Last Day

We fly out tomorrow morning early so we're heading  towards Salt Lake stay in a hotel our last night.  A huge thanks to Scott & Sam for their hospitality.  So fun to have our families together for a few days.  Lots of quality cousin time and the adults had a great combination of working, traveling and drinking.  Good rum punches and Mark even had enough vodka & cranberry last night to make him suffer from a doozy of a hangover this morn!
We were so excited to be out in the mountains during a meteor shower so we planned a late night last night.  Had a campfire and then got out blankets and sleeping bags and lined up on their deck.  The kids loved it and it was amazing to watch meteors steak across the Milky Way.  One by one, people started dozing off & Mark & Scott provided a symphony of snores.  At midnight a few of us went inside, but a few slept outside all night.  See photo of cute Ben still zonked out there well after the sunrise. 
Today was spent working at the new house.  Scott & Mark worked on the solar panels that will power the electricity and Sam & I cleaned and unpacked boxes.  It's going to be a beautiful home.  The kids just enjoyed playing games together. 

Goblin Valley

Today's trip was to Goblin Valley.  It's a really cool park where you can just wander around these hoodoos, little mounds of sandstone. 
After our hike, we had a funny snack. We stopped at a roadside stand & bought a watermelon.  W didn't have knife so we had to smash it in the parking lot.  Fun memory.

Goblin Valley

Today's trip was to Goblin Valley.  It's a really cool park where you can just wander around these hoodoos, little mounds of sandstone. 
After our hike, we had a funny snack. We stopped at a roadside stand & bought a watermelon.  W didn't have knife so we had to smash it in the parking lot.  Fun memory.

Arches

Had a beautiful afternoon at Arches National Park.  Kids did great but what they really want to do most is go to the hotel pool.  That's where we're headed next.

Road trip

On our way to Arches.  Stopped at this scenic spot.  Bought some jewelry from local vendors.  If  it looks like it's cold & windy, it is!  Only in the  60s.  Kind of nice not to be roasting but a little sunshine might be nice. Still great views.

Sunrise & hummingbirds

Up early today watching the sun rise over the mountains.  Clouds rolled in yesterday and we even saw thunderstorms all around us.  Just a few showers at the cabin, but made it a cooler day.  Guys got work done at the new house while Sam & I and the kids just hung out. 
The hummingbird feeder on the deck is such a focal point as we admire the view beyond.  They're practically tame and will even land on your finger.  Evan loves to sit and watch them buzz around his head.  Sometimes there's 10 or more trying to find a spot.

We're off to Arches National Park today.  About a 3 hour drive.  We'll have a fun hotel night too and return here tomorrow.

Will be sure to post pictures later.

Utah morning

It's beautiful here.  I got a special 4-wheeler tour this morning from Hunter.  The girls have been chasing kittens, and Mark &Scott are moving furniture and working at the new house...which is beautiful, by the way.  I'll post pics of that soon.

Utah!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Jen Metcalf" <mmjmet@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 8, 2013 6:50 PM
Subject: Utah!
To: "mmjmet.trip.blogger.com@gmail.com" <mmjmet.trip.blogger.com@gmail.com>

We're excited to be taking a vacation in Utah and can't wait to visit with my brother Scott & his family.  Flew into Salt Lake City and a rough descent through some storm clouds made Emily fill her barf bag....no big deal.  We've got our rental car and are enjoying the beautiful 1 1/2 hour drive south to their house. 
Hope you'll follow along on our adventure.

First week of summer vacation.

We have officially started summer vacation and it was an exciting week.  Started with a trip to the DeYoung Family Zoo in the UP of Michigan.  Hard to describe the place... all sorts of exotic animals in the middle of nowhere.  A very low budget operation and hard to believe its legal, but fun to have a chance to get hands on with animals like monkeys! Emily held baby possum, a baby pygmy goat, and played with a baby baboon and chimp.  

