summer 2012

After 11 hours of blogging I finally got our Summer 2012 pictures up,  and to my agonizing horror, they are out of order :'(  so if you want to read about our summer in order start 3/4 of the way down right after the first day of school pictures.

This ship was really cool, I wish it was warmer so we could of watched a movie under the stars, for that matter I wish there were stars, and not clouds.

There were so many pools on the ship.  All heated of course

Our view as we sail away

This is how Kevin spent 85.9 % of the cruise, looking for wild life through binoculars

soon after we took off the fog rolled in and never left.  You cant even see the front of the ship

Harbor Seal

Fancy dinner night.

Whale tail

Margerie Glacier,  it was so blue I wish our camera would of picked up the blue up better.

It was so cold

We got a balcony so we were able to enjoy the glacier in private.

Skagway 

First port,  it was very windy and cold this day

Totem poles

This is the only "excursion" we did

In Skagway it gets so crowded in the summer with summer workers that there is no where for them to stay.  So you can pay $200 a week to stay here in tent city.  It was so trashy and I'm sure very cold and wet.

This train ride was amazing.  Your going through the White Pass, sometimes on the edge of a cliff hundreds of feet high.

The train conductor said that he rarely sees these peeks.  We were lucky

we went through a small tunnel

You wind back and forth so much that you can see much of the trail that you have been on, or are going to be on.

The Canada border

Second bear sighting!!!  A black bear this time.  I felt a little safer in the train.

See halfway up the mountains.  That is part of the track we were on.

The famous Red Onion Saloon.  Where Kevin got me the best root beer ever.

Large gold nugget in a cemetery.  Random

A beautiful water fall just behind the cemetery

We then hiked up to Dewey Lake,  this was probably the most beautiful of our hikes.  Amazing rivers and waterfalls.  Alaska is as green as Hawaii.

Kevin was walking over this bridge and I could see the excitement on his face when he saw something glistening in the water.

"GOLD!!!!!"   we struck it rich!!!!!!  to bad it was fools gold

They had their "billboards"  painted on the rock as you came into the port.  Kind of trashy but kind of cool.

Juneau 

We are pretty frugal with our money, so we were not about to pay a tour bus money to get us to where we want to go.  We took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier, thanks to Jason's advise.  $6 each round trip.

We did have to walk a couple of miles to get there but it was a pretty walk.

more amazing sights

After the glacier and waterfall we took a little hike to get back to the bus stop

Down town Juneau

Once back on the ship we went to our spot.  Up high with angled windows so we could look down in the water.  We saw an eagle fly by with his dinner in tow.

With it being so cold outside we were going a little stir crazy, until we saw that they were having a minute to win it contest and a peer factor contest.  We did both.  We won the minute to win it and my team won the peer factor.  I had to throw pizza dough in the air.

Kevin had to do some card tricks and poker chip pick up.

We both got to dance with the cruise dancers

It was so much fun

Here is my winnings

and the runner up winnings

Ketchiakan

Last stop,  it rained this whole day:(  We started out walking, we didn't know where but we ended up at Mcdonalds.  We were soaking wet by then

How would you like to climb those stairs to your house in the winter

Two eagles on top of the building

We decided to take the city bus again to Totem Bight state park

this one was planking

There were some wild berries, they were pretty yummy

Worlds largest gold nugget

Married mans trail

It was so wet,  but so pretty

Creek Street

On to Canada.  Loved the fog

finally the moon

Vancouver

The end of our cruise 

We still had 3 days left on our vacation.  We spent the day riding bikes around Stanley Park.  It was such a nice day until it started raining.

Trail to Beaver lake

Love the lily pads

There was fencing around all the trees so the beavers did not ruin them more

The 2010 Olympic cauldron

Our transportation around Vancouver

After Vancouver we went to Victoria.  We  got to ride a boat for a few hours.

Butchart Gardens.

Amazing flowers

creepy snake

There were hundreds of roses,  I thing Kevin smelled every single one

We had to bring all our luggage on the city buses, it was kind of a pain especially since it was Canada Day.  It was so crowded.

first look at blue sky in over a week

Victoria is so beautiful.

After Victoria we went to Seattle.  Another boat ride and we are back on US soil.  Great shot of the skyline

While we were in Seattle we went to Pikes Market.

they would yell out the orders and through the fish across their shop.  It was really entertaining.

Next the famous Gum Wall.

This wall is covered in gum.  It smelled fruity.

