A Little Adventure

We decided to take a trip to Big Bend National Park the weekend before Thanksgiving. We drove to Ft. Stockton and stayed the night and then headed down to the park the next day.

We saw the big things in the park. The first day we went to Boquillas Canyon. The kids loved playing in the sand there. We also went on the Dagger Flat Auto Trail and saw some great yucca plants.

Milo found a stick and played with it the entire time we were here.

We stayed at the Rio Grand Campground that night.

Holly slept fairly well in the tent, but woke up a few times. She was calling her sleeping bag a tunnel. It was hilarious.

Here’s one of the yucca plants.

This is a great little video of Holly climbing. She was climbing all over everything.

The next day we Santa Elena Canyon where the kids were able to play in the sand again. It was a great trip for them.

The next day we went out of the park to Big Bend Ranch State Park and did Closed Canyon. It was fun. It was that day we were able to find out that Real Salt Lake had won the MLS Cup Championship. We were super excited. Yes, we didn’t even watch the game.

The last day we spent in Chisos Basin. We went down the windows trail a bit, but didn’t last long.

In our campsite at Chisos Basin, there was a big rock. Holly kept climbing it. It was crazy. Here’s a picture of her imitating her dad.

We also did a little hiking, but were limited in what we did for the children’s sanity. We enjoyed our trip. Holly and Milo loved playing in the sand and climbing things. Holly climbed on everything. We did leave early the last morning because it turned cold.

Here are my pictures and such. I’m sure Scott will post some when he has a chance.

The last week we were in Utah, Alysha dubbed it “Turnerfest 2009″. It was really fun. I had a great time hanging out with the family. Milo and Holly enjoyed playing with the cousins and playing in the sand pile. It was a great trip.

I don’t have many pictures from the last week, but Colette got plenty. You can read her comments about the week and especially the very eventful “farm work” evening here.

We did have a tour at the candy factory (Sweet Candy Company). It is always a “treat” to go there because you can buy treats at the end of the tour. It is amazing to see how they make the candy. This time Holly struggled with the tour because she didn’t want to keep her candy maker hat on (a.k.a. the hair net). She wanted to be with me more than in the lobby so she decided to keep it on.

We did get some shopping in, several trips. The down side is that we all got sick with colds. I think that the allergies were getting to us, we were tired and of course, the colder weather. By the time we left, it was down to 70 during the day and 45 at night. That is winter weather in Texas. Scott and I enjoyed a trip to the temple while Milo enjoyed swimming and Holly stayed with Grandma. That evening we had a BBQ at Laurann’s house which was a ton of fun. It was great spending time at her house chatting about all that was going on.

Milo enjoyed a cousin sleep over with Jared, but didn’t get to bed until a little late. The next few nights, he needed to sleep in his bed at Grandma’s house so he wouldn’t get any more sick.

On the way to the family reunion on Saturday, we stopped by Tom and Melissa’s house to visit with them for a while. We weren’t able to stay at the family reunion very long because we needed to get back to Salt Lake for the soccer game. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Scott’s grandparents before the game.

I would like to thank all our family for the great visit and for making it so enjoyable for us and for Milo and Holly.

We were able to attend a few soccer games while we were in Utah. Milo didn’t want to go to any of them, but we convinced him to go with us to the last game. He ended up enjoying it.

Around the beginning of the game, the RSL mascot “Leo the Lion” ended up near our section. We were able to say hello and shake his hand. Leo twisted Milo’s hat on his head. That made Milo’s day. In the middle of the first half, Milo announces, “This game is boring. I hope they score soon.” Sure enough within about five minutes, RSL scored a goal. RSL did win the game, so that was a plus.

Holly did well at the game too. She would try to yell like she was hearing her father yell. It was really cute. We remembered that Milo would do the same thing.

This is a picture of us at the game before it started.

We went to the fair here in the town. It was really fun. I realized that I didn’t have any photos. Sorry. We just spent most of the day last Friday. We went early to try and get something in the make and take tent. We ended up with tie dye shirts and stuffed cows. It was very fun. We met up with my sister and her kids and enjoyed playing with them. We ate lunch and then went back to the fair for the kid games. Milo got an African dwarf frog. Crazy. We also got snow cones and some bags. Holly loved the human car wash. She went through it many, many times. We had a fun day at the fair but were really tired when we were done.

Last Monday we went to the zoo with Tom & Melissa and their kids. We had a good time. We started out at the train. The kids really enjoyed it.

We then headed to the merry-go-round. Holly and Madelyn loved it. We then headed to see the big cats and Milo decided he needed to throw up. He did later and we ended lunch early because of it too. We did manage to see most of the animals before we left. Milo started to feel better after having some sprite. We were also able to see the bird show as well as go on the merry-go-round again with Milo.

We had a fun day and enjoyed having ice cream on the way home.

We spent our last night near Silverton, Colorado. We went into Silverton for the One Hundred Mine tour. We got there just in time to go on a tour. It was very interesting. Milo was able to participate in the tour.

After the tour we ate lunch at the Brown Bear Cafe. It was pretty good. We then found the park and let the kids play for a while.

We decided to only camp for one night and pass on our hike planned for the next day. We went to our campsite and set up tent and rested. We stayed in a beautiful place but the camping wasn’t the greatest. We went Morgan a day early. Here are the pictures.

I feel like I should set the record straight. Scott uses his phone just as much if not more than I do.

I have few pictures from today as well. It was an interesting adventure.

We aren’t like a lot of people and try to just hurry to our final destination (well, at least that is usually our preference). Doesn’t that ruin the fun of a road trip? Anyway, we got out earlier than expected this morning, so we decided to detour and stop by one of Scott’s favorite spots…the Bisti Wilderness. It isn’t the ideal time to visit, but we foolishly tried anyway. It was too hot for the kids to make it out to the “cracked eggs” as Scott had hoped. We just went out to a close formation. On the return to the car Milo stated, “This hike was a horrible idea.” He was right. We will have to do a trip to White Sands and the Bisti in cooler weather.

The photos show some of the fun had by Holly who refused to stay up with the group and wanted to wear Milo’s backpack. I also had to grab a photo of the girls using their electronics at the hotel. I am sure that Monica is loving the candids.

Gotta love long road trips. We realized that at least one of us has done a long road trip the past three years in a row. I think we have a love/hate relationship with the trips but we keep coming back for more.

Just a few photos of the kids watching DVDs, eating, and sleeping. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of Monica using her phone during dinner

These photos are the ones Scott took of the butterfly exhibit when we visited Houston. These butterflies were very fun to watch. We will definitely go back again sometime.