Sunday, November 2, 2008

Summer Vacation: Our August Adventure





















All great vacations must begin with a squared-away haircut. This was Joseph's second.


Hiding in a cave on our hike in Snow Canyon near St. George, UT.






















The family in Snow Canyon. Those clouds almost rained us out of Tuacahn's presentation of The Sound of Music the night before. But the prayer of a two-year old availeth much. The rain stopped just in time for the show to begin.






















Eldon and Shaela celebrating their old age (29 and 28 years, respectively) with Shaela's parents in Las Vegas.






















Visiting San Diego's Balboa Park while spending time with Mike before his deployment to Afghanistan.





















Eldon and Mike with Charlotte Rose, Joseph, and Caroline.





















Bobo and Caroline had a tea party with two random boys at Grace Ada Park in Modesto while Eldon and Shaela tossed a frisbee.






















Caroline, Joseph, and Shaela with Snow White at Fairyland in Oakland, CA. Joseph is particularly attracted to Snow White's nose.






















Caroline as the little pig who built her house of straw. I'm huffing and puffing...






















Shaela and Caroline climbing Hyde Street in San Francisco after eating a wonderful dinner at McCormack's. We walked almost all the way back to our hotel, much to Shaela's consternation, because every passing cable car was full... or at least two full to take on two crazy adults with two crazy little kids.






















Eldon and Joseph climbing Hyde Street. Right after doing this, we walked down and back up the famous windy section of Lombard Street.






















Shaela looking at the OIF/OEF Memorial Wall at the Marines Memorial Hotel where we stayed in San Francisco. We found all 16 of the men that 1/5 lost when Eldon was deployed to Ar Ramadi, Iraq from March to September of 2005.






















Caroline and her cousin Neal Pettit playing at the Oakland Temple. We were there for the wedding of Eldon's cousin Valerie Nicolaysen to John Brody. Mazletof!






















Shaela and Joseph on the beach at Lover's Point in Monterey, CA. This was the southern leg of our bike trip.






















Eldon and Shaela on the sand dunes overlooking Monterey Bay from the north end of the city. This was the turnaround point of the northern leg of our bike trip.






















Joseph and Caroline fast asleep with their helmets.






















Joseph and Caroline waking up in the bike trailer. We thought this photo was priceless. Look closely for the moisture seeping out of the mouth and eyes...

Our last stop before returning our bikes was at Dennis the Menace Park. Shaela did a re-enactment of a scene that originally occurred in October 2005 when she was about 8 months pregnant. She had a little more space this time.

Here's Shaela doing the same thing in October 2005, a month before Caroline was born.






















Joseph being cute while back in Modesto.






















Grandma Beck (Bobo) and Joseph playing together in Modesto.






















Neal and Caroline eating watermelon in front of Bobo & Papa's house.






















Caroline and Shaela watching the geese on the southern end of Silver Lake at Plasse's Resort in the Sierra Nevada of California.






















Joseph got tired on our little hike to the lake. Very, very tired. He slept like this for a while after we got back.






















Shaela and Joseph in the kayak on Silver Lake.






















Eldon returned to shore with Caroline asleep.

And Shaela returned to shore with Joseph asleep. It was a grueling kayaking trip around the lake's island.






















Our campsite in the background with kayaks and The Beast in the foreground. Old friends from Davis will be interested to know that The Beast is still going strong with more than 260K miles.























Caroline roasting marshmallow's over our campfire.






















Joseph eating dirt and marshmallows. Yum!

Caroline being a ham. She had just been imitating a bear. What is this? Who knows, but its funny.






















Caroline and Joseph playing around the resort's tractor tires.