Enjoying Charleston

Now that we have been here one month and are unpacked and settled, we have been able to enjoy living here in Charleston and the beautiful surrounding Heber Valley. I love the peace and quiet around here - the sounds we hear during the day are sprinklers, birds, and the Heber Creeper railroad.

I have also noticed some advantages of a smaller home - although it messes up quick - a small house is easy and quick to clean-up. The kids get lots of toys out, but they don't get spread as far, so they have an easier time cleaning up after themselves. I like having a cozy kitchen with no sit-up bar. Now that there is no bar - I actually sit down for each meal at our little table with the kids rather than standing behind the counter while they ate on the other side.

As part of my nesting and getting settled, I have been baking and trying to cook more to prove to myself that I can still do it even though the kitchen is smaller. I have successfully made bagels, pizza, sour-dough bread, baguettes, brownies, cake, and lots of other good food. So far, we haven't eaten out too much - even though there is lots of fast food in nearby Heber, we sort-of have that camping or BearLake feeling where you have to plan your food and take care of it all without going out all the time. Hopefully I can keep this up.

Well, enjoy the pictures and check out my other posts. Al says that all this blogging I have done today must be part of my "nesting" instinct.

Here is the view of Mt. Timp from the front yard:

A sunset over the chicken coop and garden:

Paul has been taking the kids on lots of 4-wheeler rides - it takes about 5 minutes to ride to the Provo river.

Here is Pepper enjoying the farm. She and Kaya are loving the open spaces up here and they get into stuff all the time. This was the worst she has ever been and I am not even sure what she is covered in. (probably mud from the cow pasture). We will get her shaved this week. I guess we should have thought twice about getting a shih zhu knowing that we were moving to a farm.

Austin - he is playing on the path that leads to the hayfields and haybarns.

Paul cleared out some junk and mowed this area of the property - across from the house to make a little picnic area and fire-pit. We have had some fun evenings with visitors having campfires out here.

The kids playing at Deer Creek

Strawberry Reservoir

Here is Austin and Abby getting a horse ride - there are some horses that are kept on this property, so the kids got invited to ride. We will probably not buy horses while living here, but since everyone around us has at least one horse, we hope to make some friends that will occasionally let us ride.

Kids on the tramp.