In the photograph above Connie illustrates what the canyon looks like by the pictographs. Not that it helps much I admit. There is a Forest Service marker at one point that warns you not to touch the rock art. We looked at the rock, and even took pictures, but we could not see any art in it at all. Mark went further up the canyon, climbed around some rocks, and found the pictographs.

Mike told us that it is best to come up in the Spring when the pictographs are freshly painted.

Related posts:

1. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictographs
2. City Creek Canyon Trail
3. The View From The Living Room

At the trailhead: Mark, Connie, Kent, Melissa, Jill, Rick(ety), Mike, and Paul. Susan is on camera duty.

On Labor Day at 8 am nine adventurous souls set off to find the Parrish Canyon Fremont pictographs. The pictographs are not very far up the canyon. It was a little cold and Mark loaned Jill his coat. I am told it is a thirty minute hike but I didn’t time it. According to the minutes of the Centerville City Trails Committee meeting held Thursday, April 10, 2008, the pictographs had been damaged:

Mark Day reported he hiked to the Fremont pictographs in Parrish Canyon, and he said they have been vandalized. He said some of the pictographs have been scratched, and others have been rubbed out. (Trails Committee Meeting Minutes)

So we set off to see if we could take some pictograph photographs. I will show you first the path we took to the pictographs and then in the next post the pictographs themselves.

We set off on the trail. We got lost. Asked directions. Continued.

When you get to the bridge, cross it and turn right.

Take a picture of the waterfall and continue.

Follow the creek just like Connie and Susan are doing here.

At this point in a normal blog you would see the pictographs. But there are too many photographs already so the pictographs are in the next post.

Paul and Mike continued onward and upward. I followed. I wish I hadn't.

We got back before the others and met Merrill on Red.

Red is an Arabian Paint and his real name is in Russian which I can't pronounce much less spell.

Related posts:

1. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictograph Photographs
2. City Creek Canyon Trail
3. The View From The Living Room

Now that they were at a safe distance, watch the video (click here if you can’t see it) for what happened next.

Related posts:

1. Aurora Turns One
2. New Home In Layton
3. Steven Celebrates Birthday At Lone Star

View From The Living Room

On Monday, for a view of the Salt Lake Valley, we hiked to The Living Room. We relaxed in sandstone chairs with armrests. There were even coffee tables we parked our feet on.

The hike takes about two hours (it took us longer). It is considered easy (it isn’t). Trail length is 2.3 miles (seemed like 5 miles).

Here are some photographs of our hike. Click on the images to enlarge.

My nieces Shauna and Connie on the trail

Mark photographing the view

My brother Mike works his way to the top

Mark, Connie, and Shauna ahead of us across the canyon.

Susan and Jill behind us

Shauna in the living room

Mike captures the living room view

Mark and Connie eat a snack in the kitchen

Jill wonders what happened to the television

A beautiful view

Susan and Shauna did some geocaching

The mandatory group photograph

Left to right: Jill, Rick, Kent, Connie, Mark, Susan, Melissa, and Shauna.

Jill on her way down

Related posts:

1. City Creek Canyon Trail
2. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictographs
3. The Mueller Park Trail

After all was safely gathered in we went to work eating pizza and dessert. It is surprising how much pizza one has to eat after unloading a U-Haul. It must be directly proportional to the amount one unloads. When we were done there wasn’t much left of the eight boxes of pizza and bread sticks.

Contrary to our usual practice, we didn’t have time to take many photographs. However, Kari mentioned that he expected to see a blog post about the event so here it is.

Derek's family helping to unload the U-Haul

Sarah's family also helped unload

Large items were stored in Steven and Adelaide's cavernous garage

It's hard work eating pizza...

...but someone has to do it

Even the little ones helped

Related posts:

1. New Home In Layton
2. So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Kaysville
3. Missionary Dan Email #8 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

This month it was Paul’s birthday so we asked him where he wanted to go to eat. He decided on Dairy Queen, which explains the photograph above. He’s the good looking chap in the yellow shirt.

Aurora’s favorite food seemed to be water, which was in plentiful supply.

Aurora cannot have any milk products so she got to eat just a cone. That’s Adelaide holding Aurora who soon will have a little baby sister.

Related posts:

1. Steven Celebrates Birthday At Lone Star
2. Birthday Celebration: Adelaide
3. Aurora Is Blessed

The interesting thing about the priesthood session is that while the men are listening to a message about thrift and frugality, such as, “Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” the women are dining out at some fancy restaurant. Then right after the priesthood session disperses, the men head to the nearest All You Can Eat establishment.

At Grandma’s house there are many toys and Aurora heads to her favorite.

Between conference sessions on Sunday we went to the park for a picnic. According to my cell phone the temperature was 40 degrees and felt like 36 degrees. That really felt accurate. However the food was great, with turkey, deviled eggs, fruit, and green (this is Utah) Jell-o eggs.

Aurora’s favorites were the strawberries and the deviled eggs. She also like to point. Not at anything in particular it seems, and though there is some logic to the pointing, it is just that we adults do not understand it yet. What’s the point anyway?

There is a playground for the children in the park. Where there used to be a slide, there are now two rocks. When Steven was standing on one of the rocks I asked him why they took out the slide. He said that the slide was dangerous and had to be replaced with nice safe really hard rocks.

There were children in the park. They said that their names were Rachel and Jake. I asked them if they came here often and they said, “Sorry, we don’t speak to strangers.”

Related posts:

1. Kaysville Utah South Stake Conference
2. Missionary Dan Email #4 from Hermiston, Oregon
3. General Conference Quiz

Thanksgiving this year was at my brother-in-law Randy’s home in Perry, Utah. Steven brought an extra turkey to fry. He heated the peanut oil to 350 degrees. When the breast of the turkey reached 170 degrees it was done. It was cooked perfectly. Last year it was burnt. After we had all eaten our fill we went outside to have a group photograph with Adelaide’s new Nikon D90.

Later in the evening I blogged while some of the family played the rickety game “Would You Rather…?” which I am glad I didn’t play. Ashley commented for the first time on a blog (mine). Others watched the Cars movie. Steven and Paul tinkered with Adelaide’s camera. And then it was time to gobble up some pie.

There are some more Thanksgiving photographs in the gallery.

Related posts:

1. Thanksgiving In September
2. Christmas Letter 2008
3. Memorial Day 2008

Related posts:

1. Parrish Canyon Fremont Pictograph Photographs
2. Family Home Evening With Teenagers: Just Wing It
3. An X in The Road of History