Crystal's Crazy World

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Vacation to Colorado and to Escalante, UT

A couple of months ago Dr. Powell told me he was planning on going to Ghana, Africa again and would be gone for 2 weeks. I said cool then I am going to take those 2 weeks off as well. I called mom and dad and said I that I was going to come home the last week of April and the first week in May and that I wanted to go 4-wheeling. My dad doesn't hesitate for a moment before he starts planning this trip down to Escalante, UT that he has been wanting to do. This trip included a trip to get to the Hole-In-The-Rock of over a hundred miles round trip on an ATV in one day. I was tired just thinking about it. He was so excited that we were going that he started telling everyone about this trip. I think at one point we going to have 15-20 people going with us. As it came closer to happening people started to be unable to come and it ended up just being my Mom, Dad, Uncle Kenny, and I. So the first week of my vacation I went home to relax and get rested before we started this journey. We went for about a 40 mile ride just to get use to riding the machines and one night Dad and I went for a ride trying to spot some animals. For once the desert was quiet, even the coyotes were quiet except for a short amount of time. So we just watched the airplanes take off and land. Then it was time to leave for the 5 hour drive down to Escalante. The weather was just about perfect, except for the wind but I am use to that after living in Laramie for 4 years. Enjoy the pictures!!!

The first day there we went for a short ride and hiked to a couple of arches. Dad above thinking he is ready for the adventure. Uncle Kenny is thinking he is prepared as well. I think they both were carrying an extra 10 pounds with all the toys they had to bring. :)

Color in the desert I think is always more beautiful then anywhere else because you never expect to see it.

The first arch we found I can't remember what it is called.

More color!!

The second arch which is called the cover wagon arch. You can not tell it with any of the pictures I took but wherever we hiked the pathway was sand. I felt like I should be playing volleyball not hiking.

The next several pictures where taken at a place called Devil's Garden.

Our version of the hiking the slot canyons :)

Dad dancing in Devil's Garden :) I am telling the Bishop :)

The next day we woke up early and had a quick breakfast and started what would end up being 120 miles in one LONG day.

About 25 miles into the trip we come across this memorial for some boy scouts who ended up dying when their truck stalled out and rolled over trying to climb this steep hill.

A little bit further down the rode we ran into this plaque and looked up to see the Hole-In-The-Rock Arch

This is pretty much the type of landscape we saw as we were headed to the Hole-In-The-Rock. Just repeated over and over again for 60 miles.

We are getting pretty close now in fact if you look in the center of the picture below you can barely see a gap in the rocks.

We can now actually see where the rock was blasted a way. If you look close enough you can see the road we still have to travel.

This plaque just tells of the first day that wagons were lowered (is a kind word for how the wagons had to get to the bottom). In fact more than 83 wagon had to descend the 1800 feet to get to the bottom.

This marker is placed on the right hand side of the picture above just before you are able to look down to see what is below .

We could only go about a quarter of the way down because it has deteriorated so much you can't get down without repelling down.

Mom at the top trying to show how steep just the little bit we where able to do.

Above is a picture I took from climbing on the rocks on the side of the hole so you could see how far down it is. Can you guess what water you are looking at? Hint: Back when the pioneers actually did this there was only the Colorado River.

Above is Uncle Kenny dancing, pretending to be a bird, or just trying to scare my mom next to the edge of the cliff.

So then we started our journey back to camp. We stopped at the rock called Dance Hall Rock. This place was huge.

Dad and Uncle Kenny square dancing

We were all tired and ready to call it a day when we got back to camp. None of us felt like 4 wheeling the next day so we decided to hike to Calf Creek Falls. This was suppose to be a nice hike of about 7 miles, but remember I told you everywhere we hiked the trail was made up of sand. So I decided we actually hiked 14 miles that day.

Starting out we are all feeling pretty good. Stopping at the assigned markers to learn about the area like one guy was able to grow watermelons in this canyon.

Taking a break at one of the markers. Can't tell they are brothers can you?

COLOR!!!

In the picture above is a storage area that was used to store grain. Can you find it? Hint: See below to see what it looks like. (Have I mentioned that I love my camera!!)

Here is another one a little different that was further along the trail.

Butterfly. I will take any signs of color :)

More Color!!!

Then we started to see the creek and it gave us hope that we were getting close to the falls.

Then we started to see fish in the creek and it made us a little bit more happy knowing that we had to be getting close.

We rounded a corner and finally caught sight of the falls.

Getting closer. We were able to start to feel the cool breeze coming off the falls. It was heavenly.

We made it!!! It was the perfect place to eat lunch and relax for a little bit before we started on the LONG hike back :)

Dad, Mom, Uncle Kenny

HOORAY FOR VACATIONS!!!!!!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Vacation to AZ

I left Salt Lake City and went to Casa Grande, AZ to help out Carrie since she just had my new niece Hanna. I left on March 4th and just got back on March 15th.
So to start off I ended up being in the airport in Salt Lake for 4 hours because my flight was delayed. It ended up changing gates 4 times and changing concourse by the time I was able to board my flight. Carrie, my Mom and Kaylynn (niece who is 3) plus Hanna (1 week old) picked me up at the airport. Kaylynn was so excited to show off her new baby sister. She told me all about Hanna from the time we left the airport, got lunch, stopped at the fabric store to get stuff to make Hanna blessing dress and home. By the time we got home JL had picked Justin (nephew who is 5) up from school, so then Justin got his turn telling me all about Hanna.
Most of my days started with walking Justin to school with Mom and then Mom and I taking at least an hour to go walking around the neighborhood and we even made it to Walmart ( 5 miles) one day. The weather was so nice most of the time. Carrie's family all thought it was still cold but Mom and I were loving the weather. We would then go back to Carrie's and eat breakfast and play with Kaylynn and hold Hanna and help Carrie do projects until it was time to go pick Justin up from school. Then we just added Justin into the mix in the afternoon with Mom and I taking turns holding Hanna. Hanna was held most of the time by mom and I. Poor Carrie for the next couple weeks trying to break Hanna of that habit but what are Aunts and Grandmas for. The only time Carrie got to hold Hanna was when it was time to feed her. With Justin and Kaylynn we made cookies, colored pictures, sang songs, played with bubbles, read books, went to a book fair, went to Justin parent teacher conference, ate lunch with Justin at school, played at the park, helped Kaylynn with riding her bike, tickled and wrestled on the floor and anything and everything else we could shove into the day. So the question is did I really have a vacation :)
I also took a million pictures of Hanna and Carrie's family and some flowers since things were blooming down there. Mom and I also took Justin and Kaylynn to the Ostrich farm which I went to with them last time I was down there because they have a monster truck and take us 4-wheeling. The thing is this time AZ has had so much rain this winter that we got muddy. It was very cool :) We also celebrated Carrie's 29th birthday while we were there.
JL blessed Hanna on March 14th and then I flew out at 600 am on March 15th so I could get to work by 900.

So now on to the good stuff (WARNING THERE IS A TON OF PICTURES)!!!!