As I may have mentioned in my last post I got home from my cross country road trip and was almost immediately offered a job as a nanny. And with that job proposal came the offer of a two week vacation. I mean who could say no?! It was an unexpected journey but an awesome one.
I left two weeks ago Monday. We started our travels, we as in Me, Dawn, and the two youngins, flying for six hours or so to Denver Colorado. I drove through there on my way back to Virginia but it was really cool to stop and see the area. We stayed the first night with Dawn's dad. Dawn's family is all really friendly and welcoming. That was awesome 'cause I was a little nervous to meet so many new people.
The next day Dawn had a meeting in Garden of the God's so that is where we went. To say the least I sure saw a lot of nature on this trip. Seeing it all really makes me appreciate the world I live in and love God. I attempted to take a small hike with the kids but it was pretty hot and there wasn't really a stroller path. So that attempt was short lived. But hey the visitor center was cool. It had a "life size" dinosaur replica thing and tons of stuffed animals of what animals lived in that desert environment. It was pretty entertaining and the kids liked it. It was timed perfectly too because by the time the kids were bored Dawn was done with her meeting.
We stayed in Colorado Springs that night and the following two days. Both days Dawn had conferences to go to with evenings off to do whatever we wanted. Woo! Day one was swimming and partying it up in a hotel room. And when Dawn got back we drove up to Pike's Peak.
That was a gorgeous drive. Clouds coming down the mountain.
And feeling like you were on top of the world. It's really weird being higher up than the clouds.
Cute picture with people I love.
Shortly after we arrived the kids decided it was to cold and they wanted to be miserable.
Such pretty clouds. I truly do love nature.
Gazing off into the distance. You know gotta get those candids.
Seriously watching these kids is the best! They're super loving and kind towards me and not only that they're soooooooooo cute!
The second day I went to the Focus on the Family visitor center with the kids. That place was awesome. It had an awesome slide that went outside of the building and then ended up in the basement where they had several jungle gym structures for kids. As well as several other activity rooms with a puppet stage and legos and all that cool stuff that kids love.
That night we went shopping for wedding presents and baby shower gifts. That the actual main reason we went to Colorado. One sister of Dawn's was getting married and another was having a baby. That's always fun. I felt like a mom though. I kept seeing cute boy clothes that I wanted to get for Norbaby. Sometimes I think it's a curse being the oldest of nine and being so closely involved int their lives. But let's be honest it's a total blessing.
We picked up Michael, Dawn's husband, after our shopping extravaganza and the next day we headed up to Grand Junction where the wedding was held. But first we had a nature adventure!
We stopped along the highway and saw this beautiful lake. I have no idea where we were or what this lake is called but it was so gorgeous. It was so clear and still. I wanted to swim in it but it was a tad cold.
Apparently as a youngin Dawn would hike with her family to Hanging Lake. And so that's what we did. Keep in mind we have a 2 and 4 year old and she's 7 months pregnant. But we did it!
This creek was pretty much a continuous waterfall down the mountain that followed us along the trail up. It was such a calming sound.
3/4 of the way up we saw this amazing waterfall. Nature truly is amazing. I've seen pictures of things like this but it was amazing to see them in person.
View from some outlook point. Look at those canyon walls. It was so amazing.
And then we made it to the top! It was so beautiful. I've never been so tempted in all my life to go swimming in a body of water. It was clearer than the lake we saw earlier in the day and just so beautiful. I felt like the lake/waterfall belonged in Hawaii rather than in the mountains somewhere in Colorado.
Cool stone steps.
"Waderfall!"
All of us together. Dawn's sister Faith came with us. She's a really fun person to hang with. It was nice having her tag along.
I didn't take any pictures of Saturday. But it was filled of wedding prep and dinner/dance parties with pulled pork samiches. That was yummy and fun. I like me some dance parties!
And then Sunday was the Wedding. It was held at a fancy vineyard with a river in the back. That was fancy and fun. They had a dance party and delicious food. All the best parts of a wedding.
Monday we traveled to Southern Utah.
We did Arches National Park and saw all the glory it beheld. It was kind of amazing to see how all these things were formed by nature.
It was just so pretty in it's desert way.
Red and glorious.
It was fun being able to hang out with this amazing family and seeing such amazing sights. LOVED IT!
I did a whole lot of hiking and got in some kind of shape. So that was nice.
There was some fun blue sand. I've never seen that before.
Which made a fun combination with the red sand.
There's the famous arch way off in the distance. But with two little kids that kind of hike is a little difficult.
