What has Ethan been up to lately?

We have been so busy that I don't remember when the last time I posted an update on Ethan, so here goes:
Ethan is 10 1/2 months old. . . kind of hard to believe we will be celebrating his first birthday soon! (I should probably start to plan that, huh?) He is also as busy as ever! He definitely does not stay in one place for very long. His favorite toys right now are our remote controls, an empty Huggies box, and board books. He is still very happy (although, is much happier when well slept . . .aren't we all?)
He has done a fantastic job adjusting to life at home and not in the car. I think he is very happy to wake up and not have to go very far, if anywhere at all! He is standing up and serenading us with the sounds of mama and dada. We are soaking it in! Ethan continues to be a joy for us!

Vacation Days 10&11: Our Voyage Home

Well, we made it! Our trip has been long and very (and I mean, VERY) busy! We have seen so many things throughout our voyage that we are ready just to stay put for at least a few weeks until our next adventure. It has been neat to be able to show Jon all the things that I got to experience as a child growing up in Wyoming or making our annual trips back to see my grandparents. But, it has also been neat to experience seeing these landmarks through the eyes of an adult. Our trip was exausting, but completely worth it! Driving can be tiring, but there is just so much more to see than when you fly, especially through the western states.
Our last two days of trip took place between Moab and home. We enjoyed our trek through Utah and the beautifully colored red canyons, that it is famous for! We even stopped for a break at Ghost Canyon. Ghost Canyon is a beautiful canyon where Butch Cassidy and his outlaw buds used to hide from the law and the indian slave trade traveled through. We also saw the coolest road sign ever (we had seen it on the way and had missed our opportunity to take a picture)! An exit for Zzyzx Road. I am not kidding! If anybody knows how to pronounce that, let us know! We finished our day in the extreme dessert heat of Mesquite Utah, where all we did was veg out and watch cable (oh, and Jon spent a few minutes on the penny slots. . . a total of 82 cents ahead when he stopped and treated me to "half" of an ice cream). After attempting to rest (which is hard to do, when all you want to do is sleep in your own bed), we got up and headed home. We experienced the Saturday morning rush hour in Vegas and Tulare Outlets. There really wasn't a whole lot of stopping, since we just really wanted to get home. And now we are home. . . and as soon as I publish this post, our trip will be blogged!

Day 9: Vail, CO & Moab, UT

"On the road again. . . just can't wait to get on the road again!"

Today, marked the day we got to get in the car and drive. . .and drive. . .and drive WEST! We were on our way home, and honestly, we had had such an awesome time, but we were so tired and so ready to be back in Fresno! Today we drove from Denver to Moab. It was the most scenic drives of our entire trip, driving down I-70 and a scenic by-way to Moab.

We took a break around lunch time in Vail. It is such a beautiful little ski-town that is beautiful in the summer, also. We enjoyed walking around their chateau-like village filled with expensive ski-shops and Starbucks (where I stopped to get some caffeine in my body before I began my turn of driving). It was also nice and cool there, which made it really hard to get back on the road and continue our trek.
While driving through the mountains of Colorado, we reached the brilliant altitude of 10,000 feet. As we made our trek into Utah, the scenery began to get more and more red. Utah is known for its red soil, which makes it very beautiful! Our drive along the scenic byway brought us to the sad and depressing town of Cisco, where it has become a modern-day ghost town. The drive followed the winding Colorado River as it made its way through the state. It was one of the most beautiful drives that Jon and I had ever driven. We were breathless as we drove and admired God's handiwork! We finally made it into Moab, where we joined my parents camping (although. . . it was more like luxury camping because I was able to watch Food Network and catch up on my blogging from the camper!). Once we were there, we quickly gobbled our dinner and went to explore Arches National Park, before the sun set. Once again, we were memorized by God's beautiful creation! There were rock formations that looked like camels, courthouses, and even one with a large rock balancing on top of another one! It was also amazing to watch the sunset over these rocks!
It was truly an amazingly beautiful day, despite spending most of it stuck in the car!

