Bad Things Happen....But You Can Still Live"

I read this horrible story in the paper today. This poor 16 year old kid lost the rest of his family in a 2nd plane crash that previously killed half of his family. I can't imagine how he will go on living....if he even survives.  Why would the Lord do this to the poor kid? Sometimes I just don't understand things when they are just so awful.

Austin Hatch was a standout high school basketball player in Indiana – on his way to college on a full scholarship – when the unthinkable happened.


AUSTIN HATCH - Basketball star on fullride scholarship - critically injured Friday in a  plane crash that killed his dad and step mom. First crash killed his mom and 2 siblings.

"Hatch, 16, was critically injured in a plane crash on Friday that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Even more unfathomable? It's happened to him before. In 2003, Hatch and his father survived a plane crash that took the lives of his mother and two siblings. He is now the sole survivor of his immediate family.

"They're all gone," Dan Kline, Hatch's basketball coach at Canterbury High School told the Associated Press. "He's the only one left. What's the chance of that happening? A million to one, if that. It's just unbelievable."  Austin, who remains in critical condition at a northern Michigan hospital, is in a medically induced coma, suffering bruising on his brain among other injuries. Close friends of the teen have been keeping a vigil at the hospital."

Taken from the Associated Press.

I'm just so sad for this poor kid. Why do these horrific things happen? I have a few questions for the Lord when I meet him at the pearly gates. It is unfathomable to me that he will be able to have a normal life after this. I'm thinking his basketball scholarship is probably toast if he is really brain injured. It is such a sad story.  Hug your family today. You never know what will happen in a split second to change the family dynamics.

 It is awful to lose a loved one. Unthinkable to lose the whole family....a second time.  I reminds me of the ending to the movie Super 8 when the closing line is "Bad Things Happen....But You Can Still Live!" It's gonna be so hard for this kid to be normal....to live a normal life.... all my well wishes and love go out to him......May  God bless you Austin....

Josie's First Birthday Party

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Josie had a birthday! Jeff and Wendy hosted her party at their house and had lots of relatives and friends over. I didn't take enough pictures but the ones I got turned out pretty cute.  I loved her little dress that looked like a black and white tutu. I never got a good shot of her cute outfit, darn! But you can tell she had a fun time.  And the homemade hamburger and hot dog buns were so yummy. I took four of them home with me!              

Jeff was cute cooking all the meat on his barbeque. And he put together her pirate slide for her too.

The cutest thing was watching my grandkids all chasing after Jeff's egg laying hens. So funny!   We got her a dress, a tutu looking pink polka dot bathing suit and cute striped and polka dot hoodie towel and a bubble lawnmower.

They were so cute!   Happy Birthday little Miss Josie!

Zions National Park and Lake Powell

I am finally ready to sit down and post some of our fun times on our Summer vacation to St. George to see Grease at Tuacahn and other travels.  We had fun spending some time in the car on our "ROAD TRIP".
When we first got to St. George we went to visit my fav spot, T.J.Maxx Superstore! John got the car gassed up. Then we went out to dinner, and came back and swam in our hotel pool. We got there pretty early.

John and I being geeks....he looks a little mental in this one!

I got the tickets like in January for 30% off...I'm always lookin for a deal...

This is a beautiful waterfall that runs the whole length of the Tuacahn parking lot...It runs downhill and it's always fun to walk along it as we get up to the top of the hill where the amphitheater is.




You can see why I love this venue so much...



We got there so early so John's enjoying the rest...he's not shaving all week either! Hey it's a vacation isn't it?



The orchestra pit was just to the left of us...hi guys!






!The next day we got up and had breakfast and then went to go see Snow Canyon, which is very close to Tuacahn, only like10 minutes drive! It is a state park so it's only like 6 bucks to get in. It is so beautiful!

There was lot of shifting rock hills...I thought this was a cool area!

Off in the distrance of our like 20 minute hike....

We saw lots of lizards on the hike we took....

You can barely see some guys rock climbing behind us here on this sheer face of rock! Very cool! But I'd never do it...

Hi Johnny!

It was so peaceful to sit up on the tops of volcanic rock and enjoy the serenity!

Well that was the first part of our trip. We got in the car and headed down to Kanab and Zions National Park. Last year we tried to get in and they wouldn't let us drive our car in. Something about it being too packed that day! Can you imagine!  We sure had fun in St. George...Now on to Zions...
                                  



I've always wanted to see Zions and Lake Powell. All my sons have seen it, water skied on it, camped, hiked Zions and so has my husband. So this year I told him, I wanted to go see what all the fuss was about. Well now I know. Both are beautiful spots and both are wonders of our world. I see what all the hype is about now.


Cactus everywhere....



Johnny at the trading post....



We stopped at a trading post for some snacks...



They had lots of cute stuff in the yard...looked very cowboys and Indians....



We pulled over at an ostrich farm...I've never seen one close up!



I had to snap this pic...a tree full of shoes....wth?

Old time bank and Jail miniatures..so cute!



We stopped at the Magui cave.  It looked kinda cool.



But as caves go...it's not a cool limestone cave...more of a old gold rush museum and gift shop...



I loved looking at all the metal whirligig sculptures...I'd love one at my Bear Lake cabin...



Okay so this is Zions....we didn't do much more than drive through...we are not campers so I don't know
If I'll ever get the real experience of Zions.....hiking The Narrows is probably not in my future.....

We also saw Buffalo on the side of the road....cool! BUFFALO!

  







We stopped when we saw a family of mountain goats along Zions Canyon road....everybody on both sides stopped to took too.....There must have been a dozen cars all stopped to take pics! The goats just lumbered along...

Well here was my first view of Lake Powell...beautiful!



The beach at Powell is really quite magical. The silty brown fine sand under your feet is delightful....water is warm.





We went down to the harbor and talked to some houseboat owners. Did you know it cost $4,000 bucks to gas one of these babies up? Yeah.....I won't complain about filling my car and it costing $70 bucks anymore.

The owners we talked to owned their houseboats outright. I was thinking it might be fun to have a yearly time share. That way it only costs to pay your upkeep and the space rent on the slip. But that is still like $1500 to $2,000 bucks even in a group of owners.

I think for now we'll just bring our boat and stay in hotels.





Here's the Glen Canyon Dam....we took lots of pictures here....

Here is one of the concrete buckets that built the dam. It weighs like 20 tons and they used more than 400 buckets full to do the dam....

The blue water of Lake Powell was very inviting....

Here's one of the turbines that spin underground to make all the power....

 I took this shot at the bottom of the dam at the end of our cool tour.  It is scarier looking down the dam....

John and I are both people who love to TOUR places more than just look at nature. So funny enough we both liked the Glen Canyon Dam tour more than Lake Powell.  We just enjoyed seeing it. It's not as massive as the Hoover Dam, but it is a good side trip. I think the entrance fee was about 5 bucks. And the tour guide was cute. The funny thing was we were followed the whole way about 20 feet behind us by an armed security guard. And we were told NOT to talk or take pictures of him.  Scary! I guess these dams could be a terrorist hot spot. 

We will have to go back to Powell and stay a few days with our whole family cliff diving and seeing Rainbow Bridge. I talked it up enough on Father's Day so that everybody wants to plan a trip in July to go back. He he...there's a method to my madness... And it only took us 5 1/2 hours to get back home.....from Wahweep!  I liked Wahweep better than I'd have liked Bullfrog.  Lots of nice restaurants to eat at and places to stay.  I'm not cooking on my vacation...thank you very much!  Happy Summer!