The Mountains and Lake Powell

Two weeks ago, Angela got asked to play the piano for Allison at church in Panguitch Lake. Of course we had to go up on Saturday and have some fun with friends, and then go to Church on Sunday. It was nice to get out of the heat, and the girls had sooooo much fun.
I wish we had gotten more pictures up there, it was so nice to spend the weekend with friends. Sunday night we had not had enough vacation, so we went to Lake Powell and Monday morning we went to Wahweap and took the tour boat to Rainbow Bridge.



It was pretty hot, so we spent a couple of hours swimming before coming home and back to life. Hopefully it isn't too long to our next break.

Side note and request: we stayed Sunday night at Lone Rock, right at the edge of the water and it was really nice. What was not nice was when we got up in the morning, Angela flipped the sand off her pants and we think she flicked her wedding ring into the sand. We looked and looked for it with no luck. We went to Rainbow Bridge and then back to the beach to look again.
So if any of you go to Lone Rock, go walk along the beach and look between restrooms 11 and 12. Don't take a metal detector though, they are illegal in the NRA. We asked the rangers if they had one, and got some funny looks. Maybe one of these days we will smuggle a contraband metal detector into the park and look for the ring. In the meantime, it makes you wonder how many other wedding rings are in that lake. I am sure ours was not the first.

Jackson Hole 2011

Andrew and Jessica have been inviting us to come to Jackson Hole on the 4th of July, but we've never made it work....until this year. And boy, was it worth it! (except for the mosquitoes - next year, could you guys uninvite the mosquitoes please :)

Highlights of our trip:

• floating the river 3 times - 2 times on the big kids' section (aaron) and once on the little kids' section (ang and eliza- aaron and nora jumped in for the last ten minutes of the float)
• camping
• movie night (Tangled on the big screen outside)
• canoeing at String Lake
• fireworks at the park with rad music (notice it in the dancing video. I don't know where you can get the cd, but I'm sure you'll all be dying to buy it)
• popcorn over the fire
• more camping
• Wind Rivers (LOTS of mosquitoes)
• Flaming Gorge
• Grandma's house
• COUSINS (THE WHOLE TRIP WAS FULL OF COUSINS - WAHOO!)

Big kids' section
Lunch Counter almost ate our lunch - but it did eat the boat before us, our friends from Colorado. The water was extremely high!

Little Kids' section
This is the fashionable section. :)

String Lake

Life doesn't get much better than this, that's for sure.

Nora's new favorite animal - an elk. She must have some Great-grandpa Averett blood in her.

Wind Rivers outside of Pinedale.

We ate dinner outside the tent and then went on a little hike.

Stopping to take a picture was a bad idea because the mosquitoes wouldn't leave us alone. We got back to the tent as fast as we could and threw the girls inside and zipped them up. We were cleaning up, getting ready for bed when we hear the zipper and turn around to find a bear - I mean a BARE Eliza! "Mom, I took my clothes off. See?" Kids. What was life like without 'em?

Flaming Gorge Dam
This is definitely an engineer picture.

A bink, a four-wheeler, and a grandpa. Heaven.

Dancing in Jackson

Just some more catch up. In July we went to Jackson with our Family and at the 4th of July Fireworks. Uncle Jeff showed Liza how to dance and that was it, she was dancing for the next half an hour. Thanks Uncle Jeff, that was AWESOME! I have to admit there are some pretty "sweet dance moves" in there. (Liza likes to tell us she has sweet moves to show us now and again.)

Grandpa Camp

This year for the girls sewing retreat the Moms and Nana stayed at home while the kids and Dads went to Park City and did fun things in the surrounding area. Here are some pictures from the Grandpa Camp activities.

Out on Trial Lake in the inflatable raft.

Lots of rock throwing, some fishing but no fish and a little bit of rain too. It was a nice break from our heat at home to have to wear sweaters.

The kids climbed all over Provo Falls,

And of course they were extremely worn out.

We then went to Guardsman pass where the kids played in the snow and then we went to Cascade Springs. After two days of Grandpa Camp, it was time for Nana Beach Camp to start. We don't have pictures of Nana Camp since it was only for the kids, not the parents, but they fished, built sand castles, went swimming, made pictures and more. We had a lot of fun and some kids that slept very well when they were done with the festivities. Looking forward to next year.

Escalante

When invited to go to Escalante to go hiking, who could resist? We planned to leave Thursday afternoon, but plans changed quick when I realized I had forgotten a presentation I was suppose to give Thursday night. So, we had to leave on Friday morning early and met our friends on Forty Mile Ridge. Spending a Friday at Peekaboo and Spooky Canyons beats working any old day in my book. The girls did so good and although they were tired, they had fun. We couldn't have done it without Ashley and Brent. With them, getting through the canyons with two kids was not too bad.

They love Ashley. And Brent. I think Nora has a secret crush on him, she just kept giving him those cute little smiles.

Yeah, Spooky Canyon is tight and deep and dark, but Nora had her Wub so she was good.
*Note: the wubba was taken only to help her fall asleep in the backpack - the trouble was the backpack didn't fit through the canyon with her in it. So much for that idea.

We did have to take some breaks to play in the sand, but that was all part of the fun.

The canyon is perfect size for Eliza and Nora to walk through.

And some of the corkscrew corners were perfect for Eliza to slide down.

It was a little warm and the girls got tired before we got back to the car.

Saturday morning we went to Calf Creek Falls. It was a little cold to swim, but it was just right for hiking and playing in the sand.

On the way home we stopped at our favorite campsite and had dinner with our friends, and then put the girls to bed in the car so they could fall asleep "camping" (very important for Eliza) and then we headed home. It was a little short (like usual), but well worth it. Hopefully we can get out there again soon. Anyone want to go camping?

What have I done?

AAAAAHHH! I'm in. Or I'm dead. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

Winter Break

Each winter about February we have to get up to the snow to have some fun. This year was no exception and so off to Bryce Canyon we went. We went to Rubys Inn on Thursday night and then spent Friday in Kodachrome Basin State Park. No snow but plenty of hiking. Eliza found this "Walk of Death" and even though she was tired, it was still fun.

Of course there was lots of time for swimming in the pool.
But what we came for was the snow,
Saturday morning it came. This is our car outside the room when we woke up.
Luckily we had done some sledding and skiing by the rim when the weather was good.

The girls had a lot of fun and then slept all the way home. The snow was pretty bad going home. When we did get home of course it was in the 50s and sunny.