I loved their bathrooms

Just thought this was funny, it was in one of the souvenir shops

Back home, thanks to my amazing family who not only watched my kids for 2 weeks but my two dogs as well.  I was so excited to see my kids again it had been 13 days since we left. We got home just in time for the 4th of July celebrations.  Kali always gets fancy for the 4th.

When my mom and dad came to pick us up from the airport Kali had been hula hooping for a while, when we got back she was still going strong.  She ended up hula hooping for 1 hour and 12 minutes.  the only reason she stopped is because the hula hoop hit a chair.  She was devastated.

It's always nice when Kevin can join us in Utah.  We love Eaglewood fireworks

Kevin's artsy photos

Glow stick time

Fireworks

We headed to bear lake the next day.  My mom and dad had taken the kids to Bear Lake while we were on our trip.  But this was my first time this summer.

Charlie is mad at me because I locked him up.  He kept running away.

Kali always comes up with creative activities.

We went to the Lake Town Rodeo.  It actually pretty fun,  It got a little boring, but still very cool.,

Kali hated this part.  She is such an animal lover

Kaden's 14th B-Day.  He was a little bummed to celebrate his birthday at Bear Lake.  But I say what better place.  I was almost born there, so not a bad place at all.

As Kadens birthday request, we went to Bloomington Lake.  My mom has always wanted to walk all the way around the lake but there is about 100 yards of shear cliffs.  But do you think that stopped her?

The fun part of Bloomington Lake is the rope swing.  It was very popular this day

This is as far as me and the kids went it was too scary.

My mom was determined and my dad followed.

They are crazy

At this point I thought it was impossible, so we went back, but not before some pretty pictures.

When we got to the rope swing I was looking through my camera to see if my parents had fallen to their deaths,  and this is what I see.  The guy next to me asked if I saw some wild life on the cliffs.  I had to say no just my parents.

They are in the middle of that shear wall some where.

They made it to my relief.  Kaden was so brave and went to the rope swing

Kali was brave too

My sweet Kaden was born on July 7th at 5:58 pm.  He was such a good baby, and alway a best friend to his older brother Tanner.  He is so smart, responsible, he plays well with Tanner and Kali.  He loves hanging out with his friends.  I just love this boy so much.

After Bear Lake we drove to Pineview to test out grandpa's new boat.  Look close at the Prius,  Kai is peeking at us.

We had to bring the dogs with us on the boat.  They had mixed feelings about it.

Jason threw them in the water,  they didn't love that.  But they were a lot cooler wet I'm sure.

Kali was my only child to wake board.

My mom didn't have any pictures of my kids up in her house, so we did a photo shoot, now I just need to send her some.

The dogs would not get out of the pictures

Little out of order but I had to include a picture of my kids hands.  While we were at Bear Lake the kids and grandpa made a rope swing, they did that the whole time, and their hands were proof

We got to see Ethan, Mylie, and Arie in a parade.  They were so cute, they saved a handful of candy to throw to my kids,

We also bought the Pass of all passes again this year. $16 for a raging waters, trafalga, sporting events.  You cant beat that.  We only made it to Raging Waters once and Trafalga once but we still got our money's worth.  Arie's favorite ride,  the kids would ride over and over again with her

Kaden wanted to go to Sizzler for his belated birthday celebration.  He got a massive root beer float.  Everybody but Amy's family joined us.

Now the summer finale  LAKE POWELL.  So the night before we left Kali was not feeling well.  She ended up throwing up 11 times through out the night.  So we got maybe an hour of sleep.  Come to find out Ethan, Mylie, and Arie were throwing up all not as well.  poor kids.  We were going to stay home for a day or so so she could get better, but she didn't want to.  She was so sick,  she slept most the way down. 

Kali quarantined  so she didn't get other people sick.

Guess Who was the hit game of the trip.

Amy's family came late because of sick kids.  So we spent the first night in the slip.  The kids made the best of it.

Kali wanted to play so bad.  I don't think she has ever been this sick.

Tanner scaling stuff again.  He is tying up a rope swing.

Yea my girl is back.  It took her a few days to eat again but she was feeling better the next day.  She is sporting her pippi longstockings do.

Lake Powell has got to be the greatest place on earth.

Grandpa's new boat came with a surf board.  Jason got it down real good.  Tanner tried it a few times

These two are so cute.  They have so much fun together until Xander randomly pushes, slaps or punches her.  But he is so cute even Arie can't stay mad at him:)

wow thats cute Tan

The stars are spectacular at Lake Powell.  I captured the big dipper.

Nice hair Kade

Tim came with his kids minus Whitney.  My kids loved hanging out with them.

We make a video every year at Lake Powell minus the last couple of years.  Jason and my boys were in charge this year. video

behind the scenes.

