On one of our Sunday drives, a couple months ago, we found this trailhead at the top of the neighborhoods near our chapel. Since then, the pavilion is new. The piles of dirt are new. The heavy equipment is new. We plan to go back before winter to see the end results.
We only had an hour and a half, so we hiked up for 45 minutes. This was the steepest section that we found - and the group riding horses cut off the trail up at the top, so we never did see them up close. I had to stop and breathe a couple times on this section. And my mountain goat, James, would stop and wait for me to catch up.
The steep section (pictured above) is cutting through this green patch (pictured below). It is A LOT steeper than this picture shows. This green patch was my goal for the hike and we actually made it ten minutes past the green patch to a high point with a view of the trail. It goes on a long way. We'll pack a lunch for the next attempt!
We saw quite a bit of wildlife on this hike. Lots of birds - including a sage hen or something like a grouse in the bushes. We startled a buck (growing his antlers - looked like a 4-point for starters) and saw a doe further down the hillside. I took a picture of the buck, but it turned out to be a picture of where the buck used to be standing. WUNDERLI FAMILY REUNION
I went with G&G to the Wunderli Family Reunion at the West Valley City Rec Center - every year on the 2nd Saturday in August. It is a reunion of the decendants of Rudolf and Lina Wunderli. There is a family tree on the wall w/Rudolf & Lina, their eight children, all their grandchildren, and great-grand-children. So my mom made it onto the tree. But it ends there because it is SO HUGE. They'll need a new tree for each of those great-grandchildren's decendants. For example, my Mom's tree would have five children and 14 grandchildren already!
Rudolf & Lina Baertschi Wunderli ---> Newell & Meta Wunderli Clark ---> Calvin & Margaret Clark Price ---> Gil & Kathy Price Simpson ---> James & Jessica Simpson McCalvy ---> future banditos.
It is a very short reunion and pretty sparsly attended. Potluck lunch and some visiting and games and clean-up. Grandma's sister Dorothy was there and two of their brothers. So I did recognize some of the people. We sat at a 'games table' - set up with butcher paper, crayons and games to keep kids occupied. Granddad and I drew pictures on the table.
I asked one of the grandkids (one with a last name of Wunderly) why some of the Wunderli's spelled their name with a y - Wunderly and some spelled it with an i - Wunderli. He (and a couple nearby cousins) explained that in Swiss/German, i and y are interchangable. When he did extractions, he'd sometimes find the same individual using different spellings. He believes that the Y is the more ancient and traditional spelling.
Rudolf and Lina had four sons (& four daughters - none of whom kept the Wunderli name because of marriage) who emigrated to the United States. Two of them kept the Wunderli spelling and two adopted the Wunderly spelling. He said that when they arrived in the states, people would pronounce Wunderli - WON-DERL-EYE. So the brothers that changed to Wunderly did it so that people could pronounce WON-DERL-EEE correctly.
While I visited with relatives I didn't know, James stayed home, took a nap and did a little clothes shopping. After dinner, I finished making him a hat for Christmas - I didn't have a pattern, so I had to redo parts of the hat as I went along. I also had to try it on him a couple times to make sure I got it just right. It won't be a suprize, but maybe by December he'll have forgotten about it. I chose colors that would match his ski parka and then I had him take a picture of me modelling the finished product. I think it turned out great! Now James wants to learn to crochet so he can make a few more. He's got a list of the styles he wants to try to make.
P.S. for Tucker: HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY!!! Hope you had a good birthday - did you do the triathlon again? Sorry we missed out on birthday cake - we'll bring your present to you in a couple weeks. Love you!