There's Nothing Like a Good Book

Bethany loves books.

Mmmmm...Delicious...

Little Cottonwood

We had a little brush with disaster a couple of weeks ago. We took advantage of the beautiful day to go hiking up Little Cottonwood Canyon. We went up a random trail, had a little picnic, looked around at the beautifully roaring creek, took some pictures, and went home...

Bethany LOVED the rushing water- she kept pointing at it!

We passed some police and some news trucks on our way home. On the news later that night, they strongly urged hikers to stay away from there because of severe risk of the creek flooding. In fact, this creek actually DID flood- by the next day some nearby bridges, and even some basements and yards, were under water. We had no idea! We just thought the creek looked pretty!

"When we're helping, we're happy..."

It's official... Bethany is walking! Here are some pictures:

Doing the salsa. She takes after her Uncle John:)

So now she's able to help more around the house:

Reorganizing our cupboards...

Reorganizing her blankets

Helping with the laundry. Or making more...?

We love our baby!

Memorial Day Weekend

To celebrate Memorial Day, we went on a Thornton family camping trip to Fillmore, Utah. It's a teeny-tiny town with a gorgeous camping area (by a river!) and lots of Thornton family history. How had we never been there before? Maybe because of the high gas prices ($3.14!) Here are pictures of everyone who went. Starting with the most dangerous.

Hiram's favorite part of the trip

Thomas, with his all-seeing camera


Bethany helped set up camp. Not so dangerous, but she sure was fun!


We loved having Azia and Whitney with us. We hope they weren't traumatized by our temporary lack of latrines. (We found some latrines later, down the road...)

We also loved being with Martha. She found this place and helped everyone a lot.

Cherie and Logan also came, with their five kids. We were glad Logan brought his guns- a nearby sign told us that it was "Bear Season." Fabulous. Here's the Mecham family:

Cherie, Logan, and Natalie

Trae eating a Red Vine

Julianna and Hunter making funny faces

Sadie, looking very much like a big girl

We had a really fun time! We were just there one night, since Liz had to work the next day. And we were all glad that we never saw a bear.

And here are some late additions (taken by Thomas and his afore-mentioned camera- Thanks Thomas!)

Liz's favorite picture

Bethany very excited at the creek below