Vera Gail's Birthday!

Vera Gail turned five last week! She is very excited that she is such a big girl now and will be ready to go to Kindergarten at the end of the summer!

Here she is helping water some plants before it's time for presents and cake!

The birthday girl with her pile of swag!

Emmett and Gareth did extra jobs so they could earn some money to buy Vera Gail a dart gun for her birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa sent Vera Gail a new (and very pink and girly!) scooter!

Mommy knows that keeping the band-aid supply well-stocked is always a good idea. ;-)

Vera Gail chose to have a Winnie-the-Pooh themed caked with lots of chocolate frosting!

She was exceedingly keen on the toy on the cake!

And now she's digging in!

OOOPS - we got so excited about EATING the cake that we FORGOT to put candles on it and sing 'Happy Birthday'.  As one can tell, this slight error in the accurate progression of traditional birthday events did not bother her.

Blowing out candles.

Here she is testing out her new scooter (and burning off some of that birthday sugar-load)!

Auntie Rachel's Visit!

 My sister Rachel came out to stay with us for a few days and we had a great time showing her a little bit of Utah!

On Sunday we went up to Causey Reservoir to canoe and give Rachel a taste of the mountains!

Dave and the kids ready to canoe.

It's a good thing we have a long canoe...

Emmett in the front.

Rachel and Vera Gail having fun wading around in a stream.

Gareth floating a piece of driftwood down to the lake.

Emmett and Vera Gail having a good time splashing around.

Everyone enjoying the outdoors!

Hugs!

We had a chill day on Monday, then on Tuesday we headed northwest into the desert to visit the Spiral Jetty (Rachel is an art major and currently in grad school, so it was super cool we could go see the Jetty with her) and the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

Rachel and Vera Gail with the submerged Spiral Jetty in the background. The Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture in the Great Salt Lake constructed by Robert Smithson in 1970.  There was a drought at the time and one could walk out on the jetty (built of the mud and rock of the area), but for the most part it remains almost entirely under water.

Gareth on the hill above the Spiral Jetty.

We love climbing on rocks!

Captain Banana-Head!

Rachel posing by the Jetty!

Gareth hopped in there too!

Rachel and the kids at the foot of the Jetty.

The boys walking along the shore of the Great Salt Lake.

Lunch on an accommodating rock.

Vera Gail sing-songing her way along the shore.

Rachel found a skeletal bird wing.

Vera Gail in the salty sand.

We walked all the way to another jetty - just a normal one, not an artwork.

Rachel by the lake.

The kids being goofy on the hill above the Spiral Jetty.

And here we are at the Golden Spike National Historic Site (do you know how long it's taken me to be able to remember that name properly??).

The replica of the Jupiter.

The replica of the 119.

Emmett watching the 119 steam along!

Rachel and the gang in front of the Jupiter before we headed off for a hike on the Big Fill Walk.

The Jupiter chugging off to the evening house for the night.

Wiggle-butt being king of a gravel mound.

Emmett posing regally on the gravel pile.

And Vera Gail skittered up there too!

Group shot!

Walking along the trail - which was graded in the 1860's for track - through one of the cuts.

Vera Gail up on one of the walls of the cut.

Rachel and Vera Gail and Gareth catching some shade.

Gareth up on the rocks!

Emmett perching on the rocks too.

Vera Gail examining a nifty desert flower.