We have had a wonderful week, mostly because we had a nice long weekend where we had no commitments or places to be.

Friday we all slept in, a rarity around our home, and once we were up we ran some of our weekly errands and then decided to go for a trip up Lamoille Canyon which is nearby. The pictures posted this week were all taken in the canyon. It was absolutely beautiful and as you can see we saw several waterfalls and even a neat beaver dam. We didn't find the beaver.


There is a six mile road that goes into the canyon and along the way we stopped to see several of the sites. There is one area that has several avalanches every year and you can see the effects of that on the topography. Once you are at the end of the road there are several trails to hike along. We hiked along one until we found this neat stream. The boys enjoyed playing in the water and Mom and Dad just enjoyed being together. The boys reported that the water was quite cold and you can see why from some of the pictures. There is still quite a bit of snow in the area.


Matthew the Polar Bear did not think it was that bad. Once he got out though his feet were beet red and very chilly. Nikolas "accidentally" dropped his shoe in the stream. Thankfully, some other hikers with a dog passed by and we were able to recover the shoe. After the hike we went home and had a great BBQ.







Saturday was also a great day. This weekend was the National Basque Festival. We enjoyed the Basque games. The games consisted of a weight lifting competition (how many times can a person lift a 225 lb cylinder in 3 minutes -the winner did it 21 times), a wood chopping contest and a relay race, which consisted of lifting the cylinder, cutting a log and running. In addition to the games there were dancing demonstrations, Basque singing and music and a sheep herding demonstration. It was really neat and we are glad we were here to participate this year. Saturday evening we sat on the hill near our home and watched the 4th of July fireworks which were spectacular. The display went on for almost 1/2 hour. Needless to say we were all very late to bed.





The earlier part of our week was fairly typical. Matthew went to school Monday through Thursday. Andy worked. He was in Wendover on Wednesday and went to a quinceañera which he thought was neat. Elko, like every other occasion has a neat July 4th parade. This one reflected the many cultures of the Elko area. Andy really enjoyed the Mexican riders and cowboys. One the them was doing rope tricks which were neat.

Nikolas left this afternoon to go spend time with his grandparents in Idaho. We all hope he has a good time.

That about sums up our week. We hope all is well with you.