Zion trip

We took some of Brad's family to Zion to hike the Subway, and were very dissappointed that we were not able to get a permit to do it. They only allow 20 walk in permits per day and you have to stand in line at the permit office the day before to get one. So we sent my dad on Thursday morning to get one so we could do the hike on Friday, but even though he got there 15 minutes before the permit office opened, there were already 8 people in line ahead of him and the first 2 people took all 20 permits. So we had the idea that if we got there 2 hours before the permit office opened that we would probably be the first in line and could get the permit to do it on Saturday instead. Wrong! Brad and I got up at 3:30 in the morning and drove from St. George to find that even at 5 a.m. there were already 12 people in line and the first 3 people were taking the Subway permits. Bummer!

So, we didn't get to hike the Subway this trip, but we had fun anyway. We took them on some other fun hikes. This picture is on the Double Arch Alcove hike in the Kolob section. We did this hike on our way home. It was really pretty, and Cameron had a blast.

Of course we had to take them to one of my favorite spots, Pine Creek. We had fun there jumping in the water and swimming around. Cameron didn't seem to mind the cold water much. He had fun jumping in from small rocks.

Havasupai!!

We just got back from Havasupai. What a gorgeous place. It still amazes me that this can be found in the desert of the Grand Canyon area. We had a great trip. We went with my dad, Alan, brother Jason and his wife Amber and some friends from the old Country Hills Ward, the Nestoryaks.

Havasu falls is one of the many blue green waterfalls you see in Havasupai. It's probably the most widely known. To get to it you must hike 10 miles into the Havasu indian reservation. We got lucky this year though. Because we had such a large group, my dad was able to work a deal with the indians to fly all our back packs down to thevillage in a cargo net from the helicopter. So we didn't have to carry them the whole way, only the 2 miles from the village to the campground.

Mooney Falls is another gorgeous waterfall in Havasupai. To get to this one you must climb down the side of a cliff through tunnels and using chains. This picture is taken from the bottom looking back at all the people climbing down the chains. Fun!

Mooney Falls!

Down river from Mooney Falls.

One of our favorite rope swings down river from Mooney Falls.

This year since we didn't carry our packs the whole way we had enough energy to hike down to Beaver Falls. I had never been there before. It was a gorgeous hike and a really nice waterfall with plenty of great swimming spots. It is located about 3 miles below Mooney Falls.

Capitol Reef

We went camping in Capitol Reef over Memorial Day weekend. My dad came with us and it was so much fun. Cameron really enjoyed being a "gooder hiker than grampa". And surprisingly he really did do an excellent job hiking, when he was in a good mood. In fact on our way home we went to Escalante and hiked the Upper Calf Creek Falls hike and he did the whole thing by himself.



This is Strike Valley overlook. It was a really cool hike. You hike along and then all of a sudden you come to the edge of a cliff and this is the view that you get. Gorgeous!

Kids!

The other day Cameron had some friends over and I was on the phone when they came out looking like this.

Luckily it came off easily with some soap and a warm wash cloth. :)

Graduation!

Brad's graduation ceremonies were held this last weekend. It was so exciting to see him in that cap and gown. He has worked so hard for our family. It was a very emotional day for me. It is not easy to work full time and be the provider while going to school, and he has taken some teasing about how long it has taken him, but we are so proud of him. It will be really nice when we get to go to graduation again when he finishes his Masters degree. But this was a good celebration in the midst of a long journey. One funny thing that happened that day was when I told Cameron what daddy would be wearing he said, "Mommy, why is daddy a clown for graduation?" I thought it was pretty funny. .

Our new blog spot

I'm finally joining in the blog society. I have no idea how to do this, but I'm sure I'll get better. This picture was taken last August at Disney's California Adventure Park. We had so much fun.