Where I Live.

This is where I live..........................and I love it. This is actually not a view from my front porch, but I sure would love for it to be, we live down in the valley. Our fair little city, Festival City, USA is perched just at the base of some really beautiful mountains. There are even cabins located in the big 'V', on the mountain, that you see in the middle of the picture, which are inhabited year round. That would be an even better place to live, except for all of the snow in the winter, I would definitely have to be a stay at home mom if I lived there, no way would I drive down in the winter.

As I said earlier I love where I live. It has the charm of a small town but it is also home to Southern Utah University, the Tony Award winning Shakespearean Festival, and so many other festivals that I would never be able to list them all. This past weekend they had the Skyfest, which is all about hot air balloons. I missed it, but my friend Brittany, who you can visit HERE, seems to have had a really enjoyable time with her cute little family.

I actually spent the weekend cooking, more on that wonderful culinary adventure later, which I forgot to take pictures of, but I will explain later. I didn't burn anything, not even my hand or fingers, and I did make my best ever pancakes to date, they have been a continuing saga of trying to get it right, which does not always work in my case. You know the middle child syndrome where we think more is better, I live by that a little to much when it come to cooking, not just in quantity but also in the measured amounts of the ingredients that I use.

But back to our fair city. I do really love it and I am ever so thankful that we moved here 6 1/2 years ago. The mountain that is above us each day has become a great and wonderful play ground to spend countless hours camping, fishing, hiking, and spending great family time together. We even got to spend a whole week camping this past summer, which I talked about in THIS post. As I said lots of family fun. I can not wait to get up their again real soon. The leaves are changing and I should be able to get some really great pictures. Wish me luck!!

Shopping in our little town is not so bad, but not so great either. We pretty much have only one Wal-Mart, no Target, and no K-mart. I really wish that we had a few more choices, but just a short 45 minute drive down I-15 and we can shop to our hearts content. I guess our town has just what it needs to be livable and lovable, but not so much that it gets to crazy to even think about stepping out your front door and attempting to drive in the traffic.

Did I tell you yet that I really love where I live?

Did I tell you yet that the best part about where I live is that my family is all right here, right where I can make sure that all is good in their worlds? Did I tell you that yet?

Love to All,

midRae

Family Fun.

So here we goooooo! Munk Family Fun! Yeah! I said I would share and here it is. The above picture shows midMan with my biggest competition, in this world, when it comes to midMan's attention in the mountains. You decide if that is the Grizzly 4-Wheeler or his brother. Man, did they have a blast and we got to see lots of critters.

These 8 Antelope, 1 male in the lead, 3 ladies, and 4 babies would grace us each day with their presence just right outside our camp. Are they not beautiful? One mom even fed her babies right in front of us. This so amazed us because usually when we see antelope they are about 200 yards away and running about 55 miles per hour, directly away from us. Just believe me when I say, 'This is amazing!'

Here's midMan holding up the remains of his fish. See, I told ya mine was bigger. He was so jealous. heeheehee

tailEnd and Haygen getting ready for a ride on our smaller 4-wheeler.



Grandma and Grandpa had a great time sitting around when they weren't fishing. They stayed up with us the whole week. We even managed to get them both on the wheelers for a few rides. It was really great to get some good quality time with them. It seems that life has been so hectic lately we haven't had a chance to catch up with them. They also retired a year ago and have been going non stop since.



Here's Jeff, one of midMan's brothers, and his wife Lesty, who both happen to be Haygens mom and dad. They came up for a couple of days and we had nothing but fun. Jeff and midMan got to have some real fun looking for mule deer and Lesty and I got to have some really good visits. When we all decided to branch out away from St. George we lost a lot of the time we had to spend together, so any time that we have together we try to cram in a lot of visiting and catching up on each others lives. Oh and Lesty spent the whole weekend with her hand in front of her face trying not to get her picture taken, haha it didn't work to well for her did it!?

Here is our oldest son and his wife. They decided to take a break from college and join us for a couple of nights.

Here's the middle son, Dayton. He came up for a couple of hours in the middle of the week. It was great to see him for a bit, but I was really thankful that he was at home taking care of our house and our little bit of a garden. He did so good we came home to lots of tomato's, quite a few jalapenos and one zucchini ( truth be told if that's the only zucchini we get I will forever swear off of growing a garden).

