Hiking at Mt. Charleston

Travis has started PA school! And after 5 days of sitting from 8-5pm we decided a hike was much needed. So he invited some other PA students and off we went. It was perfect weather-cooler with a few drops of rain. We hiked Cathedral Rock which takes you on top of a peak so you can over look all of Kyle Canyon. It was a great hike and a good break for him from school.

Heeb Family Campout 2008 -Panguitch Lake

Travis & I were finally able to go on the Annual Heeb Family Campout this year. We convinced Mom & Dad to bring the fam out to Utah so all of us older kids could go too. So just about the entire family made it (with the exception of David & Thomas) including Grandma and Grandpa Hayman! Panguitch was GORGEOUS and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Travis had a blast float tube fishing and caught some huge fish! I enjoyed biking, hiking, boating, 4wheelin, and laughing with the family. We had some good laughs playing catch phrase and making our clever aprons. The little girls had a great time and were not their whinny selves as they have been in the past. Here are some pics of the activities we enjoyed:

Fishing

Travis woke up every morning around 5am to go fishing. He was a very dedicated fisherman this trip, and successful as you can see. I decided that I'd enjoy the trip better by sleeping in and fishing in the evening. I finally go to use my waders I got for my Bday last year too! But had no luck with the fish. I waded into the water and the fish were right in front of me. I was fly fishing and tried so hard to put my fly right in front of them, but to no avail. I have had bad luck fishing this year. Dad also rented a pontoon boat one day, so I did get up a little early that day to go fishing and none of us even had a bite! (Dad, Jordan, Sarah and I went as well as Grandpa Hayman who took pictures).

Boating/Swimming

We also went camping with my parents friend's family, the Turilos (I never did figure out how to pronounce their name, much less spell it). They too decided to rent a boat, but only used it half the morning. So on Thursday we went out on their rented boat and it was perfect temperature/weather for my crazy family to swimming. Ok, so it wasn't to me, it wasn't perfect at all. I definitely did not get into that freezing lake. Maybe I'm just used to the hot weather in Vegas and the warm water, but still, it was cold! Anyways, it was hilarious watching everyone get in (all but me, Mom, and Travis got in). They would jump in and then swim as fast as they could back to the boat because they were frozen! Then they'd get back on the boat and decide they could handle it and jump back in. Joy was the cutest. She just keep getting in for about 1 min with Dad and then get back on the boat and warm up. Once she was dry and her teeth stopped chattering, she jumped right back in. Crazy I tell ya. We also almost had a catastrophe on the boat as well. Since it was a pontoon boat, we had to distribute the weight evenly throughout. Well, we really weren't paying attention to that and a bunch of us ended up in the front of the boat. So the nose goes down and the water starts coming in! The bunch of us in the front were so shocked that we just stood there gasping wondering what was going on, when Mom yells-Everyone to the back of the boat! Then of course a rocking effect starts going on since we're all headed to the back and no one in the front. It was pretty funny.

Biking at Brian Head

This trail was called Bunker Creek Trail. Some guys we talked to about it said it was pretty easy. They were hard core bikers. I'd say it was an intermediate trail with parts that were advanced. I of course walked the advanced parts and I think Travis only fell of his bike once. :) It was a gorgeous ride, 90% downhill. It was a great work out and I definitely slept well that night. Oh, the best part about it was that afterward we got to take a shower in our new shower tent we got for Christmas last year and use our new shower! The tent shields the wind and the water heats up to about 100 degrees. It was wonderful! It's my new favorite camping accessory.

4wheelin

We brought our ATV and filled the time going on a few rides. Mom and Dad were so cute riding together. This pic was taken when they were bringing it back into camp. We couldn't ride it in the campground, so we had to push it and tow it back. Dad was pushing Mom back. Jordan and I went on a ride together and explored some new trails. We went up this really steep trail which ended no where. It was a chore and scary getting it back down. It's a good thing he's so big because he had to shift his weight around to keep us from tipping while turning it around to get it back down. Travis took Joy on a ride and she of course loved it. She kept telling him to go faster and faster. I think he enjoyed taking her too.

Geo-caching/Tundra 4wheeling

Ah, geo-caching...So normally when we geo-cache you're suppose to hike to the cache using the GPS. Well Travis had other ideas. We decided to 4wheel it in the Tundras. The 1st one wasn't so bad to get to, but the 2nd one was on the top of the mountain. Of course we did not know this until we found it and Grandpa didn't read the previous comments on getting the cache which mentioned it was an ATV trail, but I don't think that would've stopped Travis anyway. So we all crammed in the trucks, in the cab and in the bed and Travis and Grandpa navigated us up to the top. I think this was the most adventuresome geo-cache he's ever done! We even saw a Mama Turkey and babies on the way. So cute!

Games

During any down time the teenagers were playing card games. Joseph and Jordan's friends Kristen and Jake came camping with us too. I didn't really play so I don't have much to say about this, so ya!

Hiking at Bryce Canyon National Park

I'm so glad we went to Bryce. I'd never been there before. It was amazing! How do these formations happen? I tried to read up on it, but it still amazes me that water can form something so unique and so detailed. It was cool. It also was pretty hot, so we did have a couple of little girl whiners. We decided to hike to a water fall and cool down. Joy, Audra, and Charity splashed water all over themselves. It was a nice little hike. Jess, Sarah, Mom and I rode together in Jess's car, so we had some good chatting time too.

