Category Archives: Vacations

Vacations! So fun! Read about our exotic trips around the world (or at least around three of the states)

Catching Up

Just Life, Vacations, , ,

Hello! And welcome to fall! Time sure seems to move fast this time of year, huh? Well, let me esplain…no, there is to much. Let me sum up. (Name that movie!) Anyway, life has been just dandy. Josh is staying busy with school, I’m staying happy with work, and we’re enjoying life. Recent highlights have been having our siblings Caleb and Brenn over for Sunday dinners, spending time with friends and family, General Conference, one awesome camping trip, watching fun movies, and enjoying the fall weather.

Here are some random and (pretty) recent pictures…hope you enjoy!

On our way back from Dallas, we visited the Lymans in Denver. Here’s a picture (taken by young photographer Luke) of their cat named Cow (isn’t it great that they have a cat named Cow?)

My birthday was in September. Josh is so great; he made me a cake and, even better…

…took me on a delicious birthday picnic feast…can you guess my favorite restaurant of all time?

We went rock climbing with Caleb, Josh’s brother. Josh and Caleb are both way into rock climbing (and way good), and it was fun. I, scardey cat that I am, only got about five feet off the ground, but baby steps, right?

Here’s some of Caleb, too:

We’ve enjoyed playing this awesome game called Qwirkle (one of my birthday presents):

We spent General Conference weekend with Josh’s family and took some good family pictures (more to follow).

And, finally, a nice picture Josh took showing how pretty the mountains have looked lately:

Hope you’re enjoying life too!

4th of July Weekend, Part 2

Holidays, Vacations, , ,

So ready to hear about Part 2 of our vacation over the 4th of July? (See Part 1 first.) Part 2 actually consisted mostly of driving. After celebrating the family reunion in Show Low, we woke up the next day and drove and drove and drove towards our destination of Roswell, New Mexico, where our hotel was. We were all very excited to visit Roswell, the town of legendary UFO fame, because it just so happens that the weekend we were there was same weekend as the international UFO festival. Wow.

Brenn, Shelby, Jennie, and Cole had spent most of the weekend writing “we come in peace” and “aliens welcome” on the side of the van and planning out alien costumes to mingle with the alien fanatics. And we watched Contact the night before to prepare for any alien encounters (we were going to watch Signs, but Paige’s mom doesn’t like scary movies. And it turns out that Contact, which is good but not quite as gripping, put everyone but us to sleep.) But we were really glad we watched Contact, because when we were driving the next day, guess what we just happened to drive by? Yep, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, featured on the movie as a tool to hear extra-terrestrial signals. (Wouldn’t it be cool if everything had a name as fitting as the VLA?)

We got to stop, take pictures, and walk around, and it was pretty cool.

When we did roll into Roswell that night, it turned out most of the alien festivities were over, but we did enjoy seeing tons of alien and UFO paraphernalia throughout the town. All the siblings bought UFO t-shirts the next morning on our way out.

So after another day of travel, we arrived back at Dallas and said goodbye to the Ellsworths. All in all, a way fun (though pretty quirky) family vacation.

The Enemy

4th of July Weekend, Part 1

Holidays, Vacations, , ,

Wow, we’re kind of behind in our blogging…that’s thanks to our transient lifestyle (we moved from that little hotel room into a three-bedroom, three-bath house with a pool to housesit for a very nice family on vacation) and thanks to a busy and fantastic week that Paige spent in Utah for a work conference.

Anyway, almost a month ago now we got to spend a great time with Paige’s family over the Fourth of July. For Part 1 of our adventure, on Friday we flew from the Dallas airport to Albuquerque, where we met up with my family, who were driving on their way from their Colorado road trip in the big white van (affectionately called the Barge). They picked us up and we drove late into the night to Show Low, Arizona, where many years ago Edmund Lovell Ellsworth, a pioneer who crossed the plains, settled with his family. Now the Ellsworth family has a huge family reunion every ten years, and this was the year.

So after sleeping in on Saturday, we spent the day seeing cousins and aunts and uncles and meeting more distant relatives. We played some fun outdoor games with the younger cousins and played a great game of ultimate frisbee with the older cousins and Uncle Keen and Aunt Sunny.

Sadly, we didn’t get to watch fireworks at the end of the day because we were all so wiped out! After the barbecue, we headed back to the hotel, sunburned and tired, and ate watermelon and watched Contact in preparation for Part 2 of the vacation, so stay tuned!

And enjoy some pictures!

Camping and Ghost Towns

Vacations, , , ,

Though Josh and I aren’t super outdoorsy or anything, we both do enjoy getting out, hiking, and camping. We went once last summer and it was great, so we’ve been looking forward to going again. This summer was quickly filling up, though, especially with our upcoming trip to Dallas. But we wanted to make it happen, so we picked a weekend and said we would go. This past weekend it all paid off as we enjoyed an awesome camping trip.

We headed south of Payson to a campground called Maple Creek, and it was great! The campground was empty when we arrived, so we got first pick and chose the best site and were pretty much to ourselves all night and morning. Starting a fire was a little hard at first, but it all worked out in the end, thanks to Josh’s skills and my constant fanning (if I remember one thing you taught me about campfires, Mom, it’s that they always need air!).

Dinner, desert, and breakfast were delicious, and we had plenty to eat. (That’s because last year we were kind of hungry after half of our meal burnt to the tinfoil. This year, we were smarter, planned it out, didn’t burn anything, and ate quite well.) And the weather was perfect! Not too cold, but cool enough to enjoy a campfire, and not too hot, either. Check out the pictures below!

After we broke camp on Saturday morning, we headed into nowhere, Utah, for some fun exploring quirky places, taking pictures, and looking for ghost towns. We found some great opportunities for pictures in Eureka and though we searched and searched for Dividend (a supposed complete ghost town), we didn’t find it – though we think we were close! (See the map in the gallery below.)

It was a perfect, wonderful trip, and after we got back on Saturday afternoon, put away our camping gear, cleaned up the house, mowed and weeded the lawn, and washed our car, we were exhausted! We spent the evening watching a movie and eating ice cream (oh, and dinner. But the ice cream was the highlight.) So, in all, one great Friday and Saturday! It was perfect, too, to get away and just have fun, right in the middle of the busy summer. We hope to enjoy more camping trips like it!