Somewhere over the rainbow...

Taken on a rainy day this fall...oh, how I love our house and the mountains!

So, visiting the zoo in the fall really is better!

Carson and Devin really are this crazy! When they play together they are in their own little world - and I am sure they don't realize that our world even exists, or is parallel to theirs...or is important...or that air or food are important...

And of course we could have told you that

Aubrey and Macie are the size of adult Orangutans...

This picture cracks me up about Ethan...I thought he would hate it and not let me post it - but he said "what is wrong with it" which makes me laugh even more!

Baby giraffe born a couple weeks before...same number of vertebrae as the adult giraffe...painful delivery I would think.

Val and I took the kids (minus Kaleb who apparently is too cool - and when I think about it, really isn't a kid) to Hogle Zoo over fall break. There were so many great animals out and about - we had a great time just strolling along, and minus the few minutes we lost Macie - all was good!

Buffalo, wolves and bears - oh, my!

I am a couple months late in posting Yellowstone pics - but better late then never.

This was a really fun trip taking our camper out for the longest trip yet. We stayed in West Yellowstone KOA and Stacey joined us for most of the time. We had beautiful weather and the kids really enjoyed looking at the sites, swimming and playing at the campground.

They didn't like the driving to and from the various sites - especially Ethan! He was so funny. Thank goodness for DVD players in cars, how did our parents do it w/o that??? This picture was taken after Yellowstone - when we went to Grand Teton. You can see how cold Ethan thought it was - but a beautiful picture of the family hiking up to the waterfall. Dave and I had gone to Jenny Lake when we were dating in 1991 - but at that time they didn't have a ferry across.

Happy Birthday Lois

Lois Turns 70!

She doesn't want us to make a big deal about it - but this is a big deal. She has raised a beautiful family and is a fabulous mom - and mother-in-law. And I realize how lucky I am to say that!

Dave is the cute little boy in the center

Dave and Shawn turn 40!

As a surprise for the guys b-day, Val and I "kidnapped" them and went to Sundance to go Mtn. bking, golfing in Midway and to Park City overnight. The scenery was beautiful.... and that wasn't just them. :)

A "posed" shot from Val and I... no really - we are naturally that curvy!


This was a beautiful trail that took about an hour. It was all single track and took us on a huge loop. We all had some minor injuries - Shawn definately suffered the worst. As the really helpful biker who passed him when he had gone over the handle bars said "Hey watch your brakes, dude!"

Val and I held back a little to allow the guys plenty of room. They thought we were having a hard time...but that wasn't it at all.

Yes, Dave is the photographer here...

For you Pritha! Alaska - finally

A picture of Stacey and I in front of the fountain on the cruise ship. There was a cute little wine steward that asked us if we were sisters. I asked him which one was younger and he guessed Stacey - so I told him if he wanted a big tip he better change that guess. From then on out he would say "Oh, there is Amy... the younger sister" Yes, he got a big tip!

A picture from Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. The glaciers are REALLY this blue. The pressure of all the weight on top of the them compresses them and only allows blue light to filter through. Truly breath taking! Hiking to the waterfall by the glacier below.

This is the view that we had outside our cabin on the cruise ship - could it be more perfect!!! The weather was amazing. We had record heat - which is always a good thing for Alaska and hardly any rain. A beautiful sunset from the ship below.

The first 5 days of the trip were on land and we had the chance to fly into Fairbanks and go panning for gold, check out some native exhibits (below) and visit a Iditerod dog breeder.

The amazing jump above is me touching the Trans Alaska pipeline. It was amazing what a huge source of income this is for the people of Alaska - especially in the Fairbanks area. The huge pipe goes above ground and below ground - just depending on the permafrost in that area.

Denali National Park was definitely the place for us to see animals. We saw about everything conceivable - except wolves. It was so amazing that we saw this bear because our tour for the morning was almost over, and we turned the corner and he was there! There were a couple of others up stream - play fighting. Pretty amazing stuff.

The moose below is a yearling that the mother is trying to chase off so she can have her new calf. He was like any other teenage - didn't really get the hint that she was trying to lose him.

The only hard part about being someplace so beautiful was not having Dave there to share it with me. It was nice not feeling guilty about being away from the kids - since he was home with them, but the majesty in Alaska is just something I will have to experience again with him.

