Battle Creek Water Falls

Memorial Day was a treat.
1st: I hadn't noticed it was coming up
2nd: I had the day off at work
3rd: Doug had the day off from school
4th: My brother, David, was in town for the weekend
5th: My friend Alicia from high school came to Salt Lake just before the weekend, so if felt like a really long great weekend spending time with her.
6th: Tiffany and her family were at my parent's house for the weekend
7th: We found a great hike to do in the afternoon on a beautiful sunny day



Doug called his sister and her kids came along with us for this cool hike to Battle Creek waterfall. The trail was just over 1/2 mile each way and the kids found a cool cave on the way up.

The waterfall was pretty cool. The coolest part though--there were kids repelling in between the two ribbons of the falls. It was pretty sweet.

The wind was blowing the mist onto us and the day was just hot enough for it.

Doug's neice, Nikki (red head), Dallin, and Erika. They made the hike especially fun.

I decided to make things more interesting by daring (double-dog) Erika and Dallin to go jump in the waterfall. Keep in mind this was mountain spring water...it was freezing. They did it!

And they were freezing...they voted to go back to the car to warm up and end our hike.

It was a fun short hike. I think Doug loved this especially because it was my idea. He is usually asking me to go for a hike...this time I was asking him. I scored points, so I will remember to do this again.

Gardening

There is something so fun about digging in the ground and watching little green buds break through the soil. This last Saturday, I offered to watch my sister, Tiffany's kids, while her and Tyler did some shopping. Tyler has been doing an internship in St. George while Tiff and the kids are in Salt Lake. He is coming home every-other weekend.



This is Isaac. He is two and adorable. He just stood next to me while we watched Doug work--go Doug!

Cameron was loving hiding in the very tall grass.

We planted spinach, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, zucchini (only 1 plant this year--we did 4 a few years ago, that was nuts!), spaghetti squash, asparagus (which my grandparents told me won't produce for 3 years...we'll be moved away from our apartment by then), green peppers, strawberries, and herbs. I love eating from the garden.

Michael Jackson look alike contest

Doug has observed that I am a little more emotional and irritated with him studying, well all the time! Last Saturday, Doug studied all day long and I just wanted to be outside playing. I gardened alone (shoveled and got a blister), washed both our cars, did the laundry...and hoped he would be done in the evening so I could have a little "Doug time". At the end of the evening, I convinced him to do a facial mask with me. He later told me that he felt like he had to since I was so sad about him studying.



I didn't tell him (on purpose) that the mask would begin to harden and his face would start to itch. It was hillarious. He was at his laptop doing homework typing away and then would stop and say how stiff his face was. Somehow, laughter is the best medicine.


It took over 1/2 hour to dry and I even used a hairdryer on my face to speed the process.

Then I realized, I look like Michael Jackson! It must be the nose, white face, and the weird stiff smile.

It was memorable. For a moment, I was glad to be a little moody so Doug would do this with me.

Down on the Bayou

I think I finally figured out what presents to buy for Doug's birthday. He hasn't been wild about the clothes I've bought him for either Christmas or for his birthday. This year, I emailed his sister, Natalie, who lives in Louisiana and asked if he could come stay with her in between Fall and Spring semesters and the dates worked well. So, I gave Doug a nose hair trimmer, Seinfeld season I, and a trip to see his sister for a whole week. He was so excited. I knew I had done well. Natalie was kind enough to pay for my trip and I joined Doug for a few days. It was a blast.

Natalie's husband Dave was deloyed to Iraq about one month before we arrived. Their youngest, Spencer, attached to Doug right away. He would call for "Dougie" (which sounded exactly like doggie) after every nap and liked to have him in his sight at all times.

These are Natalie's kids--Amanda (8), Maren (5), and Spencer (2). They are really fun kids with lots of imagination.

We found an aligator farm closeby that included a feeding show. It was about a 90 minute drive and we passed through Natchitoches (Nack-a-dish believe it or not) where they filmed Steel Magnolias. This is a photo before the live feeding show--the best part was that the staff doing the feeding was a guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and not really trying hard to be entertaining at all. It was hillarious.

Doug and I riding the aligator. I have about a 20 inch waist.

Maren looked adorable in this photo--so I had to include it.

Spencer REALLY loved the canoeing and would have taken a spin in the kyack alone if we let him.

Us and the kids in a canoe at Toledo Bend. It's a huge reservoir where the military has a dock area. They rent boats and canoes very cheap to those in the military. I gained a great appreciation for our military and their families while we stayed on base. When we went to Natalie's ward, there were a few women who were single mothers while their husbands have been deployed, some of them for over 18 months! I didn't appreciate that as much as I do now.

Spencer wanted to sit in the kyack with Dougie.

This was one of the coolest things I saw--we couldn't see the end of this long line of military vehicles.

I don't know if Dave would appreciate a photo of his only son with his head in an aligator's mouth while he is miles and miles away, but we thought it was hillarious.

These things didn't look very scary--just lazy.

Although signs like this reminded us that they were dangerous.