Tuesday we visited two national parks. We went to National Grand Reef and then to the Kolob Canyons, which is part of Zion National Park.
The Reef was my favorite place to visit. There was a dry river bed called The Wash that had holes all in the canyon walls. It was so fun to climb inside and see how I fit.
I mean look how cool this is.
You all should be jealous. Or you should take a family vacation and see it for yourself. It's totally worth it.
Okay maybe by now you're getting bored of all these hole in the wall pictures but hey I think they're fun. So deal with it.
Then we saw the Canyons. They were pretty amazing. The amount of greenery that grows on those cliff faces is absolutely amazing.
And this was the view at the top of our hike.
I seriously really enjoyed this mid part of the trip.
And the people who came with it. I seriously love this family so much. They're just so loving and fun!
Wednesday we drove to Vegas.
I went there once with my family when we had our cross country road trip two years ago but we didn't really do anything.
So this trip was pretty awesome. We walked forever but we saw a ton of different hotels and places.
Like what kind of hotel has a river running through it? So crazy.
And we stayed at Mandalay Bay and had an awesome view of the land below.
That place had an awesome pool so we hung out there the Monday before we headed out to Cali. (My parents have been making fun of me for calling it that so that's all I'm going to call it from now on. So there.)
This vacation was so much fun. Going to Colorado and driving up a mountain, going to Utah and seeing amazing rock structures, and then seeing Vegas. But going to Cali was by far my favorite part of the trip!
We stayed in West Hollywood the first day and that was really cool.
I walked around with the kids. Went to Trader Joes and got some food and just kind of explored the surrounding area around our apartment.
Then we cooled our feet off in the pool until we got bored and then went to a cool park and chilled until Dawn was done with her meetings for the day. And then we headed to Venice Beach. Now that is where it's at!
Cool chill vibed restaurants.
With vegetarian pizzas. (I didn't like that to much. I like my meat.)
But what I do love about good ol' L.A. is all the street art.
It made the city so bright and just fun.
It's just so fun!
It made me love the city so much. It was so laid back and go with the flow. Just gonna say it was my kind of place.
I might consider maybe living there for like a year or something. I really loved it so much. And I don't really know how to explain why.
Wow there really was a ton of street art.
I like to bore you with holes in canyon walls and wall art in Cali.
We might be almost done....
Nope I lied.
"Protect yo Heart" I relate to this.
Hey look an awesome bird.
And some kind of monster.
But hey I think I got the love. Maybe.
This mural was on the side of a building that was right next to our Air BnB. And may I mention that place was only a block away from the ocean. Pretty awesome stuff man.
And this Mural was done in the early 90's and is somehow still in top condition.
Yep still more street art.
Great advice.
There may or may not have been more but I thought I wouldn't torture you anymore.
And here is my favorite part. The BEACH! I love the beach so much. Maybe a little to much. I got a bit burned and now my back might be paying for it. But hey you should see my arms. They are gorg.
The two days we were there at Venice Beach I spent most of my day by the water with the kids. That's another thing the water in Cali is so warm. It's not like VA where I feel like I'm going to get hypothermia or something.
Our second day there we went to the Santa Monica Pier.
That was pretty cool. A bustling crowd of very obvious tourists. So fun man.
And after the Pier we went to the 3rd Street Promenade.
This was probably one of my favorite places we visited. Like within L.A. I mean.
There was so many street performers. It was so awesome!
It made me want to take my siblings and go street perform with my siblings. We'll see if that happens. Stay tuned.
Cool stuff man. I think the thing I loved about this trip was that I was able to have so many different experiences. Now that may sound cheesy but whatever. It's true.
I said goodbye to L.A. on Saturday.
And then we headed to San Diego. We have some friends who used to live in our ward here in VA that moved to San Diego and we were able to stay and visit with them. So that was really cool.
I saw the San Diego Temple. That place is beautiful. Probably one of the most beautiful temple I've seen. It was just so white.
We also visited the Mormon Battalion historical site and that was pretty cool to learn the actual history behind it.
And our last day, Monday, we went to the Seal Beach.
And there they are. The cute little seals.
It kind of smelled but hey it was still really cool.
I'm really sooooo thankful that I was invited on this trip. I had so much fun meeting people, traveling, and just seeing everything. It truly was so amazing.
And now to see what happens next! Like who knows what the next adventure will be! I'm working on my mission papers and saving up money but that's really all that's going on at the current moment. So we'll see. Till next time!
