Utah!!

My niece was born in January and I had planned on going to Utah for the blessing in April.  But when we found out we had to pay taxes I thought for sure the trip was off.  Well for our Anniversary Paul surprised me and said that we would be able to go!  I was so excited!  His parents happened to be in Flagstaff for the week for work so we stayed the first night in Flagstaff.  We left Thatcher around 7 and got to Flag around noon. We were able to drive up to Walnut Canyon and see some Indian cliff dwellings. 

It was only a mile hike but it was down and back up a whole lot of stairs.  Hayden was very chipper the entire time and was a champ!  Paul and I were sore for days after!




Meteor Crater was pretty close by as well so we decided to head on over to that.  Just a warning.... it cost $16 a person now.  We didn't at all think it was worth the cost but I've never been so we thought it would be okay.  

Genuine, real, petrified.... dinosaur poop. FOR SALE. Yep... you read that right.  Nasty.

The route 89 had fallen off the mountain, so we took route 89 alternate and it had some beautiful views!

Vermillion Cliffs

When we got up into the mountains we discovered the North Rim to the Grand Canyon is closed until May 1st so we just kept on going, but we did see some deer right next to the road.

We stopped for a bit a few times to play in the snow

AHHHHH..... we made it!!  I completely surprised my sister.  I called her from the hotel and just to chat and feel out if she was home or not and then we headed over there and just rang the bell!  The look on her face was priceless when I walked through the door!  So worth keeping it a secret that we were coming!

Hayden and Rebecca played together really well!

And Nora is such a doll!!!  I couldn't get enough of her!

Monday we woke up to some snow.  The view out of our hotel room was really pretty!

We took a little drive up Provo Canyon

The drive home was beautiful!!  It snowed for the first 3 hours and got down to 22 degrees at one point.

 Then after all this beautiful-ness, we got onto the reservation and it was sooooooooo dusty!  The wind blew and blew and the dust was so bad that we couldn't see the car in front of us a few times!  I pulled over at one point so Paul could drive and we both were still finding sand on us when we got home! It was bad!  Makes for a good story though.  We stopped in Taylor to eat at Trapper's and then we went and visited Paul's Grandma's grave. We were very happy to be home.  It was such a fun visit!

Land of the free, home of the Clites

This land is my land, this land is Paul's land
From the white pole to the BLM land
From the neighbors, to the Wash's waters
This land was made for Paul and ME!


That's right.... We bought us some LAND BABY!  Some precious dirt and its all ours!  All those pokey cati and stickery bushes.  Yep, that is our land. Every last inch of it.

We bought some land off of Cottonwood wash.  10 acres to be exact.  We are so excited!!  When will we be moving you ask?  WELLLLLLLLLL that's hard to say.  We need to ask a few questions and figure out costs of things to see if utility costs and such could be added to a home loan.  If not, then it'll be a while until we could get money saved up for that.  But we found a floor plan that we like and we can't wait to finally be in our own home!

Now what to do with all the rest of the acreage?  Sheep?  Cattle?  Horses?  OH the possibilities are endless.  But I'm pretty sure a 4 wheeler will have to happen.  Look out PIMA cause in an undetermined amount of time, WE'LL BE COMING! HA!

The day Paul stabbed me

Today Paul stabbed me. It wasn't on purpose of course but it was kind of funny.  Today Paul decided to help out with the cleaning.  And he decided to do the dishes of all things.  Which I thought was odd because it is the one thing he HATES to do more than anything.  I was clearing off the counters and loading a few things into the open dishwasher.  As I reached over to put a cutting board in, my hand, right in between my index and middle finger got a little slice.  I quickly said "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!"  Then noticed that Paul had loaded the very large and very sharp knives into the silverware holder BLADE SIDE UP!  Who does that!?!?!   I asked him why he loaded them into the dishwasher in such an unsafe manner and he said "because they will get cleaner that way."    uh huh..... sure they will. So Paul didn't directly stab me, and it was more like a paper cut (or the cut you get when the scissors go a little too far when cutting someones hair), BUT his strange thinking sure did get my poor, little hand sliced up.  But I can't help but laugh that he would load such a sharp knife into the dishwasher pointy side up. Silly boy.   But I am very grateful that he used part of his day off to help me with the cleaning :)