Thornton Family Reunion 2010 at Granite Hot Springs

We spent 4 days last week camping with my family in Wyoming. It was good to go back after a five year absence. It is so beautiful up there, one of Gods great masterpieces. I wont write a lot, I will let the pictures tell the story of what we did there. I apologize in advance, there are a lot of pictures, and I had a hard time editing down to just these ones.

We arrived Wednesday night just in time to put up tents and make dinner. Thursday was our first full day there. We went swimming in the morning and then a few of us went for a little nature hike. Here is the whole crew at the start of our hike, minus Shaun, he was taking the picture. From back left to right: Me, Abby, Alexis, Whitney. Bottom row left to right: Hayden, Brianne, Hannah, Kaylee, and Brad.

We found this cool water pump on our hike, Shaun decided to see if it worked. After a lot of pumping he finally got the water to flow.

The kids had a turn next. It took all of them to get the handle to pull down. With Abby's help they finally did it.

Along the trail on our hike.

This is a cool little water fall we saw along the way. Back row: Abby and Alexis. Front row: Hayden, Kaylee, Hannah, and Brianne.

The hike ended at the swimming pool. This is the bridge that goes over the creek to the pool. It is such a pretty view from the bridge. We were suppose to meet everyone there to go swimming again, but we got there early and ended up just walking back to camp.

On the way back we hiked around Granite Falls. Here is Kaylee and Shaun at the top of the falls, where it just starts to go down.

Then we hiked to a little spot, kind of in the middle of the falls. Here are Kaylee and Brianne getting at close as I would let them to the edge.

We finally made it back to camp and headed up with the rest of the group to go swimming. The water is so warm it is best to go in the morning then again at night, and that is just what we did. Here is Hayden and Kaylee jumping into the pool.

Friday morning we got up and got ready for rafting. It is such a high elevation there, that a fire is a must both in the morning and at night. From left to right: Izy, Nick, Sydnie, Hannah, Brianne and Kaylee.


We had a great time rafting the Hoback (Snake) river. The first part of the run is pretty calm, just a few small to medium sized rapids so all the baby's went along for the ride. It was a little cold that day, so when the first splash of water hit the babies, they all started a chorus of crying, that lasted the rest of the 20 min they were on the boat. All the kids from left to right: Brianne, Kaylee, Hayden, Izzy, Alexis, Trinity, Sydnie, and Hannah.

We were all glad to get the crying babies of the boat and get to the real rapids. I talked Kaylee into going on the big rapids. This is a picture I stole off of a Jackson Hole photographers web site. We are just heading into the second wave of Kahuna. Click on the picture to enlarge it and look at Kaylee's face to see how much she liked it. P.S. Nancy if you go on this website there are more pictures that show Hayden's face a little better. There is also a funny one of Heath losing his hat. I posted them on Facebook, too bad you are not a member.

On Saturday we had breakfast, broke camp, and went to Idaho Falls. We arrived just in time to clean up at Shaun's parents house, then head over to watch the Blue Angels at an airshow they were doing that day. Shaun's brother Josh and his family were there, and Grandma Huls and Katie and Jeremy showed up a little later. It was an amazing show. Shaun went fishing that night with his brothers. All in all we had a pretty fun weekend.

Granite
I thought this would be the perfect week to write about one of my favorite childhood memories: camping with my family at Granite Campground and Hot springs in Wyoming. We are going there again in a few days with my family, and I haven’t been in over four years. I am very excited, and I thought it would be fun to post some old Granite photo’s this week, and then do a post next week with new photos from granite.
Okay, get ready for a huge post sorry. I just love Granite so much I couldn’t limit myself. This is mostly done for the benefit of myself and my family members so feel free to skip this one and will do a regular post later this week of what we did this weekend.
Every summer my family would prepare for my favorite time of the year next to Christmas. Each year we got to spend five days camping at Granite Campground in Wyoming. People always ask me where it is, and the closest city to Granite is Jackson Hole, but even that is about an hour away. Granite isn’t one of those campgrounds you can see from a busy highway. It’s about twenty minutes up a lonely highway that runs along the Hoback river, then another six miles up a dirt road that runs along Granite creek. Once you get there, you are pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

