Backpacking to Mummy Springs

On July 31, my brothers and I hiked to Mummy Springs, near Mount Charleston. We were planning to hike to the top of Mummy Mountain, but we were too slow and tired. We hiked three miles in three hours, the uphill part really slowing us down. We found a nice uneven hillside to camp on just past the spring, which actually had some running water. It was a terrible night sleep, but we had a good time hiking and talking together.

coming soon...

two posts about camping trips.

I went backpacking with my brothers the last Friday in July, and my whole family went to Summit Mountain the week of August 10. I love going to the mountains, even if backpacking made me realize I'm getting old and need to exercise more. I took lots of pictures on both trips, but I'm bad at doing anything with them. I back up all my pictures on my work computer, which is probably not the best system, but I want to see them at work too. I'll probably post some and put some others on facebook. There will actually be some recent pictures of the kids that way.

Look forward to it.

Time flies

I can't believe it's already the end of July. The best part of getting through July is that the heat is passing. At least in theory. August will still be hot, but July is usually the peak. Tuesday, our patio thermometer said it was 118 degrees. Our air conditioner works fairly well, but on a day that hot, it couldn't get it any cooler than 80 degrees, and it ran pretty constantly. There was a stretch when the humidity was a little too high to run the swamp cooler, but thankfully it's been working better lately. This morning it was 68 degrees in our living room, thanks to the swamp cooler. The swamp cooler works great, and it works the best when the outside temperature doesn't get over 105 or so.

But I'll be glad to get to September, when the highs will be under 100 again.

I looked at my pictures to see what I could blog about

It's true. Admit it. You like blogs better when they include pictures. So here's what we've been doing.

I think it was two weekends ago when we finally finished our kitchen ceiling. I had to sand, prime, and paint. It was dusty, dirty work.


The original picture will show you what the original light looked like, which was a monstrosity. It was so big that the cabinet doors would hit it and not open all the way.


Kelsea will no doubt appreciate the picture of her from last April.
She'll also be upset with me for using the picture below, since she thinks the lighting was wrong.

It was night, so there's no light from the window, but I think it looks good. And she hasn't taken a picture since then. Also, I added the handles to all the cabinet doors. The clean white ceiling and the brushed nickel handles make the kitchen look cleaner and newer. We bought all the handles almost a year ago, so Kelsea was pretty happy to finally have those on there. Oh, I also changed the horrible dirty outlet and switch to new clean white ones. So much better.
Maybe this will motivate Kelsea to take the picture she wants me to post.

Camping on July 4

On July 3rd, we went camping on Mount Charleston as part of a ward activity.
For dinner, we had hot dogs and hamburgers.





Holly and Mia enjoyed getting into bed at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon.


Mia learned to climb trees... with some help.
Then on Saturday night we watched a few fireworks at my parents' house. It was small but fun.

Goodbye! Happy Independence Day!