Vacation Day 8: Denver, CO

Today was probably one of our favorite days of the whole vacation. It was the day, we did what we love best. . . just wandering around aimlessly! From our hotel room, we were right in the historic district of Capital Hill, where the oldest houses of Denver had been built. We saw the Governor's Mansion and Molly Brown's Mansion, along with several very old churches. One of the oldest churches in Denver is the Trinity Methodist Church (a side note. . . my mom got to attend a conference there as a teen). We enjoyed the State Capital where we admired many, many, many, quilts that were on display and stood at 1 mile high exactly! (Ethan slept through that!). After awhile of exploring, our tummies began to growl and we headed towards the 16th Ave. Mall for some shopping and lunch. The 16th Ave Mall is a nice LONG street that is only open to buses and pedestrians and is filled with stores, malls, and restaurants. We broke all the rules and had lunch at Chipotle, which was slightly different than ours. They have a newer much larger menu, with more options, including children's menus! I was stoked! We took the opportunity to walk back to our hotel and veg out. . . another day of being pooped! That evening, we met my friend Kim for dinner in Northglenn. It was so nice to catch up with her! We think that it had been about 10 or 11 years since we had seen each other. . . thank goodness for email and Facebook!

Vacation Day 7: Denver, CO

Today was our first full day in Denver and we packed it out! We started our day at the Denver Zoo. It was also the first warm (and I mean HOT and HUMID) day we have had since leaving California. The Denver Zoo is the fourth largest zoo in the United States and that should have been a warning (we spent about 3 hours there and still didn't see everything! They even have a train and carousel to ride! It was, however, an absolutely beautiful zoo with so many animals! My parents were even able to join us, which was a ton of fun! After our zoo trip, we were hot, tired, and starving. So, with the power of GPS, we found a nearby Noodles and Co. (my second this trip) and journeyed our way to the Cherry Creek area for lunch. MMMM. . . I must note that Noodles is quickly becoming my favorite restaurant and my taste buds will be so sad to go back to Fresno where there is no Noodles nearby (sniff sniff).
Feeling only slightly refreshed after lunch (we were all so very tired), we drove over to Crate and Barrel to do a bit of shopping, which ended up adding to my obsession with bowls! I think Jon might be concerned (ha ha)! and then back to our hotel to relax until the game! That evening, we headed into rush hour traffic and made our way downtown to Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. The field has the most amazing view of the Rocky Mountains (and the sun, until it sets). It was a very exciting game to watch. The Rockies played the Nationals and we really didn't know who to root for since, Jon is completely and A's fan. So, since we were in Denver, I think we cheered the Rockies on and they won their second game in the series! We completed our baseball game tradition with hot dogs. . . mmmm. . . good!
Today was so busy and our beds called our names! It was a great day!

Vacation Day 6: Estes Park, Colorado

We started our day in Loveland, Colorado with beautiful weather! We woke up to dense fog (I could have sworn we had mysteriously woken up in Fresno!) that quickly burned off to a sunny day with potential thunder storms in the afternoon (we were stoked!).
We spent some time wandering the outlet stores in Loveland and stocking up our food supplies at Target. We joked that we were on the Oregon Trail stopping at a fort to purchase supplies! Then off we headed to Estes Park, Colorado. Estes Park is a beautiful mountain town with a river running right through it and a nice little lake! We had a picnic lunch and wandered the shops until we decided we had better get going to Denver. On the way to Denver, we drove through a nice rain shower. Speaking of rain . . . have I mentioned that rain is much different here? It is so clean and smells even better than rain in Fresno. Not to mention, the drops are HUGE! We thoroughly enjoyed it! By the time we got into Denver, the rain had stopped and the sun was once again shining until after we had checked into our hotel and had gone to get our bags. It was then that it started pouring! No joke. . . it was rained cats and dogs for about 5 minutes and then the sun came out and dried up all the rain (sorry, Ethan loves that song!). We ate dinner at a nifty little local spot across the street called Charlie Brown's. It was definatley a local spot, very quiet, and pretty good.
Our hotel is the Burnsley Suites. At one time it was an old apartment building. It is nestled right in the midst of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Denver! We are also just up the street from the capital! We can't wait to explore the area some more!
The picture in the top right hand corner of the collage is of Denver at night from our hotel balcony. There really isn't a lake. It just looks like that because of the darkness. It definatly is beautiful!

