Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Great Gallery of Horseshoe Canyon

Getting ready for the hike....with toys strapped to our back for entertainment! :) Bryce and his brother Todd decided the night before to meet up in Green River stay the night on Thursday and hike all day Friday the 18th. My love's birthday! I love being spontaneous! That's why we love traveling with Todd & Amy. Not only are they spontaneous they are SUPER FUN! Bryce and Winny. (his dad) whom I sure probably does not like me to call him that. But, if I like you....you'll have a nick name! :)Here we go! Good thing we started early! The hike is 750 feet down into Horseshoe Canyon in Canyonlands National Park. It is amazing country. My brother Christopher came down in the morning to hike with us. Sure glad he joined us for the fun! It was fun to get together with him! Little hide outs along the way for the children was great! Anything to entertain them so they we're not thinking how long this hike was. Our tour guide....Todd. Amy couldn't make it. This time of year the CPA is super swamped! :/ We missed you Amy! All I have to say is that I loved this hike. It was so peaceful & desolate. COUSINS! These boys are inseparable when you get them together. Cole loves these boys! Clayton, Cole and Drew. These boys RAN! YES, I said RAN up the 750 ft. cliff. All I have to say is major energy! My how I wish I we're that young! Well, maybe just having that kind of energy! :) WE decided to take a break when we got to the second of the 4th pictographs. I think these boys were tried! I thought this was so tender. Little Drew going to lay down by grandpa. Grandpa Westcott was a real trooper too. Our tour guide was WELL prepared! He has obviously done this a few times! Our littlest hiker was our nephew Darrin. 5 years old. He was so awesome! We were finally getting to the HOLY GHOST panel, Just around the bend. But, not soon enough! Alayda had a melt down. She was done walking, she was hungry and tired! Once we got there...we fed her & she rested . She was a real trooper on the hike back! Thank goodness for Uncle Todd with some yummy food! This is the HOLY GHOST panel. It was made by the Western Archaic Indians dated back somewhere between 1,500-6,000 years. The large figure is the Holy Ghost. It is incredible to see in life. It looks as it is were 3-D. We sat there and analyzed what we thought they were doing back in the day. It had a feeling of sacredness to it. But, then again all of Canyon lands does that for me. I'm not sure if it's just the country or my rich history of ancestor's roaming this ancient land. There were dinosaur tracks we found. It is incredible to realize the reality that you are roaming where dinosaurs walked. Amazing. We analyzed this as The god head and Lucifer off to the side. Hmm.... I just don't know! But, extremely interesting! The Holy Ghost is in the center looking like an alien. It is 8 feet tall! The kids found water! Amazing how water draws the children. The Holy Ghost panel was the last of the pictograph's. Now, off to hike the 750 feet that we came down. It seriously was a great, relaxing hike. I think I enjoyed it most when we got to the bottom of the canyon and toured all around. Not a lot of people around on this hike. We did see some scouts from Cottonwood Heights. I think I can do that hike again. It was well worth it! :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Receiving his ARROW of LIGHT

Our fine young man is getting big! :/ Sad for us! We worked hard for this! You might say it was all Cole... Why yes it was! But, his mother was on him in getting it done! j/k! :) No, we we're very proud of Cole. He is a great kid and we are glad he received his Arrow of Light. Now, we got to get working on his Eagle!

Our family! Bryce is such a great husband and dad. He has made it a point to make sure the whole family support's each other. Cole with scouts, guitar & baseball, Alayda with piano, Meryn with soccer, etc. I think it is extremely important for us to support each other too! What a great team we are! ;)
Grandma & Grandpa Westcott made it for this special occasion. We are so grateful that they support us and came! :)
Holy Moly he is getting big! Please don't grow up Cole!
Cheering him on!
Cole giving me my pin.

He did it! Cole received his arrow! Great job Colei Pokei!
Cole and his bff Josh! These two got their arrows together. look at how serious they are!
These boys! IT's hard to believe how much they are growing up before our eyes! Josh, Connor & Cole have been friends for 9-10 yrs. Holy moly that's a long time!