Christmas and Moab

I got some feedback that we need to post again, so here we go, I am a little too lazy to say much about the pics, but here they are, enjoy.
Igloo 1

New backpack for chuckette


Austin took this one

It was cold!


Ahh, the Swell


Igloo 2

Year in Review

We are taking the lazy way out. Or should we say the "green" way out. Less paper, less waste. It's the wave of the future, people. So here it is, the long awaited Averett Christmas Newsletter!

Ode to 2007

2007 – It’s been a good year!
Nothing much changed,
If it did, it’s unclear.

Trips, trips, trips and more trips!
We tripped ourselves silly!
We loved every minute
And say THANKS times a milly
To all those who hosted, camped, hiked and made our trips great!
We really do think that you all are first rate!

Aaron continues to grow into a fine engineer.
Soon he’ll take his test and be official next year.
His free time is precious and gets split three ways
Between his house and his Scouts and his favorite - wife days.
September found Angela settling down
In her very own classroom,
Complete with class clown.
The students and teachers of Valor Hall are becoming fast friends,
We’ll be sad when the daily life with them ends.
But we’ll take it with a smile,
And we’ll all give a cheer
Because the end of school in May
Is when the baby will be here!

With the room newly painted and crown molding on the wall,
We’re getting ready for the patter of little feet in our hall.

So tune in next year for sure!
The adventures will abound!
And where there were two,
We pray three will be found.

We love you all!
Merry Christmas!

What's the Sedona difference?

Nathan asked a question about why Sedona was different from the other places we like to visit. I can't believe that I left that part out because it really was half the greatness of our trip. Besides there being scads of people in Sedona, and houses and golf courses being built on top of all the natural beauty, there is only one word that would describe the difference. Vortexes, yes the plural is correct and no, my explanation would never do it justice. So here are some links answer the question. Who knows, you may very much like what you find.

http://www.sedonavortextours.com/vortex.html
Make sure you watch the video!

http://www.sedonavortexconnection.com/
Cyber Vortex?

And please don't miss this one.
http://www.sedonanewagecenter.com/Vortex/vortex_tours.htm#VictorsVortexTours

If winter will not come to us, we will go to winter, kind of. (Part 1 of 2)

Since we don't have enough excuses to get out and see the world, we planned a trip to meet our friends Christian, Valerie, Jacob, and Addison in Sedona, Arizona over the Veterans Day Weekend. If you have ever been to Sedona, you now that it is different than other places we visit. After much searching we decided to stay 25 miles away in Flagstaff. I really like that town. Angela really likes it too because it was cold there (hence us going to winter). I like the ponderosa trees all over town, the high elevation (7000 ft) and small town feel. It is what we thought Anchorage, Alaska would be like. We only have one picture of it looking cold (at the end). The others really are not wintery at all, but we tried...kind of.

This is on the trail between Oak Creek and the Cathedral.

This is on Oak Creek just south of Sedona

Northwest of Sedona on the Devil's Bridge Trail. Looks a lot like Zion, except there are houses and golf courses etc. everywhere.

Here is us on Devil's Bridge, making some of the other visitors nervous.

Slide rock state park in Oak Creek Canyon



Slide Rock State Park Again

The only picture of Semi-Winter we have, the lookout for Oak Creek Canyon, and yes that is Duck Tape at the bottom of the picture, our camera broke and there is only one way to fix it.

We had a great time and look forward to other trips with Christian and Val, For the trip home see the next post....

The Trip Home (Part 2 of If Winter...)

If you haven't read the Sedona post, go there first. I wanted to break our last trip in two because we kind of had two trips, a nice relaxing trip to Flagstaff and Sedona for 2 days and then the epic trip home on Monday. So look at the Sedona trip first and then see the pictures we took on the way home.

I will let the pictures do the talking, these are all from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Canyon and then Moving East to Desert View.





Then the Little Colorado Gorge and Lees Ferry




Last but especially not least, our tribute to Cher, she did so good, just as usual. We again spent some quality time together, she deserves this tribute and a great big hug, if we could get our arms around her.

Back to the Mountains

Last week Chris and Allison asked us to take them backpacking, so like good neighbors we decided to take them. After much deliberation on location we finally settled on Pine Valley Mountain, specifically the Whiterocks trail. Friday night we went in 2 miles and camped, then Saturday we hiked up to the Whiterocks Reservoir (pond) and then out. A fun time was had by all and the weather was perfect- (just a little nippy friday night and on our hike). Hope you all had a good weekend too.

What? No Alligators?

Last week we took a much needed vacation and went to Florida to stay with my Family and Friends, Jeremy, Becca and Tally. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun, and after staying with Jeremy and Becca and not knowing how close we were to the Everglades and the Florida Keys, we will have to go back sooner than later.

We flew the redeye from Vegas to Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday night and then drove up to Orlando to take a much needed nap. Thursday we went to Epcot and met Jeremy, Becca and Tally there. Although this promo video is a little tacky, the ride Soarin was pretty cool and I only got sick at the very end.
Friday we went to Kennedy Space Center and saw the shuttle that will launch next week. It is crazy to think how much energy is used to get the rockets into space. Friday night and Saturday we went to the Beach and then went down to Miami with Jeremy and Becca. We flew home late Sunday and got just a block from home when we got pulled over by a police man at 2:00 AM. I was a little short with the police officer because I was so tired and we were a block from home, but he let us off with an excuse for why he pulled us over and we ended our trip on a good note. (I guess you can't blame him for being suspicious of Cher at 2:00 AM on a Sunday night) Overall we had a great time with Family and friends, and started missing our vacation on Monday morning at 8:00 when we went back to work. Here is some of the pics.