Idaho pictures

We arrived in Idaho in the middle of the night July 3rd, just in time for Independence Day celebrations. We watched the Rexburg parade and enjoyed seeing relatives at the Nelson reunion. Matthew caught a chocolate milk being handed out form one of the parade floats and shared it all with Daniel. He's such a nice brother. Throughout the entire parade he's give all his treats to Sarah, Daniel, or other little kids near us. What a rare boy!

Grandpa and Aunt Rachael drove the children down to the horse pasture to see their horses. It was so fun to ride the four wheeler and see all their beautiful horses!
The grandkids all loved watching the ice cream maker churn. Television can't touch this! :)

We all had fun making ice cream with Grandpa Austin. Thanks Dad! Homemade ice cream is so delicious! We all had so much fun with the Muir family! Thanks for everything you all did to make our stay wonderful! We loved playing games, doing fireworks, playing with animals, sitting by the fire, etc!
The tree house in the backyard at Grandmas was very fun. Matthew LOVES to climb trees, so he was in heaven in the tree house. Grandpa Austin and Uncle Brian started it together. There are no walls yet, so we couldn't' stay up there long, much to Matthew's disappointment.
Aunst Rachael took the kids around on her horse, Strawberry. They had a blast. They alwasy look forward to riding the horses and Grandma and Grandpa Muir's! They talk about it all year long. Thanks, Rachael!
I loved this picture! After leading the horse around for some time, Rachael rode int eh saddle with Sarah and taught her how to ride the horse on her own. Sarah loved it so much and really appreciated Rachael's lesson. She was so proud of herself!
At Aunt Tami's home Sarah rode the horses alone. She was immensely pleased to be in charge of her own animal. She never wanted to come off. I don't blame her, I feel the same way. It's always with great reluctance that I climb down off the horses.
My cousin Marissa was so nice to take the kids for walks on the horses. They didn't want to stop riding, so Marissa walked and jogged the horses for over an hour. We really loved it and really appreciated her time!

Daniel riding a horse with Aunt Tami. Isn't the horse just beautiful? We had so much fun staying with their family!
Our first night at Tami's home, Marissa took the kids for rides on the lawn mower. She taught them how to steer and let them play around with the controls. They had so much fun and were laughing so hard I was surprised they could still breathe. They sure enjoyed playing with Marissa. Sarah and Matthew loved Marissa's doll house and dolls. Thanks for sharing!Cousin Terrance was another favorite with the kids. He was so fun to play with. He pushed the boys on the big rope swing all evening. What a neat memory. I've always wanted a rope swing in a big tree. I love this picture!
I had a go on the horses very gingerly. My toe was still swollen and bruised from the Utah reunion a few days before, so I didn't ride long. Daniel had a lot of fun riding with me.
After leaving Tami's home we went to visit my brother's family in American Falls, Idaho. All the cousins had a slumber party downstairs. It was such a treat! They really had fun with each other.
My brother Randy took all the children for rides on the four wheelers. They had this little child-sized model in addition to the 'normal' ones. My kids thought is was so cute!
Everyone piled on together for rides through the fields near the Nelson home. They'd go up and down big hills and we could hear the children's squeals of delight from a block away. They had so much fun!
This is all the Nelson cousins in American Falls. We spent a day swimming in the hot springs pool, played at the parks, played games, had late night talks, enjoyed their pets, and learned how to play video games. Our kids sure had a blast! Nathan also enjoyed making jerky with Randy. Thanks again, Randy and Steph, for letting us visit!

Utah pictures

Daniel and his cousin Isaac were fast friends and stuck together whenever possible. This was the first time they met since Isaac lives in Alaska. They were so sweet to watch...both of them are just really nice boys. They really enjoyed the slumber parties together!

The annual hike this year took us to the top of some mountains to a hidden lake. The trail crossed a stream, so the dads and uncles all made a chain of 5 men across the rocks to pass the little ones in our group. I believe they passed 20 children over this stream. It was so neat to watch them all working together to keep our children safe and dry! What cool dads we have!
This is at the top of the mountain we climbed. The lake was crystal clear and made from snow-melt water. It was breathtakingly beautiful! I'm so thankful we were able to see this place! It made me say a silent prayer in my heart to thank the Lord for this beautiful Earth he blessed us with.

