National Park Mania!!

We had a great last week of our 2 month adventure.  We visited 4 National Parks after leaving Las Vegas.  We went to Zion, Bryce, Mesa Verde and Arches National Park.  They were so amazingly beautiful.  National Parks are always something special...and these four parks were no exception.  The boys were especially excited to fill in the states of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado our our map. 

Zion was spectacular!  We went on a river hike through a huge canyon.  We were a little nervous about flash floods...but thankfully it did not rain.  The boys liked hiking in the water.

 Bryce canyon was also such a great park  We went on an AMAZING 3 mile hike down to the bottom of the canyon.  It had earned the title of the world's best 3 mile hike...we agree!!

 On our way from Bryce National Park we stopped by Coral Pink Sand Dunes.  The red sand was so fine and super fun to jump in.  My friends and I camped there during college...it was fun to go back.

 We took a small detour on our route to pass through Monument Valley and the Four Corners. 

 Our next stop was Mesa Verde National Park.  It was such a unique spot with Pueblo Indians ancient cave dwellings.  They literally built villages in the cliff sides.  We were able to go down and actually explore the ruins and we found out alot about their history.  Jordan has studied this in school and was super excited to see it in person.

 Our last stop was Arches National Park.  There were very unique red rock arches in this park.  It was a warm day when we  visited, but we still got in a 3 mile hike to some beautiful arches. 

It is hard to believe that we are home after such a great trip.  We got to see so much of God's amazing handiwork in creation and had a great time together as  family.  We hope that we can be "on the road again" soon.!!  Have a great start to the new school year and thanks for sharing in our adventures.

Laguna beach...FUN!!

Laguna Beach, CA         Crystal Cove State Park

We are having a great week in Laguna.  I just love everything about the beach.  We are staying at a wonderful campground called Moro Beach, Crystal Cove campground.  It has a great view of the ocean and tons of bike paths and walking trails behind the park.  It is definatley one of the nicest places we have ever camped.  Another highlight of the campground is that it is a very short bike ride away from Trader Joes and Starbucks.(what else do you need?) 

 On Thursday we will head to Las Vegas to visit some friends.  We will leave the trailer there and head to 4 National Parks.(Zion, Bryce, Arches and Mesa Verde).  It is not easy to pull a big trailer in the National Parks...so we will stay in a friends cabin and a few hotels.  We will be home in 2 weeks, just a week before we all start school.  I will probably not update the blog again until we get home...as the National Parks have very little internet or cell phone service.  Here are a few pictures from the beach.

 My sweet little beach boy, Benjamin!!  Such cool shades.

 We had a great time visiting my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim.  We spent one night with them in Highland, on our way to the beach.  The boys had a great time swimming in their pool.  Over the weekend they hosted a delicious BBQ at the beautiful and amazing beach house.  They brought out a life size Jenga game, which was a hit with the boys.  They are always so gracious in hosting us...we love visiting them.

 My darling beach boy, Bradley.  He really loves boogie boarding.  We bought two boogie boards in Santa Cruz and found this one in the parking lot when we arrived.  Nothing a little RV good and duct tape couldn't fix. (haha). 

 Bradley catching a wave.

 Curt is so happy that the boys like to boogie board with him. He is so great to play with the boys for hours on the beach.  They go from boogie boarding to skimboarding to playing football.  Those are very lucky boys!(and I am a lucky wife to have time to read my book in the sun)

Spring Fling(Summer style)

San Clemente, CA....Spring Fling family reunion

Meredith's 80th birthday celebration!! 

 This weekend we celebrated with my mom's side of the family at their annual Spring Fling. It usually takes place around Easter...but was a little delayed this year...which worked out great for us because we got to attend.  The day was filled with games, food and celebrating our AMAZING grandma...Meredith.  She has been so influencial in all our lives and we wanted her to feel celebrated.  We presented her with a photo book of 80 reasons why we love her.  Each family put in their own photos and their four reasons to celebrate Meredith.  I hope it will be a book she treasures forever. 

 The boys always love to see Uncle Kyle. 

 Aunt Cathy did a wonderful job organizing the party.  We played blanket volleyball, 2 legged races and she even brought a special science experiment for the boys.(so SWEET)  They made lava lamps complete with lots of oil, alka-seltzer and food coloring. 

 This is my wonderful mom and grandma, Meredith.  It was such a blessing to spend time together.  We swam, had water gun fights, went to lunch and found treasures at a local thrift shop.

