for a day of "hiking" around VOF. I say "hiking" because we mostly dawdled and only put a total of 1 mile of official trail underneath our feet.


JEEPING AT THE LOGANDALE 4X4 TRAIL SYSTEM:
Ron and Riley took Judy, Wayne, and Davin for a quick jeep ride before heading to town. Despite our intentions to spend half the day jeeping, we only got part of a short trail finished. As that Ron was the driver, the spotter, and the photographer, we came away with just this one blurry picture. Now that we know where to go... We'll be back!

From 2010-05 (May) 03 Las Vegas - Logandale Trail System

GRADUATION:
Congratulations Judy!! We are very proud of you (and jealous)!! Over time, all the kids got restless and ended up leaving the stadium proper to wander and play in the outer corridor, and eventually, outside.


OTHER:
Does "other" need a description? I guess not!