Camping adventures

So I finally had a whole weekend off of work that we didn't have something going on so we decided to go camping. Granted it was only the middle of June but it was still June so it couldn't be that bad right...WRONG. We went camping up Ogden canyon near Huntsville. It was a nice little campground and we found a nice spot right down by the river. It was nice, warm, and sunny. We set up camp and just hung out relaxing.I have to say I am very proud of this fire. It was a one match fire and looks like it could be a piece of art. We used coals from the fire to cook dutch oven dinner. Apparently our coals were a little warm because our dinner that was supposed to take about an hour too cook was done in 12 minutes. Surprisingly very little of it was burnt so we enjoyed our chicken, bacon and potatoes. By the time we put the peach cobbler on the coals were a little cool so after about half an hour we had to build a fire around the dutch oven to get more coals. The sides ended up a little burnt but other than that it was delicious.

Monty decided to dip his feet in the river but the water was way too cold for me. I found a make shift fishing pole and tried my luck at fishing. Apparently fish don't like leaves and I couldn't get the dinner roll to stay on the hook. I also tried fishing with Frito's but by the time they were soggy enough to put on the hook without breaking they didn't last long before they too floated away. Oh well though, if I'd caught a fish I wouldn't have known what to do with it.

By dinner time the camera died so I don't have any more pictures. It was a rather enjoyable evening. Once night fell we had a raccoon come to our camp looking for food. Monty scared him off though. Then, the trouble set in. We realized we'd forgotten the extra blanket but figured being in our sleeping bags we should be OK. Also, we realized that left over construction wood burns rather quickly so we weren't going to have wood for a fire in the morning. No big deal, we brought doughnuts for breakfast so we wouldn't need to cook them. I don't know how cold it got that night but I froze all night long. Monty got up at 6:30 but I couldn't bring myself to crawl out of my sleeping bag because I knew it'd be even colder outside of it. About a half hour later he came in and told me if I got up we could break down camp and go sleep in a warm bed. It was so cold that when I put my glasses on they fogged up just from the heat of my face. It was SO cold and to top it all off everything was wet. It didn't rain but there was more than a little dew. We ended up just throwing everything in the car and heading home at 7:15 in the morning. When we got home we had to set the tent up in the yard and lay everything out to get it to dry. Quite the experience.

So I have to show off my garden cuz I'm rather proud of it. It's my first experience with my own garden and it's actually growing.

If you look really close you can see two tiny peppers

The radishes are already popping out of the ground. These are the first harvest from my garden. They have been a nice touch to my salads.

Celebrating 3 years in St George

Way back when we found out Monty had to have surgery, I decided we needed to plan a vacation. We decided we'd celebrate our 3rd anniversary by spending a week in St. George. I had never been down there and so I figured it would be a nice get away. It was amazing. We stayed at a great resort and and a very enjoyable and relaxing week. We spent 3 days hiking, I lounged by the pool, Monty did some golfing, we had dinner with family and friends, and enjoyed the sun and warm weather.
This is the view from our deck down at one of the pools. We had a BBQ out on the deck one night and grilled chicken. One of the resort hosts suggested we check out Snow Canyon and do some hiking there. It wasn't a very exciting place. There were a couple decent views but mostly just a lot of sand and a few mucky dried up ponds.

Trekking along the river bed.

Stopping to rest in the shade.

While we were in Southern Utah we went to Bryce Canyon. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! We could have spent an entire week hiking through various parts of the canyon. Because Monty is still trying to recover his endurance we stuck to easy to moderate hikes. The canyon is full of Hoodoos which are rock pillars formed mostly by water melting into the cracks of rocks and freezing, thawing, and freezing all over again. There were rows and rows of symmetrical hoodoos that extended for miles. We hiked down through the canyon and up the other side and then hiked the rim up to several lookout points. We realized after the fact that we did it backwards. We should have taken the shuttle up to the highest point and hiked back down instead of hiking up. All the uphill made for a challenge for Monty but he did great.
Me with a view of some of the Hoodoos.

There were several caves carved out along the canyon walls as well. This was just a little one I hid out in.

Us down in the canyon.

Monty with the Hoodoos as we hiked back up.

Hoodoos hoodoos everywhere (I like the word hoodoo in case you couldn't tell)

Us at one of the look out points along the rim. Yes we are dressed a like and no it was not intentional. Monty noticed before we left the resort that morning but didn't bother to mention it. No we are not one of "those" couples.

We also went to Zion's Canyon and spent a day hiking there. It's also a place we could have spent much more time enjoying. All throughout the canyon there are places where water seeps out of the rocks. Some of it is 4,000 years old. You can see marks all along the canyon walls where water has seeped out. There are a few places where the water continually seeps out. One of these is known as Weeping Rock, where Monty is getting his second shower of the day.

We hiked up through the Emerald Pools. There's a lower, 2 middle, and an upper pool all fed by waterfalls coming from the rocks. Apparently there is an algae that grows and makes the pools appear green but they weren't so green when we were there.

Us at the Upper Emerald Pool

Monty on a bridge over the Virgin River which has carved Zion's Canyon.

It was an amazing trip. We had so much fun and it was very hard to come home. Now it's back to reality. The good news is our house looks so much better from the outside now. Our yard is completely in and our new sod is growing like crazy. We planted our garden before we left for St George and it's starting to pop up already. I'll have to post some pictures of that later. It's a new adventure for me testing out my green thumb. I just hope I don't kill it.