Pictures from Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake National Park

Santa Cruz and Yosemite National Park

Santa Cruz , California...SeaCliff State Beach

We have some great friends, Katie and Forest, who we visited in Santa Cruz.   We were so blessed to spend time with them at the beach and getting a tour where they both work, Univeristy California Santa Cruz.  We loved exploring Santa Cruz and getting to spend almost a week at the beach.  Our campground was right on the beach, which was amazing.  We just loved hearing the sound of the waves, taking walks and bike rides along the beach paths and playing with our new boogie boards in the surf.   

On one of our days in Santa Cruz we drove to Palo Alto to visit the Stanford campus.  Jordan dreams of going there one day.  It was an UNBELIEVABLY stunning campus...amazing architecture, beautiful building and immaculate sports complexes.  I was glad that we were only visiting and not sending him to college yet...it always seemed so far away...but not these days. 

We loved the Monteray Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row in Monteray.  We spent most of the day looking at all the sea life...penguins, jelly fish, sea otters, and so many, many fish.  My favorite park was on our walk to the aquarium when we passed a beach full of seals...all laying on the beach or playing in the water.  

Yosemite National Park...Tuolome Meadows

We stayed in Tuolome Meadows on the east side of the park.  Yosemite is a HUGE park...it took us hours to get from the entrance to our campground which was about 8,600 feet in elevation.  It seems that each turn in the road brought another breathtaking view.  National Parks are truly something special.  

There are a few groves of Seqouia trees in the park.  One day we hiked down to see these massive trees.  There were several downed trees that the boys could play on and even crawl through.  We were in the park for 5 days so we had lots of time for great hikes, bike rides and walks in the meadow.  One of our favorite things to do in the afternoon was play in the creek and rock slides in our campground.  The water was very cold and this time I did go swimming once...but only for one trip down the rock slides.  

This is Lembert Dome.  It was one of the hikes we did...just breathtaking.  We are so glad that we had the time to really explore this amazing park.  We are heading to Laguana Beach next...HOORAY!!



Bend, Crater Lake and Merrill,Oregon

Bend, Oregon....Tumalo State Park

We started out from Spokane on Tuesday evening and made it as far as the Walmart parking lot in the Tri-Cities.  It was certainly an "adventure" parking there for the night.  That is an adventure we will avoid in the future...if it all possible.

 We wanted to get on the road early so that we could get to Bend by lunchtime...but the day had many more adventures in store for us.  I was driving about 2 hours into the early morning trip when we had an extreme shake and I quickly pulled to the side of the road.   We had blown the rear tire of our truck.  We were able to call Good Sam and they sent a tow truck within about an hour.  It was very hard to get the spare out, as we didn't have the "key" tool to unlock it.  At one point the wind was blowing so hard that it knocked the truck(and trailer) off the jacks while the tow truck driver was under it.  Thankfully he was not hurt...but pretty shaken up and suggested we borrow a tire from him and then follow him back to the shop to replace the tires.  We spent about 3 more hours in the most hilarious, dirty, small town tire shop, complete with many fly tapes hanging from the ceiling, a couple old chairs and great workers!!  We were back on the road towards Bend by about 2...arriving just before dinner.(just 1 meal off from our plan)  Although we didn't have a long time to explore in Bend, we were so thankful for God's hand of safety upon us throughout the day.  We did have time after dinner to walk downtown and along the beautiful river walk. 

We had a long day of driving to Crater Lake National Park.  What an unbelievable sight to behold...a stunning lake surrounded by huge mountain peaks.  I had never seen such blue water before.  We had time the next day to hike down to the lake.  All 4 boys actually went swimming...I took pictures.  The water is about 38 degrees...CHILLY!!  They just loved it and jumped in again and again.(Unfortunatley...I cannot find those pictures right now.)

The next day we drove to Merrill, Oregon to visit my Lute teammate...Amie and her wonderful family.  She lives on a beautiful ranch in a small town on the border of California and Oregon.  She also has three boys and so our six boys played from the moment we arrived until we left the next day.  I was convinced after just 18 hours that I wanted to be a farmer...such a blessing to be with the McCaulife family.

Before leavning Merrill we got a tour of their families fertizlizer plant...Basin Fertilizer.  It was so interesting and the boys even got a ride in this huge fertilizer truck.  We hope to get back to Merrill again...we had such a good time. We are headed to Santa Cruz next.