Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October ~ Such A Beautiful Word

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

~ Anne of Green Gables

Today is the first day of my favorite month!!

I hope you enjoy all that October brings ~ vibrant blue skies, crisp mornings, warm afternoons, wonderful smells, the twirling and crunching of leaves and dinners around the table with loved ones.

Yes, I'm so glad October is here.........



Wednesday, September 25, 2013

A Girlfriends Annual Fall Drive Part 2

Continuing on with our fall drive..........
I really enjoy taking people out and showing them all the hidden gems in this beautiful state. The ladies were very sweet and insisted on paying for the gas since I did all the driving. 

This is still on Curtis Creek Rd. (59)

Beautiful ~ just beautiful :)

Erin

This picture is a little dark ~ the sun went behind a cloud.
Me, Myrna, Laura, Sheila & Erin

Love it :)


We turned off of 59 onto 30 towards Hardware Ranch. The main road (30) is back against the tree line. We decided to take a little side trip out to the top of a little hill.

It was worth it.
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We then came down to Hardware Ranch and drove through Blacksmith Fork Canyon toward Hyrum.

We spent about 2 hours at Hyrum City Park. It's a very pretty park with lots of great shade trees and well kept green grass. A river runs along the outskirts.
I made a chocolate sheet cake ( Pioneer Woman's recipe ) and brought it along. I figured it would be most fun to eat it on my white china plates I bought in a thrift store in Sicily. The ladies loved it :)

Simply put ~ YUM!

This is the inside of Canyon Lodge located on the park property. It costs non residents $50.00 a day to rent. Characters not included :)


We all fell in love with the old time nostalgic feel of the lodge.
We were trying to figure out which one of our kids should get married here.
 It would be a lovely place to get married outside and use the lodge for the reception. We decided the city should hire us as wedding coordinators. We had a whole list of ideas going!

Canyon Lodge ~ the outside.


We had fun exploring the grounds.

This is the caretakers house for the park and Hyrum City Power Plant. Two men take turns being caretaker. Every Sunday night they trade out. The caretaker we talked with yesterday was so friendly and gave us all kinds of information and let us into the lodge.

Hyrum City Power Plant sits along the road and is 84 years old this year. Love, love, love those white doors!

You don't see metal merry go rounds very much anymore. We had to hop on and take a gentle spin. Most of us can't handle going to fast like when we were kids!

Erin and I

Laura and I

Blacksmith Fork River

Heading back to the car.

From the park we headed to Logan Canyon and up to Tony Grove Lake. 
The road up to Tony Grove always has free range cattle close to it. Isn't she pretty?

View from the Tony Grove parking lot. It was cold up there so we didn't stay long.

Path around Tony Grove Lake. Elevation is 8,050 ft.
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We got back down into Logan about 7pm and ate dinner at the Coopermill then headed home.

It was an absolutely wonderful day. I love these women and am glad to have them in my life as we all journey through life together :)
We missed the rest of our book club girls ~ Deanna, Kelley, Liz and LaDawn!

It's a year later and we are still meeting every other Monday for Book Club. We've grown to 9. It's an inspiring group of ladies and we are learning a lot from each other. Some of them I've known for over 10 years. Others I've met in the last year. 

God is good and His timing in all of this is perfect. He knows we need each other for encouragement and laughter :)

Be blessed today in all that you do.

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Girlfriends Annual Fall Drive

Utah has some great scenic drives.
 Autumn is my favorite time to be outdoors. We have a lot of aspens, scrub oak and sugar maples here that come alive with color in the fall.

Yesterday some of my girlfriends and I went for our annual fall drive. Laura and I started doing this in 2008.
Everyone met at my house at 8am and we got back to my house at 930pm.

It's the one day of the year that we tell our families "we'll be back when we get back". 

We headed up Ogden Canyon to the valley and made our traditional stop at Eden's Coffee & Cocoa Co.
It has a hippie vibe to it. I love it! It's my favorite place to get a cup of coffee.

Then we headed up 39 towards Monte Cristo........

 Route 39 ~ We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

Laura, Sheila, Erin and Myrna ~ we all had cameras.


It was cold and windy at this spot along 39. Erin doesn't like to be cold!

The colors were awesome :)


The sky was a vibrant blue ~ Such a great backdrop for these trees.

Love this picture!

A mile down the road from those red trees we came to Monte Cristo campground. No fall color. It was cold so we didn't linger long.
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We turned onto Curtis Creek Rd (59) and took it over to Hardware Ranch. I think it took us 2-3 hours because we stopped and took pictures along the way.

The clouds were so pretty yesterday.

We came across a couple of sheep herders. They had a big herd and 7 sheepdogs.

We were in the car with the windows rolled down when these two guys came flying up over the hill barking at us.



The dogs chased us down the road then stopped to get a drink. It is so neat to watch how instinctively they guard and guide their herd.

This is a little side trip we took. DJ and I drove up here Saturday with the ATV's. We call it "Rocky Top". On one side you have bare, rolling hills.

The other side is the complete opposite. I could sit and look at this view all day long. The layers of textures, colors and differing heights is incredible!

Thank you, Lord, for creating such a wonderful and varied display of  your handiwork for us to enjoy!

p.s. tomorrow I will post more pics of our day yesterday.