Vacation Day 5: Cheyenne, Wyoming

Today we got in the car to drive, but not nearly as far as we have been driving. Not to mention, it was broken up by some site seeing! We woke up and once again packed the car (which I must note that it gets packed differently each time we pack it!) and headed out. It took us longer to get out of the city because we had a "travel bug" that we wanted to plant in Torrington, where there were some caches with large containers. So, the first spot we tried was the Homesteaders museum. We spent about 30 minutes looking, but couldn't find it, and the flies were horrible, so we tried the second spot. This one was supposed to be a harder find, but we found success in only about 10 minutes! So very exciting! We even got to take another travel bug, which we hope to plant somewhere in California.
Next, marked our journey to see some Oregon Trail wagon ruts and Register Cliff. This is one of the neatest places to stop when exploring the Oregon Trail. There are so many different names and dates on Register Cliff that you just feel a part of history! It really comes to life when you are standing on the very same path that early pioneers once took! We even got to stand on the very path that the Oregon Trail wagons cut out of the rock over years of travel, that was cool!
After that, we went to Cheyenne, where we had lunch with my parents, Karissa, Gus, and George. It was a lot of fun! Gus and Karissa took us to the capital, the Governor's Mansion, and a famous tea house! On the way out of town, I even showed Jon where I went to school for kindergarten and first grade. . . and to my surprise. . . the school had been torn down and a new one was being built in its place! All those memories! Sniff Sniff!!!! I also showed him where we spent several summers at my Grandma and Grandpa's. I was kind of sad that we couldn't go and see my footprint in the cement, but he got the idea of the many memories that I have in Cheyenne.
We drove onward to Loveland, Colorado, where we spent the night.

Vacation Day 4: Family Reunion & Exploring

WOW! Today, we get to stay in one place (sort of, anyways) for the whole day! After driving for what seemed like days, we finally don't have to go very far to get to our destinations. Although today was fairly calm in respect to driving, we did keep incredibly busy. Here's our day:

1. We started out by going to the 4th of July celebration at Ft. Laramie. Ft. Laramie was an active fort during the Indian wars and then became a place to stop and stock up on food on the Oregon Trail. We had a lot of fun going through the old officer's quarters, jail, and other buildings.
2. Then we quickly rushed over to the Family Reunion for lunch. We had a lot of fun catching up with family. There were about 100 people there. . . and that's not even close to being all of them! We also had all of my family there in one place for the first time in quite some time. So, we took a ton of pictures! It also rained on us a bit. . . we ran outside to enjoy it! Only in the West, does it rain in the sun! All of the green flowing fields of Nebraska were quite a sight! It is great! One of the highlights was hearing some of the stories on the name of the quilt that my mom and sister put together (the quilt blocks were found after my great grandma died last year. They were from 1938!).
3. Following the Family Reunion, we quickly gave Jon the tour of local spots. First stop: Lyman, Nebraska. My mom taught in this town when she was pregnant with me. It is an incredibly small town. . . so small that all of the stores and schools have shut down. I guess when the population is just over 200, that's what happens to small farming communities. Anyways, we got to hear about my mom's stories about life there. We also geocached for a cache at the old school house (also closed!) and saw a racoon. Next stop: Scotts Bluffs. We drove toward the town of Scottsbluff. . . home of my birthplace. Yep. . . I was born in Nebraska. Then, we headed out to the bluffs. That was a quick and beautiful view. Final Stop: Chimney Rock: We drove further East towards Chimney Rock. Apparently, the top is starting to break off, so I am really glad that Jon got to experience it!
4. After quickly rushing back to my parent's camper, we Barbequed and had a family dinner with my parents, sister, nephew, aunt, uncle, and grandma. It was so much fun!
5. Finally, we went to a parking lot and watched the Torrington fireworks. Pretty inpressive. I think they lasted forever!