Then we had a couple big trees taken down from our back yard.  Had a huge crane that lifted them over the house and into the front yard.  Was crazy! 
That, along with 2 soccer games, a birthday party in Delavan and Father's Day in Fort Atkinson made it busy. 
heading to Minneapolis next weekend....the fun continues.

Home Improvements

As always, there's a project going on at our house.  What would Mark do in his free time if I wasn't here to say "Maybe we should...."   Mark loves my use of the word "we."  Now in my defense, I put in a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears into these last few projects.  But, as always, Mark is the work horse and the skilled guy behind the job and I'm lucky to have him.
Anyway, during the cold WI winter months, we decided to tackle a project that we've always known we wanted to do- to give our family room (the room coming in from the garage) a makeover.  It started out with my idea of taking out an existing closet and turning it into cubbies and it went all the way to tile, carpet, paint and even new furniture!  Here is a pictorial timeline.

Fully functional and messy....but at least the mess is organized and in it's own spot.

Can you find the exhausted handyman in this photo?

There's more....

And now, since the weather has improved, we must move our focus outdoors!  We have been gradually working on making improvements to our deck and this years project is underway and big.

Our plan is to take out the large oak tree that is growing through the decking right outside the back patio door, remove the multi-layers of decking and rebuild as one level and a little less decking, but more functional.

We are currently in the demolition stage.  Tree removal will be later this week so I will be sure to post pics of that.  They'll be using a crane so it will be exciting and a bit nerve racking as they are so close to the house.

Notice that we took off the small walkway that ran in front of the window that overlooked the back yard.  Nice not to have that obstruction as you look out.  We don't intend to replace that and will just landscape back there.

 The tree that will be cut down is the one you see on the right side of this photo.  It's really really tall.  The concrete steps  and terraced landscaping were all covered up by the old deck...will be covered up again.

The view from the back door....really hard to not to have this access.  Sadie is the only one who "springs" in and out easily.  

Still not quite sure of the design for the new deck.  Have a few decisions to make.  Will be getting a couple bids and hope to have someone do it for us soon.  Our neighbor Robb is an architect and was kind enough to give us his thoughts on the project.  We aren't following this exactly and are looking at doing it in phases, but it's been great to have this plan to work with.




 The pool is open...not quite ready for swimming but hopefully we will be enjoying a beautiful deck before long.  Stay tuned for more updates!

Supper

Supper at "Cheeseburger in Paradise" with good friends...just look at how excited I am! 

Emily, Lia and Noah

Mark and Jon

House on the Rock

We've  arrived at our Madison hotel after a fun day at The House on the Rock.  When the lady at the ticket desk told us that it would take us 3-4 hours to explore the property, we thought she was crazy but nearly 4 hours later, we emerged from the depths of the crazy, dark and amazing property with tired legs.  I really don't think it pays to try to describe the experience...if you've been there, you know.  If you haven't, you'll just have to check it out yourself or trust me when I say it's a museum like no other.
The kids thought it was cool- we weren't sure they would.  Crazy collection of stuff.
We've swam already at hotel #2 and just heard from our good friends, The Tiedes, and they're on their way to join us for the evening.  Looking forward to catching up. 
 

Pool time

Emily is enjoying the pool this morning.  Evan and Mark are enjoying a Harry Potter movie and I'm enjoying reading my book, poolside. 

WI Stay-cation

Well, although I wished for a beachy spring break in the southern US, we decided on a little outing in southern WI.  And, as it turned out, looking at Florida's forecast, the temps are similar!  It was a nice sunny spring day here as we  hit our first destination, The Cave of the Mounds.  Since our kids will never take this school field trip, I decided it was a state destination they should see.  They thought it was cool and of course Emily had to have a pink geode from the gift shop. 
We stopped at The Grumpy Troll Brewpub in Mount Horeb for lunch and then headed to Dodgeville where we're staying at the Inn at the House on the Rock.  Doing some swimming and relaxing tonight.  Tomorrow we'll tour The House, another WI treasure.  Check back in tomorrow.