I loved the weeks and days just before we went to Granite. My mom had a whole list of things that needed to be done. One of my favorites was cleaning out the camper. Nancy and I would help my mom wipe out drawers, and wash the utensils but mostly we would play and pretend we were already on our way. My mom would spend the whole week before making cookies and cakes that we would take to Granite for treats and deserts, and then a few days before, we would go grocery shopping for Granite. The cart would be piled higher that usual with food and treats for the trip, and the one thing I was always excited about, because we hardly ever got it, was: soda pop. My favorite was “Sprite” and I was so excited to know that I would get to drink pop anytime I wanted for the whole time I was at Granite! Soon the day arrived and my mom would keep us busy and entertained by loading the camper. I was just happy to be doing anything that would get us on the road sooner. Finally the camper was loaded on the truck and all the kids would get in the only space left in the camper, the bed above the cab of the truck. Then it was a waiting game sometimes up to an hour before we would finally get going, there always seemed to be something that would go wrong a break light on the camper wouldn’t work or someone forgot to fill up the water, or my mom forgot something on her list. But finally we would be on our way! The bed had a big window that faced the front of the truck and we would always fight who would get to be in front of it. It wasn’t until Nancy and I were older that we finally got our turn in front of it, instead we had to make do with our little side windows. Now a day people wouldn’t dream of letting their kids ride in a camper, I can’t imagine what would have happened to us if we had gotten in a wreck. But somehow we managed to all stay safe. Secretly I was terrified of the camper falling off the truck and tumbling down one of the many mountain roads we would drive on. Sometimes, I would get so scared I would have to close the curtain on my side so I couldn’t see and just try and fall asleep. Here is a picture of our camper. My brother Greg is the one farthest back, then Lisa Dinsdale, Me, Nancy, and Lisa's Friend:

Once we finally arrived at the campground there was always so much to do and see. First we had to set up tents and arrange sleeping bags. Once the camper was unloaded from the truck my dad would be off to find firewood for the week, and we would help my mom set up camp. Once we were finally settled it was off the visit the creek. The creek could be quite rough and deep in places but by the campground it widened out and had lots of shallow places to wade in. Almost everyday when it got to hot in the campground we would head off to the creek to cool off. There were always lots of fun things to do at the creek besides playing in the water. We would pick flowers, find snail shells, and if we were lucky we even would find a friendly water snake or bullfrog to take back to camp. The creek bottoms were full of willow trees, and we would always beg my dad to make us whistles. Finally, after a lot of begging he would walk down with us to find the perfect willow branch to carve into a whistle. It had to be just the right thickness, strait, and no knots. It seemed like forever before he would find the right one. Once he did, he would cut it off a little longer that whistle size, make notches for the air to come out, and then he would tap on it for a long time to get the bark to separate from the limb. The bark had to come off in one piece for the whistle to work. Once he got the bark off, he carved the inside of the whistle and slid the bark back on. And then we had our willow whistles. I am sure it was quite noisy after we all got our whistles, no wonder he would wait so long to go down and make them. I didn't have a picture of the creek but here is a picture of the campground area. I just love it because there are so many trees. In this picture Shaun is having a water fight with some of my nieces and nephews:

The next morning we would get up and go to the pool. It was about a mile away from the campground up a rough road that dead ended about a quarter of a mile before the pool. The pool is owned by the forest service and is a very rustic looking pool somewhat carved out of the side of the mountain and fed by a hot spring. There were no bathrooms and only a very roughly build log cabin to change in. Often moose would come to visit the salt lick just below the pool. And at least once a year we would have Mother Nature come to visit us in the pool in the form of a water snake or a bat. We loved the pool best of anything else at Granite; we would swim almost every day and sometimes twice a day. We loved to play on the painted boulders that jutted out into the pool and sit by the waterfall where the hot springs poured into the pool. At one time there was even a diving board to jump off of, until someone died from hitting their head on the bottom. Then we had to just have fun jumping off the sides. Moss also grew on the bottom of one section of the pool, it sounds gross but it actually was one of my favorite parts of the pool, you could dive down and carve pictures or your name in the moss. It was fun to see what other people had carved. One of my very favorite things to do was to just sit and look at the amazing view you had of the creek and the mountains from the pool. Here is a picture of the pool. Its just a random shot but it gives a good view of how the pool just kind of juts out of the side of the mountain:

