Queen Creek, Denver, Seattle, Hurricane, Wichita

What a crazy end to July. I flew to Denver on the 5th for work. On the 13th, Stephen and Sadie flew to Salt Lake City to spend a week at their Aunt Pam's house. I flew to Phoenix on the 15th, spent 7 hours in AZ, then flew up to Seattle to work for 5 days. Laura and Sawyer also flew to Seattle, but after spending the first night with me, left me to go to Tacoma to spend two nights at Laura's friend's house. We were planning to return to Phoenix together Sunday the 20th, but Laura decided to go to Hurricane instead and visit with her grandfather. So I returned to AZ alone, then picked up Stephen and Sadie on Monday the 21st. We've been hanging out together for a while, but tomorrow I fly around and end up in Wichita for 2 days, and Laura will be flying into AZ about 2 hours after I leave.

I'm excited about starting a new crew in PHX on the 28th, because that means I'll be in AZ for at least a week and a half. As far as I know, my family will be here too.

Zions National Park, June 2008

After enjoying the Grand Canyon so much this year, we thought while we were in Utah, we might as well spend some time in Zions National Park.

We parked just outside at the theater, and walked across the bridge into Zions. Then we hopped on the shuttle to catch a ride to the Zions Lodge where we would access the trail to the Lower and Middle Emerald pools. This was a trail recommended to us by some friends as a little kid friendly hike.

The trail was super-duper busy all the way to the Lower Emerald pools. If you've ever been on the upper part of the Bright Angel trail in the Grand Canyon, you know what I'm talking about. But we made our way through the throngs of people, and once we were past the lower pools, on the steps up to the middle pools the crowds lessened. The scenery was beautiful, and the were excellent places to stop for some photos.

The kids did great. Their kid energy made short work of the climbs up the stairs and rock to the middle pools, and then around to the other side.

Hurricane June 2008

We went up to Hurricane Utah, as we do each year, for the Nelson family reunion. We all drove up to Utah on the 12th, and spent a week and a half at Laura's parent's house.

Friday, the 13th, we went up into Zions National Park. See the Zions blog.

Stephen spent much of his time playing Rock Band with his Aunt Jana. When he wasn't jamming on the drums or guitar he was either driving around in his grandpa's Runabout or shooting his Red Ryder BB gun.

Sadie spent a lot of her time playing with Breanne or riding around in the Runabout with Stephen.

Sawyer, as usual, was just everywhere and anywhere, into anything and everything.

Friday, the 20th, we spent up in St George, above the city in the red rocks, taking family and individual photos with our new digital SLR. We had been talking for a while about getting one, and we finally picked up a Canon Rebel XTi. The kids enjoy climbing around on the rocks and scaring their parents.