Zion National Park

Last weekend our family went to St. George for a short little getaway. It was my last weekend of freedom, so we enjoyed it. It was too short, but we still had a great time. The highlight of the trip was Zion National Park. I had never been there and it was really pretty. I especially enjoyed seeing all the uplift, weathering, abrasion, etc. that was happening since I teach this subject in school. The girls weren't too fond of all the walking, hence we didn't take as many hikes as Kenny and I would have wanted, but the few we took were worth it. My favorite was the weeping rock. It's a rock overhang where it looks like it's raining all the time because water from clear up at the top of the mountain inside the rock finally comes out at this overhang. It was pretty. The girls favorite part of the trip was the swimming pool at our condo. Emily went swimming with her Daddy as often as she could. It was a very enjoyable trip to St. George.

The entrance to the park

This amazing structure is known as the Three Patriarchs--Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Mom and Emily at the weeping rock

Our family at the weeping rock

Hiking to the narrows--we at least made it to the end of the paved trail :-)

Getting in the water at the narrows--from the look on Emily's face you can tell what the water felt like. It was COLD!

The girls' favorite part was all the chipmunks that were in Zion's. Ashley loved chasing them.

I love this picture! Ashley wanted so badly to go swimming she put on Emily's goggles and got out the water noodle. I had to keep stopping her from taking her clothes off too.

Scera Pool and Kenny's 15 year reunion

On Saturday, August 1st, we went to the Scera pool as a family. Emily loved the waterslides and wanted to go down those all day. Ashley was a little nervous in the water at first until I took her over to the little kid slide. Then she couldn't get enough of that. It was so fun to just relax and play with our girls.

Emily smiling right after she went down the water slide

I love this picture! Ashley so excited to go down the little slide

Reaching the bottom-"Again!" she would say every time

That night was Kenny's 15 year class reunion for Orem High School. I missed mine for my brother's wedding, so at least we got to go to one. Kenny had a blast seeing people he hadn't seen in years. The committee decided to make it all about the kids that night and it was such a hit! They brought in bounce houses, cotton candy, popcorn, and sno cones. It was so great to have the kids being entertained and we could just talk to people. It was a fun night.

The girls going down the bouncy slide

Climbing on the bouncy slide

Ashley sucking the sno cone dry

Sugar rush! :-)

Swimming Lessons

We put Emily in swimming lessons these last two weeks. She did pretty well. She's still learning how to take a breath and hold it when going under water and not just taking in the water. :) Her teacher was really patient with her. Thanks, Amanda!

Playing Fish in the Basket--learning how to swim under things

Playing the "treasure" game--Emily loved this. You dive down and get the plastic ring she's holding. She loved it so much that we bought her her own set.

Alaskan Cruise Part 6: Victoria and going home

Well, our cruise had to come to an end sometime. :( Our last stop was in Victoria, British Columbia. It was a very nice city. We went on a city tour on a double decker type bus and saw a lot of neat places. My favorite places to see though were in the heart of the city. They were the Parliament building and The Empress hotel. We also saw our only sunset on the whole trip. It was gorgeous. The next morning we had docked in Seattle and it was, alas, time to get off the boat. We had such an amazing time! It was so relaxing and wonderful to just be the two of us. It has been one of my all time favorite things to do. I recommend it to anybody!

The Parliament Building

The Parliament Building lit up at night

The have these whales everywhere around the city

The Empress Hotel where they have a grand tea ceremony each day

It started raining at night and we got a pretty shot of a rainbow above the hotel

Gotta love Bullwinkle the Bounty

This cool statue lady all dressed in copper. She would move when you gave her money.

The beautiful sunset; our only one on the whole trip

It started raining so we made a dash back to our ship for the final time on our trip

Disembarking the ship; time to go home

Alaskan Cruise Part 5: Skagway

Our last Alaskan stop was in a little town called Skagway. It only has 800 people in the town, so our cruise ship alone tripled its population. There were a few highlights in Skagway: 1)We took a great city tour and stopped at a waterfall that came directly from a glacier so we could drink right from it. 2) We found an LDS ward house on our way back. We walked back to it and were taking our picture outside, when a man opened the door (he happened to be there practicing the piano) and let us in so we got to see the inside. It was so teeny. The primary room was the smaller than the size of a normal classroom in our church. The cultural hall was the chapel and it was small. There were a total of 5 rooms and the chapel/cultural hall. It was neat to see a little tiny branch where people still were taught the same gospel as in our big churches. It was neat.

Welcome to Skagway

The beautiful Alaska sign on our Summit tour

Kenny getting water from the glacial waterfall

Kenny drinking the water. It tasted great and was clear

The pretty waterfall

Our picture at the church

The little church

The nursery; the primary room was the same size

Alaskan Cruise Part 4: Glaciers

Early on our third day we went "Scenic cruising" up through a fjord up to a glacier called Dawes Glacier. It was very cold and windy, but we bundled up a lot and were okay. The coolest thing for me were the ice chunks on the way to the glacier and for the teacher in me--all the U shaped valleys. When we got up there, we didn't get as close as I had expected, but we still got some good shots.

The cool blue ice on the way to the glacier

Dawes Glacier--the car tracks are really rock that has been ground up to silt

Me in front of the glacier

Kenny and me all bundled up at the glacier

Later that day, we pulled in to Juneau. It was raining and cloudy so the Mendenhall glacier that we were headed to couldn't be seen nearly as well, so that was a disappointment. We took a city tour also and it was to say the least...not worth it. It makes a great story to tell though about how weird it all was. The highlight of our Juneau trip was seeing a mama bear and her two cubs at the Mendenhall Glacier. That was cool. We also went to a Salmon fishery and were amazed by how many fish there were. Overall it was a great morning and an okay day.

Beautiful scenery along the way to the glacier--believe it or not the purple flowers are weeds. I wish we had those kind of weeds here!

Mama bear

The 2 cubs up in a tree--too bad it didn't turn out better

Unfortunately this is about the best shot I got, because it was raining and so hazy

The Salmon hatchery we stopped at. It was mind boggling how many fish were there.

Alaskan Cruise Part 3: Our first stop--Ketchikan

Our first excursion was in Ketchikan, Alaska. We didn't purchase any excursions on the ship because we thought we could get them cheaper on land. We were right. We did two here. We went on the boat, The Aleutian Ballad, which had been in the show the Deadliest Catch. They took us out and brought up king crab, an octopus, all kinds of fish, etc. and also took us to an island where a ton of bald eagles make their nest and threw out fish to them. We then got to see the eagles swoop down and grab the fish out of the water. It was pretty amazing.

The Ketchikan sign

The King Crab they pulled up in the huge cages

The 80+ pound octopus

This is a video of the eagle coming to catch the fish

After that we went and saw a lumberjack show like on TV. They had a competition cutting logs, climbing poles, log rolling, etc. It was a fun show. The best part about the day was just strolling through the streets and shopping in the stores. They give you a ton of coupons so you'll shop there. It was fun getting so much for free or very cheap! Ketchikan was my favorite stop! It was a wonderful day!

The log cut during the Lumber Jack show

They have totems everywhere. This is a cool eagle statue