Fall Break-Utah part 1

We got to Provo on Saturday night. Sunday the cousin fun began. After dinner we went on a walk down by the Provo River. The kids always like to stop and visit the horses/donkey by the park there.

Cari and Rachel got Christian and Megan swinging pretty good.

There was a dead fish along the shore, and rocks that called to the children. Naturally, by the time we headed back home, Sophie was dripping wet.

Monday, since everyone else had work/school, we headed up to SLC to visit temple square. Because of the temple construction half of temple square is blocked off, but we thought we'd be able to tour the conference center.

Unfortunately, they were working on a project with the lighting and tours were closed until Friday, so we couldn't go inside or on top. Dang it.

Instead we headed over to the Church History Museum. One of the docents brought us cotton gloves when we came to the angel Moroni statue so we could touch him without damaging or tarnishing the surface. Ryan thought Moroni was just waiting for a fist bump.

Everyone else had to follow his lead.

We also got to feel what the gold plates might have looked light and try to lift them. They were heavy. 

We didn't get to go inside the conference center, but at the museum we could pretend like we were speaking at the conference center.

Even the unibomber goes to conference.

We also went to visit the Family History library. 

The green screen is always a hit. 

On temple square they have windows in the fence that's keeping us out of the construction area. It's pretty impressive to see all that is going in to reinforcing the footings of the temple to make it earthquake ready.

Back at Grandma's house that evening we enjoyed a fun evening together. We there was Don't Eat Pete! until it was time to start carving pumpkins.

Rachel's pumpkin at another pumpkin.

All the pumpkins were put out on the front steps. Apparently the neighborhood stray thought he fit in just right with the pumpkins.

Fall Break: Grand Canyon

I haven't been to the Grand Canyon for years and Jake and the kids have never been. We decided to go and see the Canyon that gives Arizona its nickname. We left Tucson Friday afternoon when Jake got home from work. We drove for 5ish hours to an air bnb about half hour from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I had read that sunrise at the canyon was worth getting up for. Saturday morning we were up by 6 and at the Park by about 6:30. Though the sun was already above the horizon at the top where we were, but it was still rising for most of the canyon. It was cold and windy but the views were worth it.

We watched the sun rise on the canyon and decided to head back to the car to get more cold weather gear and warm up a little. On the way to the parking lot we saw a family trying to prop a cell phone against a coffee cup to take a picture by the sign shown in the picture below. We offered to take the picture for them and the did the same for us.

One of the plaques said that a Condor's wing span can reach 9 ft. Not far from the plaque was a painting/imprint of a Condor on the ground. Everyone stretched out to compare our wingspan with a Condor's.

This would be a great family picture if we could see Ryan's face:

While on a shuttle some elk crossed right by us. There were more on the other side of the road, too. 

We were freezing and ready for hot chocolate, but had to wait longer than we liked for the coffee shop to open so we could grab some hot chocolate. It was delicious, but very hot.

The kids wished we could bring this great climbing tree home with us. 

Even with the railing, this whole trip made Annie nervous. Honestly, this kind of view makes me nervous, too. Even in pictures. Annie and I have a healthy fear of heights. We just wish the others in the family did too.

On our way to Provo, we stopped near Lee's Ferry at Historic Navajo Bridge and crossed the bridge to stretch our legs. There was a condor circling overhead. Unfortunately we couldn't see it up close, but a couple who saw it take off from a cliff out cropping nearby said it was enormous up close. 

After some time on the bridge we were off, ready for the rest of our vacation in Utah.