Vacation Day 3: Evanston, Wyoming to Torrington, Wyo.

Today we drove. . . and drove. . . and drove. . . for what seemed to be forever. Today's driving day was probably our most boring so far, thank goodness it was our longest day driving for awhile.
We spent some time this morning exploring Evanston in the daylight. We successfully found the geocache - by Wyoming's first brick church (the Morman's beat everyone else to building one!), saw the old train depot, and chinese gardens. It was a beautiful morning! Apparently, Evanston is also the loacation of the very first J.C. Penny's store ever! We thought that was pretty cool!
An hour later, we stopped at Little America to show Jon just how "cool" it was! It is just a really nice stop in the middle of nowhere, but you can get ice cream cones for 50 cents! Then, we drove and drove! We had a picnic lunch at the old state Penn in Rawlins, Wyoming. It was a nice break from driving! We even saw a deer really close to our picnic site. From there we continued our drive through Laramie and up to Wheatland (where we stopped at a quilt store so I could look at fabric for a new project I am going to work on when I get back). We finally made it to Torrington around 6:30 p.m. where we camped out with my parents for the night and rest up before the family reunion. But . . . we made it to our destination! Wahoo!!!!

Vacation Day 2: St. George to Evanston

Today's was our shortest driving day. We got to drive through some very beautiful scenery through Utah! They are known for their red rocks and it is just beautiful! We also had occassional spurts of rain. . . which was AWESOME! I also think that we were in the 60's for most of the day (sorry to all of our friends suffering in the CA heat!).
We left St. George with clouds and excitement as we started the next leg on our journey. We drove for about 2 hours before we stopped at Thanksgiving Point, which is in Lehi, Utah. . . a suburb of Salt Lake. Thanksgiving Point is a shopping center-like area right off the free-way with a restuarant, large gift shop, and movie theater. It has a lot of other buildings for having you wedding there along with the most beautifully manicured gardens! We took a great fantastic family picture here!
From Lehi, we drove about 30 minutes until we felt the need for some yummy IKEA meatballs in Draper, Utah. We wanted to look around for furniture and stuff for our house that we're in the process of buying. It was a nice break from our drive! When we got out of IKEA, the clouds looked beautiful over the mountains!
From IKEA, we headed to Evanston. After we checked into our room and unloaded all our stuff we went on search for food (not so successful. . . everything was closed!). We decided to walk around and see what we could find. At first, we were not impressed, but then Jon found some neat landmarks on his geo-cache app on his phone and so we ventured out! We attempted to geocache, but it was just too dark! Evanston has a beautiful downtown (more details to come on Day 3), which we enjoyed exploring during our walk. Sleep came quickly when we got back to our hotel room!

Day 1 of Vacation: Fresno to St. George, Utah

Today we woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 to get an early start on our travels. It was the longest day of driving and it included a hot, dry desert! We were on the road by 4:30, which was great, because we just put Ethan in the car and slept until it was time to feed him. We took a break in Bakersfield (by some stinky cows on 58) to feed Ethan and treked on. After awhile, we arrived in Barstow, where we filled up on gas on the old route 66 and checked out the old Harvey House by the train tracks (that was cool!). Our only other stop of the day was walking around the outlets in Primm, Nevada (the state line). We arrived in St. George around 6:00 moutain time and relaxed in our room until we got the energy to go to dinner. Here are some pictures from our day. Sorry, they are out of order!

The Mormon Temple in St. George at night amidst thunder clouds.

Ethan hanging out on a rocking chair at the Cracker Barrel while Jon took pictures of the sky.

Jon and Ethan in front of the Harvey House in Barstow.

Cracker Barrel in St. George. You can sit (or buy) a rocking chair and play checkers on the porch! The store was even fun to check out.

The hot, dry desert.

The Barstow station and Harvey House.

Jon even got to do some geocaching after dinner. It was a neat find! If you look closely, you can see the cloluds are getting very dark. We saw some lightning in the distance.

Route 66. . . Jon didn't believe me that we were on it until he saw the sign.