Senior Portraits

For those of you who are not on Facebook, I thought I would post some of the early senior pictures I took of Mitch.  We still have a few locations to get to and some winter shots to do, but here is a glimpse of our first senior. . .

We took photos all round Joliet, Fromberg, Edgar and Bridger.  We are still wanting to take some in downtown Billings, Red Lodge and some up at Cooney Dam.  Can't wait to finish them.  My favorite so far is in front of the old truck.  Considering it is painful to try and get a genuine smile out of this kid, I think we did really well so far!!!  His hair looks very metallic when I put them on here, definitely not a true representation of what they really look like, sorry!

Cross Country-The First of Many LASTS!

It has been a busy fall for Mitchell.  He is a senior this year, so we will be having lots of "lasts".  This is his final season running cross country.  He really enjoys this sport (we can't figure out why?!?).  Here are a few photos from meets this year. . .

Here is the Big Timber meet--31 degrees with 17mph winds = 6 degree wind chill running weather-ugh!!!

Huntley Project meet.

Mitch speaking at the pep rally they had at the school for the state cross country team.

Here is our state team-go get 'em!!!

The starting line at the state meet in Helena, MT.

Mitchell running the 3 mile course.

Coming down the home stretch.  Mom stopped taking pictures and started cheering a little too early to get a close up-LOL! 

Our fantastic team of boys-congratuations guys!!!

Mitchell ran a personal record this year at the Joliet home meet.  I was helping with the race, so I don't have pictures of that one.  He came in 18th in that race with a time of 18:18  Wierd!!!

At state our boys took 16th as a team.  Mitchell was the lead runner for the Joliet team and came in 28th out of all the Class B boys with a time of 18:28.  We are so proud of the effort he has put forth in this endeavor.  This is not a sport for the fainthearted.  As their shirts appropriate reminded us "No bench, No timeouts, No halftime. . .welcome to my world".  Great job Mitchell, what a way to end your high school cross country career.  Now, we move on to track in the spring.

Roughing It--New School

After three long days of sleeping on the ground (if you can call it sleeping when you hear the traffic all night long), we headed for civilization and some soft beds.  Here are some photos of the boys enjoying our hotel in St. George.  Here the boys are jumping off the waterfall and somersaulting into the pool.

And here they are just chillin' in the hot tub.  A nice way to end a long week of hiking in the heat of the Southern Utah dessert!!!

Hole in the Rock-NOT

While doing research on area attractions, I notice that there was a place called Hole in the Rock.  I pondered what a great opportunity it would be for our boys to visit the infamous Hole in the Rock that was made passable by undaunted pioneers who were called to move to the San Juan area.  So I was excited when the map showed it was only 5 miles south of Moab.  However, it turned out to not be the famous pioneer landmark, but a quirky little home that was literally a Hole in the Rock.  It is a total tourist trap and so NOT worth the price of the tour, but there were some fun sights outside.  Here is a little history and some photos. . .

"Travelers along U.S. Highway 191 in Southwestern Utah are amazed to discover this historic 5,000 square foot home which began taking shape almost a century ago by the Christensen family. What began as a small alcove for the young Christensen boys to sleep in at night grew into a man-made engineering marvel 20years in the making. A fireplace with a 65 foot chimney, 14 rooms arranged around huge pillars and a deep bathtub built into the rock delight visitors who visit this most unusual home in the dessert. Original furnishings, Albert's paintings, Gladys's doll collection and many of the tools used to create this home remind you of the past.


In a 12 year period Albert excavated 50,000 cubic feet of sandstone from the rock. During this time he completed his famous painting Sermon on the Mount and his sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the face of the rock above his home."

If you look closely at the photo above, you can see this very creepy looking stuffed donkey by the window.  Apparently this donkey was used to haul out the rock after the blasting.  And, yes, by the way, it is a creepy as it looks!!!

And here are some of the interesting things outside. . .



A cactus made entirely of bowling balls

 

A jeep covered in license plates

A golfer made out of golf clubs

A bull made out of old metal instruments

A cannibalistic truck



A "shooting star" made out of stars



A giantic gecko on the side of the cliff above the house

So, there is your grand tour of Hole n' the Rock, NOT Hole in the Rock.  Just thought I would clarify again so you don't make the same mistake we did. 

Roughing It--Old School

We camped while we did our hiking, albeit in a campground with showers and a small swimming pool.  Here are some highlights of our camping adventure. . .

Here we are having our fantastic foil dinners that we cooked over the coals in our fire pit.

And here is a picture through the tent window of us eating our dinner inside because the bees thought our food smelled really good too!!!

What is better while you are camping than making s'mores?  NOTHING!!!!  We had a fun time roughing it!!

Other Examples of God's Handiwork

Here are a few other formations that we saw throughout the park.  I would highly recommend you take a trip to Arches and experience this for yourself. . .

Pine Tree Arch

Double O Arch

Broken Arch

Balanced Rock

South Window



Double Arch



Utah's Idea of Park Avenue

There is a great place in the park called Park Avenue.  It is just a short, easy walk that takes you through an old river bed.  The walls of what used to be the river canyon are riddled with arches and spires. 

You can see that the river used to be huge that carved this gorge.

The trail leads to a great formation called the Courthouse Tower.  This was actually one on our cooler hikes because you are in shade most of the time.

To get back up to the beginning of the trail there are these fantastic stairs constructed out of natural stone.  Man did our calves feel it after we climed all those stairs.  Who knew Arches National Park had a natural Stairmaster?