Andrew James Hawker

The Happy Family

Big Sister MaKayla

All Cleaned Up

Proud Grandpa

Great Grandma

Daddy's Hands

4 Generations

Brad and Stephanie had their baby this morning. He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 19 inches long. He has black hair, and the cutest lips ever. He was born at 7:22 a.m. He is our 3rd grandson. I can't believe how much he has changed in 12 hours. It's amazing to look at him and wonder what he is thinking about. If only he could talk.....the things we could learn.

The Flight!!!

"D" for Dixie

St George Airport

Brad and pilots

On way to the Grand Canyon

The pilots

My ride: Piper Navajo

Putting on engine covers

Kevin, Tonya, me and Brad in Phoenix

Ready for take off

Flying into Phoenix (pools in every yard...)

St George Temple

Flying through the clouds

The Grand Canyon

Me in Brad's helicopter

Brads boss needed him to go to Phoenix and help him work on a plane,(besides being a helicopter instructor, Brad is also working on fixing the planes, etc.) so he invited me to go and surprise Tonya and Kevin. (They live 12 miles from this particular airport) so I decided to go even though I was terrified of flying in such a small plane. I ended up calling Kevin to make sure they would be home because it is their anniversary weekend, and I didn't want to miss them. There was the pilot, co-pilot, Brad and I. The plane we took is a Piper Navajo. (8 seats) They have been restoring it for months. They just finished it this week and need to put lots of flying hours on it before it goes to the Phillipines, so they have been test flying it. When we got there this morning they had to still put the engine covers on. I trust Brad, or I would never had gotten on it. It only took us 1 1/2 hours to fly from here. (it is an 8 hour drive) We all had on headphones, so it was pretty cool listening to all the traffic controllers etc. I took over 100 pictures of everything. We went over the Grand Canyon and I got pictures of the Colorado river, etc. I got a good picture of the St George Temple. On the way home the clouds were cool. We flew through them. It was pretty bumpy the last 5 minutes or so. The pilot gave me a barf bag, but thank goodness I didn't need it. The a/c wasn't quite right so midway through the flight they opened the front windows by the pilot. That freaked me out for a second. Of course, we weren't high enough for it to matter. It felt great in there after that. We went to breakfast with Tonya and Kevin and after I visited for awhile, they came back to the hanger and watched us take off. It is so amazing to be able to fly there, visit, and fly home in a little over 6 hours. It was a day I will always remember and cherish. Thanks to Brad for arranging it. I overcame my fear and I would go again in a second. At the hanger in St George I got to get in one of the helicopters Brad uses.

Girl's Weekend

New sign for our RV
(I don't know why the pictures are sideways...)

Close up of the fisherman

New Temple Sight in Gilbert, AZ

Empty field where the Temple will be

Tonya and her 100 Good Wishes Quilt!

I flew to Phoenix and spent 4 days with Tonya. (Kevin was gone for a few days camping) We shopped, shopped, went to movie, visited her friends, went to church, ate out at some cool places, and organized closets, etc. We spent time looking at her awesome scrapbooks, and talking a lot about her up coming adoption of Danica! She drove me to where the new Gilbert Arizona Temple will be built. It is 2 stoplights away from her house. I surprised her and brought her her "100 Good Wishes Quilt" that her grandma Hawker just finished for her. It is so fun to look at all the squares and see who sent them to her. She has all the wishes in a scrapbook for Danica to read when she gets older. It was a nice weekend. She sent home Doug's Birthday present with me. It is a very cool plaque that her and Kevin had made for our trailer. We will hang it on the front of our 5th wheel every time we go camping!!!.

Camping at Duck Creek

Doug fishing at Duck Creek

Granddaughters on a hike

Ali was so excited. It was her very first fish ever. She put on the bait, cast and reeled it in all by herself. Thankfully cousin Alex took it off the hook for her!!

Gwyneth and her first fish (with a little help from brother Alex)

Andrea

Sam in our RV

Cousins Ali and Ellie "chilling" by the stream

Cousins Mandi and Gwyneth fishing

Deer at our camp

Doug and his Birthday cake! We are always camping for his birthday(July 23rd)

For the 24th of July we went to Duck Creek with Scott and Jessica's families. We had lots of fun fishing and hiking and relaxing.

July 2009

Fireworks in Flagstaff

Tonya and Abbie at parade in Flagstaff

My Mom at Mandi's Party

Izzy on hike in Duck Creek

Doug and Scott's girls before Ballet Recital

Emily on a hot summer day!

Mandi on her 4th Birthday

I have been busy quilting , camping, working, etc. so I will just post some of my favorite pictures from July. (I am going to do a post on all the quilts as soon as I finish the last one. I am on my 8th one now)

The black "Ladybug"

G & A

Daring to touch it!

G waiting for it to fly

G & A after they calmed down...

A couple of weeks ago we were visiting Scott and family and I was tending the little girls. We were outside and they found a bug on a tiny branch. They watched it for about 20 minutes. They were in awe until it flew and landed on Andrea. (I didn't get a picture of that because she was terrified and I had to get it off of her.)

Slot Canyon

Brad & Izzy

Frog on rock!

Small Opening at Beginning

Cynthia

Doug

Learning how to scale the rocks!

Our campsite

MaKayla, Alex, Scott, Ellie & Brad ready to hike Angels Landing

Andrea's 3rd birthday

Scott's 37th birthday

Izzy at the Lodge
Ellie's 11th Birthday

We went to Zion for 3 days for the Memorial Day Holiday. It was the busiest we have ever seen it, but we had fun anyway. Scott, Brad, and the 3 oldest grandkids all hiked to Angels Landing, and Brad and MaKayla hiked to Observation Point. We celebrated the 3 May birthdays (Scott, Andrea, and Ellie) Last night we took the GPS and hiked to a place we had never been, and NO ONE was there but us. It was the prettiest spot I gave been to in Zion in all these years. It was a slot canyon. We have been waiting for the right time to be able to go there, because we can't if there is any chance of flash flooding. The rangers at the Visitor's Center didn't even know about this hike and were trying to tell us we needed to be very careful, because it was getting cloudy. We had to do a lot of boulder hopping and the sandstone rocks were pretty slippery. I almost quit half way, but Brad helped me find a way to lean on the rocks and go sideways. It was hard, but I am so glad I went all the way. I can't describe how pretty it was. My pictures don't do justice to it at all. I took a video I was going to put on here, but it is my new camera and I deleted it by accident. ( I won't do that again) When we go in October to hike the Narrows, we will show this canyon to the rest of the family that wasn't there this time.