These two were such great buddies the whole week

Building sand castles

My two favorite boys is the whole world

Kaden read a book for the first few days,  it makes a boy tired

Kaden is kind of a loner, he likes his time alone. too bad he wont take the fish of the hook by himself.

Our view every mornig

Our houseboat

My dad's still got it!!

Kali loves her Jason so much, and Jason is so nice and patient with Kali.

Tanner taking notes

Kali and Jason double wakeboarding

Tanner is an amazing wakeboarder considering he only goes once a year

he cleared the wake this year!!!!!

Kali and the little kids were playing indians.

Mine and Kali's sand sculpture.  It is Rylie and Charlie

Cliff jumping.

Kaden

Tanner

Kali

Wow thats a full boat

We went on a great hike, there is a little stream to keep you cool, it is loaded with little frogs

Kaden loves Savaya, and she loves him.

Roarks

Fraziers

Astles

The teens.  These kids were such great buddies the whole week.  Even after we got home they hung out the last two days we were in Utah.

So cute

Kaden's turn to wake board

Silly kids

Kali got some air

Kaden was very aggressive this year, he is usually very cautious.

He almost crossed the wake, I bet next year will be the year

Jason and Kali trying to surf together, it didn't work

What a stud

Photo shoot

Kali looked way to cute so we did a personal photo shoot, but she didn't want to cooperate very good

cute cousins.  Kali hung out with these guys all summer, they were great buddies

Kali was drying out her tongue out on a boat ride.  It was so gross

All the grandkids.

The boys

The girls

Our view

Tanner driving the boat back to the marina

I love seeing my teenage boys loving their little cousins

Every time we drive to Lake Powell we pass these mountains, I love them and always want to get a picture.  Finally after 36 years of going down I got a picture.  Tanner took it while we were driving I think he did a great job.

Tim had to go home mid week. His kids really didn't want to go home so we happily invited them to stay and I got to ride home for 6 hours with a car full of teens and tweens.  I was a blast.

After a great summer in Utah we sadly had to head home to the oven they call Arizona.  And again after passing Bryce Canyon every year for the last 18 years I told my self this is the year.  I want to go, so we made the detour, it was an hour to add to the 12 hour car ride but it was totally worth it.

We had the dogs in the car with us so we couldn't do any hiking and we could only go to the overlook for a few minutes.  But it was so beautiful and I really want to go back and explore it more.

It is always nice to be home, although Kevin had found 2 scorpions while we were gone and we saw one more a few days after we got home.  That is a total of 5 in 5 months.

While we were at Lake Powell we found out that Tanner hat won Dback tickets from his orthodontist.  We were so excited to go.  There were only 4 tickets good thing Kaden was invited to a camp out.  We sure did miss him though.

Kevin told me how stormy the summer had been.  We got to see it first hand right when we got home.  It broke a bunch of our trees and flipped our tramp over.  Kevin, Tanner, Kali and I went out to play in the water it was so much fun.  Kali wanted to swim at the park, the water was up to her waist, but the lightning was too bad and we had to head home.

                                      
One last hurrah before school started.  Over the summer I bought a water camera, I've been wanting one for a long time and I really wanted to bring one to Alaska so I broke down and bought one.  We have been going to the river a bit between last summer and this, so that was another reason I wanted a water camera.  It is so pretty on the river if you can ignore the smokers, the trash and the cuss words that are yelled out by drunk college kids. Really I'm not selling it very well.  It really is a good time

Everyone on the river brings an extra tube to put a cooler in.

Kali being tricky

The kids wanted to bring goggles to find treasures.  I think they might of regretted it because there was so much trash under the water.  yuck

It takes about 21/2 hours to do the short ride and about 4 1/2 to do the long ride.  We love it

The rapids

every time we have gone we have been lucky enough to see wild horses

The day has finally come,  the first day of school.
Kaden started High school this year.  I can't believe he is that old.  So far so good.  He is taking AP/Honors geometry and chemistry. Spanish, gym, english, drama.  He is getting so big.  Love this boy

I don't know what happened to Tanners picture, I wish I could insert it here but cant.  My two high schoolers.   Tanner is taking hard classes as well.  AP/Honors Algebra 3-4, Science, English.  He also has Spanish, weight training.

such great buddies, Although I asked them if they sat together on the bus and they both said NO in disgust.

My little Kali who is in "Middle School"  this year.  6th grade is still in the elementary school but they treat it like middle school, switching classes, and stuff.  She is taking Math, English, Music, Gym, Spanish,Science, Social Studies.  I think she is kind of excited about school.  But is a little overwhelmed.  She is scared it is going to be too hard.

