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???