FLASHBACK: Arches National Park

To this point, I've been to Arches National Park three times. It was close to BYU and a popular destination for camping.

Here are some group photos from my first two trips, one during the summer and one during the fall of 2000.

Karren and I made a trip in Utah in October 2005 and we visited the park. This park was full of arches, gorgeous red rock, and awesome hikes. We really enjoyed the Fiery Furnace and would love to go back.

FLASHBACK: Redwood National Park - Labor Day 2005

Karren and I visited Redwood National Park over Labor Day 2005. This was the 4th Annual Labor Day trip for Karren with her friends and I came to this one due to the fact that we were dating. It was absolutely gorgeous!

We camped at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and did a ton of hikes.

These photos are from the Coastal Trail near our campsite.  We hiked around 10 miles of it and saw a ton of cool stuff:

     ...... Coastal Scenes

     ...... Climbing on rocks

     ...... Fun Trees

     ...... Waterfalls

     ...... Wildlife

     ...... and Muddy detours

The scenery was gorgeous throughout the park!!!!!

Most of all, the company was awesome in a magnificent location!

Sonya's Dance Recital

Sonya had her time in the spotlight today as she performed in her dance recital. Every parent thinks their kid is the best, but in our case it is true. A video will come in a while.

We have to thank Miss Kim for all she did. Sonya loved the class and looks forward to it next year.

Happy to announce .....

that we will be having another child on December 18th.  No, we don't know the gender yet.

Flashback: August 31, 2002 - Table Mountain at Grand Teton National Park

Many of you may know that I have become quite obsessed with National Parks recently.  Our family has visited many of them over the past year and a half and I hope to experience much more of our nation's beauty and history. 

Before I knew about the Passport Stamp program, I visited a few parks.  I just ran across these photos of a hike I did up Table Mountain back in August 31, 2002.  I was returning from a summer internship with Intel in Oregon and stopped by my friend's (Rachael's) house on the way back to BYU to start Grad School.

She invited me to do this hike and I wasn't quite prepared.  It consisted of 12 miles and 4150 feet of total climbing.  Since I was just at sea level the day before, this was especially difficult for me, but it was worth it.  It has awesome views of the Tetons and was just gorgeous. 

Here were some views on the way up the mountain:

Here are photos of my fellow hikers (Rachael and her family) and me approaching the top:

and sitting on the top:

It was a lot of fun and I will definitely need to go back.  The park has just too much to explore and it is also really close to Yellowstone National Park of which we still have a lot to experience.

Father Daughter Campout

Sonya and I went to a Father/Daughter campout to Champoeg State Park with a few other dad's in the ward.  Despite the Father's not actually being in any of these photos, we were there!

Leaping Lamb Farm Stay

A few weeks back we did a Leaping Lamb Farm Stay with our friends the Barkers.  It involved staying in a cabin for the weekend and helping out with farm chores every morning/evening.

You could tell Sonya enjoyed the fresh air and free run of the farm.

Here Sonya is collecting eggs and feed the sheep with Sydney.

These little bummer lambs needed to be bottle fed.  Sonya was scared because the nipple kept falling off.  I kept thinking of the poor mothers who were nursing babies capable of ripping nipples off.

I think everyone fell in love with farm life.  Here Sonya and Talmage are gambling with the lambs.

This is Cam with hay fever.  He loves hay.

I fell in live with #24, my beloved baby sheep.  (It's a perfect name, think Seven of Nine, R2-D2, or Agent 707.

Talmage fell in love with this nice and willing chicken. We observed an unconventional romance between this goose and tom turkey. The goose kept this guy on a pedestal and protected him from other feathered male farm competitors. 

This less comely Tom Turkey looked for love wherever he could find it.  He did the mating dance repeatedly for Sonya and was swiftly rejected.  We think it was Sonya's hair that was so enticing.  She kept screaming, "I'm not a beautiful turkey .... I'm not a beautiful turkey!"

Overall it was a great weekend with lots of new animal friendships born.