Water Everywhere

Day 4 started with another drive. We tried to pack quickly, which was made difficult by the fact that our tent was still wet from last night's downpour. However, we were able to hit the road at a reasonable hour. The drive went well, expect that we didn't take a break as soon as usual so Heather and I had to go to the bathroom. There was a sign for a nature center, so we thought that would be a good place to stop. The sign didn't happen to mention that the center was way up a hill and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. When we finally made it, there was rain pouring down and we had to make a dash through the parking lot. Heather took this picture after the rain stopped. We stayed there for lunch because it was a pretty location and we were hungry.

We made it to Denver, CO and checked into our hotels, then headed downtown for dinner and our scheduled gondola ride.

First, dinner. We ate at Ted's Montana Grill, which Isaac had found online and suggested because they have bison burgers.

I had a huckleberry margarita and a swiss and mushroom bison burger, it was all so good.

Then we walked to the check in spot for Venice on the Creek to take a gondola ride on Cherry Creek.

It was a fun and interesting ride along the creek. One of my favorite parts was the locks; we went in two different locks and it was interesting to experience them in action.

It started raining on us during our ride, but thankfully, they had umbrellas in the gondola.

After our ride, we walked down the street a couple blocks and got rained on as we hurried back.

We made it back to the van just in time, once we started driving the rain really came pouring down.

The freeway and streets were getting flooded and visibility was low. We were glad to make it back to our hotel and get inside.

Almost Eaten and Blown Away

We packed up our campground this morning and headed for the Fremont Indian State Park. As part of our campground fee, we got free admission to the museum where we got an introduction to the Fremont people and the park. We took a short hike to see petryoglyphs.

 Then we climbed down into a pit house like the Fremont used to live in.

After exploring for a little while, we climbed into the van and drove on toward Colorado. We arrived at Fruita and found our campsite about 4:00pm. There is a dinosaur museum there we wanted to go to that closes at 5:00pm, so we hurried over there before setting up our tent.

My favorite part was the giant T Rex, which was new from when we were there a couple years ago. Heather and I almost got eaten.

The kids had fun digging for bones in the quarry pit, something they remembered from last time. 

We returned to camp to set up the tent and make pasta for dinner. Then we took showers and got into the tent for the night. It started raining hard and was super windy. The porch blew into our tent and started knocking the front over, then the wind was blowing over my side of the tent. It was crazy, I was kneeling in the corner of the tent trying to keep it from collapsing on us while it engulfed me. Thankfully, the porch fell the rest of the way to the ground and the wind died down and we were able to get to sleep.

This picture doesn't do the situation justice, the tent really was folding all around me from the crazy wind.

Poison Oak?

We left Las Vegas, NV this morning after breakfast and headed for Utah.

We stopped by the Virgin River to have a picnic lunch.

It was beautiful and hot.

After a nice lunch stop, we climbed back into the van and continued our drive, arriving at our campground near Fishlake National Forest late in the afternoon. The campground is tucked in a canyon and our campsite was right by the river, it was beautiful. We noticed some plants that looked like it could be poison oak, but started doubting it when we noticed the same plant was growing as a tree by the path to the river, which we had already walked through. None of us got a rash, whew.

Dad, Heather, and I put close up filters on our cameras and went out to take pictures; here are some of mine.

We went on a short walk before dinner and the boys brought back firewood.

The wood was damp, so it took awhile to get the fire started, but Dad and the boys kept at it until they succeeded. It started sprinkling after they got it going, but thankfully, that didn't last long. 

We had roasted marshmallows and hot chocolate by the fire.

Off We Go

We left for our summer vacation 2011 today. The first stop on our way to the ADA show in Denver was Las Vegas. We caravaned over with Jaime, who was home for 4th of July weekend and was returning to Nellis AFB. She had made us reservations at the hotel on base, so that was our first stop.

After checking in and finding our rooms, we changed into our swimsuits and went to the Olympic pool on base. It was 50m long!! Jaime and I got to swim laps while Heather and the kids played in the shallow area. It was great, especially after driving.

We had dinner at Teriyaki Madness then went to U-Swirl for frozen yogurt. Yum.

By the time we got back to the base, it was late so we got settled into the room for the night. The boys and I had a slumber party in the living room.



Independence Day

I had a busy 4th of July this year; unpacking from a weekend at camp, doing laundry, and repacking for vacation. But it was good. Everyone came over for swimming and dinner and Jaime and I made a patriotic fruit tart.

Then we went to the Nickell's house for fireworks.

It was quite a show!

3rd of July

We went to the Visalia Rawhide game last night to watch the fireworks after the game.

During the game, we cooled off with shaved ice.

The fireworks were great.

We enjoyed seeing big fireworks set off and are looking forward to setting off our own tonight!