Crafts

Grandma was loaded with crafts for everyone to do and I think we all were pleasantly surprised at how fun doing the aprons were. We all were cracking up coming with ideas of what to write on our aprons. Dad's turned out to be the funniest. Zoom in to find out what it says. :) hehe

I definitely miss spending more time with everyone. The trip was definitely not long enough! It seems like I end up getting to know everyone a little more each time we are all together because they just keep growing up so fast. It's so interesting seeing the similarities and differences among us. They're so fun and I couldn't have asked for a better family!

Scouting

So we were the lucky ones that drew Deer and Elk tags this year and can I just say that Travis is ecstatic! So of course he had to start planning out our hunt immediately. We both drew mule deer buck tags, my first one, and he drew a cow elk. We drew our deers tags as a "party" with Travis' dad and his dad's friend Eddie. So when it's a "party" hunt, it means it's an even bigger camp out and more intense hunt because we all have to find big bucks to shoot. Anyways, so Travis, his dad, and I headed up to Ely to check out our hunting area. (about 4hrs north of Vegas) We rode around on our ATV's all day and can I just say that riding on the back of one of those I turned into a dust ball! Anyways, we found this buck at about 10,000ft. He looks like a taker to me! We also rode around on some gorgeous trails and saw a lot of baby animals-fawns, calf, ducklings, and colts. They were sooo cute! Wish us luck this Fall!


David Hicks riding through the tree tunnel

Mountain Biking-Cottonwood

So we barely squeezed in a Mountain Biking trip out to Red Rock before the heat wave came rushing in a couple weeks ago. We went with our friends Sarah & Cory and took them on a great cross-country ride. Just enough up-hill and down-hill to really enjoy it! I decided not to wear any sunscreen since we had done this ride before and it's not very long. But of course something had to go wrong and I was burnt on my back and shoulders anyway. My chain popped right at bottom of the uphill part of the trail, which meant Travis had to come back down, save me, fix my bike, and then ride the uphill again without any downhill to get us going. :-) He's the best! We had a great time going with Sarah and Cory and are looking forward to going again when the summer heat fades away.

Backyard Beauty

We did it! We finally finished our backyard! We did everything ourselves except for the concrete. And can I just say that landscaping is hard work! Travis was definitely the muscles behind the job, but I helped as much as my weak-ling body could. First we had the concrete poured as you saw in a previous blog. Travis decided we need a burm for the plants to be show cased on and it turned out great. So he brought back wheel barrel after wheel barrel load of fill dirt from the empty construction lots next door. Then we dug the holes and trenches for the plants and drip system. (yes, I helped with the digging, but he did most of the trenching. We were dead after that day) I messed around with figuring out the wiring to the drip system and setting it, while Travis went and picked up load after load of rocks. He was the master mind behind the river rock which turned out to be really nice. Next came the edging for the turf.

Travis decided to tackle that on a really hot day, hence our camping canopy in the backyard for shade. Then after the chat was compacted and flat, we installed our artificial "Virtual Turf". So what do you all think?

Kolob Campout

So I decided to start with this video because this basically sums up our trip-FREEZING! We arrived Thursday night to beautiful weather. It was night time so cold weather was to be expected. We set up the tent, pulled out the heater and bunkered down in our comfy double sleeping bag on our foam cot pads. In the middle of the night I half woke up to something that didn't quite sound like rain on our tent, but didn't think much of it. The next morning we discovered the hail/snow that had dumped on us the night before. It quickly melted, but it was freezing. And that was basically what it was like everyday the entire weekend. I wore a beanie and 3-4 layers all weekend long! I don't think I've ever camped and wanted a fire going all day everyday because it was so cold! (I wonder if being climatized to Vegas weather has anything to do with how cold we all were?) The storms rolled in and out, so we did see some blue skies and Travis did get in his float tube and fished in the lake.

Kolob Reservoir

Our friend, Ray McFarland met up with us Friday evening and got in the float tube as well. Between the 2 of them, they caught about 10 fish. Us fishermen on the shore didn't have as much luck. We also had fun on the ATV and went exploring and found a really cool view point over looking Zion National Park. Tyler and Nicole and their daughter Madison came up on Friday and toughed it out with a 2 yr old the entire weekend-very impressive! You have to know this little girl though to really appreciate how impressive this is. She is the most girly 2 yr old I've ever met! She doesn't like to be dirty and made her mom take her PJ's off because they had a spot of dirt on them. She cries when she stumbles because she gets dirty and refused to walk in the mud. We took her into our tent quite a few times and she had a blast brushing her hair and playing games. She is too funny. Nicole's brother and family came up too and we converted his 9 yr old son Austin into an ATV fanatic! Once he learned to drive that thing he could not get off! It was really cute.

Tyler, Nicole & Madison Hammond

There was an exciting event of the weekend...On Friday night we all were in our own tents chatting between the 3 of us. Just as we were starting to drift off we heard a noise at the food tent. We all thought it was someone from one of the other tents out to get a mid-night snack, until Tyler asks if we were out there or if James or Kristy were out there. Since none of us were, we assumed the worst. So Travis jumps up, grabs the flash light, darted out the tent to find a SKUNK getting into our food! Ah!!! He yelled and screamed at it and the next thing we hear is a round of gun shots going off in the direction the poor varmit ran. Thankfully it didn't spray or else that would've been the end of our camping trip! That's the 2nd time a skunk has trespassed our camping teritory. We've got bad luck with skunks.

Kirsti & Brett did make it up Sat night and enjoyed a night around the fire with us as well.

Madison enjoying herself in the tent

Our Camp Site