"Spring" Break

What a crazy week!! Our spring break didn't exactly go as we had imagined, or hoped (weather wise), but we had a great time & the craziness only adds to the experience. :)


MONDAY: Sunny, 69 degrees and we went to the zoo with a neighbor. We had the best time! Treyson was so excited about riding the train & the carosel. I, of course, forgot the camera - so "thanks, Michelle" for the use of yours. :) We bought an annual pass so we can go more often. We really did have a great day!
TUESDAY: It rained ALOT on Tuesday. That's alright, we'd already made plans to go see the Hannah Montanna movie with our friends, the Lyons sleep tonight & the Boyacks. We had a ton of fun and loved the movie! Treyson was dancing, singing & clapping along!

WEDNESDAY: It snowed ALOT and we were packing for our annual camping/motorcycling trip with the Larsens & Richins (missed the Richins until Sat.). In between snow storms, we'd run out food & supplies to the motorhome. We put the motorcycles on the trailer and parked it in the garage overnight. With a forcast of more snow, we decided to go Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night. Before we packed up the truck & trailer, we had to shovel snow out of them.

THURSDAY morning we woke up to around 6-8" of snow on the ground. So, we had to shovel out the truck, again. TJay also shoveled snow off the top of the motorhome while the kids played in the snow and sledded! We ended up going camping at 5 mile (between here & Tooele) and it was COLD. At least we had a nice, warm motorhome with a heater. :)



FRIDAY & SATURDAY we had fun cooking outside, playing with friends & riding the motorcycles. Treyson learned to ride his motorcycle by himself. Previously, we've had a tow rope attached to the back of his motorcycle and we ran behind so we could slow him down. I should post video. It's quite a site. Trey learned how to control his speed and use his brakes. He is so cute! He stands up on the pegs to ride most of the time. Now that he can ride, that's all he wants to do. He asked all the time to go riding. So much fun! Kylie & Alyssa & their friends continued the tradition of gathering junk and making tree houses. Ky even had a tire swing in hers.


Alyssa wrecked on her bike & bent the handle bars & messed up the throttle cable, so we're stopping by Rocky Mountain this week for new bike parts. Luckily, she was fine. TJay had a great time riding "dad" rides with his friends, jumping again, and most of all going on rides with his kids. His wife is too wimpy and goes too slow. :) We went on a family ride and I couldn't keep up. :) Kylie was sick on Saturday and spent most of the day sleeping and finishing up some homework. The moms played a lot of games and spent time reading & relaxing. That's what is great about our camping trips with our friends, everyone does things they enjoy. The plan for next year: celebrat spring break in June when it's much warmer! :) But, not give it up, it's too much fun!

Treyson & his friend Joshua. They have so much fun together - even on cold mornings!

I almost forgot the fires! TJay loves building fires. He loves using lighter fluid to make them bigger. We discovered a new joy this trip. If you put tumble weeds in the fire - it shoots out HUGE flames! (Even bigger if you douse it with lighter fluid). The kids would run & gather tumble weeds (there are a ton out there!) and make huge flames after dinner.

WOW! What a week! We returned home around 10 last night and made it to 9am church this morning, although Lyssa & I were a bit late. :) No wonder I needed a nap today! Wouldn't change a thing - ok, I would've changed the weather. But, we had fun & now back to the real world: school & work. :)

Fall Vacation to Southern Utah

Our Moab Vacation

For fall vacation (UEA) we went with our friends the Richins and the Larsons to Southern Utah for 3 fabulous days! We had so much fun. This became one of my favorite vacations. We each rented a small cabin in Green River ($42/night - can't beat it) and cooked outside and had campfires (like camping without the tent and less dirt and actual mattresses). Friday we went to Arches National Park and hiked for 3 hours to see Delicate Arch (above). It was beautiful and totally worth the walk. An older couple from Seattle were there and saw Trey not wanting to walk anymore and they challenged him to see who could get there first. They were great & we saw them quite a bit as both their and Trey's pace were the same. He was excited when "we won".

We even saw some neighbors, the Camp's, there. :) It was also fun to climb into the holes and crevices. After Arches we went up Negro Bill Canyon and played on the sandy beach and watched some river rafters coming home from rafting the Colorado.

Then we went shopping (look for the kids' Moab shirts and hats at slick rock) and had dinner at Zax. Zax is a pizza/pasta place where we had to wait for a little over an hour. It was so delicious that the kids said it was worth the wait! This was after waiting until 7:30 to eat! It was great, if you go to Moab, go to Zax (they should be paying me for the good words!).

On Saturday, we went to Slick Rock. Our friends brought bikes, but we decided not to, so we hiked and climbed and it was great. Josh (5) couldn't ride on slick rock, so Lyssa rode his bike. His was the only bike without gears and she totally kept up and kept going. She is such a little daredevil, but she loved it!

This is us at slick rock with the matching t-shirts and hats. (right)

After slick rock we went to Dead Horse Point (incredible) and Canyonlands where we saw the Mesa Arch (above left). The amazing thing about the Mesa Arch is the sudden, shear drop off directly behind. The arch itself is on the edge and the view behind is amazing! It quickly became my favorite! We're debating on which picture to use for our Christmas cards this year.:)

TJay and Kevin pointing out "horseshoe bend" at Dead Horse Point State Park.

We went to another yummy place to eat and had scones (at Zax we had tried the pizza that had crust, honey, chicken and mozarella - it was amazingly good, but put us in the mood for scones and honey). We went to a fun park for lunch and the kids loved playing on the playground. There were 3 different playgrounds and one had musical instruments that even the big kids loved!

Sunday came, time to check out. We wanted a fun, relaxing Sabbath and drove to Goblin Valley to just play and explore and climb (Trey's favorite - and Lyssa's). Okay, so we all had fun climbing and playing make-believe (we had light sabers, of course). We played hide & seek. We had a great time! Then we took the scenic route home: over the San Rafael Swell, up through Emery county to Price and home. We returned home late and tired, but all of us agreed it was a great vacation!