Utah Trip June 2008 - Part Two

We stayed with Tim's brother Jason and family for several days and had a lot of fun with them. We drove the Alpine Loop which gives great views of the mountains, especially Mount Timpanogas. Below are Paul, Bekah and their cousin Zachary.
Family photo.
Mount Timpanogas
Here we are hiking the trail to Timpanogas Cave. It was hard! Very steep mile and a half long trail with cliffs on one side. We were constantly watching the kids and telling them to stay on the safe side of the trail.
Tim, Paul and Bekah high on the mountain.

Part of the trail actually cuts through the mountain.
The kids made it to the top! Here they are at the cave entrance. You can see the elevation on the trail. We started about a thousand feet below that, I think. Do they look tired?
This was the next day as we recuperated from the hike! Tim and Jason talking about who knows what.
Bridal Veil Falls.

Paul and Zach at the bottom of the falls. They are in the background climbing up.

Utah Trip June 2008 - Part One

We got up early June 14th and started our journey. We like to start early and get to our destination relatively early which allows for swimming in the hotel pool and possibly some sight seeing. We found these great lava beds along the freeway in New Mexico and had to stop and check them out. The kids picked up samples to take home.

The scenery in New Mexico and Arizona is amazing. I think this big rock mountain was in Arizona. We attempted to see Four Corners but the indians are charging too much to get in and it didn't look like anthing special so we opted not to do that. That led to a drive through Arizona. Normally we'd cut up through Colorado from New Mexico.
More interesting land formations along the freeway.
This is a natural arch just before getting into Moab. See the tiny figure below the left of the arch. That's Tim! You can see how big the arch is. Tim said it was a straight drop off the other side so I'm glad I didn't go all the way up.

Yellowstone Day Six and Seven

Thursday we hung out and took the kids into town for souvenir shopping. I guess I didn't take any pictures this day. Oh, as I recall, some people did go into the park early and were rewarded with some geyser eruptions. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing day to end the trip.

Friday we got up as early as we could and headed out. We drove all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Perhaps the reason for no pictures was because it was miserable to drive that long! It took so long and we were all just ready for it to end. We did have a nice hotel room and we stayed two nights.

Sunday we drove home and it was another long drive but we were home and that was nice. It was a wonderful vacation and we loved it. I have neglected to mention the fabulous time we had in Utah prior to Yellowstone. Stay tuned for more info and pictures!

Yellowstone Day Five - Dyer Reunion

We all met Wednesday night for dinner. It was so great to see all my aunts, uncles and cousins...not to mention my grandparents and some family friends. I hadn't seen some of them for at least fifteen years! The following pictures are from that evening.

Our family, in our lovely t-shirts that Emily made for us.
Bekah, Alexis, Meghan and Cherith. They loooovvvveeeddd the huge field of flowers.
Dana, Gramma, Grampa, Cherith and Ellie.
My Aunt Alison is taking the picture (we got tired of waiting around) and my cousins Jonathan, Keagan and Wesley.
The whole gang! I'm not even going to try to get everybody's name in here :)

Mom and Marian, who has been a friend of the Dyer's forever.
Uncle John and brother James.
My uncle Andy, aunt Kristen and cousins McKenna and Keagan.
My uncle Joel and his wife.
My cousin Hannah and her precious baby.

Yellowstone Day Five - Old Faithful

The Dyer Clan at Old Faithful. This is where we met up with Dad's family, although we had seen them earlier in the week.
Emily and I trying to get a picture of us and the pool behind us. Well...we at least got us!
Old Faithful
Can't remember the name of this pool but it sure is pretty.
Another geyser erupting. Really neat area.

Yellowstone Birthday Party

Tuesday night we had a birthday party for the kids. They all exchanged names and had fun choosing gifts for each other. Of course, Dan and Paul got each other rocks. It's so nice that they have similar tastes! :)




Instead of birtday cake we decided to do s'mores. The kids had a great time. We were all extremely exhausted after this long day!

Yellowstone Day Four

On Tuesday, Tim and I decided to get up early and go into the park. The next six pictures are from our early morning adventure.

Sunrise!
I found a bear! I was actually the first to see it. We were just outside of Mammoth and we caused a slight traffic jam. He didn't stay around tool long though. Seeing bears in the wild is really cool!
I can't remember the name of this waterfall but it's located just past Junction. Pretty!

When we got out to take a hike, these little ground squirrels were everwhere. They ran around our feet and "yelled" at us.
Our third and final bear of the trip. A black bear. There were quite a few people watching this one so he must have been there awhile.
We drove high enough over a mountain to find the snow.

We met the rest of our crowd at Canyon for lunch and views of the waterfalls. Here are Thanny and Audrey scraping bark off a tree.
Our acrobatic girls! In the tree are Bekah and Meghan and on the ground are Ellie and Alexis.
A whole passel of girls enjoying the waterfall! I had so much fun with my nieces and nephews! The trail to get to this lookout spot was narrow and straight down to the rushing river on one side. It was somewhat nerve racking to walk it with several children!

I can't remember if this is upper or lower falls but nonetheless I love watching the water fall (I meant for that to be two words). The amount of power displayed is awesome.
Bekah and Ellie at Artist's Point.
Nice pic of Yellowstone Lake.
One of the coolest animals we saw were bald eagles. There was a nest just inside the park boundaries; it was the first thing we saw, actually. This day both eagles were out of the nest and across the river.