To the Diversion with the Hiking Ladies

Thursday the hiking ladies went up Box Elder Canyon to see the water diversion. It was a small group. They must have heard it was steep!

At the top of the path is a small diversion for Box Elder Creek.

When the gates are down the water is funneled down to the pressurized irrigation tank for the city of Alpine.

The gate was open, and the water was left to channel down the canyon. Before it reached our neighborhood it disappeared into the ground all together. Theoretically, it is seeping into our aquifer, providing the drinking water that is pumped out down in the city center.

I'm enjoying learning more about water management on a very small scale!

Wednesday with Mabel

Ed and I got to watch Mabel Wednesday afternoon! We started out with a fun trip to the supermarket. Mabel said "Mabel driving!" 

After naptime we took her on a test drive of our new swingset! She enjoyed the swing very much.

But, she still has problems with the slide. I'm sorry I didn't capture the face plant at the bottom of this run!

She was easily consoled with a bowl of blueberries afterwards!

When it was time for her to go home we found her happily playing silent organ in my study! I would have liked to have seen how she climbed on top of the organ bench! 

If you Build it They Will Come

In an attempt to make our house more attractive to our grandchildren, we bought a Lifetime Swing Set. Ed spent most of Monday installing it in the back yard.

He installed it twice. The first time with the slide going to the right. Then, as he finished that, the instructions said to make sure the slide doesn't face south!

Not wanting our grandchildren to have burned buns, he dutifully, switched it around to face north!

He even tried it out in the end, although he was well over the 150 pound limit, the swing set seemed to hold up fine under his weight. Now, bring on the babies!

Stewart Falls

Friday we hiked to Stewart Falls above Sundance with Brittany, John and the girls.

The girls actually didn't hike at all. Brittany carried Clementine and John carried Mabel. It was a beautiful, tree lined hike with about a thousand other hikers going up and down the four mile (round trip) trail.

We saw a lot of pretty wildflowers, including this Virgin's Bower or Blue Clematis!

The amount of water pouring over the falls was tremendous, and you had to stand pretty far away not to get sprayed! There was still snow on the hillside, and a several people crossed the stream to slide down incline in the snow.

We let the girls out of their packs while we enjoyed a picnic lunch back by the parking area. Clementine was being especially cute!

Mabel loves rocks, and was contemplating whether she could sneak these two in the car with her or not!

Ed and I stopped at the Smart Cookie Company in American Fork on the way home to try out their ice cream sandwiches. They were delicious, but entirely too big! Next time I'll have to find a friend to split mine with! (Ed did not think they were too big!)

Nature Girls

We stopped by to see Mabel Friday afternoon and she wanted to go outside and sit in a tree. She would have sat there for an hour, but I could only stand there so long ready to catch her in case she fell!

She must be a nature girl like her grandma! I had Ed take my picture on our walk that morning to show off my new fancy pants! The scenery is beautiful, but maybe the pants are too much!

To the Poppies with the Hiking Ladies!

The hiking group went to see the poppies together today. With school out two of them brought their grandchildren with them! I always learn a lot when I'm with the hiking ladies!

I found some new plants as well as some new animals. My favorite picture was this Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly on a Utah Thistle!

I posted it on the Alpinenaturecenter.org website, which is growing by leaps and bounds! It's been such a fun project for us, and has helped me learn so much!

New Kitchen is Finished!

We came home to a happy surprise yesterday. Our pantry door had been delivered and installed! That was the last item in our kitchen renovation!

We're done! We got a new chandelier and added pendant lights.

We made the bar straight rather than kidney shaped. We got a cool refrigerator with a computer panel on the door.

We had the floor refinished in a darker color.

The decorative glass tile backsplash not only goes under the counters but up to the ceiling on the walls surrounding the kitchen sink windows.

The gray and white granite has a leathered finish on the bar and a shiny finish on the other surfaces.

We moved the cooktop to the bar, and the fridge and oven to the back wall instead of being on the side of the bar with the bar stools.

We pulled the sink 6 inches away from the window, creating space to make the dishwasher come out straight rather than angled towards the sink.








We added a "baking center" in the middle of the right wall that holds all our appliances.

We purchased bar stools (from Amazon) with gray leather seats that tuck under the bar and out of the way.

We added a second sink in the bar. Both of the faucets turn on and off when you touch them anywhere. That is very fun!

We also upgraded to composite granite sinks.

Here is the pantry door that took 6 weeks to get! The original one the builder brought over was so lightly frosted that you could read the labels on the cereal boxes! This one is perfect and even has a lovely stalk of wheat etched in under the word pantry!

Just in case you don't remember what our old kitchen looked like, here is a reminder. It's not terrible, but we like the new one much better!