Friday, July 31, 2009

Summertime

And the livin' is easy.

I'm guilty. I've been goofing off all summer. Not a good blogger at all.

We started the summer off with a FUN road trip! We spent a night in Reno, a night in Las Vegas, then hit the Grand Canyon. It was my third time there, but Natalie's first. What a sight to behold. It was nice to have Jim's parents along.

We headed back to Vegas after two nights in Arizona and had a great time with our family and friends. Luckily, we missed out on the really high temps. Not too bad at all.

Eventually we headed north to Zion National Park... another gorgeous place! It was fun to have Jim's parents, Jason, Marie and Gracie with us. We stayed at the Zion River Resort in cabins... kind of "fake" camping. Jim's aunt and uncle are camp hosts there... always fun to see them.

Our big hikes were The Narrows and Angel's Landing. LOVED The Narrows! It was wonderful to hike through the cool water when it was so hot. Still can't believe I did Angel's Landing... in the heat of the day no less!! Lots of water and stops along the way, but I made it without having a heart attack!

It is always hard to say goodbye to family. After a great breakfast and photo shoot, we headed north again to Bryce National Park. Unfortunately, we only had a couple of hours to spend there. We will definitely go back... stunning!! Our final destination for that day was Grand Junction, Colorado so lots of hours in the car.

In Junction, we stayed with our good friends, The Wilson's. They are really more like family. Rachel, Annie and Scarlett drove over from the big city to spend time with us! Talk about lots of fun and laughter. We had a ball!!!

We drove over to Gunnison for a day to see my nephew, Drew. He goes to college at Western State. It was great to see where he lives. Beautiful! We took a trip over to Crested Butte... another great Colorado town.

After two weeks on the road, it was time to head home. We spent the night in Baker City at an historic old hotel that had been refurbished. Such a cute little town!

The rest of the summer has been a blur. We are still trying to sell Memo... no luck yet :( Kind of weird to not be spending every other weekend at a horse event, but also kind of nice. We still spend plenty of time at the barn :) We had a great camping trip with the Thomas family at Stub Stewart State Park. Good times. We are going canoeing with my family this Sunday. In August, we are renting an RV and going to USPC Western Championships at Donida Farm. Natalie is not taking Memo, but will be participating in Quiz Rally and as Stable Manager for the Show Jumping team. Should be almost like a vacation not having a horse around!!

Will try to post again before autumn ;)