Four States

So our house hunt has begun.  We drove through nothern Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and are just across the Columbia River in Washington for a quick detour to see the Columbia River Temple.  It is actually pretty exciting being in the Beaver State, hopefully all goes well and we know where we will be living for the next few years!

Miner Bear Lake Reunion

We had the Miner Family Reunion at Bear Lake this weekend and it was a lot of fun.  We played games, boated, ate milk shakes, swam, movies, watched all the little cousins play, and had fun spending time with family.  I am definately grateful we could go to the Hewlett cabin to sleep at night, with 24 grandchildren, it could get pretty crazy.  JD got pretty sick Day 2 which was not fun at all :(.  It was nice to be up there with no set schedule or ability to plan things out because from here on out it is going to get interesting.  It was a great time with the Miners, Marbergers, Durrants, Mikolashes, Murrays, Speths, and Neffs! (the Bryant, Jared, and Jason Miner families that couldn't make it were missed too)

Temporary Post

 This is a preview of sorts, I use this blog for my personal journaling more than anything else, which I print off at the end of the year, so I will be going back in time to post some of the adventures I had with Erin this past week in Yellowstone, Island Park, and Lake Hebgen.  More to come!

Addendum: I am not going to delete this post because I think it is crazy that it took me until July 4th to catch this blog up by documenting our amazingly fun trip. Not so temporary.  So as of today, all caught up!

Mesa Falls, Rexburg, & Home

 Unfortunately, vacations wouldn't be vacations if they never ended.  So today we headed home, but we are not into the boring, just drive home idea. One year we drove through Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Jackson, and the Teton Scenic byway, this year we did the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.  It was SO pretty!  I can't remember being there when it was so sunny to the point that you could see multiple rainbows off of the falls.  We went to Rexburg and explored our favorite stores: Artco & Porter's.  We found some cute deals, stopped at the temple, and then continued on our way home.  We had so much fun!  We relaxed, explored, photographed, napped, read, cooked, stoked fires, hiked, walked, 'hunted' moose, drove, talked, laughed, and had an amazing time.  I am grateful to have such a great kindred spirit for a friend. 

Snowy Sabbath

Happy Snowy Sunday!  We woke up to lots of pretty snow on the trees as we went on our way to church, it was a pretty winter wonderland.  Church was great.  We went to Big Hot Springs afterwards and saw Johnny Sack's cabin while there, it was cool to see how warm the water was there keeping everything near it green and free of snow. 

Erin was really sick, probably after doing so much the day before, so we stayed at the cabin most of the day.  The cabin was toasty from our fire, we watched Anne of Avonlea, I read a lot, and Erin had 4 1/2 naps.  We really did have a very nice and relaxing day.  I don't know the last time that I had such a quiet day watching the snow fall, reading, and poking logs.  It was AWESOME.

Yellowstone

Today was National Outdoors Day which means free entrance into Yellowstone National Park.  We had a blast today!  We saw tons of baby buffalo, a marmot, a momma and baby elk, and bonus: NO SNOW.  The forcast looked terrible when we set out, but while it was pretty cold, the weather was great.  We drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs, then down to Old Faithful, we loved the new visitor center, the waterfalls, and our all time favorite spot in the Old Faithful lodge with a perfect view of Old Faithful and perfect napping spot for sick friends.  We took pictures, snacked, played, napped, and ran all over the park that we have come to know so well.  Having done everything we can now be picky and go to our favorite parts.  Pizza at Pete's in West was delicious, and we made it home just before a very cool blizzard came through, I had fire down at this point so we didn't mind, we got cozy in our blankets and snuggled down into them as we watched Anne of Green Gables. 

Hebgen & West & Fires

 We drove up in Montana today and it was so pretty!  Quake Lake and Lake Hebgen were beautiful.  We found a Beaver pond that was pretty cool too.  A stop at Erin's favorite place per tradition was great, the water was really high this year so no dancing around in the duct going to Quake.  After our adventuring in the 'wilderness' we went into West Yellowstone and walked around pretty much all of the shops.  It was kind of weird to be there and have the town be so quiet.  We had dinner at the cabin and I got really good at maintaining a fire to warm up us and the cabin, it is cold up here!

We Made It!

Back in January before school had started, Erin and I had spent a long night chit chatting about all kinds of things, when it turned to what we wanted to do when we were done with Grad school we pulled out planners, pencils, and wrote down a few things, including a trip to Island Park June 7-11.  We laughed even that far in advance knowing it would most likely never happen.  However, after a long day of work and Erin arranging her clinical externship, we set off for Island Park.  We are here and it is wonderful, beautiful, happy, and fun!  Another adventure!

Memorial Weekend

 

 
We escaped up to Bear Lake this weekend.  Crazy weather best describes our experience.  It was very rainy the drive up but sunshiney at Bear Lake.  The next day it seriously snowed all day long.  The only time it may have stopped was when we were in church because the rest of the day definately consisted of snow, and very muddy roads.  Then today was another beautiful day of sunshine and warm weather.  I even went out and read some Sherlock Holmes on the porch.  It was fun being up there with my cousins, JD, and relaxing.

Last Day

Today was JD's birthday and we had a great time at church and at the ocean.  We also spent a last bit of quality time with Gordon, the Clarke family dog.  It is not going to be very much fun going back home tomorrow.

Happy Birthday JD!

Beach Day

Relax day!  We slept in, didn't have to be anywhere or do anything and it was so nice.  JD got a bit fried on our Anacapa adventure thanks to his hatred of suncscreen so it was probably a good thing that we didn't have any set plans.  We drove down to one of my favorite places in the world: Oceanside.  We ate at Ruby's Diner and walked the pier.  While we were waiting for our table to be called we watched dolphins surfing the huge waves there which was super cool.  Thanks to how burnt JD was, he spent most of the beach time on under a towel to stay away from the sun, whom he isn't on good terms with at the moment.  On our way back to the Clarke's we stopped at the Mission Viejo mall to see the Lego Store, and bought some cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory.  It was a nice, chillaxing day.  One more left before we make the long drive back home.