Matthew and cousin Grace were the first ones in our group to the lake. We actually were there first by mistake. Grace was too hot and tired to hike much, so we were the 'cabooses' of the group, and we became lost. Luckily the rest of the group were hiking around the other side of the lake and met us here later.
What a beautiful place! I'm so happy for the quiet moments to enjoy God's creations! How generous of Him to give us grand beauties like this!
This is a family art project we did at the reunion. It's a canvas 4 yards long that everyone painted on to make one giant piece of art. It was really fun to see everyone's creativity come out. There were lots of clever ideas!
More circle painting. Leif Skarstedt, a cousin aged 10, said, "This is the best part of the reunion!"
Matthew working on his circle. I love the variety of colors he uses. He always incoporates a rainbow of colors in his art work. I love it so much!
We visiited the Provo paleontology museum for fun. There were large windows where you could watch the paleontologists at work cleaning fossils fresh from the field. Matthew delighted in the sharp teeth on every giant skull. He begged me to take a dozen pictures of him posing with big teeth.
Aunt mary Anns home has a rock climbing wall in the front entry (isn't that a COOL idea?!) Nathan's brother, Andy, harnessed all the little kids one at a time and let them try to climb the wall. What a cool uncle! It was fun to watch them!
Matthew loved the climbing until he was about 4-5 feet off the ground. But as soon as he was unbuckled, he begged to go again.
The children loved helping Aunt MaryAnn stone cherries in preperation for jams and other preserving methods. They stoned cherries for hours! It was definately a trip highlight for them all. It was like a game for them.
The cherry tree had low branches that the children could harvest without help. They really loved picking hte berries. It's much funner than harvesting hte blackberries full of thorns or the wild grapes full of biting bugs. This was a breeze to do and they'd run outside giggling in anticipation of the waiting harvest.
On our trip we saw the world's largest Van Gogh painting. In the middle of Kansas....we stumbled across it on accident. We were just looking for a bathroom and a park to play in. The kids thoguht it was awesome. Look at the bottom right corner of the picture...there's Nathan and the van to give you a sense of scale.

Arizona-pictures

Trip highlights-

The Grand Canyon really DOES defy all description, so I won't even attempt it. Suffice it to say, a million pictures still don't prepare you to experience the real thing. I could happily spend several days there, if we didn't have the children with us. I'd love to hike it and explore more of the canyon than just the rim. That will be for a future day. I did really enjoy the time we spent there with our family, however brief it seemed.

The Junior Ranger programs at the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest were a big hit with the kids. Sarah was very serious about finishing her assigned tasks and carried her papers everywhere, studying the flora and writing notes. The story time on the Grand Canyon rim was very fun. The park ranger read a fun story about nature's yucky secret defenses for prey. Matthew really loved learning about the lizards that squirt blood out of their eyes.

Sarah said the Grand Canyon made her feel excited like a butterfly. They went on rock hunts to find various rocks with different features, animal hunts, and drew pictures of the Grand Canyon. We were all surprised to learn that the Colorado River actually isn't visible from most of the rim viewpoints. Sarah and Matthew had been so excited to see the Colorado River after learning about it for school. We succeeded in seeing one tiny sliver of river. Matthew looked and looked for that sliver of blue, but couldn't find it anywhere.

Another highlight was when Nathan spotted some California condors. One of them flew very close to Nathan and Matthew and they marveled over the enormity of the bird's wingspan. Matthew loved seeing red-tailed hawks.

Daniel was too little to earn an official Junior Ranger badge even though he did his paperwork alongside the older kids. He was so sad when he was given a sticker instead of a badge. Matthew promptly pinned his own badge on Daniel's shirt and consoled him by promising to let him keep the badge forever. I'm so thankful Matt's generosity, he's such an amazing big brother!

The National Petrified Forest was really neat. The Rainbow forest was incredibly beautiful. Each petrified log had a dozen colors swirling throughout the layers of rock. For the Junior Ranger program here, the children hunted for different types of petrified wood, measured long logs of stone, searched for animal life in the desert, and drew petroglyph's.

I never knew the Petrified Forest also contained spectacular petroglyphs and ancient pueblo dwellings. What a delightful surprise! The petroglyphs were surprisingly numerous and fun to discover. We enjoyed looking through telescopes to the rocks where the art work was laboriously chiseled into the giant boulders. The painted desert was also amazing....it was beautiful vistas full of vivd red and purple cliffs as far as I could see. What an amazing palette of color brilliantly displayed! Daniel was awarded a badge at this park, along with Sarah and Matthew. They were all so serious when they took the Junior Ranger oath. They were all pleased and positively glowing when they walked out with their badges and patches. Another plus was the squashed-penny machine we discovered in the gift store. We collect squashed pennies anytime we find them, so it was fun to add the Petrified Forest and Route 66 to our book of pennies.

We've been following Route 66 for much of our journey. The towns look overwhelmingly like the town Radiator Springs from the Pixar movie Cars. We even saw a motel with giant teepee's for rooms! It's been a lot of fun to cruise Route 66 and see the old buildings and out-dated businesses. It's an adventurous and nostalgic reminder of days gone by.