As if all those things aren’t enough to make Granite the best place in the world to go camping. It also has some really magnificent falls. The falls are situated almost exactly halfway between the campground and the pool. And we would often stop on our way up to the pool to see the falls. The creek is really rough and rugged in that spot and the falls are no exception. You can walk right up to the base of the falls, and even walk out onto a log that has been there ever since I can remember, about half way into the stream. It makes for really cool pictures, but is a bit of an adrenaline rush. There is also a trail that leads to the top of the falls. It’s a beautiful view but not for the faint of heart. When we got older we would tube from the base of the falls down to the campground it was a fun ride but a little scary at times. Here is a picture of Granite Falls. You can see the big log I was talking about in the background. In the picture is my Niece April, my nephew Nick and next to him my Niece Joy:

My parents had Kayaks. The good old fiberglass kind, but not so sophisticated as the ones you see the professional kayakers in now. We usually would take one day to drive down to the Snake river to watch my oldest brother and his friends go down the river in them. One really memorable experience happened to me while watching them go down the river. We had all gone to a place where you can hike down the side of the mountain and watch the rafters and the kayakers go over the biggest rapid on the river called Lunch Counter. I was too little to walk down the trail by myself. It was a super steep trail that ended at some very rough water. My oldest sister Laura who was probably around 16 at the time volunteered to carry me down. We hadn’t gone very far when she lost her footing, and we both started tumbling down the mountain. I remember seeing the water below and thinking I was going to die. No matter how hard we tried Laura and I could not stop, we kept grabbing onto grass and weeds, but it was so steep and gravely that the weeds and grass would just pull out. I remember saying a little prayer that somehow we would be able to stop, and just then we saw a tree in front of us with a branch low enough for me to reach up and grab onto. Laura saw the tree too, and told me that when we passed under to reach up and hold on with all my might. We did and we were able to stop. I still remember clutching to that branch with one hand while my dad and a family friend came down to rescue us. We were both pretty scraped up. It may not have been as dramatic as my little 5 or 6 year old brain made it out to be. But I do remember feeling strongly that my Heavenly Father had been watching out for me and my sister that day.
When I was about 8 we traded our kayaks in for a raft. We spent many summer days going down the snake river in that raft. Usually one whole day of Granite was dedicated to rafting. While other families spent their Saturday afternoons on a lake behind a speedboat, I spent mine on a river. Here is a picture of us on the river in the early years. My dad is in the front in the yellow life jacket, my mom is right behind him and you can just see mine and my sisters heads in the front seat in the front:

And finally Granite would have never been Granite without the Dinsdales. They were my parents best friends, and when I was younger, and before everyone started getting married, and grandkids started coming, we all went to Granite together. We usually got two campsites right next to each other and shared everything from campfires to meals. The Dad, Darwin Dinsdale, was my favorite. He always seemed to be happy and joking. He knew lots of silly campfire songs (he must have been in the scouts a long time). At night we would all gather around the campfire to roast marshmallows and we would beg Darwin to sing us a song. I still find those songs popping into my head sometimes, and if my girls are really lucky I will sing one to them. I just wish I could remember all the words. I managed to find the lyrics to two of my favorites by googling them. Isn’t the internet an amazing thing!

The Thing
As I was walking on the beach one bright and sunny day,
I saw a great big wooden box a floating in the bay.
I pulled it in and opened it up and much to my surprise. . . .
Oh! I discovered a (clap, clap, clap) right before my eyes!
Oh! I discovered a (clap, clap, clap) right before my eyes!