Last, but definitely not least, here's tailEnd trying his hand at spelunking. There is this cave close to where we were camping and he just begged us to let him go down. It's actually an old lava tube, called Mammoth Cave. He explored it when he was in 5th grade and really wanted to check it out better. I didn't want to nor did Grandma. We just waited up top and were completely surprised when he showed up coming from a totally different direction.

As you can all see and read we had a great time. I just wish it could have lasted longer. Although longer without a shower would not have been fun. I hope you all enjoy the trip with us. Maybe next time I will be better with the camera, there is always hope, right?

Love to All,

midRae

I Got My Fix!

Yeah!!!! I finally got my camping fix. To bad it wasn't long enough or quite as warm as we would have liked. Don't get me wrong it wasn't to cold but we did have to run the heater in the trailer and the tent at night. The one thing I have to say about camping is that it is so peaceful. I love to get away from all the noise of everyday life and sit back and enjoy what God has given us. I would spend my life sitting up in the mountains just taking in the beauty and peace of this world. Nothing can top that. Except for maybe my midMan.

Now on to a different point of view when it comes to camping.

ZOE!!!

Miss Zoe is the worlds sweetest little puppy. We have had her for about 12 years and I just can't get enough of her cute little face with it's big brown eyes that will plead with you for that last bite of your food. She is adorable. This camping trip she reminded us that she hates to be left behind by walking way in front of us when we would go for a walk. Every once in a while she would look back to make sure we were following her, especially when we would hit a road, then off she would go on her merry little way. She also decided on this trip to not listen to us. We think she was just paying us back for bringing Bella, midMan's little blind baby, into the picture.

Now the bad. Zoe likes to eat stuff. Any stuff she finds on the ground while camping is open for tasting. Even while taking walks or gathering wood, anything, and I mean anything, she finds looks good to her and is fair game for tasting and eating. This past weekend we will just say she found something so very disgusting that I almost made her sleep in the truck all alone. Eeeeeewwwwwwww!!! I did make her sit through a really good face washing which she definitely did not like but this was so gross. This girl needs some serious modification to her attitude when it comes to food and what tastes good. I just cringe at the thought of what she did even while I look into her big brown eyes and love her still. See, even midMan found it cringe inducing (holding Bella).

The whole family was able to join us which was wonderful. Here's Dayton and Shannel just before they had to leave. As you can tell by the picture Dayton had been up for 24 hours straight and decided he needed to go home and sleep in his own bed. He was beat. But I was so excited and happy to have them both join us.


Dion and Ada also came up for the experience, although Dion has determined that he would much rather camp over by Enterprise, in the heat, than on top of Cedar Mountain, in the cool. In this picture Dion is going for his best James Dean look, to bad tailEnd found his way into the picture.

Ada had a blast with Emery, as you can see. She would have danced with her all night if Emery's mom and dad would have let her.

And here is Emery's mom and dad, Amanda and Johnny. They are Dion and Ada's friends who came to join us on our camping trip. They brought S'More's!, which we were all thankful for, even Ada, who had never had one before and decided that they were just a little bit to sweet. Fun was had by all burning the marshmallows and eating the crispy remains.



I could have gotten some better pictures but I was always busy cooking or just sitting enjoying the peace and quiet or just taking a walk or just riding the 4wheelers and forgetting that yes Rae you do have a camera now. TailEnd also had a blast. And was so excited because he can now ride the 4wheelers by himself without getting into trouble after he took his OHV training course. Let's all join in his little celebration and dance a jig with him. Emery and Ada thought it was fun and exciting, too.

Over all we had a blast and midMan and I would love to go again this weekend, but alas, life interrupts us and makes us take care of all that other mundane stuff like the yard, and the house, and the bills, and the garden, and the kids, and everything else that life likes to throw in our way.

Love To All,

midRae

Snow in June

As promised, snow in June.

I can hardly believe it!

And to top that, it snowed again this Saturday, June 13th.

The big question is.......

Is it global warming or what?

My vote........global warming & your guess is as good as mine.

Love to all,

midRae