Channel Islands National Park

We went to Anacapa Island yesterday, the smallest of the Channel Islands National Park chain.  It was amazing.  We rode on a boat out of the Channel Islands Harbor to Anacapa.  On our way there we had some dolphins swim along side us, and right before we reached the island, a humpback whale surfaced near our boat, so we followed it for a while.  It was hatching season on the island which means a lot of nervous momma birds on their nests, everywhere.  We hiked around the island for some beautiful views on a sunshiny day.  We could see sea lions swimming through kelp forests and sunbathing, and there were flowers everywhere.  On our way back to the harbor our boat went through a pod of dolphins somewhere in the range of 1,000 according to the captain.  It was crazy cool having hundreds of dolphins swimming all around the boat and jumping along and in the wake.  If I can get the footage I took to work, I will post what I got, though, as usual, photos and film just don't do it justice.  We are looking forward to a couple of relaxing beach days, and celebrating JD's birthday on Sunday before heading back to Utah.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

It was a super wet and rainy day today while we were up in the mountains admiring giant trees.  It was kind of strange driving through clouds and having them wisp about the trees as we hiked around.  The park was amazing though, we saw General Grant: 3rd largest tree in the world, and General Sherman: largest tree in the world.  That is by volume, not height.  We walked inside fallen down sequoias, and groves full of them too.  Upon reaching the other side of the park we saw the sun peak out as we scaled down the mountain, giving us a beautiful drive to Oxnard, we went past a ton of farms again, and they smelled divine, especially the orange groves. Channel Islands tomorrow!

Yosemite National Park

We went to Yosemite National Park today and it was amazing!  We hiked around sequoia trees that were huge, hiked up to Lower Yosemite Falls, road the shuttle system around the valley.  Got rained on a lot and just sat under trees until storms passed through, and had a great time.  I watched the Ken Burns National Parks: America's Best Idea documentary a few years ago and ever since I have always wanted to come to Yosemite, and it lived up to its reputation.  I can say it was nice being in the park this time of year, from the looks of it, the valley is probably completely packed during the summer months, but the cool weather and rain made the park relatively quiet, enough for JD to stalk a mom and her baby deer for a while.  Super great day!

Fresno

We drove through a ton of farms today, we aren't sure what most of them were, but there were a ton of trees, grape vinyards, and a lot of trucks carrying different fruit, like lemons.  We made it to Fresno in time to attend the Fresno California Temple, it is one of the smaller temples, the grounds were beautiful and it was nice being able to go.  Before the drive we spent more time at the beach just relaxing, I made sand creatures, like the crab pictured.  It was a long drive, but miraculously we weren't stopped in traffic once, not even in our travels through Los Angeles, Glendale, and Burbank.  It should be a fun few days going through some new National Parks!

Joshua Tree National Park

We hiked around Joshua Tree National Park today and it was so cool!  It was outside of Palm Springs in the desert.  Crazy drive going from rain and 65 degrees to hot sun and 97 degrees in the matter of 20 minutes, just by crossing a 'mountain'.  The cacti were in bloom and there were tons of Joshua Trees (go figure).  National Park week is awesome too, no fees!

Happy Sunday!

We went to church, walked the San Clemente Beach Trail and enjoyed the beach at The Strand by Salt Creek, and played with the Clarke cousins.  It feels so good to relax after a whirlwind week.  

Twin Falls

JD and I had a wonderful Spring Break Adventure: Twin Falls Idaho. We loved attending the temple there-so pretty! We were inspired to go and see some of the waterfalls in the area. The single running fall of Twin Falls was ok, but Shoshone Falls was spectacular. We missed out on the petrified watermelon patch, another time I guess. I love road trips. I love being with my best friend, talking about whatever such as deciding whether or not hills are mountains, memories, or where we are going to school, and future decorating ideas. It was a fantastic day.

Moab Part 3

After church this morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed back into Arches. We drove straight to the trailhead for Delicate Arch and hiked our way up to the famous landmark. I have always been too chicken to go around the bowl and stand under the arch but I did today and it felt great. I love the ray of sunshine on me in my moment of triumph that JD was able to capture. The upper right corner pick was taken from behind the arch on a sandstone outcropping, I had to be extra brave to get that, the skinny part of the arch is closest to me (then you feel dumb when people are running over there and not even thinking twice about it or hugging the cliff wall to be able to get that angle, curse my fear of heights). The last picture is of my feet right next to Sand Dune Arch, we went back there before heading home because we were close and I love the slots you go through to get to it.
This has been one of our funnest adventures yet. We had a great time and did a lot in just a few days. National Parks pretty much rock!

Moab Part 2

Day 2 of our adventure was incredibly busy and spontaneous (in other words we had no plans and I wanted to do everything). We headed out to Dead Horse Point State Park, followed by Canyonlands National Park. Mesa Arch was beautiful but it was freaking me out because people were letting their kids run along the top of the arch=dumb. We also did several arches at Arches National Park: Skyline, Landscape, Pine Tree, Tunnel, Broken, Sand Dune, as well as hiking through the fins at Devils Garden. The slots were awesome and the temperature was great. I think my favorite arch of the day was Sand Dune, kids were playing in the sand, burying each other in the sand, and running through the slots. One creative kid had made a replica of the sand dune arch out of the sand below it and it was pretty accurate too. One more day before we go back to work and school.