I picked it up and ran to town as happy as a king.
I took it to a guy I knew who'd buy most anything.
But this is what he hollerd at me as I walked in his shop,
"Oh! Get out of here with that (clap, clap, clap) before I call the
cop!" "Oh! Get out of here with that (clap, clap, clap) before I call the cop!"
I turned around and got right out a running for my life.

And then I thought I'd take it home and give it to my wife.
But this is what she hollered at me as I walked through the door,
"Oh! Get out of here with that (clap, clap, clap) and don't come
back no more! "Oh! Get out of here with that (clap, clap, clap) and don't come back no more!

I wandered all around the town until I chanced to meet.
A hobo who was looking for a handout on the street.
He said he'd take most any old thing he was a desperate man.
But when I showed him the (clap, clap, clap) he turned around and
ran! But when I showed him the (clap, clap, clap) he turned around and
ran!

I wandered on for many years a victim of my fate
Until at last I came across St.Peter at the gate.
But as I tried to take it inside He told me where to go,
"Get out of here with that (clap,clap,clap) and take it down
below!" "Get out of here with that (clap,clap,clap) and take it down
below!"

The moral of this story is if you're out on the beach,
And you should see a great, big box and it's within your reach,
Don't ever stop and open it up. That's my advice to you,
For you'll never get rid of the (clap, clap, clap)
No matter what you do! For you'll never get rid of the (clap, clap, clap)
No matter what you do!

The Quartermaster's Song

There are snakes, snakes, snakes Big as garden rakes,At the store! At the store! There are snakes, snakes, snakes, Big as garden rakes, at the Quartermaster's store.
Chorus: My eyes are dim I can-not see. I have not got my specs with me. I have not got my specs with me.
There are mice, mice, miceRunning though the rice,At the store! At the store! There are mice, mice, mice, Running through the rice, at the Quartermaster's store.
Chorus
Continue with each of the following:

3. lice - living on the mice.

4. rats - big as alley cats.

5. roaches - big as football coaches

6. watches - big as sasquaches

7. snakes - big as garden rakes

8. bears - but no one really cares

9. beavers - with little meat cleavers

10. foxes - stuffed in little boxes

This is a picture of Darwin and Deanna Dinsdales. This was taken just a few years ago, my parents still try and go up to Granite with them every once and awhile:

Happy Independence Day!!!!

Or days, as it was in our case. I kind of like it when the 4th falls on a Sunday, it spreads the celebration out further. We had a fun one here is what we did:

We got up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday to go watch the balloon fest in Provo. Only 3 of the 30 balloons got to launch because of the wind conditions, but it was fun watching them blow the balloons up.


After the balloon fest, we went to my brother Mikes house. Jenny made us a great breakfast, and afterward the girls had fun playing in their fountain.

We took it easy for the rest of the day. That night we had a little BBQ with just our family. Shaun grilled some awesome steaks we got from Costco, and I made french fries and strawberry pie. When it finally got late enough, we threw a bunch of blankets and cushions in the back of Shaun's truck, and headed to Thanksgiving Point to watch the fireworks. I'm sure it wasn't as impressive as the Stadium of fire, but we had fun watching them from our comfy seats in the back of the truck, instead of some hard bleachers.

While we waited for the fireworks to start, we enjoyed natures fireworks. What a beautiful sunset!

On Sunday we invited a few of our neighbors over, and lit our pack of fireworks we got from Costco.

This is how Sydnie watched most of the fireworks.

I had been promising the girls I would sleep out with them for the last few nights, but the weather would not cooperate. After the fireworks on Sunday, the weather looked good, so we set out our sleeping bags on some pads on the lawn. We had fun watching for shooting stars and satellites. We also had fun locating some planets and constellations. Quite different from when I was a kid, I brought my lap top out and found this cool website http://skyandtelescope.com/. You could type in your location and it would show you a map of the sky in your area. We were able to located several planets, stars, and constellations.

