Glacier National Park...I can't keep track of the days anymore.

Glacier was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! I want to live in the middle of this National Park. 

There I am, hiding the 15 pounds I gained this summer behind the huge sign! :)

Trying to get a picture of us with the beautiful view...

But let's be honest, the view is a lot more beautiful without us in the picture. :)

That's right, we lived on the edge. 

We actually didn't see any bears this time, but we did see a few moose! This one walked right through the campground next to us! (This is not intentionally underlined, my computer is just being weird at the moment.)

And then we saw a bull moose running through the main part of the village! We also saw some stupid girl RUNNING TOWARD the moose with her camera as he was trying to escape. You'd think there would be a sign about THAT. 

So beautiful!

This reminded me of the poem about looking for the silver lining...it was absolutely beautiful! 

Yellowstone

We left Boise and drove to Rexburg, Idaho, where Wayne and I went to college. It was fun to be back at BYU-Idaho, we got to see the new temple and walk around campus to see the changes. We both felt a little out of place though...that's right, we were wearing flip-flops. We were totally unprepared. :)  We had some good times back in our Rexburg days, and I will always treasure that place and all the memories we made, both together and individually before we met. We got to see a few friends and eat at my two favorite places, Bajios and Craigos. We were sooo full that night because we only had a few hours in Rexburg, so we ate two huge meals WAY too close together! Uff-da. It was worth it though. :)

Then, we were off to Yellowstone National Park! 

This picture doesn't really need a description, I guess. 

I think that sign said something like, 

"Danger: Don't stand on the rock in the middle of this lake."

We actually found a lot of humorous signs on our journey. Like this one. Don't let your kid stand on a geyser. 

Me and Old Faithful just before it erupted...or whatever geysers do. 

Wayne looking good as usual. :)

This was the first animal we saw in Yellowstone. We were so excited because the buffalo was RIGHT ON THE ROAD!!! It was so cool! Until we kept driving around that day and realized there are ALWAYS buffalo right on the road in Yellowstone. It's not that big a deal. Then we just laughed at all the people who jammed up traffic because they stopped to take pictures of a buffalo like they might never see one again. Haha. Suckers. :)

Us in front of a waterfall. I can't remember what it was called...this was 5 months ago. 
This was such a pretty spot. We drove by and saw a small crowd gathered looking through these fancy scope things. We got out with our puny little binoculars and could barely make out something moving at the top of the ridge. There were 4 bears up there! Of course, we couldn't tell that looking through our binoculars, but that's what everyone else said they were looking at. Thankfully, a nice elderly couple let us look through their scope for a minute. Guess what we saw? Two bears MATING!!! Of all the things to catch a bear doing...they must have been so embarrassed. 
This is Wayne trying to get to the bathroom, but the elk had it surrounded. 
Our campground was overflowing with elk almost every night we were there! It was really cool. I was sitting in my camping chair reading a book, and I looked up and there was an elk about 20 feet from me! She was slowly grazing her way through the campground, and she just stopped and held my gaze for like 15 seconds! It was really cool...I know they are typically not dangerous, but it was still an eerie feeling being out in the open so close to a giant animal! 

This is me and a really cool colored little waterfall. If only I knew what these things were called...my geology teacher would be so proud. 

Another humorous sign...
...and my husband totally ignoring it. :)

I was pretty convinced there was a fire-breathing dragon in this cave. You think the buffalo are scary?!? Where is the warning sign for this bad boy? Whew...we barely made it out alive.

Boise and the Davis Family, Here We Come!!!

After leaving Bryce Canyon we spent a night with my college roommate, Daisy, and her adorable family in Salt Lake City, Utah. We also got to visit with one of Wayne's mission companions and meet his family, which was so fun. I think we laughed for two hours straight! Thank you so much for your hospitality, Caudles! Then, we were off to Boise, ID, to visit my sister, Jaime, and her family. While there, we did one of my favorite Boise activities on a hot summer day...we floated the river!

Me and Audri getting ready for the big ride.

Me and Donovan early on in the trip...you can tell because we were still dry. :)

Wayne and D being silly.

And Jaime and Josh and Donovan leading the pack. 

I think the kids traded rafts 3 or 4 times along the way. Luckily, no one tipped, but our butts did scrape the rocks going through the rapids once or twice. Ouch! We ended the trip with very little air left in our rafts, but everyone survived and had a great time! 

