Road Trip 2009

For the first time as a family we celebrated Independence Day away from home. It was great getting to see Alisha's family again. Allie was able to run around with cousins, Alisha visited with her mom and siblings, and "the guys" got to tell stories and talk. We even enjoyed a great family reunion with lots of entertainment and good visits with family that we don't see very often.


For Charlie, the best part of Independence Day was the parade. Only in Utah do you see the National Guard roll down the street with a Howitzer! (Insert Tim Allen grunting noise!) It was hard to peel his eyes away!



We then continued our journey to Idaho Falls. We stayed at a hotel across the river from the temple, then traveled to Yellowstone National Park. It was a LOT of driving, but it was well worth it!


We even took the time to drive to the Grand Tetons. We hadn't been there before, and it was an amazing sight to see!!


We saw tons of elk (doe and bull) and a young grizzly bear. But the most memorable part of our trip was the huge bison that walked by our car. (It was only 6 feet from the edge of the road lane!) Alisha snapped a picture, and it stopped to stare and grunt at us before moving on. Earlier that morning we had read that they can charge at 30 miles per hour! So there we sat in our red car, wearing red jackets, and holding our breath. Wow! We were so close to the wildlife!

We loved our trip and, as always, were shocked by the heat when we returned. Wyoming was so nice, we didn't even have to use the air conditioning in the car. Oh, it gets us excited for the fall!

Girl's Camp!!

School was out, June was upon us, and that spells Girl's Camp! With Lish being in the Young Women's Preisidency, Charlie as a Bishop, and Al as one of the Young Women, it was a family camping trip on Kolob Mountain!

We listened to some oustanding talks from the Stake Presidency, and enjoyed some good music and singing from all of the ladies at the camp.

Everyone was involved with crafts and other fun activities. Leaders and girls had a great time and came home as better friends and sisters in the Gospel.

Girl's camp even gave Charlie a chance to let his hair down (figuritively speaking) and let his true personality come out. Maybe he shouldn't get out so often.

Allie had a great time doing some archery, canoeing, and working hard doing service projects. (If only we could get her to work that hard at cleaning her bedroom!)

As you can she, she had a great time!! (She loves to get her picture taken!) It was so much cooler on the mountain than home. We enjoyed it and almost hated coming back to the heat. It was a growing experience for all of us.

Trip to the East (U.S. that is!)

Lish and I had the chance to go to D.C and Gettysburg. It was really fun to finally get her out of the Western United States!

Lisha had never been east of Utah, so getting to head to D.C. was a real treat!

The highlight of the trip was getting to go to the Gettysburg battlefield!

I finally had my two greatest loves in the same place! My lovely wife, and Gettysburg! It doesn't get much better than this!

Our only regret is that we couldn't stay longer.