Happy 4th of July! We had a great one, I plan on posting about this tommorro, when I have the rest of the pictures together. So for now enjoy my Childhood memory post.

Memory #4
Horses

My best friend when I was little was Krista Thomas. She lived a couple houses down, we both had pastures in our back yards. My Family used our pasture very practically, and raised a couple calves each year for meat for our family. Krista’s family had horses. We would beg and beg our parents for a horse, but every time the response was, “horses are too expensive and we don’t have a barn.” Luckily we were able to ride Krista’s horses just about anytime we wanted, and many summers were spent daily on a horse’s back.

I wish I had some pictures of us riding horses but there are none to be found so I included some stock photos of horses that look a lot like the ones we used to ride. The one on the top looks like "Lady" and the one on the bottom looks a lot like "Patches". Now just try to imagine three little girls riding on the back with no saddle, cut off shorts, and barefeet and the pictures will be complete.

I really don’t remember how old we were when we first started riding horses, I do know we were probably not as old as we should have been. We started out by just going out and looking at the horses, feeding them grass and oats. Then we got a little braver, and would go out to the field and try to round up the horses so we could sit on their backs. Once we finally chased the horses into the corral, we would tie them to the fence, crawl up the fence, and onto the horses backs. We spent hours pretending to ride them, and dreaming about when we really could.
The next step was field riding. I’m not sure we were suppose to, because it seemed like Krista was always looking over her shoulder when we did it. We would corner the horses in the corral, put on their bridals, and ride the horses bareback around the pasture. Luckily, Krista owned about the most gentle horses around, they were short too, so the fall was never that far, (and we fell plenty of times). When we were young, Krista always rode a young and a little more spirited horse called Patches, and I rode a very old and gentle horse called Lady.
Finally at about the age of 8 or 9 we were given the okay to take them out on the road. We were quite the sight: cut off shorts, no shoes, and we almost always rode bareback. At first we were only allowed to ride Lady so the three of us: Krista, me, and my sister Nancy would all climb on one horse. Poor Nancy, she was the littlest and lowest in pecking order and always had to ride on the back. She had a very bumpy ride on the horse’s rear end, and would often just slide right off the back, occasionally taking me with her. Our most common destination was the town square that also had an arena in one corner of it. There we would gallop around and pretend we were rodeo queens. If we were lucky an old cowboy named Tom Shirtliff would show up on his horse, and then we were in for a real treat. His horse was the smartest horse we had ever seen. We loved to watch him perform tricks with his horse.
Eventually we were able to take two horses out. I would ride on one and Krista the other with Nancy riding behind on one or the other. Occasionally, we would get all fancy and put saddles on the horses. Those naughty horses would puff their stomachs out, so even when it seemed we had cinched the saddles down tight, after a block or two down the road the saddles would be falling off to one side or the other. On one very memorable occasion my horse got spooked and took off with me on it. My saddle started to slip to the side. I was so busy trying to stay on the horse, that I couldn’t do anything to get control of the horse. As we ran over a patch of grass, I decided my best option was to bail off the horse while I had a soft spot to land on. I bailed, and the horse kept running, now with the saddle practically all the way under it. I think we stuck to bare back riding for awhile after that.
Other memorable horse stories were: once we made homemade bridles for our horses. We thought we were so smart. We found some extra bits in the barn and fashioned the rest of the bridle out of twine used to bail hay. They seemed to work fine at first, we arrived at our destination, tied our horses up and started to play. Our knots must have been horrible because when we got back the only thing left of the horses were their bits and a tangle of twine. We were so scared that the horses had run off and we would never find them. We ran home to get help, and there were our horses patiently waiting to be let back into the gate of their pasture. Naughty horses!!!As you can imagine I didn’t play much with dolls or play dress up very often. Even when we weren’t riding horses our play was centered around horses. We had horse figurines we loved to play with, our Barbies were always riding horses, and more often than not we were horses. Needless to say I can do a really good horse whinny.