The puppies are so sad that their buddies are leaving.

Great pink sky,  I have loved all the storms, but it makes it so hot with it being 113 degrees plus humidity. Yuck,  I can't wait til winter.

Finally an update of our amazing summer.  Tanner has been watching America Ninja Warrior, he is obsessed to say the least.  Before we left AZ for the summer he just had to build this peg board.  He couldn't do it very good before we left, he climbed everything this summer including doing 9 pull ups on my moms door frame.  Now that we are back he can do it no problem.

Here we are about half way, right by the turn off to Page.

Tanner drove us from Flagstaff to Kanab, he did very good, he only scared me a few times.

We start out the summer by going to Gateway to the sidewalk chalk art festival, where we saw transformers.  Ethan was so excited

Then we headed to the new City Creek for lunch.

Our cute lap dogs.

We were lucky enough to watch Chelsea and Jakes kids while they went out on an anniversary date.

We went up to Valley View Elementary, one of my kids favorite things to do in the evenings.

Tanner climbing the stairs

We also went to the old car show.  my kids are getting a good seat to watch the burn out

Family BBQ!!!  one the things I miss the most living so far away

These two are so cute together

My beautiful Kali girl

The girl cousins.  Kali 11, Savaya 9 months, Arie 2, Mylie 5

Xander loved going under the tunnel

Fatty Kai dog

We got together with my friends and their kids for the first time in about 3 years.  All the girls

After all this playing in UT, Kevin and I went on a dream vacation to Alaska.  This is a shot from the airplane, it is midnight

We were in Anchorage for 3 days before the cruise, so we decided to rent a car.

Our first adventure

we hiked up 1500 feet partly through snow

and partly through clouds

There is wild Lupine everywhere, I loved it

It was a very strenuous hike

We almost turned back when we reached the clouds, I am sure glad we didn't.  AMAZING

A view of Anchorage

That peak in the picture is the peak we hiked to

Every where you turn there is a perfect picture

It was late at night around 10:00 when we started this hike.  The daylight totally messes with you.  After this hike we were shocked at how late it was.  The mosquito were so bad

Kevin really wanted to see himself some bear.  This is the first sign of wild life.  He was so cute he would curl up in a ball,  I got real close to get a picture he would walk a few steps and curl up in a ball and sleep.

We saw a moose right after the squirrel.

See the light, see the time thats pm

We ended up seeing 3 moose, the one on the side of the road and two running across the highway

The next day we drove on the Turnagain Arm.  Were on our way to our friends house in Soldatna.

Again so pretty

On the quest to see some bear we ended up at Kenai Lake.  The whole beach was full of skipper rocks

We went on a hike to what we thought was Russian Falls where we would see bear, be bought bear spray just to be safe.

We found the right place but on the wrong end of the trail, we would of had to hike 25 miles to get to the spot.  So we drove to the right spot.  Only a 2 mile hike.  We did get to see a porcupine

It was salmon season while we were there.  The fisher men to combat fishing where they stand about 5 feet apart up the river because there are so many people that want to fish

Our friends are Paul and Sherly, they live in AZ in the winter and Soldanta in the summer.  This is their house.

They own  lot that over looks the Kenai River.  Paul runs a business on the river as a fish guide guy.

As we drove to their lot Sherly said that is Carl Malones house.  And sure enough he was outside in the yard.

She took us to a visitors center where we saw the Wolverines that Napoleon hunted all summer:)

The real Russian falls.

The trees were amazing in Alaska, so huge  I loved them

Float planes were flying over all the time

This river was running so fast and there were salmon jumping up stream  I couldn't capture it but it was so cool.

Still no sign of bear, so we took one last detour at a camping ground that the Russian River flowed through.

And sure enough Kevin spotted bear.  A momma and her cubs to be exact

bear butt

They were so incredible to watch.  they were fishing out all the salmon that the fishermen through back in after cleaning them.

We were so close I walked away a few times because I was scared.

It was about 11:00 at night so my camera would not focus very good I am so mad this picture didn't turn out.

Our last day in Anchorage we went to lunch with Kevin's friend and former boss at Pepsi Randy and his wife Robin.  We ate lunch at a restaurant  that over looked Lake Hood the busiest water landing strip.

After lunch we went on a bus ride to Whittier to catch our cruise ship.  This is our first sign of glacier ice

You cant see it very well but I am holding a piece of glacier ice,  it was cold:)

There she is the Princess Sapphire

this is the town of Whittier, all 250 residents live in this high rise.

Our home away from home for 7 nights

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