Crazy

I just had the most bizzare shopping experience. Just north of here in Ogden a Winco Foods grocery store opened this week. Since I wasn't working today and I remember Winco having great grocery prices when I was growing up, I decided to venture to Ogden and do just a little grocery shopping and compare some prices. My first mistake was driving around the full parking lot trying to find somewhere to park. I thought it would be a little busy but at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon I figured it couldn't be too bad. WRONG. There were no shopping carts and several people standing around waiting for them so I decided to forgo the shopping cart. I didn't need all that much anyway. Once I walked in the door, I couldn't have turned around to walk out if I wanted to. It was wall to wall people forming lines to even reach the products on the shelves. I have never seen such a thing at a grocery store. It truly looked like the day after Thanksgiving only in a grocery store. They did have some great deals, but seeing as my arms are only so big, I picked up my few items and headed out. Craziness.

So not much exciting going on in our lives right now. We're still waiting for the weather to cooperate so we can finish putting in our yard. With the snow and rain the past few weeks our sod keeps getting pushed back (its too wet for them to harvest it). Hopefully this weekend we'll have a back yard and be rid of all our dirt.
Two more weeks and we go to St George. I'm excited!! I've never been there and am definitely looking forward to warm weather, hiking, and over a week off of work!! WHOO HOO!

March (a little late)

So I'm already falling behind on my goal to update the blog every month. I've been picking up several extra shifts at work. It's been nice to get a little overtime and to start saving up for Monty's next big adventure...He's going back to school! It's somewhat a sudden decision and definitely not one we were planning on, but it's the right thing for us to be doing now. He will be starting the MBA program at University of Utah this fall (or possibly not until January, still trying to work out those details). Between work and starting a few projects around the house we've been staying pretty busy. Spring finally appeared allowing us to get some stuff done outside and enjoy the outdoors a little bit. However, winter re-appeared last night. Someone needs to tell Mother Nature it's April and not time for 5 inches of fresh snow.Just before Easter we decided to color Easter eggs one night. It was a fun little project to do together and we had tons of colors to chose from in our little pack. I tried my hand at the crayon and wrote on my egg.

Monty must be in awe that eggs can come in so many colors

The finished product. Sadly, most of them are not edible because I learned how long you boil eggs for hard boiled eggs after I cooked these ones. The yolks aren't quite done in the middle but at least they look pretty.

While the weather was nice we started working out in the yard and planted fruit trees. We planted a peach tree and a tree with 5 different kinds of apples. I'm excited for when they give big and start putting on fruit.

Monty digging for the peach treeFilling in the apple tree and below is me burying the peach tree. I'm just hoping they survive our little miny winter we have right now.When we moved into our house in July of last year we couldn't decide what we wanted to do with the sliding glass door. So, for 9 month we did nothing. Finally a couple weeks ago we put up some curtains. I think it turned out pretty cute and they have hooks on either side of the door to hold them open. The hooks had to be screwed in by hand because the drill couldn't get the angle right. Makes me appreciate electric tools.

Very exciting news!!

So the highlight of our February was going to Rock Springs, WY the last weekend of the month to see my brother Steve and his wife Nicky. Rock Springs is definitely not the most exciting spot on the map but it was nice to go see them and we enjoyed a fun relaxing weekend there.

While February was a relatively boring month for us, March started out very exciting. March 3rd we were finally approved for adoption!! We are looking forward to the new adventure of finally becoming parents. It has been a long, difficult, and emotional journey but we couldn't be more excited with where we are at now. We are adopting through LDS Family services and our profile is now on their website. We ask everyone to spread the word and keep us in mind. About a third of the adoptions through Family Services are designated adoptions where birth mom and adopting parents find each other outside of the agency. Also a little plug for Family Services. They offer free confidential counseling to women of all faiths and backgrounds and help them to explore their options. They help explore all options with mom, not just adoption. It's a great resource available out there.

Anyway, put a link to our profile at family services on the side bar of our blog. We have also set up another blog that we are just updating monthly with what we are doing in our lives and doesn't have any identifying information on it. It can be found at http://www.montyandstephanie.blogspot.com/.

January

January was a rather uneventful month for us. We rang in the New Year by going to bed early. I had to work New Year's Day so Monty volunteered to work that day as well. It gives him an extra day off he can take whenever he wants which is nice. It's still way too cold to do much outside so we spent many evenings at home watching movies. The snow has started to melt so we did go out on a few walks around the neighborhood on some warmer days. (If 35 degrees is warm that is?) The only big event in January was Monty's birthday. We had some friends over for pepper jack cheese burgers and a very competitive bowling tournament on the Wii. I made an ice cream cake which I have to say was very de-lish. The only problem was the writing on the cake. It must have been pure food coloring because it turned our mouths blue.I think I must have eaten more words than Monty because my mouth looks much more blue.HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTY!!!

Better late than never

So these are a few pictures from the Cobbley family freeze. Doing family pictures over Christmas was a good idea in theory. The theory went wrong when it was decided they needeed to be outdoors. It was 19 degrees and I for one thought I was going to freeze to death before we were done. It doesn't help that somehow I was the only one in short sleeves too.

We did get a few good pictures of the family.This is one of us just trying to stay warm while Shawn fiddled with the camera.

I thought this one turned out cute of the guys just goofing around.

Just the two of us.

While we were in Pocatello for Christmas we also went out with Shawn to do some pictures of just our little family. They turned out looking like engagement pictures but I think that is just what happens when you are a family of 2.