Spring Break

Any of you who know us know we love to travel. We go somewhere almost EVERY spring break but this year didn't plan on going anywhere. There was the money, health, work etc... things. After talking and talking and wondering and wondering we finally decided that we just needed to bite the bullet and go. We knew it needed to be cheap and I wanted to go somewhere warm so there was really only one obvious solution- Holly's house! We had so much fun! We needed the time to "get away", regroup and enjoy each other instead of always having these things hanging over our heads! My mom rode down with us and we even took my niece, Savannah, with us. I was actually nervous about taking an extra kid with us but all the kids were WONDERFUL! Having Savannah might have even made the girls act better.

We drove and left Wed. afternoon we were sort of hoping to drive all the way through (12-14 hrs) but we didn't get away until later and it was quite snowy outside of Reno. So, we decided to just stay in Reno, we stayed at Circus Circus- very cheap! (They were the bounciest beds I've ever seen, it was all I could do not to jump on them!!!) On Thursday morning we left fairly early and drove to Vacaville where I talked Doug into stopping at the Vacaville Outlets. Those are probably the best outlets I've ever been to. They even had a Croc store- can you believe $1.99 crocs!

We finally made it to Holly's and spent the afternoon at her house then went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, one of Doug's (and mine) favorite restaurants.

The next day was kind of rainy so we needed an indoor activity. San Jose Discovery Museum was the perfect answer! The kids had so much fun and the parents had fun chasing the kids! There was bubble room and an art room. A garden and water room. Plus tons of other fun things the girls even made their own Corn Husk dolls.

Ok, so this doesn't go on forever, I'll post more later.

Wonderful Adventure

I'd been itching to go somewhere, and because Doug can't take any days off work right now I thought we needed to take a quick trip somewhere over Labor Day weekend. Being a Union man Doug for sure gets that day off! ;) So, I looked and I looked. It needed to be somewhere cheap and of course couldn't be too far away. After much research we decided to go to the Yellowstone area. We stayed in "Tent-Cabins" at Coulter Bay. What's a "Tent-Cabin" you ask? Well, it's exactly like it sounds, half tent, half cabin. It has two cabin walls that have fold down bunks attached to them and a wood burning stove. Outside (under the cover) is a picnic table. We loved it! It was only $42/night and was easy camping. We took our own bedding and Doug's small Coleman burner. We would get up every morning and make hot chocolate and a yummy breakfast! We took lunch fixings with us and we'd eat in whatever parking lot we were in. Then we'd come back about 8-8:30 and quickly fix dinner. We ate taco soup, corn on the cob and hamburgers for dinners.

We spent two days in Yellowstone. It was nice to be able to take our time and hike and see what we wanted to see. We stopped and took pictures of the Tetons. Got out and put our hands in Yellowstone Lake (it was too cold to put in anymore than that!) We saw Lewis Falls.

Of course we saw lots of hot pots and sulfur pots (stinky!). We saw Old Faithful and all of the geysers. I think we did about every 1/2 mile trail that there is in Yellowstone.

We saw some things close up (like the Buffalo- or bison- who were within 10 yards of our car) and the things that weren't close enough we'd use Dad's binoculars!

We hiked the Grand Canyon (although due to construction we couldn't go as far as we wanted. We did "Tom's Trail" which is basically 380 stairs that go straight down. Ugh! It was a hike, but well worth it to see the beautiful views of the waterfall.

We had a great time. The weather was wonderful! Except the last day when it started raining at night and poured all the next morning. Luckily, we were just planning on going to Jackson Hole anyway so it worked out alright. We stopped at Jenny Lake and walked a little way on the trail and then headed to Jackson. It was too cold in Jackson to do much so we just drove through and then stopped at Bubba's to eat lunch. Yum! Great bar-b-que! On the way home Doug wanted to go see the new Rexburg Temple. That temple is quite pretty. (I'll share a picture in another post- I can't add anymore pictures!) Then we ended up having to stop and get a new windshield washer. We had a great time and I'm already planning our next trip there. Although I don't know when it will be- we'll definitely be going back.