Memorial W-end in St. George

Brian Bullock is a lot of talk. Anyone who knows him knows that is true. When we got our new trailer he said he wanted to go camping with us sometime, but after they bagged on us at Dinoland - we weren't sure they would ever really come. So the next camping trip we wanted to make good and sure we were not alone. For Memorial day we went ahead and invited Chad's family, and then any trip is more fun with the McLeod's, well - why not add the Richard's for good measure :)

So as you have now guessed, Brian did come through and we had 5 families camping at the Temple View RV park in St. George to enjoy Zions and a great memorial day weekend. The trip started perfect w/ In and Out Burger on Kaleb's 14th b-day. Jim had set up an outdoor movie for us all to enjoy as we chilled out that night and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the McLeod's.

On Saturday we took our first trip into the park and drove up the car loop and through the tunnels, to checkerboard Mountain (pic below). The amazing thing was that this was w/ 9 of the kids missing from the picture. Now, if you haven't noticed - Kaleb is the only teenage boy here. And he was taking advantage of his odds. McKenzie and Cora were good sports to keep him feeling included :)

Shaun and the ladies...

Ethan and Kade chillin (oh, and by the way - those were not our tubes)

The pool was the main attraction and we had great warm - but not too hot - weather to enjoy it.

Dad, you better notice below that they are now triplets - not just twins. Carson is now in on the antics w/ Devin and Logan.

The best hike we took was on Sunday night up to Lower, Middle and Upper Emerald Falls. We caught lots of lizards along the path and Jim was a good sport to take turns carrying the girls in the back pack - although with 3 of his own he knows them well. I think he thought it was an opportunity to do a little training, considering Shaun and Dave were all talk about doing 5K's, triathlons - I think I even heard them commit to an Ironman.

Dave, You do have to do more then just "mentally" prepare for those!

Dinosaur's Roar and Rawlinson's rule!

This is one of the coolest places we have found in our travels to the Vernal area. There are some Petroglys on private property that you can hike to. The parking lot that is fenced by a covering of deer antlers and the homemade hiking sticks you can use during your hike - make this a classic that is sure to please the whole family!

To break in the new trailer, we went to Dinosaurland for Spring Break. Devin was in 1st grade this past year, and crazy about the Dinos - so we wanted to go and discover a new Devinosaurus species. The McLeod family came with us and we had a great time hiking and exploring the museums and pictographs and petroglyphs in the eastern Utah area. I think the main reason that we didn't discover Devin's new dino is that he and Carson were too busy sliding down the side of the mountain and making forts out of picnic tables. They are two little peas in a pod! Val and I kept joking that they really didn't know anyone else was around. I am not sure we were really needed either.

I think that Kade is trying to be Vanna White - only problem is that I am not sure who he is trying to sell???

Kauai

We have been home for 1 month now - and I think I have finally come to grips with the fact that we will not be moving to Hawaii. Dave and I went to Oahu when Kaleb was 1, but Kauai was a different experience altogether. The first couple days we were there it rained - A LOT!!! In fact I wasn't sure how much we really were going to enjoy the trip. We did a lot those days, mostly exploring around in the car, getting out for short hikes, etc. But once the days were beautiful I found the place I want to retire to. Every picture we took looks like a postcard to me. We are going to go to Maui next in a couple years, but I think Kauai will always be my favorite.

What a beautiful valley. This was the area of the Gods where they built stone temples to them in several places heading up stream.

Our favorite beach! This was a secluded place that we found when chasing the sun. It was really crazy how it would be gray and raining in the north or east and we would head south and find this weather. We picked up some local Hawaiian food that came highly recommended and drove down to this coast - opened the top on the convertible and enjoyed a beautiful lunch.

The view outside of Sunset Beach House Restaurant. The first (and only) sunset we saw.

A beautiful view hiking down to Secret Beach. This should be a postcard!

This picture was taken as we were hiking Na Pali coast - before it started to rain. The hike up was great and it was wet on the way down. Our shoes were so muddy from hiking in and through rivers that we just walked right into the ocean when we finished the hike to try to clean our shoes. They will never be the same again.


This tangle of roots is actually the trail. We walked through so many waterfalls and the strange part was that we weren't just crossing them - THEY WERE the TRAIL! This was a really good experience. Beautiful coast that you can't get to only by hiking and kayaking.

Na Pali coast from the helicopter (glare included). So you can only get to 10% of Kauai from the roads. While the helicopter trip was REALLY expensive - 400 dollars an hour - it is something I will never be able to do again. Once we finished I told Dave that it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. Next to marrying him and having the kids that is!

Us on the beach in front of our hotel. This was the first sunny day we had on the east part of the island where we were staying.

Dave insisted on a convertible. It is funny because I thought he was just being extravagant. Turns out that Hawaii is better when you can see all 180 degrees of it!