9th Street Crag

Robert bought some rock climbing gear with his graduation money and asked us to bring our gear to Utah. A big group of us went up to 9th street crag in Ogden. We had a great time.
Shane and Jared

Abby and Mike, getting ready to climb.

Mike, at the top.

Abby showed us how to put your leg behind your head.
Jessica

Zack

Welcome Home Sister Sphar!

Shane's sister Shelly just returned home from serving a mission in Ecuador. Everyone was super-excited to see her again.

Vernal Utah

Shane's mom's family is from Vernal Utah and we've wanted to take a trip there with Gwen for years. We finally planned a Vernal trip this summer. Gwen was our guide and Mercaydes came with us too. We had a great time. One of our top priorities was seeing the dinosaurs. Tuesday we went to the Vernal Natural History Museum.

Vernal Natural History Museum

Serenity was a little scared of some of the dinosaurs. Jared tried to pull her too close to the Velociraptor.

He just wanted her to put her head inside it's mouth.

Vernal Temple

After the museum we drove a few blocks to the Vernal Temple.

Flaming Gorge

We stayed the night in Gwen's aunt and uncle's cabin a few miles away from Flaming Gorge. The cabin sat at the edge of a meadow. The kids liked watching the deer passing through. Wednesday we went to Flaming Gorge Dam.

Dinosaur National Park and Quarry

Wednesday we spent most the day at Dinosaur National Park. The quarry was closed, but we had a great time exploring the rest of the park. We went on a hike to see dinosaur bones.

Jared with a Dino leg bone.

There are also lots of petroglyphs around the park.

The kids like doing the Junior Ranger programs at the park.

More petroglyphs.

At the far end of the park is Josie Morris cabin.

Rock Climbing

Yesterday we went down to Lake Perris to do some rock climbing with Robert. It was a nice day for climbing and by the time we got our climb set up all the other climbers had gone, so we had the rock to ourselves.

At the site there is a list of all the climbs, we picked an easy climb and Shane lead-climbed it. Wherever we go adventure always seems to find us, this trip was no exception. When Shane was half-way down the climb we ran out of rope, so he had to climb up again undo the anchor, free climb down and across to the lower anchors. Then he had to climb back across to release the quick-draws from the original climb. Shane was getting tired, it took awhile but we finally got everything situated and I started lowering him back down. Then I heard a little rattle sound. I looked down and there was a rattlesnake slithering toward the pile of rope (right in front of me). I yelled up to Shane "hold on a minute". "Why?" he yelled back. "Because there's a big rattlesnake". I slowly moved over to the side as far as I could and lowered Shane down as fast as I could. The snake kept inching toward us so Shane scared it away by throwing some rocks at it.

We kept climbing after that, but I couldn't stop thinking about the snake! I hate snakes! Jared did two climbs.

Robert made it all the way up to the anchor.

Close-up of Robert at the top.

Serenity thinks she is such a good little climber, she doesn't know that Shane pulls her up. She did a better job coming back down this time though.

Robert taking a break. This picture is for Shaunna. It was too dangerous for Robert to try and hang upside down, so he just sat down and leaned back instead.

I did one climb, but ended up belaying most of the time. My hands were killing me by the time we left.

Etiwanda Falls

Saturday we went hiking with Robert and the Christensen's up to Etiwanda Falls. It was the perfect day for a hike - cool and overcast. Everything was green and there were lots of wildflowers in bloom. Not many people know about Etiwanda Falls, that's one of the reasons we like it, and some people don't believe there's a waterfall. Soon it will be crowded though because the county is turning the area into a park - the North Etiwanda Preserve. Here's the new sign to prove it.

Here are the boys, Dallin, Robert, Jared and Joshua about halfway up the hike.

Jared at the top

Jared, Robert, Serenity and Jessica

Joshua and Jared

Suzanne with the little hikers (I don't know what's up with Serenity's face)

San Diego and Uncle Robert

The kids and I took my brother Robert to the San Diego Zoo on Thursday. The weather was perfect! We had a great day.

After the zoo we went over to Coronado.

Camping @ Doheny Beach

We try and go camping every year on the weekend of Shane's birthday. This year we had reservations at Doheny State Beach. The kids were so excited. It was Serenity's first camping trip so everything was new and exciting for her. I thought our tent was a lot bigger -we had a queen mattress and two twin mattresses squeezed in with the sides of the tent bulging.

There were LOTS of surfers at the north end of the beach.

Here's my surfers

Serenity was fascinated with the girl surfers.

Saturday we spent the afternoon on the beach. Shane forgot to put his contacts in that morning and was wearing his glasses. I asked him if I should grab them for him, he said no. He caught a few waves and forgot about them. (click on the pic to see the glasses) then.....

a big wave caught him by surprise. click on the photo below and look inside the circle, you can see his head and boogie board. No more glasses! I went to get the contacts after that.