Jaime and I also took off one afternoon for pedicures...so nice. It's something we only seem to do when we get together as sisters, so it is always a special treat. It was nice just to have some sister time...I miss living close to each other! Maybe someday we will all be neighbors like we dreamed about when we were kids. :)

Thanks Jaime, Josh, Donovan, and Audri for showing us a good time!

Days 3-5: Zion National Park

After a quick stop in Las Vegas for lunch with my old roommate, Natalia and her adorable daughter, Abigail, we forged ahead to Zion. (It was so good to see you, Nati!) We got settled in, setting up our tent in about 14 minutes. We unloaded the bikes and took a little ride by the river before the sun set, and it was gorgeous! 

We got back to camp hungry and ready for dinner, only to realize that I had failed to pack the little pot for our camping burner. Oops. Luckily, I married a Boy Scout. He just opened the can of soup and put it right on the burner to warm. (We re-used that can for a few days to boil water for cocoa and the MRE's, but I started to notice a funny, metalic taste to everything. So then I started worrying that maybe we could get cancer or something from cooking the living daylights out of our tin can, so we made it a priority to buy a pot in the next town we reached.)

The next morning we got up and did a few small hikes, nothing too serious. It was pretty HOT for my liking, and I get really grumpy when I'm hot. But the views were beautiful and totally worth it. 

I love this shot! The sunlight shining through the water looks so cool.

After lunch we rode decided to hike the Narrows to cool off...it was incredible! Normally, if you are hiking along a path and it ends because the canyon walls get to steep and all that lies in front of you is a river, YOU STOP!!!  But not here. Everyone just takes off their shoes and keeps going! You can go for HOURS and HOURS hiking through the water until you reach the narrowest part of the Narrows and can't go any further. We started too late in the day to make it that far, but we hiked for a good 4 hours or so. It was a lot of fun, but we were TIRED when we got back to camp!

I got tired sooner than Wayne did, so I stopped in this little chair-rock and took a break while Wayne kept hiking. It was pretty comfy for a rock!

Wayne up to his belly button in the water. He did fall in once, but I didn't get a picture of it!! It was during my rock break. :(   

The next morning we packed up our stuff and got a few last pictures on the way out of Zion. 

And we're off to Bryce National Park!

What is California without Disneyland???

The last month we were in California, we decided we needed to visit all the California attractions we had never been to in the year and a half we lived there. That, of course, included Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure Park! My parents had a timeshare they couldn't use at the Disneyland Hotel, so we got to use it for a few days and we had a blast!

  This is us on a ride together... 

...and this is Wayne on a ride by himself because I got sick.  

We had a lot of fun, but it wasn't without a few scary encounters...

Wayne almost got eaten by the same big cat who ate Tarzan's mom and dad. 

And then he narrowly escaped an attack from a giant hippo! 

And I was about THIS CLOSE to a light saber battle with Darth Vader himself!!!

Getting ready to ride the Matterhorn...oh yeah, Wayne "accidentally" had a slip of the razor a few days ago, so he "had" to completely shave his head. Mm-hmm. Sure, honey. 

I've been working out, so this wasn't as hard as it looks. Well, it probably would be for the rest of you...haha.  :)

It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is ME driving the car in Autotopia! Yeah, Wayne let ME DRIVE!!! 

What's Disneyland without Splash Mountain? I was obviously having a lot more fun than Wayne. I think he was scared. :)

Well, it's true. Disneyland really is the place where all our dreams came true. Except for the one about owning a beach house...  :)

Road Trip 2008 - Days 1&2

I think closing the door on the beach house was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Ok, maybe a little dramatic, but it was a beautiful day and the ocean smelled soooo good and everyone was out playing on the beach, and we had to lock the door and walk away forever. Well, until we're rich at least. It was pretty hard. You just can't understand unless you have been there yourself.  :)

But, we had a big adventure planned for summer 2008, so at least we had good things to look forward to. Our first stop (after a wonderful night hanging out with Josh and Annie for the last time) was Catalina Island off the coast of California. It was a quick trip, we went out Sunday afternoon and returned Monday afternoon, but it was beautiful and so much fun. We stayed in a cute little motel and walked all over the island for a few hours. 

When it got dark we went on a flying fish tour! It was too dark to get any good pictures, but it was really cool...you go out on a boat for about an hour, and they scan the water with this huge spotlight. Then all of a sudden you see these fish jump out of the water and "fly" for like 20-40 feet! It's crazy. One of the fish flew right at the spotlight and barely made it back in the water before slamming into the boat. We saw a good 5 or 6 flying fish, so I thought it was well worth the money. Such a romantic evening out on the water. :)