National Parks Vacation

Our first National Parks stop was at Arches near Moab, UT. It was HOT there! But it was great. We found a campground in Moab with a swimming pool and showers so it was great.
Our first site seeing was at Balanced Rock



Later we hiked out to Landscape arch...


And the remnants of Wall Arch! It had just collapsed a few weeks prior:

Sebastian and Dessie...

This summer, Chris, Sebastian, and I were able to go on our first true family vacation. Our trip started with a stop in Logan, UT. Our friends, the Christenson's moved there in April and we'd been itching to see them since. It was so fun to get Sebastian and Dessie together again. They are such cute little pals. They have always gotten together well and they had a good reunion.

I'm Going to Get Better....

This post is to let all of you know that I am going to try harder to do better at "blogging." I guess I just hadn't gotten the bug yet. But...here goes nothing!

Hawaii

In the beginning of August Chris went on a Geology field trip with 22 other geologists, including faculty, to Hawaii to study volcanoes. They spent five days on the Big Island and two days on Oahu. They saw the lava enter the sea on foot, by helicopter, and by boat. The closest they came was about 30 yards from the lava pouring in the ocean, it was on the boat ride. It was a great time. Chris saw giant manta rays, tropical fish and the highlight, lava.

Yellowstone Trip

The 4th of July weekend our family took a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. We camped there for two days. We hiked out to a backcountry waterfall called Fairy Falls. We also visited Mammoth Hot Springs. The night of the 4th we could hear large but faint explosions from nearby fireworks outside the park. It was a very busy weekend for the park, but very relaxing for our family. On our hike to Fairy falls we hiked through a pine tree forest that was completely infested with mosquitoes, and of course we forgot our newly purchased bottle of bug spray.

Jeremy Home

Jeremy returned home on July 17th from his mission in the Philippines. Chris took his finals early so that we could arrive several days early and surprise the family at the airport. It was a great reunion with tears of joy and happiness. He is still trying to fully adjust to being home. He is not used to the lack of humidity; he is still cold all the time and wears several layers. He is very excited to come back to college and be involved in the dating scene. He is also excited about his new beautiful guitar that he has affectionately named "Monica."

Camping at Heise

June 13-14th ... Chris, Sebastian and I went on our first campout of the year. It was a beautiful weekend and we found a great little FREE campsite by the river. Not too big, but it was perfect and we were totally secluded from anyone else. Plus, our campsite was filled with wood so we could have a great fire (though it burned through the wood super fast!). We had a great time.