Sandberg Work Project

Robert, the kids, and I just got back from a week and a half trip to Utah. Well, week and a half for the kids and I, a weekend for Robert. The main purpose of going was so I could run with my family in the Red Rock Relay near Cedar City/St. George. More about that later, but we also had a lot of fun in the time we were in Utah before hand. 

Robert suggested that since we were going to Utah anyway it would be a good idea for the kids and I to fly to Utah a week early so Robert could demolish our upstairs bathroom without the kids in the way while we were gone. And luckily his Dad came up and helped him with the project so it actually did get done. This is what our bathroom looks like now. We'll be getting a completely new bathroom when we figure out what exactly we want in there...

The first weekend we were in Utah also happened to be the weekend the Sandberg's had set to start converting one of the cabins at the Ranch into a four bathroom bath house. So the kids and I got to tag along while they started work and try to stay out of the way for this construction project.

It had been raining everyday for the past week before we got there (and it did rain a bit everyday we were there) so the Ranch was really pretty with a lot of wildflowers and pretty skies and not too much dust. Julia enjoyed that I actually encouraged her to pick the flowers.

Before they could start construction we had to completely empty the cabin. No one had slept there for probably years because it used to have a mouse problem. However, they didn't find one mouse or any sign of recent mice while they emptied everything out. They kept some cool old things, but mostly everything got junked. I think they took three pickup truck loads to the dumpster.

After they got everything cleared out they pulled up the floor and put in the interior plumbing.

And after they got the plumbing in and the floor back in...the weekend was over! So they are planning on coming back later this fall to get the tile onto the floor. And then probably a little later to get the rest of the bathrooms done.

We took Julia for a walk around the Ranch. 

My Mom got her to walk a lot by promising her we were going to a swing, but after getting all the way to the top of the hill with still no swing in sight she complained that she was tired. So Chris gave her a lift the rest of the way. The reservoir has been without water for a few years and now looks like a meadow.

At last, we finally did get to the tire swing. I remember going down on that swing when I was little!

That's my mom. She wanted to try too.

Sunset.

We also took a trip to Bryce Canyon on Sunday.

This is soon before we left while everyone was just taking a look at the progress. Julia found a fake snake somewhere and I had to take a picture of her with it, but she insisted on doing a one handed princess pose with it too! Grandma told her that we don't touch real snakes, and that lesson came in handy this weekend when she actually did see a real snake and told my Dad when she saw it, "but we don't touch real snakes."