I know, our vacation was over a month ago, but I still haven’t posted everything I wanted to. I don’t have much to say about all these pictures other than the trip up to Montana was completely worth it for me. My family always went to Yellowstone when I was growing up, which made this trip a little nostalgic. I found it crazy to realize we had driven from the south end of the country (Austin) to north end of the country (Montana).
Posted in Audrey, Family, Grandparents, Jeana, Kate, Montana, Outdoors, Scott, Vacation 2008
Tagged old faithful, waterfalls
Scott and the girls with Grandma Gussy
We made a trip to Idaho for a couple reasons, one of which was to stop and see my grandma in Blackfoot. My aunt Marilyn was when we arrived and spent some time with us. She pulled out a photo album of my grandma’s family and I had fun looking at old pictures with my grandma and asking her about the pictures.
Posted in Grandparents, Idaho, Vacation 2008
This is the first time I have been to Lagoon since we went on our Senior trip in High School. I spent a lot more time on the kids ride this time than I did when I was 18. We started the day with Wicked, which was awesome. The cork-screw twist has to be my favorite part when you flip up-side down.
Granddaughters
There were plenty of rides for Audrey and Kate to enjoy and they had plenty of cousins to hang out with on these rides.
Kate and Audrey on the Boat Ride
The bumper car experience deserves some mention here. Kate really had no idea what to do. Apparently the rider of the car was supposed to turn the wheel to get the car moving, but that was the last thing in Kate’s mind out there. The operator of the ride had to stop everyone multiple times to ask Kate to sit properly in her car and remind her to turn her wheel. Kate ended up trapping Peter at one point, or I should say that Peter’s car happened to get positioned next to Kate’s stationary car.
Kate in a Bumper Car
Audrey was excited to go on the Dinosaur Drop. This ride lifts you up in the air, rotates, then drops and leaves your stomach up in the air. Kate hated this ride! She wailed and wailed and made me look like the best parent in the world for making her go on the ride.
Scott and Kate Getting Ready to Drop
Jeana and Audrey Waiting for the Dinosaur Drop
I went on this roller coaster with Audrey and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t designed for anyone older than the age of 10. I wedged myself in on a tight angle and tried to get the bottom side of my legs as close to the seat as possible.
Wedging into the Roller Coaster with Audrey
Roller Coaster with Audrey
Audrey came on the Rattlesnake Rapids ride with us and Jeana told her that if she felt scared to just scream like her aunt Gina. We approached a dark corridor and Audrey started screaming with a shrill high pitched sound and her face looked horrified. I had the hardest time not laughing.
Embracing Rattlesnake Rapids
Bryan had a great idea to go canoeing at Jordanelle state park as one of our reunion activities. He found a great deal on canoes from the University of Utah, but we had to come up with our own trailer to haul the boats. I pinged a friend in Utah and after a quick Google search, he found http://www.troop410.com which is a Scout troop in Salt Lake City with a number of canoes and kayaks available to rent WITH a trailer. Troop 410 rented their 9 boats to us for a day at an amazing price and our trip that day was probably one of the best activities of the week, in my opinion.
I took a picture of the trailer so I would know how to put all the boats back on in the correct place.
The Boats
Kate sitting at the dock in a canoe waiting for Jeana and her cousin Holland.
Kate in the Canoe
Touching the buoy. Holland is a cousin, seated between Audrey and Kate in the picture.
Touching a buoy out on the water
Jeana demonstrating her kayaking prowess. She recently took lessons from someone in Austin.
Jeana in a kayak
Me trying to look like I know what I’m doing.
Scott in the kayak
Taking the canoe back across the reservoir to load on the trailer. This canoe, “Old Town”, was very tipsy. I didn’t like it. I don’t think anyone took it out on the water (other than me getting it from the dock to where we were stationed).
Last year we stopped at Four Corners on our trip to Utah. This year we skipped Four Corners because we didn’t have time to hike in Moab last year. When we got out of the car at Arches National Park the temperature was extremely hot, I think it was 103 degrees. I was hoping to find some respite from the Texas heat on this trip, but none was found in Southern Utah!
Audrey, Kate, and Jeana at Arches
Kate hiking to see Delicate Arch
When we would stop to take a drink break, I would realize how steep the trail was we were hiking on. Imagine having “little girl” legs hiking up a steep trail!
Audrey and Kate with Delicate Arch
It seemed like every Utah license plate we saw for the rest of the trip was acknowledged by Audrey yelling, “I see the arch!”
Audrey hiking after Delicate Arch
Kate dying of thirst in Arches
Balanced Rock
When I was about 8 years old my family went to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. We stopped at Arches National Park and the two things I remember from that stop were red gravel/dirt and Balanced Rock. The scenery in Arches is absolutely incredible, and none of the photos we took adequately express the beauty.
