Next Stop: Idaho

After some time in Utah, we headed up to Idaho to visit with family in Oakley. We had a blast there, and the girls loved playing with their cousins. Our first stop in Idaho was at the Twin Falls Temple Open House. Our little girls were excited to be able to go through a temple for the first time and see what it looks like inside. It of course was absolutely beautiful. But the best part was that Mimi, and Josh had no idea that we would be there, and so they were so very surprised when they saw the girls. We like surprises!

From there we headed to Oakley, which is where the Dayley's always reunite. We actually used our tent and camping equipment and stayed in the large grass pasture next to the house. It was fun camping there, and I look forward to doing it again in the future. Another adventure there that I really enjoyed was heading up on quads into the mountains/hills surrounding Oakley. I never knew how beautiful it was up there.

Here are a couple of pics from our time there.

Shirley and Elin along side the road enjoying the small town parade.

Anabelle sitting on Great Grandma's lap.

Grandma enjoying a double scoop of ice cream in the afternoon.

Day at the Festival

While in Utah the girls all went to a festival, and while there got some pretty fancy paintings. Katelyn got it on her face, and if you look close you will see Anabelle's on her arm. (you can also click the picture to bring up a larger version). Elin was enjoying the ride on the skateboard in the driveway after getting home that night.

Next Adventure - Utah

On Saturday, we enjoyed the cool crisp air in the morning, before packing the car back up and making an additional drive to Salt Lake, where we stayed with my good friend and business partner, Thaddeus. His wife and family were kind enough to allow us to stay at their house for a number of days, (I think it was 4 nights in total), and that was with one day's notice. We were very grateful to them, and of course like always there were the most wonderful and gracious hosts. These pictures below are from a hike we took in Big Cottonwood Canyon, where we found a beautiful creek to eat lunch near, and a large hidden waterfall to top off the adventure.

Here is Anabelle standing next to a large waterfall we found.




















Katelyn next to the waterfall. It was a beautiful place for the kids to play and enjoy the water. Cold and refreshing!














Here is Anabelle after having climbed up the side of the mountain. She kept asking us to take a picture of her. Of course she is posing in this shot!














Shirley and I by the fall.




















Time elasped shot of the falls, to show the beautiful flow of water.














This was the area of the creek that we sat next to as we enjoyed lunch on the trail. Thadd actually carried a cooler full of food up the mountain and along the trail, so we all ate great lunches.














The girls standing in the creek alongside our lunch stop.














Another shot of the creek.

Sudden Vacation!

On Thrs. July 17 Shirley and I began discussing the plans of taking the girls on a trip to Utah so I could do some work with my business partners there, as well as stop in for a visit at a Dayley Family Reunion. With just one day of planning, we packed everything up and left the next day for what soon became a 2 week adventure with more than 2300 miles of driving. Over the next couple of posts I will include photos with captions from our adventures.

First Stop: Camping in Southern Utah

When we left Friday morning, we decided to make the drive up to Southern Utah, where we found a great place to camp just past Navajo Lake, in the Grand Escalante National Forest. It was a beautiful place, but in the morning after making some breakfast burritos we were attacked by a swarm of horse flies. Rather then fight them, we fed them. Since we realized they were attracted to the scrambled eggs, we decided to take some of the extras and throw it under a tree, which they all flew to... The girls loved the outdoors, and enjoyed the opportunity to help me put up the tent. I too thought it was a great moment to share together.

One of the best stories from our camping adventures was my moment of shame when taking the girls fishing. Well I have not been fishing in over 20 years, and last time I went, we had push button casters. This time I purchased a open face reel, not realizing there was a different action to make it work. The girls were so excited to finally go fishing and in fact have been jumping off the walls talking about it. When we finally get out to fish, and spending 30 or so minutes preparing the reel ect, I go out to cast it, and could not get it to go more then 5-10 feet in front of us. After several tries and tangled line in the spool, we finally gave up and decided that we would learn from someone that actually knows how to do it. Here are some additional photos from our camping.






Katelyn playing among the trees.

Shirley and Elin out looking for sticks to make Smores!











Smores and Camping... Now that's Fun!

Time to catch up...

It has been so long since I have written anything on my blog, and it seems like every week something happens that makes me think - "Oh I need to write that down so I do not forget." Of course here I am now with an empty mind unable to remember all those experiences. Well I installed a program on my computer that makes it even easier to post to my blog, and hopefully this works well. If it does it should make things easier for me and I should have no excuse to keep the blog up to date.